President Zelensky Joins Shluchim as New Babi Yar Victims Identified

The leadership of Ukraine’s Jewish communities took part in the annual memorial ceremony commemorating the victims of the Babi Yar massacre, on the outskirts of Kyiv, the capital of Ukraine.

The event—organized by the National Historical Memory and Heritage Organization “Babi Yar” with the assistance of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (FJCU)—was attended, as every year, by the Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Representing the communities were FJCU Vice-Chairman and close confidant of the president Rabbi Rafael Rutman, Chief Rabbis of Ukraine Rabbi Moshe Azman and Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Kyiv Rabbi Yonatan Markovitch, Chief Rabbi of Lviv Rabbi Mordechai Shlomo Bald, and the Rebbe’s Shliach in eastern Kyiv Rabbi Motti Levenhertz. They were joined by additional Rebbe’s Shluchim and city rabbis—Rabbi Pinchas Vishedski of Donetsk, Rabbi Shalom Gopin of Luhansk, Rabbi Shaul Horowitz of Vinnytsia, and Rabbi Meir Holtzberg of Bila Tserkva.

Rabbi Bleich, who is in a year of mourning, recited the Kaddish, and Rabbi Rutman recited the prayer “El Malei Rachamim.” President Zelensky received from Rabbi Rutman a large-print Psalms book translated into Ukrainian and expressed his appreciation to the Federation for its work in translating Jewish holy texts into the local language. Among the works already translated are Psalms, the Siddur, children’s books, and soon also the Chumash. The rabbi told the president that these translated Psalms have also been placed at the Tomb of King David in Jerusalem and at the Western Wall. Zelensky thanked the rabbis for their prayers on behalf of the Ukrainian people, noting that he recognizes how this helps bring strength and courage to the people and to the soldiers on the front lines. He also once again expressed his appreciation for the extensive activity of the Rebbe’s Shluchim and the Federation with Ukraine’s Jews throughout the year—especially now during the Jewish High Holidays.

In the Babi Yar massacre, carried out on Yom Kippur eve 5702 (September 29–30, 1941), nearly 34,000 Jews were murdered. It was the largest single massacre site in Europe. During the ceremony, for the first time, the names of 1,761 Jews—whose details have only now been uncovered—were read aloud. The Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center published their details thanks to President Zelensky’s decision to allow the opening of archives, in order to reveal their identities and grant the victims—whose names had been unknown until now—the basic dignity owed to them and to their loved ones.