Lost Treasures: The Wooden Synagogues of Eastern Europe The Artwork of Bill Farran

Felshin, Ukraine - Sumi-e Style Brush Painting

Yiddish: Felshtin

Polish: Felsztyn

The village is located a few miles from the border with Poland and Ukraine in the eastern part of the Carpathian mountains.

Felsztyn, as the settlement is called in Polish, was founded in 1374 by King Ludwik Węgierski, and received town privileges under the Magdeburg rights in 1380’s. After the first Partition of Poland in 1772 until 1918 the town belonged to the Austrian Empire. Between 1918 and 1939 Felsztyn was part of Second Republic of Poland. On September 17, 1939, Felsztyn was occupied by the Soviet Union, and renamed Skelevka. After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, the town became part of Ukraine and is now Skelivka.

During the Russian Civil War in 1918, about six hundred Felshtin Jews were murdered during a Cossack pogrom. On Yom Kippur, 1941 the Nazis forced the Jews of Felshtin into a forest where they were forced to dig a large mass grave in which they were buried alive. After the war, the surviving Jews erected a memorial tombstone above the mass grave.

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Sumi-e Style Brush Prints are 8x10 inches, in an 11x14 matte.