Jews and the new Ukraine. Panel discussion

Yaroslav Hrytsak is Doctor of Historical Sciences,  Professor of the Department of Modern and Contemporary History of Ukraine at the Ukrainian Catholic University, visiting professor of the Central European University and honorary professor at the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy. He is Editor-in-chief of the annual journal “Modern Ukraine”,  member of the editorial board of Ab Imperio, Critique, Slavic Review, member of the supervisory board of the Harvard Ukrainian Studies Magazine. Member of the Selection Committee to nominate candidates for the post of Director of the National Anti-Corruption Bureau of Ukraine. Research interests: history of Eastern Europe 19-20 century intellectual history, the history and theory of nationalism.

Josef Zissels is a Jewish public figure in Ukraine. From the early 1970s he collaborated with the Jewish and other underground movements in the USSR. In 1977 Josef Zissels began to investigate the use of psychiatry for political purposes, worked with the relevant commission in Moscow. In the summer of 1978, he joined the Ukrainian Helsinki Group, and later spent six years in Soviet prison. In 1989, he participated in the creation of the People's Movement of Ukraine, was a member of the Great Council, and in 1990 created the National Council of Ethnicities. He was actively involved in organising the First Congress of Jewish Organizations of the former USSR, was elected co-Chairman of the Vaad of the USSR. Since January 1991, Josef Zissels has been chairing the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities (Vaad) of Ukraine.

Mark J. Freiman practices law at the firm of Lerners LLP in Toronto. He has appeared in high-profile cases at all levels of the Canadian legal system, including the Canadian Human Rights Commission in the proceedings against Ernst Zündel and his internet hate site. From 2000 to 2004, Mr. Freiman was Deputy Attorney General for Ontario. He was President of the Canadian Jewish Congress and President of the Canadian Peres Centre for Peace Foundation. Mr Freiman’s family is originally from Galicia. He is a principal figure in the “Return to Dignity” project in his father’s birthplace of Sambir, Ukraine. The aim of the project is the rehabilitation of the ancient Jewish cemetery in Sambir and of the mass graves of Jewish victims of the “Holocaust by Bullets” in the cemetery and in the nearby forest at Ralivka.

Peter Pomerantsev is a Visiting Senior Fellow at the Institute of Global Affairs at the London School of Economics, an author and TV producer. He specialises in propaganda and media development and has testified on the challenges of information war to the US House Foreign Affairs Committee, US Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the UK Parliament Defence Select Committee. He writes for publications including the Financial Times, Politico, Atlantic and many others. His book on Russian propaganda, Nothing is True and Everything is Possible, won the 2016 Royal Society of Literature Ondaatje Prize.