A Jewish organization from Crimea said its Ukrainian bank account had been emptied of funds following Russia’s annexation of the peninsula. The disappearance of $3,157 from the account of the Jewish Ner Tamid association with Privatbank was reported Thursday by the ITAR-TASS news agency. The money “had been withdrawn,” the news agency quoted Anatoli Guendine,…
Getty Images Most of the Jewish and general world is fuming over Russian President Vladimir Putin’s takeover of Crimea. But some ultra-Orthodox Jews are positively delighted by it. This week, Grand Rabbi Moshe Shternbuch, the vice president of Israel’s Rabbinical Court and a descendant of the revered rabbi known as the Vilna Gaon (aka “Genius…
Israel abstained from the U.S.-led bid to isolate Russia at the United Nations in the wake of its takeover of Crimea, distancing itself from the U.S. policy of backing Ukraine in the conflict with its more-powerful neighbor. The non-binding resolution passed in the General Assembly Thursday 100-11, with 58 abstentions, calls on member states “to…
(JTA) — Russia’s annexation of Crimea, the strategically critical peninsula that dangles from Ukraine into the Black Sea, has drawn international condemnation. But for the leader of the All-Ukrainian Organization of Crimean Karaites — a group with an unusual heritage that draws from Jewish traditions — joining Russia is a welcome development. “In Crimea, the…
Crimea’s most prominent rabbi has fled to Kiev. But the Jewish community that remains is largely happy living in a fledgling Crimean republic under the control of the Russian Federation. Rabbi Misha Kapustin, who oversaw the region’s liberal Jewish congregations, moved to the Ukrainian capital ahead of Crimea’s March 16 referendum. Meanwhile, religious emissaries from…
A Ukrainian Jewish leader opposed to the Russian takeover of Crimea failed to drum up support this week from Israel, which is sitting out the crisis pitting its U.S. ally against Moscow. Edward Dolinsky, head of the Ukrainian Jewish Committee, made a lobbying trip to Jerusalem with influential Ukrainian Jewish lawmaker Alexander Feldman. They were…
Jews make up just 0.2% of Ukraine’s 44.5 million population. But to hear activists, analysts and commentators discussing the Ukrainian crisis, a listener could be forgiven for thinking that the fate of Ukrainian Jews is one of the central issues at stake. In recent weeks, Russian and Ukrainian politicians, as well as Ukrainian-Jewish leaders, have…
(JTA) — Shortly after Russian soldiers occupied the Crimean city of Sevastopol last week, Leah Cyrlikova took her two children out for an afternoon stroll in a city park. When they passed a group of soldiers, they stopped to have a friendly chat and pose with them for photos. While many Ukrainian Jews have strongly condemned…
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