Yesterday, September 4, an outstanding event was held, that was awaited not only by the Jewish community and the inhabitants of the city, but by the world Jewry.

On Sunday the Space of Synagogues memorial public project was opened in Lviv. As Honorary Consul of the State of Israel in Western region I was invited to participate in the opening ceremony of this remarkable place.

I am talking about improvement and renewal of the Jewry in Lviv, where there were the Golden Rose synagogue, the Great City Synagogue and the Beth Hamidrash house of learning. All these buildings were destroyed during the Holocaust and for a long time, they just continued to deteriorate. For more than a year they managed to preserve the surviving remnants of the Golden Rose synagogue, to equip a drainage system on its territory, authentic foundation of Beth Hamidrash was cleared from concrete and marked with white stone. The Perpetuation memorial installation with quotations of Lviv residents and people associated with the city, who were Jews, was fixed, a patio of an adjacent restaurant was demounted and new trees were planted. In 2017 it is planned to start work on the site of the Great City Synagogue. I should note that this is the first case in Ukraine when honoring of the sites of the local Jewish history was initiated and implemented not by public organizations or foundations, but by the City Council in collaboration with the partners.

The opening ceremony was attended by Mayor Andriy Sadovyi, Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Federal Republic of Germany Ernst Reichel, Counsellor of the Embassy of the State of Israel in Ukraine Gennady Polishchuk, representatives of the deputy corps, partner organizations and research environments, people who survived the Holocaust and their descendants.

Lviv has always been a multicultural city: many different communities have coexisted there. From the very beginning, Lviv has become native for Jewish. This complex is an opportunity not only to learn more about the history of Lviv and to touch part of the Jewish soul. For years, many people have forgotten their own history, but now they are coming back to it. Today the descendants of Galician Jews come here to dive into this amazing atmosphere and listen to unity. But it's not just the Jewish history, it is also the history of Ukrainians who have lived together for centuries.

I am grateful to all those who has put in efforts to create this wonderful complex. I would like to thank Lviv city administration and personally Mr. Andriy Sadovyi for such support of the Jewish community and participation in this project. If all cities of Ukraine treated the monuments of the Jewish culture this way, at least for 50%, I would be very happy.

Now Ukraine is going through difficult times, but these projects demonstrate invincibility of our spirit. I believe that our task is to transmit our cultural heritage to successors for young people to understand who they are and where they are from. I think this place should become one of the favorite places for rest of the residents and guests of the city. I do not know whether Golden Rose is going to be rebuilt or will remain as it is, but I'm sure this place will encourage everyone to reflect on themselves, their own history. Once again I would like to congratulate all on the opening of the Space of Synagogues and wish inspiration in good deeds. I am sure that this is not the last project and in the future we will see a lot of interesting and useful projects.