Ever since Russian troops gathered at the Ukraine’s border and tension of war has been building up, Jewish communities have been leading a life on edge. Especially in Odessa, a port city in the southern region with the third largest population in Ukraine, Jews are constantly being reminded of previous wars.

There are around 100,000 Jews in Ukraine, including the country’s President Volodymyr Zelensky whose family members either died in the Nazi Holocaust, or fought in the Red Army during the World War II, 100 years ago. Currently, the country has the fourth largest numbers of Jews in Europe, at par with what Germany has. Jews have been living in Ukraine since 9th century, it even has some Jewish pilgrimages.

The community has been caught in the crossfire of history, including tumultuous periods of pogroms by Czars, Russian Revolution (1917-1923), two World Wars, birth of communism and the Soviet Union. Communists tried to suppress their religious expression and during World War II there were mass executions by the invading German army.

By the time, Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 large sections of the Jewish population had either been decimated or had migrated to other countries. Now Odessa has around 6 per cent Jews and there’s only a single crumbling synagogue.

The Joint Distribution Committee, the largest Jewish humanitarian organization in the world, serves over 37,000 elderly Jews in Ukraine—among them around 10,000 are Holocaust survivors. Also called Joints, the organization has helped Jews survive many tumults, including the Crimean War (2014) and Covid-19.

Since the end of January, the Israeli government has been mulling airlifting around 75,000 Ukrainian Jews -- thought to be eligible for Israeli citizenship under Law of Return. The law, passed in 1950, gives Jews the right to relocate to Israel and settle down as citizens there.

READ MORE:

https://forward.com/yiddish/482760/the-stormy-yet-rich-history-of-the-jews-in-ukraine/

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/02/21/world/europe/ukraine-jews-russia-evacuations.html

https://www.timesofisrael.com/as-russian-invasion-threat-looms-charities-find-it-harder-to-support-ukraines-jews/

https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/.premium.HIGHLIGHT-israel-jewish-groups-discuss-airlifting-ukraine-s-jews-in-case-russia-invades-1.105594