As part of Stephen Wise Temple’s response to the Ukraine crisis, our clergy has enlisted experts in international relations, humanitarian aid, foreign policy, and history to educate and inform our community. On Tuesday, April 5, UCLA professor and historian Jared McBride, Ph.D., joined Rabbi Josh Knobel for our latest Wise Webinar to discuss the future of Ukraine.

An adjunct history professor at UCLA, Prof. Jared McBride, Ph.D., is a specialist in the 20th century history of Russia, Ukraine, and Eastern Europe. His research includes nationalist movements, mass violence, the Holocaust, inter-ethnic conflict, and war crimes prosecution. He has published widely in leading journals in his field, and has held post-doc positions at the USC Shoah Foundation, Columbia University, Wilson Center’s Kennan Institute, and the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Prof. McBride is currently completing a manuscript on local perpetrators and interethnic violence in Nazi-occupied western Ukraine.

During this engaging webinar, he and Rabbi Knobel discussed the history of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, the stakes for America and the Jewish world, as well as what the future may hold for Russia, Ukraine, and the world at large.

Prof. McBride’s work admittedly focuses on “some pretty dark pages” of Ukrainian history. Though the history of the Russian-Ukrainian relationship stretches back 1,000 years, Prof. McBride began this webinar by focusing on the immediate past, starting in 2014.

Having gained its independence in 1991, Ukraine had faced a host of issues socially, politically, and economically, and by the end of 2013, Ukrainian president Viktor Yanukovych had entered into discussions to sign an association agreement with the European Union. That would have laid the groundwork for Ukraine to join the EU, much to the chagrin of Russian president Vladimir Putin, who had wanted to keep the country in Russia’s orbit both socially and politically. At the last minute, Yanukovych backed out of the agreement, leading to an explosion of protests.

As snow fell on Kyiv’s central square, protestors began to express their desire for Yanukovych’s removal. His response: Sending in his security forces, sparking what became known as the Maidan Revolution.

“Those events … directly help us directly understand the war and the events we’ve seen over the last six weeks,” said Prof. McBride.

During the webinar, Prof. McBride referenced his Ukraine Reading List. It is included below.

General histories of Ukraine and/or Eastern Europe:
– Serhii Plokhy, The Gates of Europe: A History of Ukraine (2015)
– Timothy Snyder, Bloodlands (2010)
– Alexander Prusin, The Lands Between (2010)

Shorter histories of Ukraine
– Serhy Yekelchyk, Ukraine: Birth of a Modern Nation (2007)
– Serhy Yekelchyk, Ukraine: What Everyone Needs to Know (2015)
– Kate Brown, A Biography of No Place (2009)

Maidan Revolution/ Donbas war:
– Tim Judah, In Wartime: Stories from Ukraine (2016)
– Marci Shore, The Ukrainian Night: An Intimate History of Revolution (2018)

WWII Era:
– John-Paul Himka, Ukrainian Nationalists and the Holocaust: OUN and UPA’s Participation in the Destruction of Ukrainian Jewry, 1941–1944 (2021)
– Karel Berkhoff, Harvest of Despair (2008)
– Omer Bartov, Anatomy of a Genocide (2019)