Jews, Fleeing Friendly Antisemitic Russia for the Security of Nazi Ukraine

"[There are parallels to the story of Hanukkah, commemorating the rededication of the Temple in Jerusalem by the Maccabees after victory over the Seleucid Greeks over 2,000 years ago. When only enough oil was available to keep the temple candles lit for one day and night, the oil inexplicably burned for eight days and eight nights — a feat now celebrated as the Jewish Festival of Lights]."

"We are actually now living through the same situation [under blackouts in Ukraine from Russian bombardments]. This is a war between darkness and light."

Rabbi Mayer Stambler, a leader of Ukraine's Jewish community

People stand next to a giant menorah during a ceremony for the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, amid Russia’s attacks on Ukraine, at Independence Square in Kyiv, Ukraine, Dec. 18, 2022.

"Before the war, we laughed at this [Vladimir Putin's claims of the penetration of Nazism throughout Ukraine]. We thought it was a  joke. But now, it's a very painful joke. It hurts. It's impossible to say that Ukraine is full of Nazis. It's wrong."

"Not a sliver -- not from any of the neighbours and never from the government [has antisemitism been a concern for the Jewish community]."

"A Jew can live in Odessa in a warm and embracing community -- to have their first haircut, bar mitzvah and Jewish veil. To celebrate all the Jewish holidays in the community with holiday prayers and festival meals."

"To be buried properly in a Jewish cemetery."

Avraham Wolff, Chief Rabbi, Odessa and southern Ukraine

Moshe Reuven Azman, chief rabbi of Ukraine and Kyiv, walks inside a synagogue located in central Kyiv, Ukraine, on April 22, 2019. Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Image

Russia's propaganda machine has been working overtime since its February 'special military operation' invasion of Ukraine. Its claims that fascism is endemic to Ukrainian society, that neo-Nazis abound, that the government is comprised of a coterie of Nazis, and it is Moscow's role to release Ukraine from the fascist grip and come to the rescue of its Eastern Orthodox brethren, rescuing the nation from the malign effects of fascism represent an obscene fantasy.

Ukraine's 2014 Revolution of Dignity when the people rose up in fury against the Russia-approved President freeing themselves from the political shackles the Kremlin had imposed upon the country in favour of a democratically-elected Ukrainian-for-Ukraine President whose sole interest would be the advancement of a free and democratic Ukraine, one with aspirations to join the European Union and NATO, sent Moscow into full-scale verbal assaults, raging over Ukrainian Naziism.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy the latest presidential candidate, the most trusted, adamant that Ukraine will be free of Russian influence, received 73 percent of the Ukrainian vote, all of which were cast by electors fully aware of his Jewish identity. In 2019 Ukraine was the only other country in the world beside Israel with both a Jewish president and prime minister.

Ukraine was a historically thriving homeland for Jews for centuries. There were pogroms, there was a vibrant streak of antisemitism, and Ukrainians like most other Eastern European countries had its fascist supporters of Nazi Germany, whose consciences never stopped them from helping the Nazi SS to round up European Jews and slaughter them or consign them to the Nazi death camps for total elimination.

Present-day Ukraine's level of antisemitism appears to loom no larger than that viral mental malady elsewhere in the world, including North America and central Europe. Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Jews thrived in their homeland of Ukraine. Since 2014 when Ukraine liberated itself from Russian involvement in Ukraine's inner affairs, Russia has worked overtime to convince the world of Ukraine's fascist credentials.

Far-right parties have been unable to secure over five percent of the vote in Ukrainian parliamentary elections post the EuroMaidan Revolution. Far right support in Ukraine is substantially lower than in other countries of Europe, including France and Germany. A Pew Poll conducted in 2018 found only five percent of Ukrainians would choose to reject Jews as fellow citizens; the lowest rate in central and eastern Europe.

 

Ukraine's Jewish community marked the first night of Hanukkah, a holiday that has taken on additional significance amid ongoing resistance to Russia's invasion of the country

 

In December Jews in Ukraine observed the festival of Hanukkah through air-raid sirens and a dark atmosphere while an immense menorah was lit in Kyiv's central square, even through widespread power outages. The month before, over a hundred prominent Ukrainian Jews signed a public letter holding the Kremlin to account for the Russian military's destruction of Holocaust memorials, synagogues and Jewish cemeteries in Ukraine.

An estimated 20,000 Jews have chosen to flee Russia in the past year; representing 12 percent of the entire Jewish population left in Russia. Many of them have found haven in central Ukraine. Jewish refugees from Russia has resulted in Ukraine's western regions where attendance in Synagogues in cities like Lviv have been skyrocketing amidst community solidarity.