MARCH 10 • 2022 | 9

Bandera, made every effort 
to collaborate with Germany 
in World War II, including 
the murder of Ukrainian 
Jews. Though the OUN did 
break with Germany, this was 
not due to any opposition to 
German antisemitism, but to 
the German refusal to permit 
an independent Ukrainian 
state.

PAST IS PROLOGUE. 
IT’S NOT DESTINY.
It is no surprise that many 
Jews’ first instincts toward 
Ukraine’s latest push for inde-
pendence were skeptical. But 
though past is prologue, it 
is not fate. The building of 
monuments to pogromists and 
Nazi collaborators, including 
Petliura, has drawn criticism 
from Jews in Ukraine and 
abroad, the existence of the 
Azov Battalion, a neo-Nazi 
national guard division, is 
a disgrace. Their influence, 
however, is unclear. The Azov 
Battalion numbers a few hun-
dred in a military whose regu-
lar strength crests at a quarter 
million. Meanwhile, far more 
national effort and expense has 
gone into commemorating the 
murder of Jews than into lion-
izing their killers.
Pew Polls on antisemitism 
in Europe have routinely 
found Ukraine among the least 
antisemitic countries in Europe 
(far lower than neighboring 
Russia). Antisemitic parties 
such as Svoboda and Pravyy 
Sektor have performed abys-
mally at the polls, gaining col-
lectively one seat in Ukraine’s 
parliament and 2% of the total 
vote in the most recent elec-
tions. By comparison, the far-
right Marie le Pen won nearly 
34% of the vote in France’s 
2017 presidential election while 
in Germany the Nazi-apologist 

Alternative for Germany won 
over 10% of the vote just last 
year.
And Ukrainian voters 
are not only voting against 
antisemites, but they are 
also actively voting for Jews. 
President Volodomyr Zelensky, 
whose heroic leadership has 
impressed the world, is a Jew. 
The former Prime Minister 
Volodomyr Groysman is a 
Jew as well. In neither’s cam-
paigns did their opponents 
use antisemitism against them, 
despite a political culture in 
Ukraine that all too willingly 
plays dirty. To the contrary, the 
only attention the media played 
to Zelensky’s Jewishness was to 
criticize him for not being suf-
ficiently involved in commem-
orations for the Babi Yar mas-
sacres. Antisemitism still exists 
in Ukraine, as it does in most 
countries. But all signs point 
to it being a minimal force in 
Ukrainian life. Ukraine has 
reinvented itself, reborn again 
without any Khmelnytsky, 
Petliura or Bandera, without 
the overwhelming antisemi-
tism that has so long animated 
its national movement.
One of the most sacred 
rights is the right to self-im-
provement, to be better today 
than you were yesterday. It is a 
right that exists for individuals 
and for communities. Ukraine 
has seized that right fully, if 
imperfectly, committing itself 
to be a better land than the one 
our ancestors left. Damn Putin 
for trying to take that away. 

Joshua Meyers is a scholar of mod-

ern Jewish history, with a particular 

interest in politics. Formerly affiliated 

with Stanford, Harvard and Queens 

College, he is currently an assistant 

director of a secondary school. His 

work has appeared in Jewish Social 

Studies, the Jewish Daily Forward, 

Tablet, Geschichte der Gegenwart and 

In Geveb.

PU

RI

M

2022

5:30 pm 

Family Musical Megillah & Shpiel* 

Questions and to receive the Zoom link for services and Megillah reading
contact one of the community partners 

Community-wide 

Wednesday, March 16 
at Adat Shalom Synagogue

Advance registration for breakfast required: 
info@bnaiisraelwb.org

7:00 am 
Service, Megillah reading*
& breakfast to-go

Thursday, March 17 
at B'nai Israel Synagogue

*Bring a box of pasta to use as a grogger 

then donate it to Yad Ezra

KN95 or N95 masks are required

7:30 pm 

Service & Megillah reading* 

6:00 pm

Carnival: games, inflatables, & music

Free of Charge | Dinner is available for purchase 
 Designated area to eat 

