Private Jewish Heritage Tour of Kiev

This 3-hour walking tour is a great option to explore the history of the Jewish community in Kiev, as well as to discover the names of the great Jewish people that have contributed to the history of the city.

During the tour you will visit the Jewish quarter, enter the main synagogue and see some monuments dedicated to famous Jewish people.

The history of Kiev dates back many centuries, and is inseparable from the history of the local Jewish community, whose origin dates to the time of the pre-Christian Rus. There is a dispute among scholars about the starting point of the Jews of Kiev. However, nobody would dispute the actual fact of the existence of a very old Jewish community in the city.

The fact is supported by documents, such as a letter sent in the first half of the 10th-Century by Kiev Jews to their co-religionists, discovered in a synagogue in Cairo. There are also Kiev chronicles that provide recorded evidence that a Jewish quarter existed in ancient Kiev at Zhydove.

During the Tartar invasion, Jews in Kiev and other city residents were severely tormented. Nevertheless, by the end of the 13th-Century, the Jewish community of the city had been revived.

The city became a cultural and religious center of Jewish life in Eastern Europe, a fact supported by the contemporaneous Jewish saying, “Teaching comes from Kyiv.”

On this 3-hour walking tour of the Jewish areas of the Ukraine capital, you will discover much of this history and the origin of the saying. You will explore significant sites, such as Shevchenko Boulevard and the Bessarabian Market. You will visit the Brodskiy Synagogue and pass the house with a memorial plaque to Golda Meir.

It is a fascinating journey in the company of an expert guide who will show you another side to Kiev to complete your vacation.