READ: Ukrainian President Zelenskyy’s Message to the Jewish Community
Yesterday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gave a stirring speech directed at the global Jewish community amid the horrific and unconscionable Russian invasion and violence targeting the people of Ukraine. His words were a chilling call to action. Read or watch President Zelenskyy’s speech and join Jewish Dems in standing with Ukraine.
“We were all bombed in Kyiv last night. And we all died again in Babyn Yar – from a missile strike. Although the whole world promises constantly – never again. For any normal person who knows history, Babyn Yar is a special part of Kyiv. A special part of Europe. A place of prayer. A place of remembrance for the hundred thousand people killed by the Nazis. The place of old Kyiv cemeteries.
Who should you be to make it a target for missiles? You are killing Holocaust victims for the second time. During the Soviet era, a TV center was built on the bones there, and also a sports complex. Outbuildings. They built a park there to erase the true history of Babyn Yar. But why was it bombed? This is beyond humanity.
Such a missile strike shows that for many people in Russia, our Kyiv is completely forgotten. They know nothing about our capital, about our history. But they have an order to erase our history – erase our country. Erase us all. On the first day of the war, Uman was brutally bombed, where hundreds of thousands of Jews come every year to pray. Then – Babyn Yar, where hundreds of thousands of Jews were executed.
I am now addressing all the Jews of the world – don’t you see what is happening? That is why it is very important that millions of Jews around the world do not remain silent right now.
Nazism is born in silence.
So shout about the killings of civilians.
Shout about the killings of Ukrainians.”
Thank you for your continued support and partnership in defending our values.
Sincerely,
Halie Soifer
CEO, Jewish Democratic Council of America