Surname unknown Nikanor

Nikanor Father Nikanor was the head of the Studite monastery on Pyotr Skanga Street in Lwów (today L’viv). He was a well-known figure among the Ukrainian intelligentsia in the city and its environs, and in 1942-43, he took an active part in collecting Jewish children and dividing them among the monasteries and refuge houses of the Studites in western Ukraine. From June 1943, Nikanor hid Rabbi David Kahane, a friend of the metropolitan and founder of the Studite order, Andrey Sheptytskiy, in the monastery. A hiding place, concealed by an outer wall, was constructed for Rabbi Kahane in the attic of the monastery. At first, Nikanor and two other monks were the only ones who knew that Kahane was hiding in the monastery, but later the other monks were also let in on the secret. In September 1943, the Germans conducted more frequent searches in the monastery and Father Nikanor feared that one of the monks had informed the authorities that a Jew was hiding there. Consequently, Rabbi Kahane was temporarily moved to Andrey Sheptytskiy’s palace, and at the end of October he was returned to the monastery, equipped with papers in a Ukrainian name. A small, but comfortable place was prepared for him in a concealed corner of the monastery’s library, and a hiding place was prepared behind the bookshelves. An alarm system was installed in the form of an electric bell. Whenever someone approached the library, the bell rang five times, and then Kahane would go into the hideaway. Later, Kurt and Nathan Lewin, sons of Rabbi Ezekiel Lewin, a prominent Lwów rabbi and scion of a rabbinic family, joined the rabbi. The three Jews stayed at the monastery under Father Nikanor’s protection until the liberation on July 27, 1944. While he was in hiding, Rabbi Kahane kept a diary, which he published after his immigration to Israel, under the title Lvov Ghetto Diary. On May 2, 1985, Yad Vashem recognized Nikanor as Righteous Among the Nations.