Editor’s Introduction
I’ve been following the war in Ukraine, and particularly its Jewish dimension, since the Russian invasion on February 24, 2022. The war is a global catastrophe and major crime against humanity. While the Jewish dimension is only a part of the war, it is of significance for several reasons:
First, Ukraine’s president is Jewish, a fact which has received great attention, especially because Russia has claimed that Ukraine is a Nazi-dominated state and that its president is “covering” for Ukrainian Nazism. The role of Ukrainian Nazism and collaboration in the Holocaust has become a bone of contention. Second, this is the first war since World War II between countries that have sizeable Jewish populations. (Afghanistan and Iraq had virtually no Jews, and the Jewish community in the former Yugoslavia is tiny.) The war in Ukraine has led to waves of displacement and flight of Jews and their family members to Israel and other countries. And Jews are participating in the war, i.e. fighting in it. Third, the State of Israel has been in an unusual position in this war. While it is considered part of the West, and is a close American ally, it has refrained from providing military aid to Ukraine. Its position of near-neutrality has come under scrutiny and criticism. The newsletter will cover these and other subjects.
As I’ve been reading items on Jewish aspects of the war in Russian-language and Ukrainian-language websites, I’ve come to the conclusion that the war’s “Jewish news” is not being covered very well by major news outlets in English. So I decided to take the plunge and do it myself, i.e. write my own newsletter. Half a century ago, when the Jewish movement in the Soviet Union was at its peak, there were many writers who knew Russian, and followed developments in Soviet Jewry closely (Moshe Decter, Willam Corey, others). Now that field seems nearly empty.
The newsletter will appear once a week, or (at worst) once in two weejs. I hope you like it. If you do, please subscribe (free of charge) and share it with your friends.
David E. Fishman
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
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