The Jewish community in Zhitomir, Ukraine has just inaugurated the Ukrainian portion of part of a world initiative that aims to have every volunteering participant (this includes non-Jews) write one line of the Tanach in their native language; in this way it is hoped that the initiative will produce many complete translations of the holy books in many different languages and ‘spread love for the scriptures worldwide’. Each participant is to receive a special certificate for their efforts.

The Ukrainian leg of the project is especially unique because although there are and always have been Jewish communities in the Ukraine, this will be that first time that the Tanach will have been translated into Ukrainian.

Aaron Weiss and Chief Rabbi of Zhitomir Shlomo Wilhelm, joint project leaders for Ukraine plan to travel to over 100 major towns and cities in the Ukraine in order to attract contributors for the project; as mentioned, the project commenced in Zhitomir with extensive coverage by both Ukrainian and Israeli media representatives.

The Tanach or Tanakh is a Hebrew acronym for the constituent books of the corpus; Torah, Nevi’im and Ketuvim…TaNaKh; elements of which are incorporated into the Christian ‘Old Testament’.

We wish all participants worldwide success in their project.