Relations between the monks of the holy Dormition Lavra of the Studite Rite and the Univ village jews just before the Holocaust

Abstract

The article considers relations between the monks of the Holy Dormition Lavra of the Studite Rite and the Univ village Jews just before the holocaust. The author begins his narration with the issues of economic and business nature. It is important for him to determine the role local Jews played in these areas of the village life, what were their relations with local Ukrainian population. In the first part of the article the author draws a conclusion that the relations between the Univ Jews and Ukrainians were the relations of good neighbourhood. In the second part of the work the author focuses on the analysis of behavioural models of the studite monks, Ukrainian population and Jews under the conditions of the first Soviet occupation. The author reasonably proves the assertion that under the conditions of the first experience of totalitarianism the monks of the Holy Dormition Lavra together with Jewish refugees and individual Jews from the village had shown cohesion and solidarity in the face of challenges of the system and helped each other. These first contacts became the foundation for the cooperation for the sake of salvation being actively carried out by the studites under the aegis of archimandrite of the Studite Rite, metropolitan archbishop Andrey Sheptytsky concerning the Jews during the Holocaust.