As this article is being written, the political and military situation in Ukraine was very uncertain.  At the beginning of the week, U.S. officials claimed Russia could invade Ukraine at any time and might create a surprise pretext for an attack. It also pledged to defend “every inch” of “NATO territory”. Meanwhile, Russia has more than 100,000 troops massed near Ukraine, but insists that they have no plans to invade. As of Tuesday, it appeared that Russia was pulling out some troops in an attempt to at least portray an image of deescalating the situation somewhat.  All of this has placed the vibrant Jewish community in Ukraine in an extremely perilous situation. Rabbi Gershon Hellman of The Shopper spoke to Rav Yaakov Bleich, Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, to hear a bit about the current situation. This article was written on Tuesday afternoon and reflects the situation on the ground at that time. It is very possible that circumstances will be very different by the time The Shopper is in the hands of our readers.  Please tell us a bit about Ukraine’s Jewish community. How many Jews live in Ukraine?  There are 360,000 Jews in Ukraine. 60,000 of them live in Kiev.  HELP THEM TODAY! How many of them are connected to the Jewish community? As Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, I have a responsibility for all of the Jews of Ukraine.  There are a few thousand  people who are associated with our community in Kiev on a regular basis.  How many Jews come to Ukraine every year to visit mekomos hakedoshim and the like? A few hundred thousand.  Please tell us about the community infrastructure. The community owns several shuls, two school buildings, a kosher hotel and an assisted living home.  In total, we own seven buildings that have to be protected.  Don’t you have security all year round? We do have lowkey security all year, probably similar to what you have in America, but now we needed to get what is known as “militarized security”, which means real armed professionals. This isn’t necessarily related to a potential war; it is more of a safeguard to ensure that no one should let out their anger through antisemitism and that there shouldn’t be any provocation. It has happened n the past that the Russians have sent people to attack Jewish places so that the Ukrainians should look bad.  I assume that’s a very large expense. It’s a huge expense. You also have to realize that we are losing local money because of the unstable matzav. The financial situation is very fragile and unstable because of the situation, and people are afraid to part with their money.  America and Israel advised their citizens to leave Ukraine. Have a lot of people left? The tourists and people who don’t really live here left, but the Rabbanim and full-time residents – even those who may have other citizenship – are staying with their kehillos. It’s true that the Israelis and Americans are advising people to leave, and the Israelis pulled out all the employees of their state who work in Ukraine. This did create a certain amount of fear amongst the community. Until now, we knew there was tension but no one was running away. Now, the Americans, British, Israelis, Canadians etc. are saying that […]

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