Jews don't have to be afraid in Ukraine

Jews don't have to be afraid in Ukraine

The Israeli ambassador in Kiev describes Ukraine as the "most pro-Israeli country in Europe". Even before the war, there were virtually no anti-Semitic crimes here. Ukrainians have become more civilized, says Rita.

Alyona Pozhidayeva prays over two Sabbath candles in her kitchen. It's Friday evening and she has invited her friend Rita and me, a German living in Ukraine, to the Sabbath. We want to talk about anti-Semitism, i.e. about something that doesn't actually exist in Ukraine.

The war has brought us closer together. A year ago, Alyona told me that she would never have imagined drinking to victory with a German, especially a victory against the Russians. A real turning point, a historic moment.

After the start of the Russian invasion, Alyona became involved in refugee aid with the Jewish organization Chesed. She actually wanted to serve in the military, but it was made clear to her in the queue at the draft board that she was not suitable for this. In her free time, she plays in the Jewish theater in Poltava, called "Jewish Happiness". Before the invasion, the ensemble had eleven members; today it still has six.

Even in public, Alyona wears a Star of David on her necklace over her sweater. Nobody ever bothered her about it. At school, which was still a Soviet school at the time, she studied together with Muslim children and there were no problems between them. When she meets Muslim acquaintances, Chechens or Azerbaijanis in the city, they talk to each other normally or even swear in a friendly, ironic way without anyone feeling offended.

The fact that a Jew is president is not perceived as special

The Israeli ambassador in Kiev, Mikhail Brodsky, recently described Ukraine as the "most pro-Israeli country in Europe". He pointed out that "Ukraine is one of the few countries in Europe where there are no large demonstrations in support of the Palestinians or Hamas". This is not only because the Ukrainians currently have other problems: The World Jewish Congress has long counted Ukraine among the countries where there is no anti-Semitic violence. Jews and Muslims fight together in the army. Jews help Ukrainian nationalists, including the Azov regiment, which is often described as right-wing extremist and in which Ukrainians, Russians, Jews and Chechens fight against the common enemy. "We have bigger problems than anti-Semitism," says Alyona and laughs sarcastically, because that alone is not the problem.

Around 270,000 Jews live in Ukraine, three times as many as in Germany, with a population only half the size. In Germany, dozens of anti-Israeli crimes are counted on some days, such as the burning of the Israeli flag, anti-Semitic graffiti on house walls and stores or violations of the assembly law. How happy Jews in Germany would be if they could say at the end of the year that there had not been a single case of anti-Semitic violence, as the United Jewish Community of Ukraine stated in 2018.

A few years ago, a survey of 18 European countries found that anti-Semitic attitudes were lowest in Ukraine (five percent of the population). Even now, during the war, tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews made an unmolested pilgrimage to the Ukrainian city of Uman to celebrate Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. The fact that a Jew is president is not perceived as special by Ukrainians. Even the president's harshest critics have never used anti-Semitic references, which would not have been appreciated by the population.

Two days at home, you never know

In her youth, Alyona was a successful track and field athlete, footballer and field hockey player. With her home club Junost Poltava, she came fifth in the 1989 Soviet women's soccer championship and played for the Ukrainian field field hockey team. To describe her as an emancipated woman would be an understatement. She was married several times; if the men were not good for her, she separated from them. She also liked to play strong women in the theater, a revolutionary for example.

But Alyona also stayed at home for two days as a precaution after an aggressive mob stormed an airport in Dagestan, Russia, on October 30 to search for Jewish passengers. Alyona wasn't worried that something similar could happen in Poltava, but you never know, there are crazy people everywhere. Many young people from Muslim countries such as Morocco and Iraq are still studying in Poltava. Dentistry and electrical engineering are particularly popular. "How can I know what's on their minds?" says Alyona.

Her friend Rita Blam lived in Israel for 14 years and returned to Ukraine for family reasons. She calls both countries her home. In Tel Aviv, she helped a forcibly married Arab woman to commit adultery by confirming her alibis. As she used to do in Israel, she also serves Arab customers in her store. Recently, she was on the phone with a friend in Israel when a Muslim couple came into her store. The customers were surprised to hear Yiddish, but said nothing. Rita suspects that all Muslims in Ukraine have been warned to cause trouble here and threaten Jews.

Pampers for the thugs

Rita also loves acting, she is a director at the Jewish Theater. During the Euro-revolution on the Maidan in Kiev, she worked as a volunteer for ten weeks. She mostly made sandwiches for demonstrators and the homeless. She slept on the floor in the foyer of the "Ukraine" hotel until a member of parliament from Poltava made his hotel apartment available to her and her colleagues. She had traveled to Kiev together with nationalists from the radical right-wing Svoboda party because there was still a free seat on their bus. The Ukrainian nation was born on the Maidan, she says. There were no anti-Semitic incidents there either. Nevertheless, Putin repeatedly announced that pogroms had taken place on the Maidan and that the "main perpetrators of the uprising" in Kiev were "nationalists, neo-Nazis, Russophobes and anti-Semites". In Germany, Gregor Gysi, then parliamentary group leader of the Left Party, repeated these claims. In a speech to the Bundestag on March 13, 2014, he said that "fascists" were in power in Ukraine after the euro revolution and that there were "attacks on Jews". But these were just Russian propaganda narratives.

Rita happily explains that she and her fellow campaigners not only helped the demonstrators on the Maidan, but also the thugs of the notorious Berkut police, who were later disbanded. One of the women from the kitchen had discovered a relative among them. The tough men had to stand there for twelve hours in the snow, freezing and wearing diapers. "Pampers", as Rita laughingly recounts, because there was no time to go to the toilet. The women brought them warm clothes and asked them: "But don't shoot us."

Rita always carries the Ukrainian flag she demonstrated with on the Maidan in her handbag. It's her mascot. Even when the Russians threatened to advance on Poltava, she always left the house with the flag. Her daughter warned her that she could be shot for it. "So what, they can shoot me," she said, "but I won't betray Ukraine!"

She explains why there is virtually no anti-Semitism in Ukraine by saying that the mentality, psyche and soul of Ukrainians have changed significantly with the country's independence. Ukrainians have become more civilized. Unlike in the Soviet Union in the past, "nationality", i.e. identification as "Russian", "Ukrainian" or "Jew", is not noted in Ukrainian personal documents. Discrimination and resentment are thus avoided from the outset.

"Ukrainians are like bees"

These are truly crazy times. There is peace in Western countries, and yet Jewish people have to fear for their lives. In Ukraine, there is war, and people respect and honor each other, regardless of faith or origin. In the West, even the police cannot always prevent anti-Israeli riots and hate chants. From a Ukrainian perspective, that just seems barbaric.

"We are all Ukrainians" is a catchphrase used to bridge cultural and linguistic differences. Everyone is affected by the war and threatened by the reign of terror of evil. Ukrainians are like bees, says Alyona. "Bees are hard-working, kind, good-hearted. But if you annoy or threaten them, they become wild and dangerous to attackers."

Today, it seems more embarrassing than ever that the Ukrainian population has often been described as a divided nation by sofa experts from abroad. The proportion of Ukrainians who wanted state unity with Russia was always extremely low, even in Crimea and the Donbas. In the last free elections in Crimea in 2012, the leader of the pro-Russian party, Sergei Aksyonov, who was later appointed governor by Russia, received only nine percent of the vote and his party only four. Nowhere in Ukraine were the occupiers greeted with flowers.

Rita's main wish for the future is for Ukraine to become a member of NATO and the EU. But NATO is more important. In economic terms, she sees the biggest problem in the fact that many people have left the country and by no means all of them will return. The government should already be thinking about how to encourage as many of them as possible to return. Israel is also a role model for this, he said, because there you can see how important the promotion of culture and art is for the prosperity of society, the subsidization of theater, music and cinema. If this happens, Ukraine will have a great future - even if it is currently difficult to imagine.

Christoph Brumme has lived in the Ukrainian city of Poltava since 2016. He has cycled almost 30,000 kilometers through Ukraine and is the author of the books "111 Reasons to Love Ukraine" and "In the Shadow of War".

1. Despite the ongoing conflict between Ukraine and Russia, President Volodymyr Selenskyy, who is Jewish, has not faced any significant anti-Semitic backlash from the Ukrainian population.
2. During the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Israeli ambassador praised Ukraine for being a pro-Israeli country and pointed out that Ukraine is one of the few European countries without large-scale demonstrations in support of Palestine or Hamas.
3. In a survey of 18 European countries, Ukraine was found to have the lowest levels of anti-Semitic attitudes (5% of the population), and even during the war, tens of thousands of Hasidic Jews were able to celebrate Rosh Hashanah in Ukraine without incident.

Source: www.ntv.de