Babyn Yar memorial: is consensus possible? Panel discussion

Karel Berkhoff is a Senior Researcher at the at the NIOD Institute for War, Holocaust and Genocide Studies in Amsterdam. Dr Berkhoff studied history and Russian studies at the University of Amsterdam, Soviet Studies at Harvard University and received his doctoral degree in history in 1998 at the University of Toronto. His research and teaching focuses on the Holocaust. Author of Harvest of Despair: Life and Death in Ukraine Under Nazi Rule. Dr Berkhoff is one of the leading experts on the history of Holocaust in Eastern Europe. He sits on advisory and editorial boards of various publications and research centres with focus on Holocaust. He is former chief historian and chair of the Scientific Council at BYHMC and led work on developing its narrative document, before resigning in 2019. 

Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich was born in Brooklyn, New York in 1964. He studied at the Karlin Stolin Rabbinical Institute in Jerusalem, and received his rabbinical ordination at Yeshiva Karlin Stolin in Brooklyn. In 1989, Rabbi Bleich and his wife moved to Kiev, Ukraine. In 1990, Rabbi Bleich was appointed chief rabbi of Kiev and Ukraine, and has served in that post ever since. Rabbi Bleich has been instrumental in founding the Kiev Jewish Community, the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, the first full Jewish day school in Ukraine, the first legal Jewish orphanage and boarding school in Ukraine, and a host of other organizations. Rabbi Bleich also serves as vice-president of the European Jewish Congress. Rabbi Yaakov dov Bleich is a Member of Supervisory Board of BYHMC. 

Yana Barinova, born in Odesa and currently living in London and Kyiv, is a public activist and former Chief Operating Officer of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center. Her key areas of activity are in the promotion of human rights, contributing to peace and the commemoration of the Holocaust. Yana has authored more than 100 articles on human rights, cultural policy, the policy of memory; and has delivered statements at the UN Human Rights Council on behalf of the World Jewish Congress. Currently, Yana is a PhD student at Sorbonne University. In February 2018, Kyiv mayor Vitaliy Klichko appointed her as an advisor for humanities and culture. From February 2020 consultant to “Our Common Destiny” project - initiative of the Genesis Philanthropy Group (GPG) and the State of Israel’s Ministry of Diaspora Affairs.

Anton Drobovych is Head of the Ukrainian Institute of National Memory, responsible or formulating state policies of remembance, developing commemorative practices and leading research. He has had a career spanning academia, journalism, policy-making and museum development in Ukraine. He was an advisor to the Education Minister of Ukraine and also chaired the department of museum planning at Mystetsky Arsenal, one of Ukraine's leading museums and curating patforms. Prior to his appointment as Head of UINP, Mr Drobovych curated educational programs at BYHMC. 

Ruslan Kavatsiuk is the Deputy Director-General of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, responsible for science and education. He previously worked with the Hybrid Warfare Analytical Group, Ukraine. His research team organised a project, involving content analysis of the major Russian TV channels, to show how extreme negative stereotypes are proliferating about foreign countries, and how bellicose the language on Russian TV has become.