President of Ukrainian Jewish Committee grateful to UGCC for saving Jews during war

The Ukrainian Jewish Committee (UJC) welcomes the renaming of a street in Lviv after the Blessed Omelian Kovch.

According to the president of the UJC, Oleksandr Feldman, Omelyan Kovch is a true example of a great Ukrainian, an example of humanity and self-sacrifice in the name of Faith.

Feldman also believes that long-time consistent position of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church (UGCC) aimed at restoring historical justice and strengthening mutual respect between people of different religions and nationalities deserves individual human gratitude.

“I always knew that in me beloved Lviv live deep traditions of tolerance, based on spiritual, cultural and civic dignity,” said Feldman.

On May 18 in Lviv, Vinnytsia Street was renamed Fr. Omelian Kovch Street, and on May 11 in Peremyshlyany, with the participation of the head of the UGCC Patriarch Sviatoslav Shevchuk and more than a thousand priests and hierarchs of the UGCC, a monument to the Blessed Priest Omelian Kovch was unveiled.

Omelian Kovch is a holy martyr of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, a priest, a “righteous of Ukraine.” During the German occupation he rescued Jews and sent a letter to Adolf Hitler, in which he condemned the genocide of Jews.

For this in 1942 Kovch was arrested and imprisoned in the Majdanek concentration camp, where he secretly continued his pastoral activity. He was killed and burned in a gas chamber in 1944.

According to Oleksandr Feldman, the Ukrainian Jewish Committee also supports the recognition of Metropolitan of the UGCC Andrey Sheptytsky as a Righteous among the Nations, LB.ua reports.