My life has been surrounded by Judaism, it’s a part of who I am and it’s all I’ve ever known. As someone who has grandparents that escaped Kyiv early enough to evade the barbaric Babyn Yar massacre in 1941, where 33,771 Jews were shot to death by Nazi forces in a 36 hour period, it feels like it’s part of my job to inform people of what’s going on and show how drastic of a loss this is. To think that 80 years later, Russian forces would strike the Babyn Yar memorial site and desecrate the memories of the Jews who were murdered there, is sickening. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky rightfully tweeted, “To the world: What is the point of saying never again for 80 years, if the world stays silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar?” It seems history is repeating itself less than one century later, and the heartbreak that I feel when seeing this stems from the understanding that this unprovoked conflict, started by yet another dangerous man, will lead to so much unnecessary suffering.
It can be hard for Jewish people, like myself, to deal with how they are feeling, this brings up memories of pogroms, antisemitism and Nazi collaboration. According to the The Conversation, Between 1.2 million and 1.6 million Jews were killed in Ukraine during the Holocaust, but Jewish life in Ukraine is no longer what it was, neither under the Nazis nor the Soviet Union, and incredibly enough, in 2019 Ukraine elected a Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. A 2017 Pew Research study found that Ukraine was the most accepting of Jews among all Central and Eastern European countries, so this attack on the area might hit harder on Ukrainians than originally thought.
Jeffrey Veidlinger, The Conversation says this memorial was to show how 33,771 died in this area, and having a second attack there doesn’t settle well, it adds another reason to mourn here. I feel saddened that a place where people came to grief and find comfort in others who share the same sadness now may see the sight in a different light. Russia implementing this missile strike shows that for them, Kyiv seems to be completely foreign to them. The Soviets have tried to wipe out Babyn Yar’s brutal history time and again, in an effort to suppress any mention of the atrocities committed against Jews. Periods of relative calm did not last. The Conversation speaks on the fact that during World War II, Nazi Germany and its allies killed 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews, out of the six million Jews who died across Europe under Soviet rule in the decades that followed. Jewish life, including holidays and the study of Hebrew, was effectively banned. Jews were barred from immigrating and excluded from fields such as the arts and politics. Many Jews, such as Zelensky’s parents, gravitated to careers in the sciences, a more accessible field.
After decades of Jews trying to rebuild their lives in Ukraine, once again they are having to flee the country. Ukrainian Jews are pouring out of the country or digging in to fight, and the turmoil could spell the beginning of another ending for what was so meticulously rebuilt. For thousands of years, Jewish people have been fighting to find their place in the world, and as of today we still are. I fear for those in eastern europe, as no one knows what is going to happen as everything is still unknown, my heart goes out to all of them. With the Jewish community being so small, we take care of one another and I will do everything that I can to help. To remain indifferent is not an option. We all have a moral obligation to halt this tragic suffering through an outpouring of humanitarian aid to the innocent refugees and victims.
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