JNS
For the Jews, history repeats itself in Ukraine
by Melanie Phillips
March 3, 2022

The onslaught against Ukraine by Russia’s President Vladimir Putin is a horrific tragedy for all Ukrainians as well as a crisis for Europe and the west in general. Nevertheless, for the Jewish people, it has special and deeply troubling resonance. During the Holocaust, an estimated 1.2 million to 1.4 million Ukrainian Jews were slaughtered. Volodymyr Zelensky, the country’s heroic president who is inspiring its resistance, is a Jew who lost relatives in that cauldron. Now Ukraine’s Jewish community, which carries a long history of trauma from waves of pogroms over the centuries, is again in terror. Jews are taking refuge in synagogues and bunkers while some have fled to Israel. READ MORE