KYIV -- When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in late February 2022, Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman was with his family in the Kyiv region village of Anatevka, which he co-founded in 2015 as a refuge for displaced people from violence stoked by Moscow in parts of eastern Ukraine.
“We had hundreds of displaced Jews from all over the Kyiv region,” Azman, a longtime leader of Ukraine’s Jewish community, told RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service. “My children and small grandchildren were there. We didn’t know how to save them.”
In the early hours of March 1, 2022, a Russian rocket attack targeting the Kyiv television tower struck the nearby Holocaust memorial at the Babyn Yar ravine.
“There were three Russian rockets that struck the television tower at Babyn Yar,” Azman recalled. “I immediately grabbed a Torah scroll and made an appeal to the Russians. Mentioning that I myself had been born in Leningrad, in Russia, in the Soviet Union, I said: ‘Stop the war! What are you doing?”
“It was a cry from the soul,” he added. “If you can tell the truth, but you don’t, then you are abetting a crime. The world needs to know the truth. Telling the truth is what I did after the Babyn Yar strike. It was a turning point in my life.”
Since then, Azman has made a mission of debunking Russian propaganda and false narratives about Ukraine and the invasion. In particular, he is outraged by unfounded assertions by Russian President Vladimir Putin and other Russian officials and state media that Ukraine is a “neo-Nazi” or “fascist” state.
Azman was elected chief rabbi of Ukraine in 2005 and is one of two claimants to the title.
“I began giving interviews and speaking the truth to the whole world because there is so much Russian propaganda,” Azman said in the interview on October 2. “I asked why they are deceiving the world and why are they lying with this talk of ‘de-Nazification.’ ‘You simply came here to kill people,’ I said.”
'Heirs Of The Fascists'
On the day before the Jewish New Year holiday of Rosh Hashanah last month, Azman met with President Volodymyr Zelenskiy along with a delegation of some 30 rabbis from across the country.
“In my speech, I said this meeting nullifies Russia’s narrative about ‘de-Nazification,” Azman said. “Because rabbis work here. The Jewish community is thriving and working. They are Ukrainian patriots. What kind of Nazi country is that?”
“Ukrainians elected a Jewish president,” he added.
In his speeches, Azman has appealed to Russia’s leadership to stop “speculating on the Jewish issue” and misusing the Holocaust for propaganda purposes.
“They have also exploited the victory in World War II, although that was a global victory over fascism, not a Russian one,” he said.
He argues that modern Russia has, on the contrary, acted like the “heirs of the fascists” during the Ukraine invasion.
“They bombard peaceful cities, including Russian-speaking cities,” he said. “Such as Kharkiv. They wiped the Russian-speaking city of Mariupol off the face of the Earth.”
Fighting 'For The Entire Civilized World'
Azman pointed out that 7 million Ukrainians fought in the Soviet Army against Nazi Germany and that more 2,500 Ukrainians have been honored by Israel as Righteous Among the Nations for risking their lives to save Jews from the Holocaust.
Azman noted that Ukraine has criminalized anti-Semitic hate crimes, and said he believes there is “considerably less” anti-Semitism in Ukraine “than in Russia or in Europe or in the United States, for that matter.”
The Jewish community has provided valuable support to Ukraine’s war effort, Azman said. Several hundred air-conditioning units have been provided to 16 military hospitals, as well as regular supplies of food and medicine. It also imports Israeli first-aid backpacks for medics to use in the field.
The community also arranged the purchase and importation of water-filtration systems from Israel for Ukrainian cities in the Odesa, Mykolayiv, and Kharkiv regions.
Azman continues to condemn the “horrific tragedy” of the Russian invasion, particularly during his frequent trips to Israel.
“This is a war in the center of Europe,” he said. “One strong country -- which itself experienced the horrible consequences of Nazi and fascist ideologies, as well as communism -- launched a bloody war in which thousands and thousands of innocent people in Ukraine have been killed.”
“There are many symbols,” he concluded. “The rockets that fell in Babyn Yar are a symbol. A symbol that war is evil. The whole world must do all it can to help good. Ukraine today is fighting for good. Not only for itself but for all of Europe, for the entire civilized world.”
