Senior British rabbi stresses ‘the special Jewish resonance’ to events in Ukraine

A senior British rabbi has spoken of “the special Jewish resonance” to events in Ukraine as he prepared to accompany a former Archbishop of Canterbury and other religious leaders on a solidarity mission to the war-torn country.

Delegates who will visit a west Ukrainian city and refugee camps on the border include Senior Masorti Rabbi Jonathan Wittenberg, the former Archbishop Rowan Williams, and Bat-Ayin Chief Rabbi Daniel Kohn.

Others due to travel include Mustafa Ceric, the former Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, as well as an Orthodox Archbishop from the UK, and Italian Grand Imam, a French Hindu leader, and a senior French Buddhist.

“I’m hoping to get to listen to people and to testify to some of the pain, some of the wrongs, and to bring that back and talk about it,” said Wittenberg, ahead of his visit to Chernivtsi in the west of Ukraine, which is not currently being attacked.

“I’m hoping to get to listen to people and to testify to some of the pain, some of the wrongs, and to bring that back and talk about it,

He is due to see humanitarian work from organisations such as World Jewish Relief, having recently tweeted about Russia’s “brutal, treacherous cruelty against people whose country was murderously attacked for no reason”.

Wittenberg has been among the most outspoken rabbis on Russian war crimes in a land where Jews suffered so terribly during the Holocaust, talking of how “the bombing outside Kyiv has stirred up the graves and awoken the bones of the massacre at Babyn Yar [near Kyiv, where 33,700 Jews were shot over two days.]”

Speaking to Jewish News this week, he said: “This war is just such an outrage. Our hearts go out to the people of Ukraine and to the many, many refugees. I’ve never had my house bombed – I’ve been lucky – so I’m going to listen and to bear witness as the Torah commands us, to bear witness to the wrongs that are done.”

“the bombing outside Kyiv has stirred up the graves and awoken the bones of the massacre at Babyn Yar [near Kyiv, where 33,700 Jews were shot over two days.]

He added: “When the faiths stand together it is meaningful and that is what is being asked. But there is a special Jewish resonance here in terms of the profoundly rich but painful history of Jewish people in Ukraine – the cradle of Chasidism, the home of many Yiddish poets, the pogroms between the wars, and the appalling Nazi massacres. To be near those places will be extremely humbling.”

During the forthcoming visit, he is due to take part in a series of talks and performances held at Chernivtsi’s main theatre, with a focus on the devastation caused to the southern city of Mariupol by Russian forces.

Rabbi Alon Goshen-Gottstein, who is active in interfaith initiatives across central and eastern Europe, organised the event. “To the best of my knowledge, this is the first time ever that an interfaith delegation has undertaken a mission of friendship and solidarity, in entering a country at war,” he said.