The War in Ukraine: Jewish News #41
In This Issue: "From Panic to Mobilization" - the Mood in Kyiv; A Secular Jewish School in War Time
“From Panic to Mobilization”: An Israeli-Ukrainian Commentator on the Current Moment
Mikhail Sheitelman was born and raised in Soviet Leningrad. He moved to Israel as a teenager in 1991, and made a career there as a political consultant. In 2015, Sheitelman settled in Kyiv, where he became a popular blogger and youtube commentator. With his Israeli citizenship (he is not a citizen of Ukraine) and his obviously Jewish name, he is a rare phenomenon in Ukrainian media. For more on Sheitelman, see newsletter no. 24.
We spoke in Russian on February 19. The conversation has been edited for space and clarity.
DF: Mikhail, what is the mood like in Kyiv?
Sheitelman: In Kyiv, people are alarmed. At a certain moment, after Trump’s first call to Putin, you could say there was panic or hysteria. It all started just a week ago. Every day, the statements by Trump and the members of his administration got worse and worse. And every day, Ukrainians gradually calmed down and mobilized themselves. A process of rallying around Zelensky has begun to take place. And we can see it in numbers. Today, a survey on the level of trust in Zelensky was published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology. 57% of the population trusts Zelensky. This is the first time during the war that the level of trust in him has increased. Throughout the war, with every difficult decision, it has gone down – from 90% at the beginning, to 52% last month.
I think people have overcome their panic, and have come to the realization “Yes, we need to fight”. I thought of a formula: Before we said Ukraine against Russia was like David and Goliath. Now Ukraine needs to fight against two Goliaths, Russia and the United States.
The first reaction was emotional, “America betrayed us”. “Trump is in bed with Putin.” The main tragedy is that the Russians will not be punished. There will be no justice. “You want to forgive Putin, and the thousands of Russians that committed war crimes on Ukrainian territory? Everything will be written off, and we, Ukraine, will need to pay reparations? Apparently, we are to blame for the war. We shouldn’t have started it!” People are disturbed. “You mean my husband, my son, died for nothing?” That is a significant emotional blow to many people. The average Ukrainian knows five people who were killed in the war.
Before we said that Ukraine against Russia was like David and Goliath. Now Ukraine needs to fight against two Goliaths, Russia and the United States.
But the truth is that there is more panic in Kyiv than in Kharkiv [a city near the front], and the lowest level of panic is on the front-line itself. There, people know what to do to stop the aggressor; you need to shoot at him and kill him. That’s clear. But in Kyiv, people don’t know what to do.
DF: Is there hope that Europe will come to the rescue?
Sheitelman: Of course, everyone is hoping, looking, reading the news from Europe, after having rebounded from the first shock. Europe has united and announced it largest single package of military aid to Ukraine – 6 billion dollars for arms, not for the state budget. It also announced a new set of sanctions against Russia. Even Hungary signed on to it! And the Germans announced 700 billion Euros in aid to Ukraine, and an agreement to print more Euros to deal with this crisis. Just as they printed more Euros to rescue Europe from COVID, and to rescue Greece.
We are expecting a large group of guests on February 24 [the anniversary of the war]. On February 24, 2023, President Biden visited Ukraine. On February 24, 2024, only two people came – the President of Poland and Ursula von der Leyen [President of the European Commission]. This time, we are expecting the entire membership of the European Commission and the presidents of many countries. There is a new wave of solidarity with Ukraine in Europe.
Everyone is hoping, looking, reading the news from Europe.[…] There is a new wave of solidarity with Ukraine in Europe.
DF: You are an Israeli citizen, and you were a political consultant to center-right parties in Israel. How do you understand the fact that Trump is such a strong supporter of Israel, but doesn’t display any sympathy toward Ukraine? Isn’t that a contradiction?
Sheitelman: I was enthusiastic about Trump’s support for Israel in his first term, when he negotiated the Abraham accords. That was truly a turning point. But now I’m worried. All this help to Russia will hurt Israel. Russia is Israel’s top enemy, together with Iran, of course. Russia finances Hamas, arms Hezbollah, shares intelligence information with them, and receives Hamas in Moscow. In fact, it is Russia that is conducting terrorist activity against Israel. I hope everyone understands that. When Trump legalizes Russia, and restores her to the international arena, he is hurting Israel.
Next, Trump announced that he will remove 2 million Palestinians from Gaza. You know how Israelis responded to this proposal? 80% said “we’re in favor”, but more than half of them said “we don’t believe he’ll do it”. Because it’s totally unrealistic. But Trump can ruin Israel’s relations with neighboring states by making such statements. He angered the Egyptians, he angered the Jordanians, created tensions with Saudia Arabia. Is that advantageous to Israel?
DF: So you don’t consider Trump a reliable ally of Israel.
Sheitelman: That’s right. He can ruin a lot of relationships. Look, he’s only been president for one month. He’s already ruined relations with Canada. He ruined relations with Denmark. There was a survey, and I think 46% of Danes consider the United States to be the main threat to Denmark. Slightly more consider Russia to be the main threat, but the United States is a close second. He ruined relations with Ukraine. I understand that he doesn’t care about relations with Ukraine, or with Denmark or with Panama or with Canada. But gradually the entire globe will turn against the US. Israelis may very quickly become disappointed in Trump. I would tell Israelis not to be enchanted with him.
Russia is Israel’s top enemy, together with Iran of course. Russia finances Hamas, arms Hezbollah, shares intelligence information with them, and receives Hamas in Moscow. […] When Trump legalizes Russia, and restores her to the international arena, he is hurting Israel.
DF: My friends in Ukraine say that there has been an increase of antisemitic statements on social media. And we have seen public antisemitic statements by military commentator Roman Svitan and others. I get Google Alerts for the word “Zhid” in Ukrainian, and I’ve seen an increase in the number of usages of “Zhid” on-line, usually directed at Zelensky. My friends connect this phenomenon with politics, with efforts to weaken Zelensky in advance of Ukrainian elections. Do you think there has been a rise in antisemitism, and is it motivated by politics?
Sheitelman: People have a lot of complaints about Zelensky. 37% of the population doesn’t trust him. But I haven’t heard or read one complaint against Zelensky because he is Jewish. People complain that he fired [military chief-of-staff] Zaluzhny, that he put sanctions on [his predecessor, Petro] Poroshenko, that his administration is corrupt, that Yermak [the head of the presidential administration] has too much power etc. I had a Youtube program with 58,000 simultaneous viewers on the day that Zelensky imposed sanctions on Poroshenko. There were a lot of emotional comments in the chat. Not one person wrote “Zelensky is Jewish and that’s why.”
I am absolutely sure that the antisemitic comments about Zelensky come from Russia. Putin issued antisemitic comments, so did Lavrov. Both have made many antisemitic comments about Zelensky. I think this is a part of Russian propaganda, and it is effective. When you read the Ukrainian internet, you need to be careful – two-thirds of the messages are from Russian bots. They are real people who create various user-names. When I read social media, I already know – that’s from Russia, and that’s from Russia. This is a propaganda machine into which they invest money.
I am absolutely sure that the antisemitic comments about Zelensky [on Ukrainian social media] come from Russia. I think this is part of Russian propaganda, and it is effective.
Is there antisemitism in Ukraine? Yes of course. Is Svitan an antisemite? Yes. Does he have followers? Yes. Has the number of antisemites grown since the beginning of the war? No, I don’t believe that. I don’t believe that the war against Russia has led to an increase in antisemitism. Back at the time of the elections [in 2019] when Zelensky received 73% of the vote, I didn’t hear anyone say “but he’s a Jew”.
DF: Is Svitan an exceptional case?
Sheitelman: I wouldn’t put it that way.
First let me say that early on in the war, Svitan accused me on the air of being an agent of the Mosad who brought a pro-Russian peace plan to the negotiations. There’s no doubt he’s an antisemite. He’s also a popular person – his number of on-line “views” is about the same as mine. I have 580,000 subscribers, and I estimate that my total community of viewers is about 1 million people. And I’m a foreigner, an Israeli citizen. I estimate that Svitan has the same number of viewers. So let’s say there are 1 million antisemites in Ukraine. According to the latest statistics there are 28 million people in the country today. I can believe that 5% of them are antisemites.
DF: Thank you, Mikhail. Let’s be in touch again, hopefully when there is better news.
Sheitelman: I would love that.
Jewish Education in War Time: The ORT School in Kyiv
During my January trip to Kyiv, I had the occasion to visit the ORT Jewish Day School 141, which continues to function in war time. I had a personal tour of the school with Mila Finkelshtein, who is the National Director of ORT in Ukraine.
The ORT school has a large, beautiful facility in the attractive Rusanivka neighborhood on the east bank of the Dniepr. (How do I know? My taxi-driver said it’s a desirable neighborhood.) The school is attended by 1,500 students between kindergarten and grade 11. It has a vast underground basement level that serves as its bomb-shelter. Consequently, the school can continue to have in-person instruction in war time.
As an ORT school, the curriculum features intensified science/ technology and Jewish studies. I saw special rooms for 3-D printing, micro-electronics, computer science (including special servers). The program in artificial intelligence is now under development. I also visited a Hebrew language class and a Jewish tradition class. The school has Hebrew name-signs near all classrooms, and a huge “Welcome, Ласкаво просимо, ברוכים הבאים “ on the front door.
The ORT school is a public school; faculty salaries are paid by the state budget. (Teachers earn anywhere between $300-$500 per month.) ORT pays for everything besides the base salaries: the facility, supplies, books, equipment, after-school programs. For additional work, teachers can earn a supplement of up to 50%. The language of instruction for all subjects, including the Jewish ones, is Ukrainian.
The school is considered a specialized public school with a “Jewish ethno-cultural emphasis.” One of the priority groups for admission are children of Jewish background according to the Law of Return; i.e. with one Jewish grandparent. (The other groups with priority admission are children who live in the immediate vicinity, and children of soldiers-veterans- and-Internally Displaced Persons.) According to Finkelshtein, a third of the children in the school have some Jewish background. All students study Hebrew, Jewish history, and Jewish tradition, regardless of their background.
While a few of the Jewish kids are observant, they a modest minority among the Jewish minority of students. Nonetheless, the school has a shorter day on Fridays and does not have formal instruction on Jewish holidays. (Instead, there are outings and trips.) There is a separate joint Chabad-ORT school for religious kids, which is much smaller than the main school.
The ORT School has one of the top Special Education centers in Ukraine, for autistic children and others with severe disabilities. It has all kinds of special equipment for physical therapy, stimulation, destimulation etc. The Special Education Center has 60 children in its full-day-program, and runs a diagnostic center that evaluates 560 children per year. The center provides guidance and advice to 25 schools with children who have special needs.
Another special facility is the sports field – for soccer, track, and other sports. This is not your typical Kyiv public school. Not surprisingly, the competition for admission to the school is 4.5 applicants for each spot.
I was surprised to see young male teachers in various classrooms. I learned that men who work in education are exempted from the military. Many talented young men take advantage of this exemption, teach, and pursue a second job in their area of expertise in the evenings. If and when the war ends, most of them will leave teaching.
There was all the happy hustle-bustle of a school. There were kids hanging out near the cafeteria and snack-bar. (Imagine providing lunch to 1,500 kids per day!) Parents and grandparents stood outside the gate waiting to pick up their kids. The 3rd grade Hebrew class greeted me with
“"שלום, נעים מאוד (“Shalom, pleased to meet you”), and said important things for kids like “אני אוהב גלידה” (“I love ice-cream”). There wasn’t a single aerial alarm during my entire visit. It was almost like normal, peaceful times.
Correction: Margin of Error
The last newsletter included an incorrect statement regarding the methodology of the ADL Global 100 survey: I wrote: “A small sample for a large population means less accuracy, and a greater likelihood of error.” The ever-vigilant folks at ADL corrected my error immediately. A small sample definitely effects the margin of error, but the size of the overall population of the country being surveyed does not. If the sample is properly weighted by geographic region, age and gender, the margin of error of a national survey is the same whether the country has 3 million inhabitants (like Lithuania) or 30 million inhabitants (like Ukraine). In Ukraine, the ADL Global 100 had a weighted sample of 502 respondents with a margin of error of plus or minus 4.4%. The ADL survey had a larger sample of 1,000 respondents in seven countries - China, France, Germany, India, Russia, the United Kingdom, and the United States – with a lower margin of error of 3.2%. I hope that next time, Ukraine will make it into that exclusive club.