8 | MARCH 17 • 2022
student’s corner
Let Freedom Prevail
“N
ever shall I
forget those
things, even
were I condemned to live
as long as God Himself.
Never,” wrote
Holocaust
survivor Elie
Wiesel in his
poem Never
Shall I Forget.
“We shall
never forget” is
often repeated
on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust
Remembrance Day, to mourn
the death of more than 6
million Jewish people. Six
million mothers, fathers,
brothers, sisters and friends.
Now, more than ever before,
it is the time to unify and
push back against world
leaders who attempt to revive
world powers of the past.
Ukrainian President
Volodymyr Zelensky is one
of as many as 400,000 Jewish
people still living in the
European country of Ukraine.
Zelensky’s grandfather was
the only brother of four
who survived the Holocaust.
Zelensky has displayed
tremendous bravery; the
Ukrainian embassy in Britain
says Zelensky refused United
States’ offers to escort him
away from Kyiv, Ukraine’s
capital city. Zelensky made
clear to the U.S., “I need
ammunition, not a ride.”
Babyn Yar, the site of the
massacre of 33,000 Jews in
World War II, is home to
a Holocaust memorial site.
This area was a recent vic-
tim of Russia’s attacks on
the 31-year-old independent
country of Ukraine. After
breaking off from the Union
of Soviet Socialist Republics
in 1991, Ukraine is once
again under scrutiny.
In modern times, Zionist
movements are often
obstructed by misinterpreta-
tion in the media and across
the world. Frankel Jewish
Academy (FJA) teaches that a
strong connection to Israel is
essential to the maintenance
of a strong Jewish people.
By maintaining a concrete
connection to Israel, we pre-
serve an influential Jewish
community. When the Jewish
people are banded togeth-
er, we are able to condemn
antisemitism and world lead-
ers attempting to disrupt our
self-sufficiency. Now is the
time to combat antisemitism.
Now is the time to support
Israel. It is our responsibility
to respond, and condemn,
any and all forms of antisem-
itism across the world. If
enough people hear and read
bigoted statements, we will
lose our ability to assert our
free will.
While events like the
Russian invasion into
Harry
Shaevsky
PURELY COMMENTARY
from Israel’s Minister of Diaspora Affairs
One People, Dispersed Around the Globe
T
he war raging in Ukraine
today has plunged Jews
in that country into the
most acute crisis that has faced
any large Jewish
community in
decades.
We, the global
Jewish commu-
nity, are therefore
facing the biggest
test in a genera-
tion to demon-
strate as a people the solidarity
and care for our brothers and
sisters facing such danger that
previous generations showed in
similar situations.
Ukraine is home to at least
200,000 Jews and those with
Jewish ancestry, comprising
one of the biggest Jewish com-
munities in the world outside
of Israel and the U.S. That
community, along with all other
Ukrainian citizens, is now fac-
ing the most dire circumstances
imaginable, from indiscriminate
aerial and artillery bombard-
ment to food shortages, loss of
property and possessions, and
exposure to the bitterly cold
Eastern European winter.
If ever there was a time for
the global Jewish community, in
Israel and the Diaspora, to take
responsibility for its brethren,
then that time is now.
I believe that the initial
response shown by the govern-
ment of Israel and world Jewry
represents the opening of a new
chapter of Jewish solidarity,
something which is particularly
needed and welcome in Israel.
In the past and even today,
the default attitude of many
Israelis, including opinion mak-
ers and senior government offi-
cials, to the concerns of Jews in
the Diaspora has often been to
tell them simply to make aliyah.
Even in the early 2000s, when
Jewish leaders were reviving
Jewish life in the former Soviet
Union, former prime minister
Ariel Sharon reprimanded them
for building Jewish life anew in
Dr. Nachman
Shai
Jewish Ukrainian refugees sit at an emergency shelter sponsored by
the IFCJ (International Fellowship of Christians and Jews) and the JDC
in Chisinau, Moldova, March 5, 2022.
NATI SHOHAT/FLASH90