Ukrainian Jews appeal to civil society
This is reported by Istorychna Pravda (Historical Truth).
We bring to your notice the full text of the appeal:
"We, Ukrainian Jews, like many Jews from different countries, certainly support the idea of perpetuating the memory of tens of thousands of Jews and people of other nationalities and faiths killed by the Nazis in Babyn Yar during World War II. The best representatives of our country and other nations have been fighting for this for many years. However, we do care who will implement this idea and at what cost.
We consider impossible and unacceptable any decision that provides for the construction of cemeteries and mass graves on the territory - this is absolutely contrary to Jewish and universal tradition and morality.
Therefore, we support the Ukrainian project of comprehensive memorialization of Babyn Yar, which does not provide for any fundamental construction on the land where Orthodox, Jewish, Karaite and Muslim cemeteries were located, and where the remains of tens of thousands of victims of Nazi executioners are buried. That is why we were outraged by the plans of the initiators of the creation of the Russian project of the Babyn Yar Holocaust Memorial Center (BYHMC) to build a so-called temporary memorial synagogue on the territory of the former St. Cyril Orthodox cemetery in the Babyn Yar road, just behind the Menorah monument.
This is not the first attempt by the leadership of the Russian project, which is cynical and unacceptable for religious Jews, as well as for believers of all faiths, and in general, for normal, decent people, to use the territory of cemeteries and the Babyn Yar Reserve to promote their provocative ideas and PR campaigns.
Let us remind the aesthetically dubious art installation dedicated to the anniversary of the beginning of the Babyn Yar shootings performed in September of this year, despite public protests, directly on the ground of the destroyed Jewish cemetery.
It is on this site that the initiators of the BYHMC promise to build a vast complex of Memorial-Museum in violation of all possible prohibitions and restrictions of the Jewish religion, as well as Ukrainian legislation and international obligations of Ukraine.
Jewish religious tradition clearly prohibits any construction on the sites of cemeteries and mass graves. The attempt to build a synagogue on the land of an Orthodox cemetery is an insult to Jewish spiritual and moral values, as well as a blatant provocation against Orthodox believers, against all whose relatives and friends are buried at the Kirillivsky cemetery.
Impunity inspires. It seems that the Russian billionaires who sponsored the project (Friedman, Khan and Fuchs) are more interested in provoking public outrage against its creation than in building the memorial.
The purpose of such provocations is to disrupt interfaith and interethnic peace in Ukraine, and those who oppose such blasphemous construction should be declared "terrible Ukrainian anti-Semites" all over the world.
People who declare themselves zealous for the memory of the victims of the Holocaust, even more than others, do not dare to desecrate burials – neither the places where Nazi victims died martyrdom nor the territories of cemeteries destroyed by the Soviet government.
A decent person cannot accept such sacrilege and has no such right to.
We ask those who share our position and concerns to support this appeal.
Please indicate in your responses to this email and the comments on FB whether you also allow your first and last name and country of residence to be attached to this request."
