In recent years, Western and Israeli media have extensively covered the rare incidents of vandalism of Jewish sites in Ukraine, yet too often ignored calls by the country’s Jewish leaders to take a deeper look at the positive evolution of the Ukrainian-Jewish relationship.
On Sunday, Zelensky will probably become Ukraine’s first president of Jewish origin, breaking boundaries in a country long associated with antisemitism.
In 2018, there was a drop in anti-Semitic vandalism from the previous year and an increase in the arrest and prosecution of those accused of perpetrating such crimes, according to the 2018 Report on Xenophobia in Ukraine published by the Congress of National Minorities of Ukraine.
In the European context, joining the community allows a member access to facilities as well as free or subsidized services for weddings, circumcision and b’nai mitzvah.
When three entrepreneurs decided to open a Jewish restaurant on Staroyevreyska street in Lviv, Ukraine about 10 years ago, they were denounced – at first.
However uplifting and exciting the Sobibor movie is, any claim that its purpose is to commemorate Jewish heroism should be balanced against Russia’s shameful record of Holocaust abuse, as well as its present geopolitical ambitions.
