Mukachevo, Ukraine
Some facts about the town of Mukachevo:
Mukachevo has a population of about 80 thousands inhabitants and located in the Western Ukraine in the Transcarpathia area, near Uzhhorod and not far from the border with Slovakia and Hungary.
Mukachevo better known as Munkacs by the Jewish community that once flourished there is at the nexus of a region that has changed sovereignty five times within the past one hundred years.
For most of its history the town was called by its Hungarian name, Munkacs. However, maps published at different times have displayed the name as Munkatsch (German) Munkacz (Polish), Mukacevo (Czech) and currently in its Russian now Ukrainian designation, Mukachevo. For a period of eighteen years, from 1920 until November 1938 Subcarpathian Ruthenia was a part of the newly created Czechoslovakia
Jews lived in Munkacs and the surrounding villages as early as the second half of the seventeenth century. However, it was nearly one hundred years later in 1741 that a Jewish community of 80 families was organized and a synagogue built. At first the Jewish community grew slowly: 1815 (165), 1830 (202) and by 1842 (301). There is a list of Jews from Munkacs which shows 247 of their number serving in the local militia during the Hungarian revolt of 1848 against the Austrians. By 1891 the Jewish community had grown to 5,049 individuals which represented nearly 48% of the total population of Munkacs. In 1941 the Jewish community numbered 13,488 (representing 42.7% of the total population). Their numbers continued to be close to half of the city’s population until the spring of 1944 when there were nearly 15,000 Jewish residents of the town. This ended on May 30, 1944 when the city was pronounced Judenrein (free of Jews after ghettoization and a series of deportations to Auschwitz).
Today, what remains of the Jewish community of Mukachevo is fewer than 300 Jews including eight Jewish men and less than twenty Jewish women who were born there before World War II
Mukachevo better known as Munkacs by the Jewish community that once flourished there is at the nexus of a region that has changed sovereignty five times within the past one hundred years.
For most of its history the town was called by its Hungarian name, Munkacs. However, maps published at different times have displayed the name as Munkatsch (German) Munkacz (Polish), Mukacevo (Czech) and currently in its Russian now Ukrainian designation, Mukachevo. For a period of eighteen years, from 1920 until November 1938 Subcarpathian Ruthenia was a part of the newly created Czechoslovakia
Jews lived in Munkacs and the surrounding villages as early as the second half of the seventeenth century. However, it was nearly one hundred years later in 1741 that a Jewish community of 80 families was organized and a synagogue built. At first the Jewish community grew slowly: 1815 (165), 1830 (202) and by 1842 (301). There is a list of Jews from Munkacs which shows 247 of their number serving in the local militia during the Hungarian revolt of 1848 against the Austrians. By 1891 the Jewish community had grown to 5,049 individuals which represented nearly 48% of the total population of Munkacs. In 1941 the Jewish community numbered 13,488 (representing 42.7% of the total population). Their numbers continued to be close to half of the city’s population until the spring of 1944 when there were nearly 15,000 Jewish residents of the town. This ended on May 30, 1944 when the city was pronounced Judenrein (free of Jews after ghettoization and a series of deportations to Auschwitz).
Today, what remains of the Jewish community of Mukachevo is fewer than 300 Jews including eight Jewish men and less than twenty Jewish women who were born there before World War II
The Palanok Castle:
It was founded in 14th century. Really it is an unconquerable fortress. For all its history it has never been conquered in a fair battle, it is one of the most fortified castles in Europe. The stronghold has a good armoury: 164 cannons of different sizes and 60 barrels of gun-powder. The castle was surrounded by deep ditch. The inner bank of the ditch was surrounded by the high wooden fence or wall; in Ukrainian this sort of fence is called "palanok", that's why this castle is known as Palanok Castle. The area of this fortress is 14000 sq. m. the castle consists of 130 different premises with a complicated system of underground passages between them. The castle was the centre of the rebel lead by Ferenc Rakoshy. In 1782 the castle became a prison for political offenders. Since 1789 the castle was used as a prison. In 1926 the stronghold became a barracks, later there was an agricultural college in it. Now it's a museum.
Thursday September 7, 2006
Trip to Mukachevo, Ukraine.
Trip to Mukachevo, Ukraine.
I believe some aspects of Christianity is like the trip we had to Mukachevo. We started our trip around 12 noon from Budapest; we crowded ourselves in a small utility car. My friend Pastor Rupa Lazlo was seating besides the driver who happens to be his son in law. I was seating behind the driver, Lajos a young leader in Lazlo’s church sat in the middle and Pastor Csiki Lajos was seating at the other side. We all three kind of force some smiles as we were feeling uncomfortable, but after some bumps down the road we somehow felt much better and didn’t care to be so close one to each other. The bumps on the road of our lives help us to get in contact with one another.
Csiki Lajos was the only one able to coordinate some elemental English sentences, so I was ready to start a new period of silence and reflection travelling with my friends. We arrived at Mukachevo around 7pm. Once in Mukachevo we look for the Roma camp, surprisingly for me, there were a good number of people that speak Hungarian so we were able to find out the camp and to establish contact with the leader of the community. We enjoyed a cup of coffee, talk a little bit and then went to visit the tent where the Festival between Gypsy and Jewish people will take place.
There was a good number of people giving the last touches, it was a large Tent, seats were already in place, and electrical connections for the reflectors and the sound system were about to be finish.I met a couple of young boys who speak English and have been in Toronto, they were planning to come again to one of the conferences at TACF. There was a group of about 20 youngsters who were going to spend the night there in a candle vigil.
We spend the night in a Baptist Resort Centre. Around 11pm a group of about 20 Ukrainians arrived for a one day Seminar of Baptists, to take place in a church close by. I had the opportunity to share with one of them that spoke English.
Friday September 8, 2006
In the morning we contacted local Pastor Michael, who speaks English very well. We visited his Church, and the Orphan Centre that partially was still in construction.
At evening time we assisted to the inauguration of the Festival. Something that called my attention happened 30 minutes before the start of the service. There was a drunken man in the entrance of the tent and people were politely avoiding him, a security guard invited him to go out. Then when we where ministering on the Prayer Line, all of a sudden this man show ups in front of me to receive prayer. I verified he was not drunk with the Holy Spirit but was drunk from alcohol. At that moment the person that was translating for me banished, so I was praying for him in English; the man started to cry and Rested in the Spirit, and I sensed the Lord telling me : “This is what is missing in my church, the drunkards, the prostitutes, the drug addicts, all the rejected of society.” My heart sunk, tears rolled down my chicks as I understood the message.
Now Erika Szilvasi came on my help to translate my prayers. At some point a man came to receive prayer from a pain in his lower back that has had for years, the Lord Heal him almost instantly. After some minutes he showed up with his wife who was from Kirgizstan, so I was praying in English, Erika my translator was speaking in Hungarian to the husband, and he was speaking to his wife in her dialect. The husband fell down under the power of the Holy Spirit again, and another translator came to help us. This lady was free of pain and some curses as well.
Saturday September 9, 2006
Meeting with some American Missionaries assisting to the festival. They have a Ministry in Debrecen, Hungary.
Around 11am we started our trip to Timisoara in Romania via Debrecen in Hungary.
Posted by Marco Lafebre at 6:59 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2006, Ministering in Mukachevo
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Around 11am we started our trip to Timisoara in Romania via Debrecen in Hungary.
Posted by Marco Lafebre at 6:59 PM 0 comments
Labels: 2006, Ministering in Mukachevo
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