I used to work at a synagogue in the Bay Area with a large emigre community. We had a full-time emigre coordinator whose job was to provide programming and educational support for the hundreds of families from the former Soviet Union. Over the 11 years I worked there, I learned many of their stories. When I’d sit with a family after the death of a loved one, I’d hear how grandpa had fled the Nazis and survived the war, only to suffer terribly under Stalin. They were some of the strongest, most resilient people I’d ever encountered.
What was often most painful for me to hear was the way that the Soviets had denied them the opportunity to celebrate their Judaism. Many of them were only just learning the beauty and meaning of Judaism for the first time. For decades, they had suffered terrible antisemitism and now, finally, they were free to live their lives as Jews fully.
Early on in my tenure there, a local organization sent me and a colleague to Kyiv to visit the community and share our experiences with family education. The stories I heard on my visit were so similar: extraordinary grit under some of the most challenging circumstances imaginable.
The Jewish community of Ukraine has been through so much. It is now facing one of its greatest challenges. Its president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, is Jewish. His family’s story is similar to so many that I have heard. His great-grandfather and great uncles were murdered in the Shoah. His grandfather fought against the Nazis in WWII.
We don’t know how this moment will end. We do know that we have a duty to stay informed, to provide support for a Jewish community in crisis, and—as Americans, especially—to support democracy and freedom under attack.
With grit and determination, we have demonstrated time and again that tyranny can be resisted. We must do so—now—once more.
Visit our Ukraine Response Page to learn about ways you can help.
Shabbat Shalom,
Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback
