In Ukraine, which Russian propaganda has been trying to portray for many years as a country in need of ‘denazification’, there is wine with a name in Hebrew — Yafe Nagar / יפה נהר. This is not marketing exotica or a random play with a Jewish theme. The wine from the Ukrainian winery Beykush is dedicated to the Jewish winemakers of the Black Sea region and the memory of the colony Efingar — a Jewish agricultural settlement in southern Ukraine, whose history began in the early 19th century and tragically ended during the Holocaust.
The official page of the Ukrainian producer Beykush (73/2, Chornomorka, Mykolaiv region, Ukraine) describes Yafe Nagar as a white dry wine from a historical series, a blend of Chardonnay and Riesling, dedicated to the Jewish winemakers of the Black Sea region.
The purpose of this article is not to retell the entire history of the Jewish colony Efingar: there are already many materials, archival references, and research publications about it on the internet. What is more important here is to show modern Ukraine, where the memory of the Jewish past does not necessarily remain only in museums, tragic dates, and scientific texts. It can return through culture, local initiatives, an honest attitude to history, and respect for traditions. The wine Yafe Nagar from Beykush in this sense becomes not just a drink, but a sign of respect: a Ukrainian winery in the south of the country takes a Hebrew name, connects it with the real Jewish history of the region, and thereby reminds that the Jewish heritage of Ukraine is not a foreign topic, but part of the common memory of this land.
Efingar: ‘beautiful river’ on the map of Jewish Ukraine
The name Efingar is associated with the Hebrew expression יפה נהר — ‘beautiful river’. In the Slavic tradition, there are variants Efingar, Efingar, Efengar. The electronic Jewish encyclopedia indicates that it was a Jewish agricultural colony on the Inhul River, in the former Kherson province, on the territory of the current Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.
There is a slight discrepancy with the founding date. Beykush on the wine page indicates 1807, while the electronic Jewish encyclopedia states 1809. Therefore, it is more correct to say: the colony was founded in the early 19th century, and different sources mention 1807 and 1809.
In 1835, the colony had 755 inhabitants. In 1845, Efingar had 99 households (60 stone and 39 earthen houses), 2 Jewish prayer houses, a shop, and a bathhouse, with 111 families, and 15 non-settled families.
This is an important clarification because the history itself does not change from this. In southern Ukraine, there really was a Jewish agricultural settlement associated with agriculture, viticulture, crafts, trade, and the life of the Jewish community outside the usual image of a shtetl.
Not only memory but also labor
The history of Efingar is the history of people who tried to build a new life on the land. The first decades were difficult: lack of experience, crop failures, poverty, struggle for survival.
In one of the detailed historical materials about the colony, an episode with the crop failure of 1811 is mentioned: settlers lived in huts without roofs because the straw had to be removed to feed the cattle, and they themselves ate boiled sorrel. Later, the colony strengthened: sources mention shops, workshops, mills, oil mills, cheese factories, a wine factory, and a soda water factory.
A particularly important detail from Joseph Perl’s book, where the colonists’ products were described as high quality: their butter and cheese were bought even by Christians, despite the high price. This breaks several stereotypes at once — about Jews in Eastern Europe, about southern Ukraine, and about how closely Jewish, Ukrainian, and Black Sea history were intertwined.
For the Israeli audience, there is a separate depth in this story. This is not an abstract ‘Jewish trace’ somewhere far away in Eastern Europe. This is the story of people who spoke Jewish languages, used a Hebrew name, worked on the land, built an economy, and left behind a memory that was later attempted to be destroyed twice.
September 10, 1941: the day Efingar ceased to be a Jewish settlement
The most terrible date in the history of Efingar is September 10, 1941.
After the arrival of the German occupiers, the entire Jewish population of the colony, remaining under Nazi rule, was destroyed. The electronic Jewish encyclopedia indicates the number 521 people. More detailed materials about Efingar provide clarification: among the killed were 377 children.
According to these data, the Jews were herded into a school, then led to a sand quarry a few kilometers from the village and shot there. This was not just another tragedy of the Holocaust in the occupied territory. It was the end of an entire community.
The colony, which existed for more than a century, disappeared in one day.
After the war, Efingar was renamed Plyushchevka. The electronic Jewish encyclopedia writes that the inscription on the monument did not indicate that those shot were Jews, and the old Jewish cemetery was destroyed.
This is what makes the story even more painful.
First, people were killed as Jews.
Then their memory was depersonalized.
In the Soviet formula, they became ‘peaceful residents’, ‘victims of fascism’, ‘local residents’ — without the name of the people, without Jewish history, without language, without that very יפה נהר, from which it all began.
Why this is important today
For NANews — Israel News this story is important not only as a historical episode. It shows how deep Jewish life existed on Ukrainian soil, which cannot be reduced to either tragedy or propaganda clichés.
Ukraine is not only Babyn Yar, not only Odesa, not only Lviv, not only Uman. It is also small Jewish colonies, the names of which have almost disappeared from memory. These are people who grew grapes, made butter and cheese, ran workshops, built houses, raised children, spoke their languages, and lived next to Ukrainian villages.
That is why the story of Yafe Nagar sounds so strong.
Because here memory returns not through an official memorial report and not through a dry archival reference. It returns through a wine label, through a Hebrew name, through a Ukrainian product that says: this story was, these people were, their name cannot be erased.
Beykush and Yafe Nagar: when wine becomes a bearer of memory
The Beykush winery is located in the Mykolaiv region, in the Black Sea region. On the page Yafe Nagar https://beykush.com/en/product/yafe-nagar/ it directly states: this is wine from a historical series, its name translates from Hebrew as ‘beautiful river’, and the wine itself is dedicated to the Jewish winemakers of the Black Sea region.
Wines from Ukraine also describes Beykush Yafe Nagar as tribute wine — a wine dedicated to the Jewish winemakers of the Black Sea region. It is noted that this is a white dry wine from Chardonnay and Riesling, associated with the Mykolaiv region.
There is another important detail: on the Beykush website, in a separate material, it is said that Jewish colonists were associated with winemaking, and the white Jafe Nagar preserves the memory of the contribution of Jewish farmers to the development of the region.
This is not just a beautiful gesture. This is an example of how Ukrainian business, regional culture, and Jewish memory can work together.
Wine becomes not a souvenir, but a form of conversation.
Opening a bottle of Yafe Nagar, a person can tell friends not only about grape varieties, aging, or the region. He can tell about Efingar. About the Inhul River. About Jewish farmers. About September 10, 1941. About the children who were killed. About the monument on which they were not allowed to write that they were Jews.
And this is already a completely different level of memory.
The answer to Russian lies is not a slogan, but a fact
There is also a modern political nerve in this story.
While Moscow continues to sell the world the myth of ‘denazification’ of Ukraine, a Ukrainian winery releases wine with a Hebrew name in memory of a Jewish colony destroyed by the Nazis. This does not cancel the complex pages of Ukrainian history. But it shows what Russian propaganda deliberately does not want to see: in Ukraine, there is a living space of memory where Jewish history is not foreign.
For Israel, this is especially important.
The memory of the Holocaust cannot be turned into a tool of Kremlin manipulation. It is not allowed for those who today destroy Ukrainian cities to hide behind words about fighting Nazism. And it is not allowed to forget that real memory is not a slogan, but specific names, places, and dates.
Efingar.
יפה נהר.
September 10, 1941.
521 killed.
377 children.
NANews — Israel News reminds: such stories matter precisely because they return a name to people. Not ‘local residents’, not faceless statistics, not abstract ‘war victims’, but the Jews of Efingar — a community that was destroyed, but whose memory can still be returned.
Why such stories cannot be lost a second time
There are stories that do not disappear immediately.
First, people disappear. Then the name disappears. Then the cemetery disappears. Then in the official inscription, the word ‘Jews’ disappears. Then the new generation no longer knows that there was a Jewish town, colony, community, school, workshops, wine factory, families, children on this site.
And then suddenly a bottle of wine with a Hebrew name appears.
And memory returns.
Not completely. Not instead of an archive, not instead of a memorial, not instead of historical research. But it returns so that it can be spoken aloud again.
Yafe Nagar is not only wine from the Mykolaiv region. It is a small sign that the Jewish history of Ukraine did not end in mass graves and did not dissolve in Soviet formulations.
It can return through language.
Through a name.
Through a label.
Through a story at the table.
And if this story is passed on further, then Efingar has not disappeared a second time.
The reason for writing this publication was a note on Facebook, unfortunately, it was lost, but thanks to the author.