At the conclusion of the Yalta European Strategy meeting in Kyiv, Yaakov Dov Bleich, the chief rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine, told the Apostrophe portal that the Jews of Ukraine are proud of what their country has achieved since the Maidan and fully support its resistance to Russian aggression.
The rabbi said that “a very great deal” of what people in the Maidan sought has been achieved,” including not only freedom of movement but “freedom to express one’s opinion, freedom of business and the market” (apostrophe.ua/article/society/ 2016-09-22/ukrainskie-evrei-est-blagodarya-putinu—yakov-dov-blayh/7372).
Since the Maidan, he continued, “Ukraine has changed: it is not what it was before. Now, it must step by step move further.” Yes, corruption remains a problem, but it is less than it was. Moreover, “in Parliament, there are political parties, there is freedom of the press and speech, and people can develop businesses,” said Rabbi Bleich.
“Ukraine has become finally Ukraine. Ukrainians as a nation have become proud that they live here and, of course, Jews are also proud,” he said. “Thanks to Putin, there are now Ukrainian Jews” and “today all Jews in Ukraine are proud that they live here.”
Before the Russian invasion, there were “about 20,000 Jews in the Donbas,” but many of them have gone to Israel or to other parts of Ukraine. That is not the case with Jews living in other parts of Ukraine at least now, he added.
The “main problem” of Ukraine now is not corruption; it is “the aggression and war which has had a negative impact on the economic possibilities of Ukraine… In general, Ukraine is suffering from war and from the complicated economic situation which is the result of the war and aggression,” Rabbi Bleich said.
As far as defeating Russia is concerned, the rabbi said that the problem isn’t Russia – it is Vladimir Putin. And “no one is eternal.” With his departure, many things could change. Those who think that people in the Donbas are pro-Russian are wrong: “believe me, they all want to live better in Ukraine than they can in Russia.”
Ukraine has freedom already; Russia will continue for some time without it, the rabbi commented. At the same time, he continued, he retains his connections with the chief rabbi of Moscow because “this war which was unleashed by Russia against Ukraine” is “not a Jewish war” and “does not concern the Jewish community” as such.
The rabbi said that, as a community, Ukraine’s Jews seek to “be outside of politics.” But many Ukrainian Jews are fighting against Russian aggression because “they are citizens of Ukraine. Why should it be otherwise?”
Paul Goble is a long-time specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia who has served in various capacities in the U.S. State Department, the Central Intelligence Agency and the International Broadcasting Bureau, as well as at the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace. The article above is reprinted with permission from his blog called “Window on Eurasia” (http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.com/).