Ukraine Jews Celebrate Petro Poroshenko Win — and Far Right Defeat
Image by getty images
Jewish leaders in Ukraine expressed satisfaction with the poor showing of ultranationalist candidates in the country’s presidential elections and the victory by oligarch Viktor Poroshenko.
Poroshenko, from Odessa, won 54.4 percent of Sunday’s vote, eliminating the need for a second round, the Ukrainian Central Elections Commission announced Tuesday after counting 94 percent of the votes cast.
“The resounding victory of Poroshenko in just about every region of Ukraine not only eliminated the need for a costly second round but also sends an important message of unity,” said Josef Zissels, chairman of the Vaad Association of Jewish Organization and Communities of Ukraine.
Former Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko was second with 12.9 percent of the vote. Vadim Rabinovich, a Jewish community leader and businessman, finished seventh with 2.3 percent — more than the combined number of votes cast for Oleg Tyagnybok of the ultranationalist Svoboda party and for Dmytro Yarosh, leader of the Right Sector movement.
“The failure of the ultranationalists reflects a reality which we have been trying to represent all the time despite Russian propaganda’s attempt to portray Ukrainian society as intolerant,” Zissels told JTA.
Alexander Levin, president of the Jewish Community of Kiev, wrote on Facebook that Tyagnybok and Yarosh’s failure to match Rabinovich “showed that in Ukraine, there is no policy of-Semitism, period.”
Rabinovich called on Poroshenko to dissolve the parliament within 100 days and call a new parliamentary election.
Igor Schupak, a prominent figure in the Jewish community of Dniproptrovsk and director of the city’s Jewish museum, said he believed Porosheko was “certainly equipped to lead Ukraine at this critical time with his vast experience and set of skills that range from banking to foreign policy.”
The election followed the ouster in February of President Viktor Yanukovych in a revolution that began in November over his alleged corruption and perceived allegiance to Russia.
Russian-backed troops later captured the Crimean Peninsula, which Russia annexed on March 18. Several locales in Russia are held by pro-Russian militiamen, including the eastern city of Donetsk, where some voters were prevented from reaching ballots amid fights between the separatists and government forces.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
