I remember a one week trip around Ukraine that Jeremy and I organized for a group from London in 2004. We started in Kyev and were amazed at the beauty of the city. We hired a coach and an English speaking guide. Then we made our way to Lviv stopping at the sites, graves and abandoned synagogues of once thriving Jewish communities and their revered Rebbes. The Nazis had “cleansed” the towns and villages of their large Jewish populations during World War II and all that remained were these sad reminders of a culture, community and life that had been cruelly destroyed. Here and there we found new, tiny, Jewish communities being led by dedicated Rabbis and their wives sent from America and Israel. They were trying to rebuild synagogues, feed the poor and elderly and minister to the remnants of once thriving communities. They welcomed us along the way and provided us with simple but wholesome meals. We admired them. Finally we arrived in Lviv (also known as Lvov, Lwow and Lemberg) – our ultimate destination. My synagogue in London was twinned with the synagogue in that city and we were doing all we could to support the Jewish school, the welfare services for the elderly and destitute Jews and the delapidated but beautiful painted synagogue which had miraculously survived the war. One of our group, a talented and sensitive amateur artist, kept a watercolour diary of our journey and gave us all a copy of this on our return. I am showing two pages below followed by a short 20 second video I received from a rabbi in Kyev who has evacuated some of his community to the small town of Medzhibozh – the birth place of chassidic Judaism
gfreedmanblog 
Thank you so much for this, Gill. I can attest to the beauty of the synagogue in Lviv that the Hampstead Garden Synagogue rebuilt. Rabbi Bald and his wife have done and are doing a remarkable job under incredibly difficult conditions, even before the Russian invasion. Rabbi Bald spoke at the dedication of a memorial to Jews killed at a mass grave site in nearby Bolechow. The audience was about 40 Americans and Israelis from the Bolechow Jewish Heritage Society and an equal numberof local citizens who treated us as visiting royalty. I will never , ever forget his message of reconciliation, forgiveness, and peace. It resonated with me to an extant I can’t really put into words.
Thankl YOU❤️
What a super video which really explains why you have Lviv in your heart so strongly.
Such a terrible situation throughout Ukraine at the moment. Putin really is a madman and putting the future of his own country in great peril as well as that ofUkraine, of course.
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