Rambam protests as Jews face new Ukrainian terrors

Students from Rambam Mesivta rallied outside the Ukrainian Mission to the United Nations on Sunday, the eve of Yom Hashoah, to protest overt anti-Semitic attacks directed against that country’s Jewish community.

Over the past few months, Ukrainian synagogues have been firebombed, Jews attacked in the streets, and tombstones desecrated. During Passover, Molotov cocktails were hurled at the main synagogue in Nikolayev and a rabbi, en route to visit the sick, was stabbed.

They were calling attention to the recent overt, anti-Semitic attacks that have been directed against the Ukrainian Jewish community. 

Rambam Rosh Mesivta Rabbi Zev Meir Friedman spoke about the responsibility all Jews and freedom-loving Americans have to learn from the past and do whatever is in their power to prevent anti-Semitism and other forms of injustice.

His speech was punctuated with chants by the students of “We will not forget!”

Ukrainian participation in the Holocaust is another indictment of the attitude of the populace towards their Jewish citizenry. Babi Yar, a ravine just outside Kiev, was the site of one of the largest massacres during the Holocaust —100,000 innocent men women and children were shot and thrown into the ravine.

Chants of “Remember Babi Yar!” and “Never Again!” were directed at the offices of the Ukrainian government across the street.

Rabbi Friedman pointed out that Ukraine’s tradition of anti-Semitism far predates the Holocaust.

He drew attention to the massacres of 1648-1649 that were perpetrated by Bogdan Chmelnitski, in which tens of thousands of Jews were slaughtered. Students chanted, “Your land is drenched in blood!”

Chmelnitski, is a Ukrainian national hero; his monument is prominently placed in the center of the Ukrainian capital of Kiev.

Turning to the current situation, Rabbi Friedman spoke about the synagogues which were defaced and set on fire, the Jews who were beaten, and the cemeteries that were defiled in an ongoing bid to intimidate the Jewish community.