Update (2/24/22): In the time since this story was filed on February 22, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin declared his intent to invade and “demilitarize” Ukraine. Cities in Ukraine, including those in this story, have been under fire from Russian forces since the early hours of February 24. This is a developing situation and we will continue to report on how the Jewish community in Ukraine is fairing during this difficult time.
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Jews Express Appreciation For Life in Democratic Ukraine
As Russia’s Next Moves Remain Unknown
When weapon fire echoed in the streets of Donetsk last Shabbos, hour after hour over the course of the day and then past havdalah into the night, it was a tense experience but not a novel one for most members of this city’s Jewish community. Located in Donbas, a breakaway region of eastern Ukraine, Donetsk had experienced flair-ups of fighting between pro-Russian separatists and Ukrainian forces since the conflict broke out in 2014 – though the past two or three years were relatively quiet, according to local Chabad shliach Rabbi Aryeh Schwartz.
Donetsk is home to 5,000 Jews according to Schwartz, although rabbis in other parts of Ukraine placed it closer to 3,000. The community receives support from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, an Israel-based organization; and the Federation of Jewish Communities of the Commonwealth of Independent States, which is headquartered in Moscow and has affiliated communities across the former Soviet Union.
“If we decide to evacuate or if individuals want to evacuate, then with [these organizations] we’ll do everything to evacuate people to Russia or to Ukraine – and in any place they’ll go they’ll receive, b’ezrat Hashem, support,” Schwartz said in a phone interview on Sunday. “At present, people are not thinking about leaving, so in the meantime everyone is here and waiting to see what will happen.”
Pressed further, he conceded that it is a perennial topic of conversation: “Everyone thinks, once in a while, ‘yes,’ ‘no,’ – there’s always concern,” he said. “Meanwhile, there isn’t anyone who in recent days is thinking about making aliyah or leaving to anywhere else.”
“We very much hope that there will not be an incursion in any location. We hope this will be resolved with diplomacy and there will be no invasion anywhere.”
But on Monday, Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin signed a decree recognizing two sub-regions of Donbas – Donetsk (where the eponymous city is located) and Luhansk – as independent countries. As of Tuesday, Russian troops entered the territory in what the Kremlin characterized as a “peacekeeping capacity,” but without the permission of Ukraine, which is against international law.
There are an estimated 360,000 Jews in all of Ukraine. The cities of Kyiv, Odessa, Kharkiv and Dnipro are not only the largest Jewish population centers in the country, but all of them lie in a likely path of a Russian invasion or artillery strike. In interviews over the past two weeks, leaders and laypeople in these communities continued to express the same hope that Putin is posturing for leverage against the U.S. and NATO and will not attack the rest of Ukraine. At the same time, preparations for weathering artillery bombardment or a ground invasion no longer seem like just an abundance of caution.
‘I Don’t Know How This Is Going To Play Out.’
The Ukrainian capital of Kyiv is home to approximately 60,000 Jews. Efforts were still underway to finish winterizing the community’s summer campgrounds about 100 kilometers west of the city even as evacuees were on their way there last week, said Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich. Since 2010 Bleich has divided his time between New York, where his family lives, and Kyiv, but he still operates with the official titles of Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Chief Rabbi of Ukraine he received in 1990 when Ukraine was still part of the Soviet Union. According to multiple sources, he is still deeply involved in Jewish affairs in Ukraine. (Some rabbis interviewed for this story questioned the significance of Bleich’s title, and multiple rabbis claimed to be chief rabbis of their respective cities.)
There is a sense in Ukraine right now that the country is being roped into a conflict between NATO, the United States and Russia rather than a conflict between Russia and Ukraine, Bleich said. “There’s a certain amount of lack of understanding here of the crux of really what’s happening and why do we have to be involved in any way.”
Bleich is in communication with rabbis across Jewish Ukraine, like Rabbi Refael Kruskal in Odessa. As in Kyiv, leaders in Odessa are busy procuring generators, food, and other supplies. They are also preparing safe spaces for their most vulnerable populations, including Jewish assisted-living facilities and children’s homes.
“People are nervous, people are worried, apprehensive,” said Kruskal, CEO of Tikvah. Started in the 90s, Tikvah is an aid organization that cares for abandoned and at-risk Jewish children, offers support services for low-income Jewish families, and works to revitalize Jewish life in this historic Jewish city through an array of initiatives. In a city of approximately 45,000 Jews, over 300 children (some as young as newborns) are living in Tikvah children’s homes. There are also 700 children enrolled in Tikvah schools.
“I don’t know how this is going to play out. I don’t know if we’re part of a playbook for the next part. We’re worried about anarchy and worried about war,” he said.
Evacuation is reserved for a worst case scenario, but if it becomes necessary, the Israeli security firm hired by the Odessa Jewish community for their protection during this turbulent time will be responsible for helping to hustle people to safety, Kruskal said.
“A large group of people were involved in making everything fall into place,” he said. “Part of the plans we have to keep secret – places of evacuation, etc. etc., which would lose effect if it became known – but we shared it with community leaders to make sure we’re on the same page.”
From bottled water and baby food to satellite phones and batteries, his extensive stockpile list reflects concerns about supply shortages as well.
In addition to coordinating with leaders in other communities, Kruskal spoke with a Chabad rabbi in Odessa this morning to ensure the latter’s home for the elderly and other institutions are prepared. “We are all coordinating in a manner much closer-knit and more often than during regular periods of time,” Kruskal said.
The leadership in Kharkiv is taking a different approach, at least publicly.
In an interview Sunday morning, Chabad shliach Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz said he is in touch with authorities at the regional level and they “sound very calm and say there is no reason to panic.” While in 2014 there were soldiers in the streets and military vehicles all over Kharkiv, right now there is no military presence within or at the entrances to the city, he added.
“If the authorities are saying everything is fine and under control, we are not going to be the ones to panic and get everybody nervous,” he said. Stockpiling food and water for the amount of people in Kharkiv’s Jewish community isn’t feasible and there is nothing concrete to do to prepare the community for an invasion, according to both Moskovitz and his wife Miriam. “The only thing we told the people is that if anything should happen, chas v’shalom, they should come to the synagogue,” said the rabbi. “The shul is very, very big, and from there we’re going to try to see what the local authorities tell us and what the State of Israel is going to say.”
“I’ll be honest, when you’re talking about 30,000 Jews, a few bags of flour is not going to help us too much,” said Miriam. “I think we’re banking more on a miracle.”
In the meantime, the Moskovitzes are focusing on lifting the spirits of their community members. “We are trying to uplift the mood, that people should have hope, they should have emunah,” said the rabbi. “Right now, everything is really continuing the same. The schools are open, the yeshiva is open, the shul is open, so there is no major help that we need right now. If something does happen, chas v’shalom, then there is going to be major chaos and need of help.”
Complaints of Pressure and Condescension
On Feb. 13, the Foreign Ministry of Israel called for its citizens to evacuate Ukraine in response to the escalating situation with Russia.
“That brought down a lot of pressure on the Jewish communities themselves,” said Bleich. Two weeks of the foreign press’s 24/7 coverage of the supposedly imminent threat of invasion put pressure on residents and community leaders to react, Bleich and other leaders said, even when the news didn’t align with what people were experiencing on the ground or the messaging from local authorities.
Rabbi Moskovitz also critiqued what amounted to sifting out Jews from among Jews. “We shouldn’t miss the point that there is a gigantic Jewish local community in Ukraine,” he said. “We should all look at it as one big community, not divide between Israelis and non-Israelis.”
“Teachers said, ‘Listen, we don’t want to leave our children, our students, we don’t think it’s the right message for us to pick up and leave,” said Bleich. “‘It’s going to give them the wrong message, that we’re not a part of the community, right?’ Sure. So they were forced to leave. They were threatened. They were really threatened in a very not nice, in a very, very nasty and belligerent way – that anyone that stays is going to lose all of their benefits and never be able to work again.”
“Some of the community said we don’t want Israelis to come back after this. If this is the way you people act towards us in times of danger, don’t send us back shluchim.”
Tikvah’s Israeli teachers left with their compatriots at the behest of the Israeli government but then appealed for permission to return to Odessa. “We work with kids who already have abandonment issues,” Kruskal said the teachers argued, “and we are like their parents.” The teachers were eventually allowed to return, on the condition from Israel’s Ministry of Education that their time is being treated as leave without pay.
As for encouraging Ukrainian Jews to make aliyah or temporarily relocate to Israel, “I’ve been very vocal about this also on different calls, which I’ve had with both government officials and with Jewish organizations,” said Kruskal.
There is great appeal for many people to remain in a familiar place, even in a time of war, he said, and some people want to stay in Ukraine because their family members are there. Finally, “Israel hasn’t always been as welcoming as it could be to Russian immigrants. I think it’s so condescending for us to tell them what’s best.”
“In Odessa, we have everything,” said Igor Shatkhin, development director for Mishpacha Odessa. “We don’t need to go to Israel. We can stay here. We have our Jewish community, we have all of the conditions for any kind of Jewish people – religious, traditional, you know, we have everything here. We want to go to Israel just for a visit, to visit our relatives.”
“Israel has to make up its mind. You can’t sit with one tuchus on two chairs,” said Bleich. “If they want to have a relationship with the Diaspora and say that we’re here for you, you’re here for us, then they have to really put their money where their mouth is.”
“When the threats [of invasion] came out, what was the first meeting the Israeli government had? How can we prepare for aliyah of the Jews from Ukraine. How about what can we do to help the Jews of Ukraine?”
Patriotism Has Increased Among Ukrainian Jews Since 2014 Conflict
Inna Ioffe works closely with Rabbi Bleich as executive director of the Kyiv-based Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, an umbrella organization focused on the promotion of Jewish culture and education, preservation of Jewish traditions and history, protecting Jews from antisemitism, and support for Israel.
When asked how long she’s lived in Kyiv, Ioffe laughed. “All my grand-, grand-, grand, grandparents, and my parents, and me, were born in Kyiv,” she said. Her adult children made aliyah, but she wouldn’t consider leaving Kyiv until retirement because of the responsibility she feels to the community.
“People enjoy life in Ukraine, they appreciate the freedom,” said Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetsky, rabbi of the city of Dnipro. “Freedom of everything: freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of other groups in the community.” Rabbi of the city of Dnipro, Kaminetsky is also head of the board of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine. (It is another national Jewish umbrella organization, but affiliated specifically with Chabad.)
Ukraine is “a beautiful democracy,” he said, “and people are afraid that with Russia it is the opposite. This is what worries many of the people. They want to continue living the way they live.”
It is true that Ukrainian Jews are not exempt from the experience of antisemitism. During the separatist-nationalist conflict in 2014 and 2015, for instance, the Jewish community’s support for Ukrainian nationalism made it a target for pro-Russian separatists. In addition to physical assaults on Jews, there were arson attacks on synagogues and Holocaust memorials were vandalized.
In September 2021, the Ukrainian government established an official definition of antisemitism, but it was only this month, “when there is danger of war,” that the government passed a law criminalizing antisemitism, said Ioffe.
Still, Ioffe and others interviewed for this story emphasized that people don’t experience state sanctioned antisemitism but rather casual acts of antisemitism in day to day life, and most said they never experience antisemitism personally.
“Ukraine is the perfect place to live because now we really have freedom, speech freedom,” Igor Shatkhin said. “You can say whatever you want, you can make comments on social media and you wouldn’t go to prison for this like in other countries, our neighbors.”
According to Kruskal, it is critical to understand that it is in the best interest for Ukraine and Russia to ensure that the Jewish community feels safe during the current conflict. “If the Jews are suffering in Russia, people will say ‘Antisemitism!’ If the Jews are suffering in Ukraine, people will say ‘Antisemitism!’ It’s not a good look,” he said.
Everyone interviewed confirmed that patriotism increased among the Jewish Ukrainians along with their non-Jewish counterparts since the events of 2014. “We’re not different than the general population,” said Kruskal. “In 2014, there would have been different places in Ukraine where it would be much easier [for separatists] to take without any resistance. I think now people are much more patriotic, much more. There’s no question about it.”
Alexander Flyax contributed to this article.
