In Dnipro, until August 27, 2026, the exhibition “Jerusalem — Dnipro. From A to Z” is taking place. It is hosted at the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine” in the “Menorah” complex, and the exhibition itself connects Jerusalem and Dnipro through graphics, digital art, painting, and two different alphabet systems.
The continuation of the exhibition was announced by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine. The project was created with the participation of the Embassy of the State of Israel in Ukraine, the “Nativ” representation in Ukraine, the Honorary Consulate of the State of Israel in the Western region of Ukraine, and the museum itself. But if we only list these organizers, the main point is lost: this is not a one-time cultural event, but another point on a longer Israeli-Ukrainian route.
For Lev Varshavsky, this topic is part of a constant line of NAnews about the ties between Israel and Ukraine, where the important thing is not the mere fact of another event, but what it says about the relations between the two societies. In preparing the material, we compared the message from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine with data from the museum, the Jewish community of Dnipro, information about previous stages of the project, and the official status of “Nativ.” Where it is no longer about the fact, but about the significance of the event, we separately indicate the editorial conclusion.
NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency considers this exhibition precisely in this context: as a cultural story in which behind the images of Jerusalem and Dnipro, people, state structures, memory, and a very concrete connection between the two countries are visible.
Why Dnipro is not a random stop
Before Dnipro, the project already connected Jerusalem with Kyiv, Odesa, and Chernivtsi. Therefore, the current exhibition continues a series in which the capital of Israel seems to engage in a separate conversation with each Ukrainian city — not trying to make them similar, but selecting a unique visual language for each.
Dnipro in this sequence is particularly indicative. It is one of the most important centers of modern Jewish life in Ukraine, home to the “Menorah” complex, a large Jewish community, and the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine.” At the opening, the director of the Jewish community of Dnipro, Zelig Brez, also reminded of the formula applied to the city — “Jerusalem of the Diaspora.”
This is not the first story where Dnipro becomes a platform for direct contact with Israel. NAnews has already written about the first MENORA MUSIC FEST, where Jewish culture and the Ukrainian environment were connected through music, as well as about the visit to Dnipro by the Chief Rabbi of Israel and the Minister of Religious Affairs. When looking at these events together, rather than individually, a more interesting picture emerges: the ties between Israel and Ukrainian Jewry here are supported not by one institution and not in one format.
That is why the current exhibition does not look like a decorative gesture. It fits into the already existing infrastructure of relations — the community, the museum, religious institutions, cultural projects, and personal connections between people from the two countries. This is an editorial conclusion of NAnews, not a formulation by the organizers.
Two alphabets instead of routine speeches
The title “From A to Z” here literally defines the structure of the exhibition. Jerusalem and Dnipro tell about themselves through letters, but they do it differently.
The Israeli part was prepared by the Ginzburgs’ City Cat art foundation with the participation of digital artists. Iconic places of Jerusalem are presented in a modern graphic form, with a golden visual palette referring simultaneously to Jerusalem stone and the familiar Israeli image of “Jerusalem of Gold.”
The Ukrainian part was created by artist Vanda Orlova, working under the name VANDA. In her work, Dnipro is laid out in 33 letters of the Ukrainian alphabet and 33 city stories: places, people, phenomena, and details that make up the local cultural code. An important detail is that when selecting some objects, the author was guided not only by formal writing but also by the recognizable Dnipro sound of the names.
A separate layer of the exhibition is the works of Olga Shipelik. They address the Land of Israel, family, labor, human life, and spirituality; some works use gold leaf. As a result, the exhibition is not reduced to a pair of tourist sets: here are the sights of Jerusalem, and here are the sights of Dnipro.
And here appears the first thing that cannot be seen from a short museum announcement. The alphabet works as a way not to compare cities by the principle of “who is more beautiful,” but to make each of them name their own words about themselves. The letters equally organize the narrative, but the content remains different — and that is why the conversation between the two cities turns out to be more interesting than routine speeches about friendship.
Mark Dovev: from Dnipro to Israel — and back already with Jerusalem
The project has another layer that does not fit into the formula “international exhibition” at all. The head of the “Nativ” representation in Ukraine and advisor to the Embassy of the State of Israel, Mark Dovev, called the opening in Dnipro a deeply personal event.
Dnipro is his hometown. It was from here that he once left for Israel, and many years later, his diplomatic period of work in Ukraine began here. Now he has returned to the city as a representative of Israel and one of the participants in the project, literally connecting Dnipro with Jerusalem.
This changes the perception of the entire exhibition. The connection between the two cities ceases to be just a curatorial metaphor: in the hall is a person whose own biography has practically followed the same line — Ukraine, Israel, Ukraine again. Dovev spoke about returning with the treasures of “two worlds” and separately named the Jewish community of Dnipro as a living bridge between Israel and Ukraine.
For an Israeli reader with Ukrainian roots, there is a recognizable plot here that goes far beyond the museum walls. One can live in Israel for decades, but the name of a Ukrainian city still remains not geography from someone else’s news, but part of a personal map. In Dovev’s case, this private map unexpectedly coincided with the state and cultural one.
Why the presence of “Nativ” changes the meaning of the exhibition
In publications about the opening, “Nativ” can easily be mistaken for yet another cultural organization in a long list of partners. But this is inaccurate: “Nativ” is a separate administrative unit under the Office of the Prime Minister of Israel and works with Jews and their family members in the former USSR, supporting their connection with the State of Israel.
Therefore, the participation of “Nativ” together with the Embassy of Israel changes the scale of the story. It is not about a private gallery that decided to hold a beautiful international project, but about a cultural initiative in which official Israeli structures are directly involved.
At the same time, it would be a mistake to declare one exhibition as proof of some sharp diplomatic turn between Israel and Ukraine. There are no such grounds. Its significance lies elsewhere: even when the political relations of the two countries go through disputes, disappointments, and mismatched interests, at the institutional and public level, work with Jewish memory, culture, cities, and people continues.
For NAnews — News of Israel, this is an important distinction. Cultural diplomacy does not cancel political disagreements and should not be used to mask them, but it shows which connections are capable of surviving changes in the governmental agenda and continuing to exist between societies.
There is also another detail. The exhibition is held not in a neutral exhibition center, but specifically in the museum of Jewish memory and the Holocaust. Therefore, several temporal layers are immediately adjacent: the destroyed Jewish world of Ukraine, the modern Jewish life of Dnipro, the state of Israel, and present-day Ukraine.
It is in this place that the name “Jerusalem — Dnipro” begins to mean more than geography.
What will remain after August 27
A museum exhibition is by definition temporary. “Jerusalem — Dnipro. From A to Z” will end on August 27, the works will be taken down from the walls, and the poster will give way to the next event. But the project’s route has already left behind Kyiv, Odesa, Chernivtsi, and Dnipro — four different attempts to articulate relations with Jerusalem not in the language of diplomatic notes, but through the urban cultural code.
And this is the most interesting result of the project. Israel in Ukraine is represented here not only by the state, war, repatriation, or diplomacy, but by Jerusalem as a living city; Ukraine for the Israeli side is not an abstract territory from the news feed, but specific cities with their Jewish history, contemporary art, and people who continue to maintain this connection.
You can visit the exhibition at the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine” in Dnipro, Sholom Aleichem St., 4/26, KDC “Menorah.” According to the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine:
- Wednesday and Sunday — 10:00–18:00;
- Tuesday and Thursday — visits by appointment;
- the last day of the exhibition — August 27, 2026.
Thus, the two alphabets turn out to be only the visible part of the project. Behind them remains a longer route — people who once left Ukraine for Israel, Jewish communities continuing to live in Ukrainian cities, Israeli state structures, and an attempt to talk to each other not only when another political crisis arises.
Source: Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine.
Additional information verified with materials from the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine,” the Jewish community of Dnipro, and official information from “Nativ.”