IT’S EERIE, IT’S HORRIFYING
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It’s eerie being witness to what is going on in Europe these days, the sudden and unexpected uprooting and utter dislocation of Ukrainian citizens, finding themselves victims in their beloved, historic peace-seeking democratic nation. It’s beyond eerie; it’s horrifying. Fear is rampant in the faces of those seeking to save their lives, fleeing with the clothes on their backs and children in their arms as they gather in subway stations and basements, hoping to avoid indiscriminate Russian-fired missiles.
It’s all indiscriminate, nothing like the specific targeting of Jews for annihilation because they were Jews during the Holocaust. It was a death sentence for any Jew anywhere, for any Jewish person marked with the infamous “J” wherever they could be found. But still, the current images of women and children, huddled together in subterranean Ukraine… |
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It’s a flashback to the many tragedies of World War II, the flight of refugees in any war, finding themselves in the wrong time and the wrong place. It’s so eerie, not at all difficult to imagine the flight of victims from a brutal, murderous dictator some 80 years ago. There are so many differences between Hitler and Putin, but maybe not so many. Each sought greatness for father Deutschland and now mother Russia, to expand their historic lands into a vast empire swallowing up anyone in their voracious paths with their emperors as all-knowing seeking to secure a place of greatness in history. Such murderous delusions when all that ordinary people want is to be free and live in peace.
The world is no longer neither standing nor bystanding idly by, and this is good. Western nations, the EU, the US and NATO are arming Ukrainians so they can live to see another day. But is this enough? Is arming the Ukrainians enough? This is now among the most seering questions of our times. Such a question raises moral dilemmas for nations in addition to strategic ones, especially when the enemy is a nuclear power.
When we affirm repeatedly Never Again as it applies particularly to the systemic annihilation of the Jewish people, does that Judaic historic sensibility also extend to include never again to the Russian annihilation of a whole other nation and its citizenry? Is this a genocide? Is there a difference between targeted civilian casualties as part of military operations and genocides, people murdered because of their ethnicity, race, religion or features that identify whole groups of people for whom they are? We have of course witnessed other attacks on other peoples and their nations. Just consider Armenia, Rwanda, Bosnia, the Muslim Rohingya people by the Burmese military, Darfur, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, Yazidis by the Islamic State, and Native American Indians for example. Is there a difference between military operations that include forced deportations, mass casualties that occur in wartime and the intentional annihilation of people because of their identities?
Scholars, nations and the United Nations all argue these questions, but presently to the people of Ukraine such distinctions make no difference. Murder is still murder and death is still death. These are questions we must be asking these days. These questions are among the moral imperatives of our day, but presently murder is still murder and death is still death.
None of us can believe that Europe is on fire again. None of us can believe that the blood-drenched soil of centuries of European conflicts can even tolerate more blood and yet, here it is again. As Jews and as human beings we must be asking these questions of ourselves and in what ways we can help save lives. Certainly one of the greatest moral imperatives of Judaism is: Be kind to the stranger because we were once strangers in a strange land.
The history of the Jewish people runs deep, dating back 1000 years in Ukraine, and continues to this day with estimates of some 200,000 Jewish citizens. For many Jews, Ukraine conjures memories of pogroms, anti-Semitism and Babi Yar. But today’s Ukraine has learned from its past and has even elected a Jewish President.
If history has taught us anything it is that we must act collectively to uphold the value of human life in the face of tyranny. We pray for the safety of all the people of Ukraine. We call upon our government to use every tool possible to help halt the Russian onslaught. We encourage helping the Ukrainian Jewish community and all the peoples of Ukraine in whatever ways we can and we recommend considering among others the following organizations:
The American Joint Distribution Committee
HIAS
UNICEF
We continue to pray for the day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation and neither shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:4). In the meantime, we must do all we can to blunt the severity of Putin’s brutality.
The world is no longer neither standing nor bystanding idly by, and this is good. Western nations, the EU, the US and NATO are arming Ukrainians so they can live to see another day. But is this enough? Is arming the Ukrainians enough? This is now among the most seering questions of our times. Such a question raises moral dilemmas for nations in addition to strategic ones, especially when the enemy is a nuclear power.
When we affirm repeatedly Never Again as it applies particularly to the systemic annihilation of the Jewish people, does that Judaic historic sensibility also extend to include never again to the Russian annihilation of a whole other nation and its citizenry? Is this a genocide? Is there a difference between targeted civilian casualties as part of military operations and genocides, people murdered because of their ethnicity, race, religion or features that identify whole groups of people for whom they are? We have of course witnessed other attacks on other peoples and their nations. Just consider Armenia, Rwanda, Bosnia, the Muslim Rohingya people by the Burmese military, Darfur, Cambodia under the Khmer Rouge, Yazidis by the Islamic State, and Native American Indians for example. Is there a difference between military operations that include forced deportations, mass casualties that occur in wartime and the intentional annihilation of people because of their identities?
Scholars, nations and the United Nations all argue these questions, but presently to the people of Ukraine such distinctions make no difference. Murder is still murder and death is still death. These are questions we must be asking these days. These questions are among the moral imperatives of our day, but presently murder is still murder and death is still death.
None of us can believe that Europe is on fire again. None of us can believe that the blood-drenched soil of centuries of European conflicts can even tolerate more blood and yet, here it is again. As Jews and as human beings we must be asking these questions of ourselves and in what ways we can help save lives. Certainly one of the greatest moral imperatives of Judaism is: Be kind to the stranger because we were once strangers in a strange land.
The history of the Jewish people runs deep, dating back 1000 years in Ukraine, and continues to this day with estimates of some 200,000 Jewish citizens. For many Jews, Ukraine conjures memories of pogroms, anti-Semitism and Babi Yar. But today’s Ukraine has learned from its past and has even elected a Jewish President.
If history has taught us anything it is that we must act collectively to uphold the value of human life in the face of tyranny. We pray for the safety of all the people of Ukraine. We call upon our government to use every tool possible to help halt the Russian onslaught. We encourage helping the Ukrainian Jewish community and all the peoples of Ukraine in whatever ways we can and we recommend considering among others the following organizations:
The American Joint Distribution Committee
HIAS
UNICEF
We continue to pray for the day when nation shall not lift up sword against nation and neither shall they learn war anymore (Isaiah 2:4). In the meantime, we must do all we can to blunt the severity of Putin’s brutality.
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