Tue March 22, 2022
Dear Volodymyr Zelenskyy,
You are a master of public relations, a Churchill for your
country, a true patriot.
I am a Jewess, the daughter of Holocaust survivors.
Indeed, your country,
Ukraine , has been invaded and the reality is grim. Technology has
allowed you to appear in front of countries’ parliaments and on every TV
channel and the plight is clear, the Ukrainians will fight for their freedom
and sovereignty provided they can get the support and help from the outside
world.
Before I start, I need to remind you that if Israel ’s prime minister would have had to
appeal to the world with the same passion you use, he or she would not receive
the same sympathy and help. Why, because
Israel is a Jewish state. Remember when in May 2021 4000 plus rockets
aiming to destroy the country were fired from
Gaza at civilian targets and life in
Israel came to a standstill? Instead of sending help the world vehemently
protested against Israel for defending
itself.
So, we now need to clear up a few issues…
Jews have been and are always the underdog. For centuries
Jews have been the underdog, yet, they are still around while those who have
had the upper hand have vanished from the face of the earth. The Jewish state
of Israel is always the underdog in
every conflict it has had to defend herself. Yet, that underdog ends up
winning.
Mr. Zelenskyy, your country
Ukraine is the underdog against
Russia and usually Israel aligns
itself with the underdog. The truth is that in every war Israel was forced to
fight, the Israelis were the underdog because they were out-numbered, isolated,
and countries like the Ukraine chose to align itself with Israel’s enemies,
even vote in the UN against the Jewish state. I hope you recall this malign attitude.
In all fairness,
Israel does not owe Ukraine a
darn thing, zilch, nada, naught.
However, Israel chose
to help. It has sent Ukraine what aid it
feels is appropriate and has done so willingly. Vast amounts of humanitarian
aid, medical assistance, bullet proof ambulances and more were sent your way,
even a field hospital was set up on the border with Poland . No thanks from you but more push and
more push to help Ukraine even more and
if not, your gilt finger is pointed at
Israel , at the Jews.
For centuries the Ukrainians chased the Jews amongst them;
they humiliated them, lynched them and performed Pogroms of mass murder on
innocent Jews. Ukraine ’s history is
full of Jewish blood.
Your comparison of the Holocaust to today’s conflict is
abhorrent and insolent and historically incorrect. The European Jews didn’t
have a state, they lived in host countries; they did not have an army, no
military training, no anti-aircraft missiles, no 100,000 rifles to distribute
to them and nothing to defend themselves. They were stripped of any possible
defense. They never thought that their neighbors, their countrymen could do
them that much harm.
After the Rurik Prince Sviatoslav took Kyiv from the Khazars
in the mid-10th century, Jews began settling in the new capital of Kievan Rus’
– the motherland of Russians, Belarusians and Ukrainians.
If we speak about the Ukrainians in particular, let us not
even begin to describe how the majority of the Ukrainians treated the Jews
since the Jews became their neighbors. And there was no one to send them aid
and rescue missions in their time of distress. They took the brunt, whatever it
was and went on.
Mr. Zelenskyy, it is clear that you feel that Jews ‘owe you’
because you are Jewish, your parents are Jewish, and you are of Jewish descent.
Should I mention that your children are not only not-Jewish,
but with your permission, have been baptized?
In 2014, numerous Ukrainian news outlets reported that you,
Mr. Zelensky, christened your one year old son Kirill in one of the oldest
churches in the Ukrainian capital. As gifts, the baby received a Christian
Bible and a cross on a chain. The reports never mentioned that you were Jewish,
but one article noted that “your parents did not attend the christening
ceremony.”
I guess that Judaism was of no importance to you until there
was an urgent need to approach the Jewish state for help in your country’s time
of dire need.
So let us put it all in the proper order. First, you should
stop complaining that Israel is not
doing enough for Ukraine . It is.
Second, you should start saying thank you and show much gratitude. Third, next
time a vote comes up in the UN against
Israel , remember where Ukraine
's vote belongs. Remember how many Muslim and Arab countries there are, how
many of them want to devour the Jewish state while Israel acted … and won!
In 1941, when Nazi
Germany invaded the Soviet Union, which included Ukraine , there were an estimated 40 million
Ukrainians. Between 1.2 and 1.6 million Jews were murdered over the next few
years, with the enthusiastic collaboration of the vast, vast majority of
Ukrainian civilians. Ukraine, as a whole, was delighted to see the
extermination of its Jews. According to Yad Vashem, out of 40 million
Ukrainian, there are ONLY 2,619 righteous among the nations Ukrainians who
saved Jews during the Holocaust…the rest?!
And if you want Israel to continue its support for Ukraine, do
not continue comparing the situation your country is at present, where
tragically over 900 have so far died, to the systematic massacre of more than
six million Jews in World War II; do not dare to compare the Ukrainian victims
of this war to the victims who lie in mass graves all over Europe, like Babin
Yar, the ravine in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv, the site of massacres carried
out by Nazi Germany’s forces and their Ukrainian collaborators during its
campaign against the Soviet Union in World War II. The first and best
documented of the massacres took place on 29-30 September, 1941, murdering some
33,771 Jews.
Mr. Zelenskyy, for centuries to be a Jew in your country, to
have a Jewish name in your identification documents or be a ‘Jew’ when applying
for a job or when applying to attend school was disenfranchising. With this
Russian invasion war the best identification to have next to your name is
‘Jew’. Because there is a Jewish state named Israel that will be there to save
every Jewish soul in need and whisk him or her out of the trouble zone.
Israel, Jews, will always be there to help; not because you,
Mr. Zelenskyy, are a Jew or you have some Jewish blood running in your veins,
but because they are Jews and that is what Jews do, they master kindness
Nurit Greenger
*** During the 2006 second
Lebanon War, Nurit Greenger, referenced then as the “Accidental
Reporter” felt compelled to become an activist. Being an ‘out-of-the-box
thinker, Nurit is a passionately committed advocate for Jews, Israel , the
United States , and the Free World in general. From Southern California,
Nurit serves as a “one-woman Hasbarah army” for
Israel who believes that if you stand for nothing, you will fall for
anything.
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