Jewish Settlers in Alberta and, from Galicia and Bukovina

From the 1880s to 1919, was a start of the arrival of Ashkenazi Jews to Alberta.

The Alberta Ukraine Genealogical Project has information on the religious affiliation and primary language of conversation in the villages. If you go to their website at https://sites.ualberta.ca/~ukrville/Family_History_Portal/fhp.htm then click on “Maps”, then click on your District, then click on your village, it gives you the stat’s for the year of 1900.

In my Baba’s family village of Maliatyntsi, District of Kitsman there was 21 Catholic, 1274 Greek Orthodox, 45 Jewish and one “other”. Also, interesting to note that 49 listed German as their primary language of conversation. The majority spoke Ukrainian (Ruthenian).

In 2019, when I was in Ukraine I took a city tour of the city of Chernivtsi, and my tour guide Vasyl Kuzyk showed me the Palace of Culture and Jewish History Museum. We then went to the Turkish Square, and he pointed straight ahead and said that the Jewish Quarters is that direction pass the Turkish Square. I was too tired to walk that far but on my next trip to Chernivtsi, I will be checking it out. Vasyl does genealogical research for clients, has a car, is a driver and translator. He also can pick you up at the Chernivtsi Airport and translate documents for you. https://www.ace-interpreter.com/

Note that at its peak in 1941, more than 45,000 Jews lived in Chernivtsi. Today the Palace of Culture (also known as the Jewish National House) houses a museum dedicated to the history of Bukovina’s Jews.

Palace of Culture - Jewish People’s House (Chernivtsi) - 2021,
Copyright of Tripadvisor.co.uk

History of the Jews in Chernivtsi - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Chernivtsi

With doing more family research I am learning the importance of broaden my scope on local history. The Priest’s Grotto is near my Kalynchuk family village of Strilkivtsi, in the former district of Borshchiv (it is now in the district/raion of Chortkiv).

Borschiv was occupied by the Axis troops in July 1941 and several mass executions of Jews were carried out in the town. In April 1942 a Borshchiv Jewish ghetto was established here. Between spring and summer of 1943, approximately 400 Jews were sent to the Ivanovka camp and more than 2,300 Jews were shot in the Jewish cemetery. On the eve of the war there were about 3000 Jews living in the town.

Borshchiv Ghetto - Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Borshchiv_Ghetto

The Jewish Ghetto, Borshchiv, Ukraine (then Borszczow, Poland)
Museum of Family History
https://www.museumoffamilyhistory.com/ce/ghetto/borszczow.htm

When I was at the Borshchiv Museum in the town square, I purchased a book on the Priest’s Grotto Caves. One of my nephew’s was interested in caves, so at the time I was thinking more of him. However later I learned more about these caves and about the stories of the several Jewish families who lived in the caves during the WWII, with some up to 511 days.

Priest’s Grotto – Wikipedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priest%27s_Grotto

The Cave - the Secret of Priest's Grotto
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=q9UypyhdbHg

The Portal of Life Entrance to Priests Grotto Cave in Western Ukraine

Copyright of the "Europe Between East and West"

Reference:

Jewish Federation of Edmonton

https://www.jewishedmonton.org/

Jewish in Alberta, Canada
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/alberta

History of the Jews in Canada
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/History_of_the_Jews_in_Canada

Jewish Canadians
https://library-archives.canada.ca/eng/collection/research-help/genealogy-family-history/ethno-cultural/pages/jewish-canadians.aspx

Jewish Canadians
https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/jewish-canadians

Jewish Roots in Ukraine and Moldova; Pages from the Past and Archival Inventories, Miriam Weiner, 1999, out of print, used copies of this book can be purchased online. It can be viewed at Internet Archive https://archive.org/details/jewishrootsinukr0000wein and a summary on the book is at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_Roots_in_Ukraine_and_Moldova

The Miriam Weiner Routes to Roots Foundation Inc.
https://www.rtrfoundation.org/index.shtml
Ukraine section - https://www.rtrfoundation.org/archps3.shtml

Ukraine Jewish Records – Family Search Wiki
https://www.familysearch.org/en/wiki/Ukraine_Jewish_Records

JewishGen
https://www.jewishgen.org/

M. Rubin, "Alberta's Jews: The Long Journey," in: H. and T. Palmer (eds.), Peoples of Alberta: Portraits of Cultural Diversity (1985), 329–47

H.M. Sanders, "Jews of Alberta," in: Alberta History, 47 (1999), 20–26

Irving M. Abella, A Coat of Many Colours: Two Centuries of Jewish Life in Canada (1990)

Howard Adelman and John Simpson, eds, Multiculturalism, Jews, and Identities in Canada (1995)

Gerald Tulchinsky, Taking Root: The Origins of the Canadian Jewish Community (1992)