With Passover fast approaching, a new public campaign is asking Israelis to host Ukrainian refugees at their Seders. The campaign is a joint effort led by former Member of Knesset Rabbi Shai Piron and President of the Jewish People Policy Institute, Professor Yedidia Stern. 

At a meeting of the Knesset subcommittee on immigration, Aliyah and Integration Minister Pnina Tamano-Shata said of the plan, “We know the citizens of Israel are eager to help, and this is an opportunity for them to do it.”

In the weeks since Putin’s forces invaded Ukraine, Israel has accommodated more than 10,000 immigrants and asylum-seekers. They will not be the last. Jewish Agency Secretary-General Josh Schwarcz anticipates a further 30,000-50,000 immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus to arrive in Israel this year.

Since the invasion began, Israel’s government agencies and scores of international Jewish charities have mobilized public and private resources to serve the newcomers. An article in The Jerusalem Post outlines the services available to them and touches on the growing controversy surrounding their claim to citizenship.

The Coalition for Jewish Values has covered efforts by Jews and Israelis of all faiths and backgrounds to rescue those fleeing Russian forces. They include the young Israeli consul from a Bedouin village, who is now organizing the exodus of Israeli citizens and others from the war-torn region, and the Chabad aid workers who helped a Palestinian doctor and his family escape Ukraine. The refugees and the efforts to aid them are only the latest in Israel’s history. Again and again, it has welcomed immigrants from around the world, including non-Jewish refugees and asylum seekers.

Sadly, not everyone regards this record so kindly. In a March 22 interview on the Muslim Brotherhood-affiliated Arabic-language Channel 9 (Turkey), Palestinian Islamic scholar Mraweh Nassar blamed Ukraine’s plight on—you guessed it—the Jews. Nassar alleged that Israel is “bound to fail,” and that realizing this, Jews have “instigated” the war in order to “empty out Ukraine” and create a new Jewish state in its place. And as CJV has noted elsewhere, the Hamas-affiliated network Quds News has called Israel’s latest immigrants and asylum-seekers.

Palestinian Islamic Scholar Mraweh Nassar: The Jews Now Claim Biblical Jerusalem Is Located in Ukraine; They Instigated the War There in Order to Empty Out Ukraine and Move In #antisemitism #Ukraine #Russia #UkraineWar pic.twitter.com/4KmK0aA6HQ

— MEMRI (@MEMRIReports) March 29, 2022

To Israel’s haters, every Jewish refugee seeking safety and freedom in his or her indigenous homeland is nothing more than an obstacle to a Jew-free Palestine. While Israelis make room at the seder table for guests fleeing Putin’s war, their enemies are clear: there is no room for Jews in “from the river to the sea.”