• Sam Spike and Ben Zake

    Before the Holocaust

    Jews from Tetiev, Ukraine endured persecution and terror to realize a new life in Cleveland, Ohio

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  • What happened in Tetiev?

    Death and destruction reign as Jews are targeted for slaughter

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  • Pogroms in the Ukraine

    Jews are the scapegoats in the deadly aftermath
    of World War I, the Russian Revolution and the Ukrainian War of Independence

  • Sam Spike and Ben Zake

“Dante’s Inferno pales besides the realities of every day life [for Jews] in the Ukraine.“

Rapes, beatings, burnings, mutilations and slow death were the lot of an estimated one hundred thousand Jews in the Ukraine from 1918 to 1920. “Chaos and lawlessness” ran rampant and the pogroms perpetrated at this time were the most extensive massacres of Jews prior to the Holocaust.
Hundreds of the survivors made their way to Cleveland, Ohio and established vibrant communities and lived the American dream. This is their story and the story of their families, the story of the Jews of Tetiev.

Trek to Tetiev

Kiev: Day One

We meet with Alexander Dukhovny, the chief rabbi of the Progressive Reform movement in Ukraine.

Kiev: Day Two

A bat mitzvah service and a sobering trip to the Babi Yar massacre memorial in Kiev

Tetiev: Day One

The heroes of the Euromaidan, then on to Tetiev.

Tetiev: Day Two

The Tetiyev Museum, an educator and the Jewish cemetery. Oh, and don’t forget the cows.

Tetiev: Day Three

The marketplace in Tetiev, drones over the Jewish cemetery and background on the 1920 pogrom.

Tetiev: Day Four

A deeper exploration of the cemetery, a talk with the neighbors and a local artist/historian and a meeting with the mayor of Tetiev, Mastriuk Ruslan.

Tetiev: Day Five

Notes on Ukrainian food and indoor plumbing.

Tetiev: Last Day

We meet Anna Zaika, who is not Jewish, and ponder the mystery of the Zake surname.
headstone with hebrew lettering

Tetiev: Epilogue

The locavores, friendly people and the black mark of the pogrom.

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