On March 1, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, Moshe Reuven Azman, addressed his colleagues in Russia, the Russian people and the Jews of the Central Synagogue in Kyiv, the historic Brodsky Synagogue.
This was reported by Radio Svoboda.
"People, stop the war! Don't believe what you are told on TV - they are lying to you! A war crime is taking place here. Russian army… bombs civilians today - Kyiv, Kharkiv… Babi Yar has just been shelled. It is symbolic - they kill innocent elderly, women and children in Babyn Yar, where 200,000 murdered Jews lie. Today, Jews are calling me from all over Kyiv, and not only Jews - Ukrainians, Russians - asking for help. Every day, I try to help and save civilians - the elderly, women, and children. Elderly women call saying they are dying without medicines. Mothers call and say that children suffer from bombings. They also need food. Our volunteers are endangered throughout Kyiv and the Kyiv region," said the rabbi while holding the sacred Torah scroll.
"I haven't left because I am not indifferent, and I will not leave my community. I am a rabbi of Ukraine, and I am proud to have been honored to save people and be on the side of the Light, not on the side of the murderers. I was silent for a long time - I can't be silent anymore… I'm not afraid to die. Even in my worst dreams, I never thought I might have to die under Russian missiles - I was born in Russia, I went to school and I have many friends there. Those friends are now silent - nobody called. People call from all over the world, Jews and non-Jews, even Arabs call me from Israel and support me. When targeting terrorists, the Israeli army uses high-precision missiles so that, God forbid, civilians are not harmed. Here they hit us with "Grad" artillery, tanks, rockets, airstrikes - this is not a high-precision weapon. What's going on? War! War! People, wake up, I beg you," said Moshe Reuven Azman, recalling the words of the Shma, Israel prayer, with which the Jews of Kyiv went on their last journey to Babyn Yar in 1941.
Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman was born in 1966 in Leningrad, now St. Petersburg. He is the founder of the town of Anatevka in the Kyiv region, where Jewish refugees from the war in Donbas found refuge.