Like the rest of the world, CJV is deeply concerned about Russia’s war against Ukraine, and the safety and wellbeing of all Ukrainian citizens. Ukraine has one of Europe’s largest Jewish populations — as many as 400,000 — and war is often a time of heightened antisemitism. This is why the Ukrainian Jewish community finds itself at special risk, despite Russian President Putin’s good relationship with Jewish leaders in Moscow.
In Kiev, Kherson, and beyond, Ukraine’s embattled Jewish communities have taken shelter underground, many with small children, sometimes in the basements of their synagogues. “We cannot leave or enter the city; we’re staying below ground,” said Rabbi Yosef Y. Wolff. “Now it is quiet, but there were many long hours of constant gunfire outside.”
On Monday, Russian forces firing on a convoy of civilians killed Israeli citizen and father of two, Roman Brodsky. Trapped in the Chabad center’s basement, the director of Belaya Tserkov’s Chabad-Lubavitch reported that fighting prevented them from giving Brodsky a proper Jewish burial.
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Many Jews remain in Ukraine. Evacuation is not an option for all, notes Schmulik Greenberg, Chabad Rabbi of Wichita, KS. “Many of them are elderly, many Holocaust survivors, children in orphanages, and they don’t have papers to be able to get out of Ukraine.” The onslaught has forced Chabad-Lubavitch of Zhitomir to evacuate more than 100 children who call their orphanage and school home. Among them are orphans who lack the documents required to enter neighboring countries.
Finally, there are others who have chosen to stay and fight for their country. “I’m not running,” says Asher Joseph Cherkaskyi. He and his 20-year-old son, David, are among the dozens of orthodox Jews enlisting and re-enlisting in Ukraine’s armed forces. Cherkaskyi scoffs at Putin’s talk of “de-nazifiying” a “fascist” Ukraine. “If this government were neo-Nazi, that one of the biggest Jewish populations in Europe would live here in Ukraine. Like really — I am supposed to be a Nazi Jew?”
Over the past five years, CJV has forged strong bonds with human rights organizations and diverse faith leaders here in America. Now, CJV is bridging the gap and bringing Ukrainian rabbinic leaders into conversation with these groups. Together, we are helping to inform millions of Americans about the crisis and working to raise urgently needed funds for life-saving measures.