The Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine,” a leading cultural and historical institution of the Jewish Community of Dnipro, has once again become a training ground for second-year students of the University of Customs and Finance (UMFS), who are enrolled in the “History and Archaeology” program. Over the course of two weeks, future historians will explore various aspects of the work of a modern museum, gaining practical experience under the guidance of its research staff.
The first day of the internship began with a meeting between the students and the Museum team. The Museum Director, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Dr. Iryna Radchenko, spoke about the advantages of completing an internship in direct contact with museum professionals, exhibitions, and collections. The internship supervisor, Museum Research Fellow and Candidate of Historical Sciences Olena Ishchenko, emphasized the importance of familiarizing future historians with different areas of professional activity, while the Head of the Department of Theory and History of State and Law at UMFS, Professor Oleh Morozov, briefed the students on organizational aspects of the internship. The Head of the Museum Library, Zoryana Bondar, and Research Fellow Daria Yesenina presented the main areas of future work and wished the interns success in mastering museum studies.
After getting acquainted with the team, Olena Ishchenko led the students on a tour of the Museum’s temporary exhibitions. The interns explored the recently opened painting exhibition featuring works by Ivan Marchuk, Martiros Saryan, and other renowned artists, and also viewed the “Exhibit of the Month”—the memorial “Menorah of Remembrance” lamp, created by Arkadiy Shmist, one of the leaders of Dnipro’s Jewish renaissance. The following day, Chief Curator Lyudmyla Sandul introduced the students to the work of the museum’s collections, the specifics of preserving various categories of artifacts, and the modern technologies that enable the preservation of the museum collection even under challenging conditions.
Throughout the internship, the students will work across various areas of museum activity, gaining insight into the profession of a historian-museologist and participating in real research and museum tasks.
“An internship at a museum is always a two-way process,” emphasized the Deputy Director of the Museum, Candidate of Historical Sciences, Dr. Yehor Vradiy. “Undoubtedly, it helps students see the profession of historian and museologist not only in the classroom but also in real, day-to-day work. At the same time, the museum receives important assistance from young researchers. For instance, several years ago, it was the student interns who carried out the enormous task of digitizing the paper archive of the ‘Shabbos Shalom’ newspaper. Today, that archive is freely accessible on the website of the Jewish Community of Dnipro and has become a valuable resource for researchers from around the world, as well as for anyone interested in the history of the Jewish renaissance in Dnipro and Ukraine. We are confident that such cooperation benefits both the future professionals and the museum itself, helping to preserve and study the historical heritage of Ukrainian Jewry—and especially the history of the Jewish Community of Dnipro, which rightfully holds a special place in the modern Jewish renaissance of Ukraine under the leadership of Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki.”
