In President Zelensky’s hometown, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a synagogue on the last night of Passover.
By Rachel Avraham
Tensions are mounting around the Jewish community in Kryvyi Rih (Krivoy Rog), Ukraine—President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown—after a Molotov cocktail was thrown at the city’s synagogue on the final night of Passover, Yedioth Achronot reported. According to the report, the attack, which caused no injuries due to recent security upgrades, came just days after a separate antisemitic incident in which a community-owned vehicle was vandalized, leading local leaders to suspect a coordinated campaign.
According to Israel Hayom, in the first antisemitic incident that occurred last week, the vehicle’s tires were punctured, community emblems were defaced, and paint was poured over the body of the car. And then, in the second more severe antisemitic incident, Molotov cocktails were thrown at the synagogue, and Rabbi Edri was alerted by the CWA security center (Chabad’s worldwide security center) in Ukraine. “The vandalism was clearly targeted,” Rabbi Liron Edri told the Jerusalem Post. “There was nothing random about it.”
“Thanks to the window reinforcement installed in recent months, a large fire was prevented,” Rabbi Edri told Israel Hayom. According to the report, the protection, which includes special shielding along with cameras and alarm systems installed by CWA, prevented the bottles from penetrating inside and causing significant damage.
“This was a direct attack on the Jewish community,” Rabbi Edri told The Jerusalem Post. “Thankfully, the reinforced windows held up, and the firebomb didn’t make it inside. But the message was loud and clear.”
According to the Jerusalem Post, local police have launched an investigation into the antisemitic attack. According to the report, the synagogue was quickly inspected by Ukrainian security forces, who promised to pursue leads and apprehend those responsible. Despite the positive reactions given by the Ukrainian authorities, antisemitism has a long history in the Ukraine.
From the Cossack pogroms of 1648-1649 to the Kiev pogrom of 1881 to the Odessa pogroms to the pogroms of 1903–06 to the pogroms of 1919 and the Holocaust, Ukraine has such a long tragic history with antisemitism that any antisemitic incidents that occur there did not happen in a vacuum. Holocaust survivor Zeni Rosenstain, who was raped, tortured, burned and starved in a Ukrainian concentration camp, stated in an interview that the Ukrainians treated the Jews in many cases worse than the Germans during the Second World War.
Although the Second World War was a long time ago, the Jewish Chronicle reported that an anti-Defamation League Study in 2023 found that nearly a third of Ukrainians still agree with antisemitic tropes. According to the report, Jew-hatred in Ukraine declined from a record 46% index score in 2019 to 29% in 2023, “potentially driven in part by the popularity of the Jewish president, Volodymyr Zelensky, whose approval ratings have risen dramatically over the last few years in response to his defiance in the face of Russian military attacks,” said the ADL.
“The dramatic improvement in antisemitic attitudes in Ukraine seems linked to the popularity of President Zelensky, a leader who is both proudly Jewish and public about his heritage,” Jonathan Greenblatt, CEO and national director of ADL, told the Jewish Chronicle. “While the survey findings do not directly address questions of causality, there’s no doubt that having a Jewish president who is being praised for his response to Russian aggression seems to have affected perceptions of Jews among ordinary Ukrainian citizens.”
The Jewish Chronicle reported that according to the data collected by the ADL, Ukraine’s level of antisemitic beliefs, 29 percent, is higher than Russia’s at 26 percent. And whereas 36 percent of Russian respondents say that Jews are more loyal to Israel than to the country where they live, 38 percent of Ukrainians agreed with that antisemitic trope. And, according to the ADL survey, 19 percent of Ukrainians agree that “the Holocaust is a myth and did not happen,” compared to 17 percent of Russians.
In Ukraine, 53 percent of respondents agreed with the country’s most common anti-Jewish stereotype— “Jews have too much power in the business world”—while a smaller number of Russians, 44 percent, agreed with that country’s most common antisemitic stereotype, “Jews don’t care what happens to anyone but their own kind.”
