http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/West_Ukrainian_People%27s_Republic

It was a high water mark in the troubled history of Ukrainians and Jews. Before the Holocaust, the uprising of Bohdan Khmelnytsky against Poland was considered the most traumatic event in Jewish history. Jews were land managers and tax collectors for the Polish monarch.

The short lived Western Ukrainian People’s Republic gave official status of Jews, and by all accounts, relations were very positive.

Until the recent revolution, I loved the idea of Galician separatism. I thought the rest of Ukraine was too Russian, too Soviet, too corrupt, too far from European standards, too unwilling to fight for European level property rights and rule of law, too tolerant of corruption. I was wrong. Ukraine woke up. There’s a beautiful saying: “I went to Maidan looking for Europe. I found Ukraine.” Amen.