Paper short abstract:

This paper focuses on war-related tensions within Ukrainian Jewish communities and addresses how Ukrainian Jewish congregations and religious leaders navigate the challenges generated by being at once Jewish, Ukrainian, and part of the global ex-Soviet Jewish diaspora.

Paper long abstract:

Religious communities across Ukraine have been fragmented by Russia’s war on Ukraine. Based on the testimonies of Ukrainian Jewry, this paper analyses the range of responses of Jewish religious leaders and their communities to Russia’s invasion. The war has forced many religious emissaries to navigate pressing questions of ethical values and their commitments to religious and political alliances. The paper thus explores the responses of those leaders who have remained in the country, the choice of those to evacuate their congregations, and those who have experienced the horrific reality of living in occupation.

It further highlights how congregations that once spanned the former Soviet Union have been divided by differing understandings of the war, loyalties to different nation-states, and attachments to contrasting strains of collective memory. Many Jewish religious emissaries and congregants have family and friends in Russia. In support of Ukraine, many have severed ties with Jews remaining in Russia, while others express continued connection with their “brothers and sisters,” choosing to see Jews as “one people,” while most are ambiguous about the life of Jews in occupied territories. Some approve of religious leaders and Jews remaining in Russia, while others pass judgement. In this way, the paper seeks to understand how Jews in Ukraine have balanced their solidarity and support of the Ukrainian nation, the concerns of their community members, and the familial, linguistic, and organizational entanglements with Jews across the FSU.

I argue that the war has transformed religious paradigms and established power hierarchies, creating new forms of religious identity—either reorienting away from Russia and closer to Ukraine, or accentuating the idea that religious solidarity transcends national allegiance. The choice of a rabbi to stay with his community is seen in different context and by different actors as a confirmation and a betrayal of religious loyalty.