Tuesday, April 23, 2019
‘He finds laughter in the tragedy’: Comedian Volodymyr Zelensky set to become first Jewish president of Ukraine
Lines of corrugated iron, black hats and sidelocks guide you to the tomb of Rabbi Nachman. Somewhere inside the maze, dozens of joyous Hasidic pilgrims are reciting the 10 psalms they hope will will bring them relief from all sins.
They are some of the hundreds of thousands of Hasidic pilgrims that each year make their way to Uman, a town lost in the middle of Ukraine and arguably a previous century too.
Nachman, a mystical teacher somewhat obsessed with the transgression of "wasted seed" (masturbation), came to Uman’s hills in 1810, as a seriously ill man, close to death. According to legend, he wanted to rest here in order to die alongside the some 2,000 “martyrs” killed in the town’s infamous 1768 pogrom. Nachman told his disciples that they too should make the trip to Uman after his death – and since that time, the town has become the equivalent of a Hasidic Mecca.
Like the rest of Ukraine, Uman hasn’t always been a good place for Jews. Persecution has accompanied almost every stage of history: from the pogroms of the 19th and early 20th centuries to the Communists, who from 1917 sealed the city off from foreigners.
The worst page of history came in 1941, with Hitler’s invasion, sending the town’s entire Jewish population of at least 17,000 to open pits in one of the very first acts of the Holocaust.
But now, it seems, Uman, like the rest of the country, is about to break with tradition and help elect Ukraine’s first ever president with Jewish origins.
Bar a major upset, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky will beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko handsomely in this Sunday’s elections. Most predictions are now focused on the scale of his landslide, with numbers increasing with each new poll.
It’s a prospect that has created considerable excitement among locals – especially among the 6,000 or so Jewish returnee population.
Oleh Vyshnevetsky, head of the local Jewish community group, says Jews can “immediately” see a kindred spirit in Zelensky.
They were especially proud, he says, by the way the presidential favourite stood by his Jewish identity in rebuffing Ukraine’s populist ethnic-nationalist politician Oleh Lyashko, leader of the Radical Party. Lyashko had accused Zelensky of lacking patriotism. Zelensky jokingly responded by threatening to “unleash” his Jewish mother on him.
“We adore the way he manages to find laughter in the tragedy of our country,” he says.
But Zelensky’s appeal stretches far beyond the Jewish population. Remarkably, it extends also into groups who identify with national icons associated with serious antisemitic crimes, including collaboration with the Nazis in extermination practices.
Vyshnevetsky hopes Zelensky’s election will give the nation an opportunity to come to terms with its past.
“Almost every national hero is essentially an executioner of the Jewish nation,” he says. “But even Stepan Bandera’s supporters in western Ukraine are with Zelensky,” he says of the Ukrainian nationalist leader, who was assassinated in 1959.
“Maybe this will help find some peace.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-election-latest-volodymyr-zelensky-jewish-comedian-vote-a8877506.html
They are some of the hundreds of thousands of Hasidic pilgrims that each year make their way to Uman, a town lost in the middle of Ukraine and arguably a previous century too.
Nachman, a mystical teacher somewhat obsessed with the transgression of "wasted seed" (masturbation), came to Uman’s hills in 1810, as a seriously ill man, close to death. According to legend, he wanted to rest here in order to die alongside the some 2,000 “martyrs” killed in the town’s infamous 1768 pogrom. Nachman told his disciples that they too should make the trip to Uman after his death – and since that time, the town has become the equivalent of a Hasidic Mecca.
Like the rest of Ukraine, Uman hasn’t always been a good place for Jews. Persecution has accompanied almost every stage of history: from the pogroms of the 19th and early 20th centuries to the Communists, who from 1917 sealed the city off from foreigners.
The worst page of history came in 1941, with Hitler’s invasion, sending the town’s entire Jewish population of at least 17,000 to open pits in one of the very first acts of the Holocaust.
But now, it seems, Uman, like the rest of the country, is about to break with tradition and help elect Ukraine’s first ever president with Jewish origins.
Bar a major upset, comedian Volodymyr Zelensky will beat incumbent Petro Poroshenko handsomely in this Sunday’s elections. Most predictions are now focused on the scale of his landslide, with numbers increasing with each new poll.
It’s a prospect that has created considerable excitement among locals – especially among the 6,000 or so Jewish returnee population.
Oleh Vyshnevetsky, head of the local Jewish community group, says Jews can “immediately” see a kindred spirit in Zelensky.
They were especially proud, he says, by the way the presidential favourite stood by his Jewish identity in rebuffing Ukraine’s populist ethnic-nationalist politician Oleh Lyashko, leader of the Radical Party. Lyashko had accused Zelensky of lacking patriotism. Zelensky jokingly responded by threatening to “unleash” his Jewish mother on him.
“We adore the way he manages to find laughter in the tragedy of our country,” he says.
But Zelensky’s appeal stretches far beyond the Jewish population. Remarkably, it extends also into groups who identify with national icons associated with serious antisemitic crimes, including collaboration with the Nazis in extermination practices.
Vyshnevetsky hopes Zelensky’s election will give the nation an opportunity to come to terms with its past.
“Almost every national hero is essentially an executioner of the Jewish nation,” he says. “But even Stepan Bandera’s supporters in western Ukraine are with Zelensky,” he says of the Ukrainian nationalist leader, who was assassinated in 1959.
“Maybe this will help find some peace.”
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/europe/ukraine-election-latest-volodymyr-zelensky-jewish-comedian-vote-a8877506.html
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