Ukrainian Girls Recovering After Antisemitic Attack
Two Ukrainian Jewish girls are recovering from injuries they received in an antisemitic attack earlier this month. Natasha Zhvakalyuk, 11, underwent surgery on her nose, and Sveta Abramovich, 16, received medical treatment for a concussion. Both girls have left the hospital. The two were among a group of Orthodox children attacked in Southern Ukraine. Thirteen students from a Chabad Jewish day school in Simferopol, accompanied by two adults, were beaten by two-dozen young men, aged 17 to 20, as they were coming home from services January 8. According to witnesses, the attackers shouted, “Here are the Jews!” The incident went unreported in the local and the national media. Local police reportedly arrested one of the alleged attackers.
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.
