Officer Testifying In Impeachment Query Is Jewish Refugee From Ukraine
National Security Council Director for European Affairs Alexander Vindman arrives for a closed-door deposition at the Capitol in Washington, DC on October 29, 2019. Image by MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images
By Ron Kampeas October 29, 2019
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, the National Security Council staffer set to deliver dramatic testimony confirming that President Donald Trump sought dirt on a political rival from Ukraine, is a Jewish refugee from that country when it was part of the Soviet Union.
“I did not think it was proper to demand that a foreign government investigate a U.S. citizen, and I was worried about the implications for the U.S. government’s support of Ukraine,” Vindman, an army officer and the top NSC official handling Ukraine, says in testimony posted Monday evening by the New York Times, which he is set to deliver to congressional investigators on Tuesday.
Trump has denied that he sought a quid pro quo in a July phone call with the Ukraine president, Volodymyr Zelensky, in which he asked the Ukrainian to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden, a leading contender for the Democratic presidential nomination. Trump simultaneously was withholding close to $400 million in congressionally approved defense assistance to Ukraine. he released the assistance last month, and has insisted that it was not withheld as a means of pressuring Ukraine to seek dirt on the Bidens.
Vindman, who listened in on the conversation in his official capacity, would be the first whistleblower to have first-hand knowledge of the call.
“I realized that if Ukraine pursued an investigation into the Bidens and Burisma it would likely be interpreted as a partisan play which would undoubtedly result in Ukraine losing the bipartisan support it has thus far maintained,” he said. Burisma is a mining concern that for a period employed Biden’s son, Hunter. Allegations by Trump and others that Biden and his son were engaged in corrupt behavior have not been substantiated.
Vindman earned a purple heart when he was wounded in Iraq.
An online album by Carol Kitman, a photographer, documents the life of Vindman and his twin brother Eugene, who also served in the military, since she spotted them, then 4, strolling in Brighton Beach in New York City, with their grandmother. They had arrived from the Soviet Union in 1979, according to Kitman.
Kitman used the boys as models in a Jewish counting book, “One Mezuzah.” One photo shows them learning Torah from a rabbi, the husband of her coauthor.
Another photo shows Alexander marrying his wife, Rachel, under a tallit. Eugene is a lawyer on the national security council.
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. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
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.
