On January 24, 2014, a lecture titled “The Historical and Cultural Heritage of Ukrainian Jews” was read for the activists of the Euromaidan civil protests. The lecturer was a Jewish studies and Kyiv history expert Igor Golfman, better known under his nickname Ezra Knizhnik (Ezra the Scribe).

Notably, similar lectures are very popular at the Maidan. The protesters listen to lectures read as part of the “Free University” project when they are free from standing on the barricades, and they have a library they can peruse. Non-profit organizations and activists alike organize film showings and other cultural and educational events.

Ezra the Scribe’s lecture was the introductory lecture in a cycle on Jewish studies, read as part of the “Lectures on the Pallets of the Creative Barbican.” The “Creative Barbican”, which is “protecting” the Khreschatic from the side of Bessarabskaya Square, is the representative space of a group of artists, poets, and writers who organize exhibitions and performances at the barricade-dividided Khreschatik.

At this introductory lecture, Ezra the Scribe explained basic facts from the history and culture of the Jewish people, giving special attention to the connections between the Jews and the Eastern Slavs during the time of Kyiv Rus. The lecture was immensely popular with the protesters, and the lecturer had been asked to continue the series.

According to Ezra himself, this was the first proper lecture, but he’d already spoken many times on Jewish history, culture, and ethnography multiple times at the Maidan itself and in other places where the protesters gather in a less formal manner. Both the audience and the lecturer hope that the project continues.