The War in Ukraine: Jewish News #48
Mothers' Day Issue: "My Mother Survived Babi Yar", "Project Kesher in Ukraine: Women's Leadership Development", "The Chief Rabbi Serenades Trump, and Zelenskiy Sings the Rabbi's Praises"
“My Mother Survived Babi Yar” : A conversation with Matvei Ganapolskii
Matvei Ganapolskii is a well-known Russian language journalist, who has spent a lifetime moving between Ukraine and Russia. He was born as Matvei Margolis in Lviv, Ukrainian SSR, in 1953, and moved to Kyiv at age 12. Ganapolskii attended theatre schools in Kyiv and Moscow (including the well know GITIS), before turning to political journalism. For more than thirty years, he was on the staff of the oppositionist “Echo of Moscow” radio-station. In post-Soviet Russia, he was a member of the Public Council of the Russian Jewish Congress and was honored by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia with a “Man of the Year” award. In 2010, Ganapolskii left Moscow and, after several years of wandering (including time in the US), he ended up in Kyiv. He received Ukrainian citizenship based on his birth and was declared a “foreign agent” by the Putin regime in March 2022.
A razor-sharp political analyst and commentator, Ganapolskii is a proud and staunchly secular Jew. We spoke on May 4, during his visit to Germany to see his children. Whether he will return to Kyiv remains an open question.
The interview has been translated from Russian and edited for length and clarity.
Q: Let’s begin with your family background, your grandparents and parents.
A: That’s simple. All my grandparents were murdered in the Second World War. I didn’t know them. My father’s family was from Dnepropetrovsk, and they perished there. My mother, Dina Levina, survived Babi Yar. She was twelve years old when the Germans arrived. When the orders came for all “zhids of Kyiv” to show up there, my grandmother took her to Babi Yar. It became clear to them that they were going to be shot, and my grandmother pushed my mother off the line, and said “run away”. My mother didn’t look Jewish, she looked Ukrainian, and in the confusion, she was able to leave the line. Later the Germans deported her [as a Ukrainian] to Poland, and from there to Germany, where she cleaned homes. The German family for whom she cleaned treated her well.
Q: How old were you when she told you her story?
A: I was in sixth grade when she told me about this. That’s when kids get interested in such questions, like “where are my grandparents”. By the way, she was later interviewed by the Steven Spielberg Archive.
Q: Were there Jewish traditions or culture in your childhood?
A: My parents spoke Yiddish to each other, but only when they didn’t want me to understand. When I was a child, my mother would go to the synagogue and pick up two packages of matzah – one for her and one for my dad. But today, while I understand the religious significance of matzah, I’d rather eat a “Big Mac”.
Q: Did you experience antisemitism as a youngster?
[As a young man] I left Kyiv for Moscow, because Ukraine was the most antisemitic Soviet republic. Much of the Jewish intelligentsia left for the Russian Republic. There was antisemitism in the RSFSR, but the authorities restrained it; in the Ukrainian SSR it was double.
I will mention one point from my biography. I wrote a Bachelors’ Thesis in a theatre institute in Kyiv, and went with my advisor to the institute’s director to get his signature approving my topic. I sat in the reception room while they met, but since it was quiet, I could hear their conversation in the office. The director asked: “Boria, Will this lousy zhid work for us [after graduation]?”, and my advisor answered “No, he’s just writing a thesis”. That’s when I realized that there was no point banging my head against the wall. I knew that there were places where there was a more respectful attitude toward a nation that contributed so much to the modern world. So I left for Moscow.
Q: And many years later you left Russia, and ended up back in Ukraine.
A: You know, they say that Jews always have a suitecase in one of their hands. In 2007, there were elections in which [Putin’s party] United Russia won thanks to outrageous falsification of the results. We at radio station “Echo of Moscow” knew the details of the falsification. That evening Putin organized a victory rally, at which he read an ode to Moscow from the end of World War II. The upshot was clear: We have defeated our enemy; they are like the Nazis. When I saw that, I went over to my wife, and said “let’s leave”. We spent a year in Italy, then we moved to the United States, and lived in Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey. Then my wife’s mother in [the Republic of] Georgia fell ill, and we moved to Tbilisi. From there, I received an invitation to work in Kyiv.
Q: What about antisemitism in contemporary Ukraine?
A: A remarkable thing has happened, that I can’t explain. Antisemitism suddenly disappeared in Ukraine. It dissolved. When I arrived in Ukraine in 2014, it was already gone. And proof of that is the fact that two Ukrainian presidents have been Jewish.
Q: Two Jewish presidents? Who was the first?
A: The first was Poroshenko. Poroshenko is Jewish; as Jewish as I am. He doesn’t announce it, but everyone knows. Such a thing is inconceivable in the Russian Federation. In Ukraine, no one cares about your ethnicity. They care about what you can do, and whether you can help win the war. I should add that I support Poroshenko’s “European Solidarity” party.
Q: You were once affiliated with Jewish organizations in Russia. What do you think of them?
A: I was a member of the [Public Council] of the Russian Jewish Congress. They haven’t excluded me from it. It’s sad for me to see how these Jewish leaders, all these Chabadniks, have prostrated themselves before Putin. Just like the other religious leaders. Thank God, they [the Jewish leaders] are generally silent about the “Special Military Operation” and have allowed Patriarch Kirill [of the Orthodox Church] to debase himself [by openly supporting the war].
Q: What is your attitude toward Judaism?
A: The problem with all religions is that they are Orthodox, and don’t change with the times. I don’t know anything about Torah, and it’s not my fault. It’s the fault of those religious professionals who “write the songs, sing the songs, and all by themselves enjoy the songs”. [This is a line from a Russian satirical poem – DEF]
Q: What role if any does your Jewish identity play for you?
A: It plays a role. First of all, I consider Jews in generally to be wise people. There is an accumulation of Jewish wisdom, and that is my religion, my Torah. Almost all of Jewish wisdom was expressed by [Soviet Jewish writer and satirist Mikhail] Zhvanetsky. Self-irony is a Jewish feature. Jewish humor is a special cultural phenomenon.
The ethical commandments [are part of my Jewish identity]: “Thou Shalt not Kill, thou shalt not lie.” And being a devoted parent, I believe, is a Jewish feature.
My wife is Georgian. But my son, who is 21 years old, is studying Hebrew.
Katya [Ganapolskii’s daughter]: My brother and I were baptized at birth. For me, being Jewish is more about certain psychological and behavioral patterns. My friends say to me all the time: “You are so Jewish”.
A: If you take our family, you can see the development of Jewish identity in a single family. You’ll see how Jewish identity continues to exist, and changes.
Q: Will you return to Kyiv?
A: I arrived here in Germany a month ago. I was exhausted from the war, and I wanted to see my children. We’ve applied to stay here under the Jewish emigration program. But if there is interesting work in Kyiv, I will return. If there are elections in Ukraine, I may go to help the Poroshenko campaign.
Mother’s Day Special: Project Kesher in Ukraine
The configuration of Jewish life in Ukraine is radically different than in the United States. Here in the US, Project Kesher, an organization for Jewish women’s leadership development, is an interesting niche group. But it isn’t … a member of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations. But in Ukraine, Project Kesher is definitely one of the top five Jewish communal organizations. (My list of the top five would be Chabad, the JDC and its affiliates, ORT, Project Kesher, and the Masorti Movement. If one were to include Jewish political representative bodies, I would add the Ukrainian Jewish Confederation and the Va’ad of Ukraine.)
How that happened is an interesting question. It seems to have been the product of highly dedicated local leadership, financial support from abroad (from the Jewish Federations of North America and the Shusterman Foundation), and a concept, Jewish women’s leadership, whose time was ripe in Ukraine.
Project Kesher Ukraine operates in three main areas: informal Jewish education, women’s support, and community development.
The organization’s premier educational activity is its Jewish weekend- retreat for women, the latest of which was held in Chernivtsi in March. The theme was the interaction between Jewish and Ukrainian culture. There was a session with a local (female) historian on the Jews in Bukovina, the region where Chernivtsi is located; a session on the local Yiddish writer Yoisef Burg (d. 2007); workshops on making Jewish handcrafts papercuts (reizelekh); there were literary readings and an outdoor theatre performance; and sessions of yoga and meditation. As one participant from Dnipro wrote in Ukrainian on Instagram: “I spent three days at the retreat, which was a true renewal for my soul and body. It allowed me to simply be, and to feel myself again. Thank you, Project Kesher, for this journey into myself.”
Under conditions of war, the opportunity to relax and refresh far from the front, in a women’s and Jewish environment, is truly therapeutic.
Women’s support is Project Kesher’s strongest field of activity. One initiative is the “Moms for Moms” program, in which mothers serve as mentors for new moms during the first year after their baby’s birth. As director Vlada Nedak explains, “it’s not about ‘I know best’ advice, but more about open, heartfelt conversations about anything and everything.” The new mothers also attend webinars with specialists and participate in on-line support groups. Project Kesher also distributes “care packages” to new moms, with health supplies and literature.
Tragically, one of the program’s mentor moms was killed in a recent drone attack on the city of Dnipro.
Finally, Project Kesher has been engaged in the field of Jewish community development. Last year, it published the first Ukrainian language Passover Hagadah. (Ukrainian Jews have usually read the Hagadah in Russian or Hebrew.) The text was translated by Mikhal (Elena) Stamov, a past director of the Masorti movement in Ukraine. The Hagadah includes commentaries and supplementary readings by famous Ukrainian Jewish authors, including Sholem Aleichem, Chaim Nachman Bialik, S. J. Agnon, and others.
Project Kesher has also arranged the donation of Torah scrolls to Jewish Community Centers in several cities across Ukraine and has arranged public celebrations of the scrolls’ arrival.
While women’s organizations are a staple of American Jewish life, Project Kesher remains an innovative concept in Ukraine. It has created a women’s realm in the Ukrainian Jewish community, and thereby strengthened the health, self-esteem, and leadership skills of Jewish women. That is something that will enhance Jewish life in Ukraine, and Ukrainian society at large.
News Items
Ukrainian Chief Rabbi Serenades Trump
Rabbi Moshe Reuven Asman, Ukraine’s chief rabbi (Chabad), issued a music video in English last week, in which he called on President Donald Trump to defend and support Ukraine. The video features vivid images of recent Russian drone attacks on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities, with the rabbi singing: “Donald Trump, it’s time to fight, in the name of light” to the accompaniment of an electric guitar and drums. The song received extensive coverage in Ukrainian media, including on television. Rabbi Asman, who has a deep baritone voice, has previously issued patriotic songs in Ukrainian.
Ben Shapiro Goes to Kyiv
Ultra-conservative commentator Ben Shapiro visited Kyiv at the end of April, and conducted a lengthy video interview with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. There was little news emanating from the interview, but there was a Jewish moment. Shapiro, who is Orthodox and wears a kipah, asked Zelenskiy about Putin’s charge that Ukraine had a Nazi regime. Zelenskiy replied:
“It’s funny to hear that from Putin, addressing that to me. [Its funny] that talk of Nazism is directed at me. […] I heard you had a meeting with the chief rabbi. He’s a very decent rabbi. I think he’s a heroic person, a heroic father. His family is a Jewish family. His son went to war. Do you think his son would fight for a Nazi regime?! What Putin is saying is indecent. Jews can’t be fighting for a Nazi regime. […] Many of my ancestors are Jews. To tell Ukrainians that they are Nazis, that I am a Nazi, that I represent a Nazi regime. That’s his [Putin’s] manner – it’s primitive. I think he should come up with different arguments.”
Shapiro left Kyiv a staunch supporter of Ukraine. But he is in the minority in his party. In a recent opinion poll, the Pew Research center found that only 23% of Republicans believe that the US “has a responsibility to help Ukraine defend itself from Russia’s invasion”. (67% of Democrats agreed with the proposition.)