EVENTS

Jewish Ludmir book launch
Date: Wednesday, April 19th, 2017 4:15 to 6:00 PM.
Location: Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies at Harvard University, 1730 Cambridge Street, Cambridge, MA 02138.
Sponsors: Davis Center for Russian and Eurasian Studies, Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute.
It was open to the public.
There were presentations by Serhii Plokhii, Director of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute; Antony Polonsky, Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis; Volodymyr Muzychenko, author; Marta Olynyk, translator (remarks read by Harvey Budner), and Harvey Budner, publication facilitator.
Maxim Shrayer, Professor of Russian, English, and Jewish Studies at Boston College was moderator. Volodymyr Dubrova was the interpreter. A Q&A period followed.

1) Antony Polonsky
A Rhodes Scholar and graduate of Oxford University, Antony is Professor Emeritus of Holocaust Studies at Brandeis University. He received the Knight’s Cross of the Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland in 1999. In 2011 he received the Officer’s Cross of the Order of Polonia Restituta in Poland. Also in 2011 the Order for Merits to Lithuania named him an Officer. He is currently Chief Historian of the Polin Museum of the History of Polish Jews in Warsaw. He is an associate of the Harvard Ukrainian Research Institute and author of a three-volume history, The Jews in Poland and Russia.

2) Serhii Plokhii
Serhii is the Mykhailo S. Hrushevs’kyi Professor of Ukrainian History and Director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard. His education was at universities in the Soviet Union including Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv. He taught at the University of Dnipropetrovsk and at the University of Alberta, Canada. A current interest is The Mapa: Digital Atlas of Ukraine which explains economic, historical, political, and social developments in Ukraine. In 2013 the Faculty of Arts and Sciences at Harvard named him a Cabot Fellow for his scholarly work in history. In 2015 he received the Antonovych Prize for research in Ukrainiian Studies. He is the author of 10 books, the most recent being The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine.

3) Marta Daria Olynyk— She was scheduled to speak, but was unable to attend due to family illness.
Jewish Ludmir, originally written and published in Ukrainian, was translated into English by Marta D. Olynyk. A long-time resident of Montreal, Canada, she obtained an MA in Slavic Studies from the University of Toronto. She has translated from the Ukrainian and Russian numerous articles, monographs, and books in the field of history. Among her many publications are four volumes of Mykailo Hrushevsky’s History of Ukraine-Rus’. She worked in short wave radio broadcasting for seventeen years at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Munich, West Germany and at Radio Canada International in Montreal, Canada, before becoming a full-time translator and editor.

4) Harvey Budner
Harvey is a mostly retired Child Psychiatrist. He trained in Pediatrics at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and the Boston Medical Center, Boston; and in Psychiatry at the Massachusetts Mental Health Center in Boston. He had a private practice in Child Psychiatry for 31 years in Wayland, MA. Currently, he teaches 1st year students at Harvard Medical School. Harvey’s father emigrated from Volodymyr Volynsky (Ludmir) in 1910. Harvey met Volodymyr Muzychenko on a 2010 trip to Volodymyr Volynsky and subsequently helped publish Volodymyr’s book in Ukrainian and then facilitated its translation and publication in English.

5) Volodymyr Muzychenko
Volodymyr, the author of Jewish Ludmir, was born in Sarny, Rivne Oblast, Ukraine in 1964. He trained in music and balalaika performance at the Rivne Music College and in Musical Conducting at the Rivne Institute of Culture. After two years in the Soviet army, he married and in 1988 moved to Volodymyr Volynsky where his wife had been sent for post-college community service. At a local music school, he has taught students and has written, arranged and conducted music. He has also been the leader of the small Jewish community. Fascinated by the centuries-long history of the local Jewish community, he spent 10 years researching in archives. collecting documents, and holding conversations with residents and former residents. The result is the book that was presented.