JEWISH ODESSA AND CITY LANDMARKS

Interested in Odessa’s Jewish history but don’t want to miss the city’s landmarks? Keen on immersing into the history of Odessa? Would like to understand how it’s connected with the Jewish story of the place? Then this tour is for you!

It’s absurd to talk of Odessa without speaking of Jews. Their imprint on the local culture, their longtime economic prominence and their cultural visibility made Odessa into a place inseparable from Jewishness.

On this tour we will share with you the story of Odessa, how it started and grew to be so important and beautiful, how Jewish people are an integral part of its history. We will stroll through the beautiful historic quarter and uncover traces of Jewish history behind Odessa’s main landmarks. We will drive through Odessa’s neighborhoods once dominated by Jews to visit the Main Choral Synagogue and the Holocaust Memorial; stop by the houses of Shalom Aleichem and Zeev Jabotinsky.

We will see city landmarks along the Jewish sights – the famous Potemkin Steps, the city’s iconic sight – the Opera and Ballet Theater, Odessa’s beautiful palaces, famous Deribasovskaya street and City Garden and many more spectacular sights Odessa has to offer. We will dive into the history of Odessa to see how it influenced the course of Jewish History and how both are tied together.

And what Jewish tour would be complete without a nosh? A stop for snack or quick lunch at a local kosher restaurant can be included into the tour.

“We asked Olga to set up a private customized combination tour of Jewish Odessa and the Other Odessa for us because a basic tour of the city was included in our cruise. We told our guide, Joan, what we saw the day before, and she tailored our tour accordingly. If there was any duplication she added information from a Jewish perspective.”