Ronald Lauder Awarded Andrey Sheptytsky Medal by Ukrainian-Jewish Organizations

Ronald Lauder Awarded Andrey Sheptytsky Medal by Ukrainian-Jewish Organizations The ceremony held in New York also provided a rare spotlight on the low-profile founder of Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter, James Temerty By Vladislav Davidzon For the past week, as the annual United Nations General Assembly filled New York with visiting heads of state and foreign ministers, driving or walking through large swaths of the Upper East Side has become next to impossible. However, last night, one ambassador and globe-trotting diplomat, in particular, was being honored in a private and dignified ceremony away from the frenzied activity of the chattering diplomats. Inside the majestic Central Park mansion of the Ukrainian Institute on the corner of 79th Street, several dozen Ukrainian and Jewish elites gathered to award the 4th Andrey Sheptytsky Medal. The recipient of this year’s medal was Ronald Lauder, president of the World Jewish Congress, honored for his “lifetime of service to the Jewish people.” For the past five years, the prize has been awarded jointly by the Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter (UJE) and the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine to an individual who has contributed to the betterment of Ukrainian-Jewish relations. The award’s namesake, Andrei Sheptytsky, was the remarkable wartime metropolitan archbishop of the Ukrainian Greco-Catholic Church. Sheptytsky, whom I have written about at length, was an exceptional figure: the scion of an ennobled and Polonized Ukrainian family, he was an archetype of the “larger than life character” even in his physical stature. He stood almost seven feet tall; he was erudite, wise, multilingual (he is known to have written a letter to the Jewish community of Lviv in Hebrew) and humane. During the Nazi occupation of Soviet Ukraine, the cleric personally hid more than one 150 Jews, including children and rabbis, in the properties and monasteries of the church. One rabbi was hidden inside the personal library of the metropolitan’s official residence. Sheptytsky is esteemed by many within the Ukrainian diaspora as a unifying figure whose historical legacy can provide a foundation for better relations and common understanding. Unfortunately, the archbishop’s remarkable acts of bravery in the face of the Nazi occupation of Lviv remain scandalously unknown outside of Eastern Europe. In the meantime, the campaign to have Sheptytsky be recognized as a “righteous amongst the nations by Yad Vashem” has remained mostly stalled.