Gift Gives Hope to Ukrainian President

By COLlive reporter

A day after President Volodymyr Zelensky presided over the 29th anniversary of the Independence Day of Ukraine, he hosted a delegation of rabbis for a meeting.

Zelensky has been touting the fact that it has been 29 days since there have been any casualties since a ceasefire was reached with pro-Russian forces.

“We all ask G-d for only one thing – let the days of silence become months. Months – years. Years – centuries, and then millennia. Peace, harmony and prosperity for the Ukrainian land,” he said in his speech.

At the meeting, the president was given a book of Tehillim (Psalms) by Rabbi Meir Stambler, Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine (FJC) and heard the shofar sounded by Rabbi Raphael Rutman, Director for International Relations of the Federation.

The President, who is Jewish, began with congratulating the Jewish community on the upcoming new Jewish year of 5781 and discussed the challenges being presented due to the Covid-19 pandemic.

“Every year we welcome with honor and blessing tens of thousands of chassidim who visit the gravesite of Rebbe Nachman of Breslav in Uman,” he commented. “This year, because of the pandemic, we don’t be able to allow such an amount of chassidim to visit Uman.”

The President asked the rabbis, most of whom are Chabad Shluchim, to assist with the planning of a visitors center and museum at Babi Yar where Nazi soldiers massacred 34,000 Jewish men, women, and children during World War II.

President at the meeting were also Rabbi Yonatan Markovich, Rabbi Moshe Asman and Rabbi Yaakov Dov Bleich of Kyiv, Rabbi Shmuel Kaminetzky of Dnipro, Rabbi Avrohom Wolff of Odessa, Rabbi Sholom Gottlieb of Nikolayev and Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz of Kharkiv.

Many more rabbis participated in the meeting via Zoom video conference.

They commented on the temporary closing of shuls and Jewish institutions to protect the lives of the community. They also emphasized the burden the outbreak has had, leading to unemployment and general instability, according to Rabbi Stambler.

In conclusion, the president raised up the Tehillim he received as a gift and stated: “Let’s hope that this book helps us.”