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As a public service, we have removed the paywall to make all of our coverage of the crisis in Ukraine freely accessible.
THE WAR IN UKRAINE A firefighter puts out a blaze at the site of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial in Ukraine. ‘Nazism is born in silence.’
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged Jews around the world to speak up in a video posted to social media early Wednesday. “Don’t you see what is happening? That is why it is very important that millions of Jews around the world not remain silent right now,” said Zelenskyy, who is Jewish. “Nazism is born in silence. So shout about killings of civilians. Shout about the murders of Ukrainians.” Watch the video ➤
Zelenskky made the comments in response to a Russian missile strike near the complex of the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center, a site where Nazi forces killed more than 33,000 Jews in a ravine in Kyiv. To Russia, he said, “You are killing Holocaust victims for the second time.” Read the story ➤
In October, to mark the 80th anniversary of the massacre, President Zelenskyy helped unveil a new memorial on the site. An international nonprofit has also built a synagogue there, vowing to “bring back Jewish life” to the area.
Many of the Forward’s readers had relatives who died at Babi Yar. Read how we covered the story back then.
Close-up: The Russian-Jewish oligarchs A Jewish billionaire in Putin’s inner circle is called out – and called upon:Roman Abramovich, the Russian owner of one of the most renowned soccer teams in the world, has agreed to help broker peace in Ukraine. But as he mediates one conflict, he is the subject of another. Europe, the United States and other nations are imposing a wave of sanctions on oligarchs like Abramovich, raising concerns among some Jewish leaders, since he donates hundreds of millions of dollars across Israel. Read the story ➤
Plus: Our friends at JTA looked at how Abramovich and other Russian Jewish oligarchs and their donations are threatened by the sanctions.
Point/counterpoint: What should Israel do? While the Western world has broadly united around supporting Ukraine, Israel’s response to Russia’s invasion has been tepid. Two experts weigh in on why – and reach very different conclusions…
Opinion | Why Israel must take a stand for Ukraine: “Supporters of Israel might be surprised to learn that the country’s policy on Ukraine is virtually the same as that of Iran, Hezbollah and Hamas,” writes Michael Oren, a former Israeli ambassador to the United States, adding that “our own history will judge us.” Read the OpEd ➤
Opinion | Israel can’t help Ukraine – and it’s America’s fault: Pressed by Zelenskyy to send weapons to Ukraine, Prime Minister Naftali Bennett reportedly refused, writes Gedalia Guttentag, an editor at Mishpacha magazine — who places the blame squarely on the United States, and connects it to the challenge of containing Iran. “The prime minister should explain that his hands are tied — and that the fault is entirely America’s.” Read the OpEd ➤
But wait, there’s more… Jewish history is repeating itself in Ukraine, writes Rabbi Yoshi Zweiback, who lost his great-grandfather in the Holocaust. “What we are witnessing now, we have seen before.” More than 800 people came to hear Ukrainian poetry in the original and in translation in a swiftly organized online reading to support writers whose lives are in danger from Russian forces. Gary Shteyngart is stress-eating Ukrainian stuffed cabbage. You can too.WHAT ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY The Henry Winkler story is much lower down, but we felt we needed something happy at this point in the newsletter. 🧘 A popular Bay Area yoga instructor, Kelly Johnson, was fired because her boyfriend runs an antisemitic website, Goyim TV. Jon Minadeo Jr. is involved with the Goyim Defense League, which the Anti-Defamation League blames for at least 74 incidents of spreading hateful flyers around communities. According to the yoga studio, “Kelly seems to share in Jon’s beliefs” and “had assisted him in his business of hate.” (JWeekly)
💻 While we’re on the topic of antisemitic websites… A Canadian neo-Nazi went on trial this week for “willful promotion” of antisemitic propaganda. The court case revolves around several articles written by Gabriel Sohier Chaput, 35, for The Daily Stormer, some of which included threats against Jews. Part of his defense is that he was trying to be sarcastic. (Montreal Gazette)
🍻 The Putin Pub, a regular hangout for Russian speakers in Jerusalem, is in search of a new name. “This is supposed to be a happy place, not to make people feel they're somewhere aggressive or some dictator,” said Leon Teterin, the pub’s owner. He personally yanked down the sign last week. (NPR)
💸 A small group of anonymous Haredi philanthropists are funding humanitarian groups that have aided in the rescue of thousands of Afghan refugees. “There are a couple of high-net-worth individuals who believe that you serve God by serving one another,” said Rabbi Mayer Zarchi, who represents the group. “There’s a belief that no human being’s freedom should be compromised.” (New York Post)
🚀 When the second Israeli astronaut ever to go into space lifts off in April, he will be taking a mosaic of 500 digital pieces of user-submitted art. Curated by Sharona Karni Cohen, a fellow Israeli, the completed piece will be displayed as a hologram aboard the International Space Station. (Jewish Insider)
🎬 Henry Winkler (aka, the Fonz) is starring in a new Israeli comedy series that is currently filming around Jerusalem. The show centers on Chanshi, an Orthodox girl from Brooklyn who decides, just before her wedding and despite her family’s objections, to break off her engagement and move to Israel. Winkler plays her dad. (JTA)
ON THE CALENDAR On this day in history: Sholem Aleichem, the noted Yiddish author and playwright, was born Solomon Naumovich Rabinovich on March 2, 1859. His stories of Tevye the Dairyman served as the inspiration for the 1964 musical “Fiddler on the Roof,” and have come to embody the Americanized version of Yiddish culture: charming, funny, bittersweet. Aleicheim became, as the literary critic Irving Howe once noted, “a jolly gleeman of the shtetl, a fiddler cozy on his roof.” In the video above, watch filmmaker Joseph Dorman discuss Aleichem’s years in America.
It’s also the birthday of Dr. Seuss. To quote one of his lines: “There is no one alive who is you-er than you!”
Last year on this day, we reported that after a year of isolation, vaccinated grandparents were traveling to in-person Passover seders.
VIDEO OF THE DAY Since the Russian invasion last week, Ukraine’s Jewish president, Volodomyr Zelenskyy, has taken center stage, with several inspiring videos aimed at the Russian people, his own citizens and the world. It’s a place of comfort for him, having vaulted into politics from a career in television. So today we take a look back at a simpler time: when Zelenskyy won the Ukrainian version of “Dancing with the Stars” in 2006. He’s even better than you’d imagine. Watch his moves in the video above.
––– Play today’s Vertl puzzle (aka the Yiddish Wordle)
Thanks to Laura E. Adkins and Nora Berman for contributing to today’s newsletter. You can reach the “Forwarding” team at editorial@forward.com.
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