Israeli murals in Ukraine send a message of hope and identity

A mural honoring Naftali Herz Imber, a Jewish Ukrainian Hebrew poet and the author of the words of Israel’s national anthem “Hatikva,” was inaugurated in the city of Lviv in April.

Herz Imber was born in 1856 in the city of Złoczów, which back then was in Galicia and part the Austrian Empire and it is now located in Ukraine, around 60 kilometers from Lviv. He died in 1909 in New York.

The mural was inaugurated by the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Michael Brodsky in a ceremony also attended by Lviv Mayor Andriy Ivanovych Sadovyi, the city’s rabbi, Jewish leaders and several journalists.

Brodsky noted the deep symbolism of the event - the mural was inaugurated in the week of the 75th anniversary of Israel’s independence, in a city that used to feature a thriving Jewish life, in the midst of a war and Ukraine's struggle for its right to continue to exist as a state independent and sovereign.

The event was part of the "Art Speaks History" project commemorating Ukrainians who contributed to the State of Israel, which the embassy has been leading for three years.

In previous years, two murals were inaugurated depicting Ze'ev Jabotinsky in his hometown Odessa and the poet Zelda in the city of Dnipro where she was born. The goal of the project is raising awareness on how key people in the history of the State of Israel immigrated from Ukraine and honoring them in the places where they were born and raised.