With a Hebrew message posted on social media and calls on Jews around the world to mobilize once morest the Russian invasion, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has rarely before highlighted his faith to broaden support for his country .
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In 2020, in an interview with the site Times of Israelhe described religion as a personal matter and explained that he received “an ordinary Jewish education” and that “most Jewish families in the Soviet Union were not religious”.
When he was elected president in 2019, the former comedian was sworn in on a Bible.
But since the February 24 invasion of Ukraine by Russia – two countries in the former USSR – Mr. Zelensky, ubiquitous on social media, has been able to garner worldwide support through his publications vigorous, sometimes directly addressed to the Jewish community.
On Wednesday, following a Russian strike once morest the television tower in Kyiv located near the site of the Nazi massacre of Babi Yar, which has become a memorial, he posted a message in Hebrew on Telegram and Facebook.
“It is important that millions of Jews around the world do not remain silent. Nazism was born in silence,” he wrote.
Then Thursday, during a press conference, he said he was grateful following seeing a “beautiful photo of people draped in the Ukrainian flag at the Western Wall”, the holiest site where Jews can pray, in Jerusalem.
But the Ukrainian president, who says he has family in Israel and has visited the country on several occasions, immediately added that he did not feel that “the Israeli government had draped itself in the Ukrainian flag,” according to several sources who attended the press conference.
The comments emerged as an attempt to bolster support for Ukraine across the Jewish community, while in Israel Prime Minister Naftali Bennett avoided overly harsh condemnation of the Russian offensive in order to preserve relations with Moscow.
But this appeal to the Jews is more than just a tactic, says Nathan Sharansky, a former Soviet prisoner and famous refusenik, who knows the Ukrainian president personally.
For Mr. Sharansky, the head of state is part of a tradition of Eastern European Jews facing death in their fight once morest autocracies.
“His Jewishness is important to him. It is not a Jew who hides his Jewishness and it is not a Jew who is looking for another identity, ”explains to AFP Mr. Sharansky, who says he has spoken in recent days with the chief of staff. of the President of Ukraine.
The fact that he is Jewish can also prove to be an asset, in particular to counter anti-Semitism, adds Mr. Sharansky.
“This unique role that Zelensky plays in unifying the Ukrainian nation, without hiding his Jewish identity, can clearly help overcome many prejudices,” he said. Especially since Russian President Vladimir Putin has justified his offensive as having to “denazify” Ukraine.
Nathan Sharansky said in an interview with AFP that he had spoken with the Ukrainian president’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, since the beginning of the Russian invasion.
The latter published Friday on the news site The Times of Israel an editorial titled “Today, Ukraine is Israel. We implore Jews around the world to come to our aid.”
“Ukrainians are victims of Russia’s evil war, just as Jews were victims of the Nazis who wanted to eradicate all Jews,” writes Andriy Yermak.
For Lisa Maurice, lecturer in classics at Bar Ilan University near Tel Aviv, Volodymyr Zelensky’s style is also part of a certain Jewish tradition.
“We are always this little guy facing the big one,” she explains, quoting David and Goliath.
“All of our heroes, even military heroes, fight not because they want to or because they are aggressive, but because it is the right thing to do. It is a very strong tradition in Judaism,” she adds, specifying to refer to the founding stories of Judaism rather than to the current Israeli defensive policy.
The Jewish Telegraph Agency, a more than 100-year-old news agency covering world Jewish affairs, said this week that Mr. Zelensky’s leadership “resonated … with Jews around the world.”
For American author and artist Molly Crabapple, “as a Jew, it is impossible not to feel proud of the courage, dignity and poise that Zelensky is showing today”.
