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