WASHINGTON, DC, May 22, 2018 - Late last week, leaders of Ukrainian Jewish organizations and communities met in Kyiv and released a statement on anti-Semitism. We share a translation of the statement below.
As a result of intensive discussions on important and urgent issues, leaders of Ukraine's Jewish communities and organizations have agreed to the following:
1. To express deep concern at the rise of anti-Semitic incidents and displays of xenophobia and intolerance, including attacks on Roma communities.
2. To welcome President Petro Poroshenko's and Interior Minister Arsen Avakov's statements that anti-Semitism is unacceptable and expressing the government's readiness to decisively fight displays thereof.
3. To call upon law enforcement agencies, including the police, the Security Service of Ukraine, and prosecutors to exert all efforts in locating and bringing to justice those guilty of anti-Semitic crimes, vandalism of Holocaust sites, and hate crimes.
4. To express our gratitude to Congressman Ro Khanna, Congressman David Cicilline, and other members of the US Congress; Organization on Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE); World Jewish Congress; US Holocaust Memorial Museum; the Anti-Defamation League; Euro-Asian Jewish Congress; American Jewish Committee; National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry; the US Embassy in Ukraine; the German Embassy in Ukraine; and the Israeli Embassy in Ukraine for their support in the fight against anti-Semitism
5. To strongly proclaim that Mr. Yosef Zissels and the organization VAAD do not represent all Ukrainian Jews. Mr. Zissels’ and VAAD's statements express only their respective positions.
6. To call upon the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to adopt the definition of anti-Semitism proposed by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance and to correct limitations to Article 161 of the Ukrainian Criminal Code that makes it ineffective.
7. To call upon the Ukrainian government to join the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance.
8. To congratulate the State of Israel on her 70th anniversary and welcome the relocation of the US Embassy to Jerusalem, the eternal and undivided capital of Israel, and to call upon Ukraine to follow the US moving its embassy to Jerusalem.
Signed:
President of the All-Ukrainian Congress of Jewish Religious Communities, Rabbi M.R. Asman
President of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Congress, Vadim Rabinovich
Director of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, Eduard Dolinsky
Director General of the Jewish Fund of Ukraine, Roxana Gamarnik
Chairman of the Board of the All-Ukrainian Association of Organizations MAKKABI, Victoria Dyakova
Regional Director of Hillel, Joseph Axelrod
President of the Jewish Confederation of Ukraine, Boris Fuksman
Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association of Prisoners of the Ghetto and Concentration Camps, Boris Zabarko
Director of the Religious United Community of Progressive Judaism, Alexander Gaidar
Director of the Kiev regional Jewish Community, Mark Talyansky
President of the Dnepropetrovsk Regional Jewish Community, Leonid Turchin
Director of Transcarpathian Regional Welfare Organization "Chesed Shpira," Mikhail Galin
President of Transcarpathian Regional Welfare Organization" Chabad Lubavitch Zakarpattya," Marina Kolesnik
Chairman of the Ternopil Oblast Organization "Jewish Community," Igor Banzeruk
Chairman of the Vinnytsia Regional Judaic Religious Community "Beys Menachem Lubavitch Vinnitsa," Igor Bargo
Chairman of the Vinnytsia City Jewish Community, Vladimir Borzhemsky
President of the Volyn Religious Community of Progressive Judaism, Ilya Miretsky
Chairman of the Khmelnytsky Regional Jewish Religious Community, Igor Ratushny
Chairman of Khmelnytsky Regional Religious Community, Rabbi Alexander Feingold
President of the Cherkassy Regional Association of Jewish Communities, Petr Rashkovsky
NGO "Mykolaiv Regional Jewish Community," Mikhail Goldenberg
Director of the Jewish Religious Community in the City of Kamenskoye, Leonid Breitman
Chairman of the Board Berdichev welfare organization "Star" Rav. Moshe Thaler
Director of the Zhitomir Jewish Religious Community, Sergey Medvedev
Director of Welfare Organization"EGC Mazal'tov," Inessa Nosenko
Chairman of Melitopol City Jewish Community, Anna Stetsenko
Chairman of Kropivnitskiy Reform Jewish Community "Atikva," Emma Spector
Chairman of the Jewish Community of Progressive Judaism in Lviv, Adel Dianova
Chairman of the Poltava Jewish Community, Leonid Sukhar
Chairman of the Jewish Religious Community of Kropivnitskiy, Rabbi Dan Zakuta
Chairman of the Nikolayev Jewish Community, Rabbi Sholom Gottlieb
Chairman of Mirgorod City Jewish Community, Mikhail Rutgaizer
Chairman of the Lubny City Jewish Community, Vladimir Mikota
Chairman of the Rivne City Jewish Community, Gennady Fraerman
Director of the Sumy Jewish Community, Alexander Galinsky
Chairman of the Glukhiv Jewish Community, Igor Sheshko
Chairman of the Kherson Jewish Community "Star of David," Alexander Vainer
Cherkassy City NGO "United Jewish Community," David Letichevsky
Director of Welfare Organization Tsiarii Chabad for the Jews of the Diaspora, Rabbi Moti Levenharts
Deputy Chairman of the Board of the International Jewish Community Center "Migdal," Roman Shvartsman
Chairman of the Jewish Community of Belaya Tserkov "Mitsva," Alexander Naivelt
For further comment, please contact NCSEJ CEO Mark B. Levin at MLevin@ncsej.org or at (202) 898-2500.
