On February 23, 2016, the exhibition “The dynasty of Medalie” dedicated to the famous Medalie’s family will open at Lviv museum of the history of religion

The history of this family covers 200 years of Jews living on the territory of Russian Empire and Soviet Union, its members were participants of many tragic events: disfranchised life, riots, revolution, emigration, religious persecution, the disaster of European Jewry during the Holocaust.

Family of Medalie’s rabbins is known from the middle of the XVIII century. The life of one of the most famous members of the dynasty – rabbi Shmaryahu Medalie - is inseparably connected with Ukraine: in Krolevets of Chernihiv province, he married the daughter of a famous Hasidic rabbi Dowa Bera Karasyk from Nizhyn, after the death of father-in-law he took the lead of a religious community of the city.

After the October Revolution rabbi Medalie opposed to closing of heders, to withdrawal of the values ​​from the synagogues. Since 1933 he was the chief rabbi of the Moscow Choral synagogue, actually being the chief rabbi of the USSR at he same time. In 1938, at the height of Stalin's terror, the rabbi was arrested on charges of having connections with the Chabad movement and the condemnation of the soviet system, and was shot. After these tragic events part of the Medalie’s family returned to Ukraine and lived in Chernihiv.

Children of rabbi Medalie remained faithful to the ancestral traditions, Jewry and religion; many people had to pay for this. Aron Medalie, the lecturer of the Leningrad Institute of Water Transport, spent several years in the camp actually just by visiting a synagogue and following Jewish law. Both of that was incredible courage for the lecturer of soviet university in the early 1950's .

Some of Medalie’s children have inherited his religious ministration. Hillel, who emigrated to Antwerp, was the rabbi of this city. Moshe, the eldest son of rabbi, who stayed in the Soviet Union, was a rabbi of Rostov. He died at the same time, when the father and in the same way: he was shot in 1938 in the camp near Khabarovsk.

Today Medalie’s dynasty continues to exist in Eretz Yisrael, and in many other countries. Exhibition through the example of the Medalie’s family illustrates the fate of the orthodox Jews who tried to save religious tradition under the totalitarian regime, persecutions and destruction of national and spiritual heritage of people who inhabited the Soviet Union.

The exhibition will be demonstrated during February-March. We invite everyone who wishes to study the history of Jews to visit the exhibition “The dynasty of Medalie”.