"Talking down the problem": The story of how AUCCRO representatives lied to the United States about the persecution of Jews in Donbas

The All-Ukrainian Council of Churches and Religious Organizations made another “advocacy” trip to the United States. Looking ahead, we can say that they “advocated” for the Ukrainian government, which passed a law banning the largest religious denomination in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Orthodox Church. It is noteworthy that all this is done with the taxes of Ukrainian citizens, a significant number of whom identify themselves as members of the UOC, but this is a lyrical digression.

Apparently, Zelenskyy realized that the “charm” of heroic resistance in the war with Russia alone cannot cover up this lawlessness. Moreover, American journalists who occasionally manage to talk to the head of the Ukrainian state persistently ask him why the Church is being banned in Ukraine. Zelensky reacts very painfully to such questions, shifting the responsibility either to the UOC itself, the Verkhovna Rada, or the AUCCRO. However, the regular delegation of representatives of Ukrainian denominations to the United States is clearly a distraction, in the context of which members of the AUCCRO constantly shift the problem, as they say, from a sore head to a healthy one.

For example, the last time the AUCCRO talked about how many religious buildings were damaged as a result of the fighting. At the same time, the organization was modestly silent about the fact that most of the damaged and destroyed churches belong to the UOC, whose ban they supported. In addition, during one of their previous visits, the government’s “lawyers” decided to focus on the number of clergy killed in the war. But this time they did not mention that most of them were clergymen of the UOC.

This time, the AUCCRO decided to use the favorite topic of the West – anti-Semitism. However, they seem to have seriously screwed up. Of course, the claims that since 2014 Jews have been actively persecuted in the uncontrolled territories and that their activities have almost become underground are designed for those who do not want to check such information. These are serious guys, in unusual suits and with beards! Can they lie? As it turned out, they can.

Jewish Donbas

Since 2014, as the AUCCRO delegates reported to representatives of the American Jewish Committee, Jewish religious life has been “curtailed in Donetsk and Luhansk.” What can be understood by this? Anything at all. For example, they did not allow lighting the Hanukkah candle or reciting a prayer on any of the days of remembrance for Jews. However, nothing of the sort has been observed in Donbas since 2014 to this day.

Of course, since the beginning of the ATO in 2014, things have not been going well for the Jews of Donbas. The media reports that many Jews in the Donetsk and Luhansk regions left their homes. Some went to the territories controlled by Ukraine, others to their historical homeland. However, it is worth noting that this is not at all related to the persecution of Jews in Donbas. This happened primarily for obvious reasons: war, death, and devastation. In addition, the migration of Donbas Jews after 2014 occurred because they had the opportunity. There is no doubt that not only Jews, but also Christians, atheists, and anyone else would have been happy to leave during the period of escalation at the front. But, alas… Many did not have such opportunities.

However, Jewish life in Donbas did not stop. There is still a synagogue, a Jewish center, and a school in Donetsk. In addition, according to the rabbi of the Donetsk synagogue, Aryeh Schwartz, who has lived in Donetsk since 2007, as of 2022, there were 3,000 to 4,000 Jews in the city. “We do not interfere in politics and are waiting for a decision that will bring peace to the region. Personally, I have not seen the arrival of Russian military equipment, and it is quiet now. But the whole situation in general causes concern among the residents of Donetsk, in particular among Jews,” – Rabbi Aryeh Schwartz said in an interview with “Vesti. Israel in Russian” on the first day of the Russian invasion of Ukraine.

A few years earlier, in 2017, the head of Hevra Kadisha, David Yusimov, said that a split had occurred in the Jewish community of Donetsk, as a result of which the region’s chief rabbi, Pinchas Vyshedsky, left for Kyiv, after which the Jewish Community of Donetsk was founded in exile. However, according to Yusimov, the picture of what is happening in Donbas after the creation of the unrecognized republics is far from the one painted by the Ukrainian media.

“This is a very nice picture: ‘everyone who could has left, only those who cannot leave remain’. But it is more in line with the expectations of the Ukrainian media, which portrays the situation in the city as horrible, where all normal people are fleeing, than with reality. Real life is much more complicated. When the panic over the hostilities began in 2014, people really felt a great fear for their lives and the lives of their children, and they began to leave. Those who left were primarily those who strongly associated themselves with the Kyiv authorities (while their relatives still live in Donetsk), as well as people for whom the property they had left in Donetsk was just one of their “assets,” along with, for example, their homes in Cyprus or other countries. Those for whom the property they had acquired was truly meaningful remained. People of different political views come to the synagogue, but one should not confuse a house of worship with a political arena. The main thing is the inner mood of people. Yes, it hurts, yes, you have to let everything go through you, but there are many people here who need encouragement and support. In addition, many people return to Donetsk after having lived in rented apartments. At the mere mention of the word “Donetsk”, realtors automatically raised the price, and the amount was so high that people could not afford to pay it. Nowadays, normal life is gradually restoring in Donetsk, and jobs are appearing, which often becomes an incentive to return,” – said Yusimov.

In short, neither in 2014, nor in 2022, nor, as one can understand, now, does anyone or anything threaten Jews’ ability to practice their religion in the territories not controlled by Ukraine. And even the difference in political views does not prevent Jews on both sides of the frontline from remaining faithful to their religious beliefs, while being “above the conflict.” Moreover, it is Russian and Ukrainian Jews who regularly prove to everyone that the Russian-Ukrainian war is a kind of convention for them that does not concern them in general.

A Jewish wedding as a marker

Imagine the news: “The niece of His Beatitude Metropolitan Onufriy married the cousin of Patriarch Kirill.” Such an event would have caused a huge scandal even before 2022, and even more so if it happened after the invasion. But the thing is that this is possible when nephews are nephews to whomever you want nephews. Or, as in our case, children are the right children.

For example, earlier this year, the Ukrainian media deliberately kept silent about the fact that the daughter of the Chief Rabbi of Russia, Berl Lazar, Rivka, married the son of the Chief Rabbi of Odesa and Southern Ukraine, Avraham Wolf, Sholem. The family got married on February 12 in Israel. And this is in the third year of the Russian-Ukrainian war! And this is at a time when priests of the UOC are being “sewn” criminal cases for correspondence in Telegram, and photos of literature in Russian or mentioning the royal family are being published during searches as a sign of favoritism to Russia.

However, no one came to the chief rabbi of Odesa and southern Ukraine, Avraham Wolf, with searches. No one arrested him or even subjected him to public condemnation. Everything is as it was before: calm and measured. But, by and large, a wedding like this could well have been a spy meeting, where the agents, having “checked their watches” and received new instructions to destabilize the situation, each left, one for Moscow, the other for Odesa.

“Nice try”, AUCCRO!

Such a small insight into the life of Jews in the controlled and uncontrolled territories of Ukraine is clearly at odds with the outright lies spread by representatives of the AUCCRO in Washington. Even the seemingly win-win topic of anti-Semitism was botched by the “woeful lawyers” of the Ukrainian authorities at the highest level. Of course, it is quite possible that the United States believed them, or perhaps pretended to believe them. Be that as it may, let’s get back to where we started – any trip of the AUCCRO abroad, starting in 2024, is nothing more than an attempt to “talk down the problem” of the ban on the UOC, which the government cannot in any way frame as something civilized.

It looks something like this. Americans ask: “Hey, why do you ban the Church there?” And they answer: “No, no. We are protecting our own security. And in general, don’t think about it! You’d better look at how the Russians are oppressing the Jews here!” It would be funny if it were not so sad.

Unfortunately, religion in Ukraine today, following the Soviet model, has turned into a service to the political interests of the state. The AUCCRO did not inspire much trust before, but now it is a purely “Potemkin village” that, if necessary, is sent on tours around the world at public expense to prove that everything is “fine” with freedom of speech in Ukraine. Of course, it would be worthwhile to pay attention to the moral and ethical component of this issue, but here we rely on God’s will.

It is worth noting that this state of affairs clearly shows that the government is well aware that banning the UOC is not a good thing. It is also quite clear that all this “talk in favor of the poor” that the AUCCRO imposes by telling tall tales about the persecution of Jews goes down extremely poorly with Western consumers, who, in fact, are not so simple. It turns out that this figurative puddle of gasoline has already been spilled beyond the borders of Ukraine, and the UOC can only throw a match to light the flame that will reveal the whole truth about the violation of the rights of believers in Ukraine. What our Church lacks is its “lawyers” abroad and its alternative to the AUCCRO, which has every chance of becoming international given the concern of the Local Churches with this issue.