{"id":52123,"date":"2026-04-14T18:52:27","date_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:52:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/ukraine-rabbi-shares-holocaust-lessons-while-serving-war-torn-kyiv-community\/"},"modified":"2026-04-14T18:52:27","modified_gmt":"2026-04-14T22:52:27","slug":"ukraine-rabbi-shares-holocaust-lessons-while-serving-war-torn-kyiv-community","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/ukraine-rabbi-shares-holocaust-lessons-while-serving-war-torn-kyiv-community\/","title":{"rendered":"Ukraine Rabbi Shares Holocaust Lessons While Serving War-Torn Kyiv Community"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<figure class=\"wp-block-image size-large\"><img data-recalc-dims=\"1\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"189\" height=\"54\" src=\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776207147603.jpg?resize=189%2C54&#038;ssl=1\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-52122\"\/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>Rabbi Jonathan Markovitch serves as Kyiv&#8217;s chief rabbi and senior Chabad representative, where Holocaust remembrance carries deeply personal meaning. His family&#8217;s tragic history intertwines with his current mission of helping a war-torn community rebuild Jewish life in Ukraine.<\/p><p>During an interview with The Media Line on Yom HaShoah, Holocaust Remembrance Day, Markovitch described his connection to the tragedy as a personal responsibility. &#8220;This is something I live with,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;Something I feel.&#8221;<\/p><p>His grandmother survived Auschwitz, and he recalls seeing the tattooed number on her arm during his youth in Israel. &#8220;She was in Auschwitz,&#8221; he remembered. &#8220;I remember the number tattooed on her arm.&#8221; As a young person, he admits the full impact didn&#8217;t register initially. &#8220;I understood less. I thought less about it, like many young people,&#8221; he said, noting that his grandmother rarely discussed her experiences even when asked.<\/p><p>Later, Markovitch learned about an even more horrific chapter of his family&#8217;s story. His grandfather&#8217;s relatives weren&#8217;t deported to camps but were murdered by neighbors in their Ukrainian village. &#8220;They were burned alive,&#8221; he recounted. &#8220;They put them inside a wooden building and burned them.&#8221;<\/p><p>&#8220;I am talking about the neighbors,&#8221; he emphasized.<\/p><p>His grandfather escaped that massacre but was later captured and sent to Auschwitz. After the war ended, he and Markovitch&#8217;s grandmother rebuilt their lives and started a family. This journey from devastation to renewal became the foundation for Markovitch&#8217;s own life philosophy.<\/p><p>Growing up in Israel, the educational message was clear about preventing future atrocities. &#8220;They taught us that we must do everything so that it will not happen again,&#8221; he said. This conviction influenced his military service. &#8220;When I enlisted, I thought I need to do everything I can so that it will not happen again, and that we must be strong.&#8221;<\/p><p>More than ten years later, Markovitch chose a different approach to honoring that legacy. Instead of remaining in Israel, he relocated to Ukraine, where Jewish communities had been nearly destroyed. His grandfather had served as chief rabbi in what is now western Ukraine. &#8220;We decided to come back to continue the family tradition,&#8221; he said. The choice was intentional. &#8220;It was a very thought-out decision.&#8221;<\/p><p>The Ukraine he found wasn&#8217;t empty of Jewish residents, but their connection to their heritage had been severed. &#8220;Dozens of thousands of Jews lived in Kyiv,&#8221; he said, estimating approximately 50,000 currently reside there. &#8220;But most of them did not know anything about Judaism. Not religion, just basic identity.&#8221; He attributed this disconnection to decades of Soviet policies designed to eliminate Jewish cultural and historical identity.<\/p><p>&#8220;The communist period tried to erase everything,&#8221; he explained. &#8220;If we do not support each other and rebuild, then the Nazis won. Because they erased the memory.&#8221;<\/p><p>His work in Kyiv today focuses on restoring what was lost, extending beyond religious practice to cultural identity.<\/p><p>This erasure also affected how Holocaust sites were commemorated. At Babyn Yar, one of Europe&#8217;s largest mass killing locations where Nazis and collaborators murdered 33,000 Jews over two days in September 1941, victims weren&#8217;t officially recognized as Jewish for decades. &#8220;They did not say this was a place where Jews were murdered,&#8221; Markovitch said. &#8220;They said it was a burial place of Soviet citizens.&#8221;<\/p><p>This pattern extended throughout Ukraine and the former Soviet Union, where mass graves were acknowledged but not described in Jewish terms.<\/p><p>Local residents still remember disturbing discoveries from that era. When Babyn Yar became a park, children playing in the area would sometimes uncover human remains without understanding their significance. &#8220;People tell me that when they were children, they played there,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They found bones, skulls. They did not understand what it was.&#8221;<\/p><p>Official recognition has evolved gradually and inconsistently. For years, government commemorations characterized Babyn Yar as a general tragedy affecting Soviet citizens. &#8220;Only gradually did it change,&#8221; he said, noting that even recently, political leaders resisted acknowledging responsibility. &#8220;There were cases where they were asked to apologize to the Jewish people, and they refused,&#8221; he said.<\/p><p>This reluctance reflects a broader pattern of avoiding accountability. &#8220;I do not hear public figures say, &#8216;We made a mistake,'&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is always someone else&#8217;s fault.&#8221; However, he notes recent improvements, with officials now participating more actively in Babyn Yar commemorations.<\/p><p>The ongoing war adds another layer to his community&#8217;s challenges. While many initially fled Kyiv, others have arrived from heavily contested areas. &#8220;At the beginning of the war, many people left,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Later, many came to Kyiv from the fighting areas.&#8221; He described families arriving from cities like Mariupol and Kharkiv with virtually nothing. &#8220;Some people left in slippers,&#8221; he said, highlighting how suddenly they were displaced.<\/p><p>Many remain in Ukraine due to family obligations and military conscription. &#8220;There are families where the husband was drafted, or a son was taken to the army,&#8221; he said. &#8220;They will not leave without him.&#8221; For elderly residents especially, psychological barriers can be as significant as practical ones. &#8220;It is easier to stay with something that is not good but familiar than something that might be better but unknown,&#8221; he observed.<\/p><p>His community responds by transforming synagogues into aid distribution centers. &#8220;We distribute thousands of food packages every month,&#8221; he said, describing a system entirely dependent on donations. &#8220;When someone gives, we say thank you, because they are literally saving lives.&#8221;<\/p><p>Community centers also provide daily meals, medical care, and social activities, particularly for elderly residents. &#8220;They come for a hot meal, and there is also a doctor,&#8221; he said, describing efforts to maintain both physical and social stability during disruption.<\/p><p>The connection between current warfare and Holocaust memory isn&#8217;t straightforward or consistent. &#8220;At the beginning, maybe people felt a connection,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But today, unfortunately, much less.&#8221; Instead, he points to a concerning trend of rising antisemitism.<\/p><p>&#8220;Antisemitism has increased,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It continues to grow.&#8221; He described how global narratives get absorbed locally, often without distinguishing between political criticism and broader hostility toward Jewish people. &#8220;They say Israel kills children, that Israel is an apartheid state,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And from that, they draw conclusions about Jews everywhere.&#8221;<\/p><p>These narratives sometimes develop into conspiracy theories. &#8220;They say Jews control the world, that Jews are responsible for the war here,&#8221; he said, noting the disconnect from reality. &#8220;They forget that Jews here are also fighting.&#8221;<\/p><p>He shared a recent conversation with a Ukrainian official who viewed Israel&#8217;s actions against Iran as harmful to Ukraine because they diverted global attention. Markovitch challenged that perspective directly. &#8220;I told him the opposite,&#8221; he said. &#8220;Iran supports Russia. If Iran is weakened, it helps Ukraine.&#8221; The official reconsidered his position. &#8220;He said, &#8216;Now I think you are completely right.'&#8221;<\/p><p>Holocaust commemoration dates differ between Jewish communities and the Ukrainian state. While Jewish communities observe Yom HaShoah, state ceremonies typically occur at different times, usually around Babyn Yar closer to Yom Kippur. &#8220;There is no official state event today,&#8221; he said.<\/p><p>Despite challenges, he sees encouraging developments, particularly in education. &#8220;The Ministry of Education is starting to include what happened to the Jews,&#8221; he said. &#8220;This is a complete change in approach.&#8221; For Markovitch, this shift is crucial for ensuring memory is both preserved and understood.<\/p><p>His message for Yom HaShoah avoids both oversimplification and despair. &#8220;We must never forget the events that were done to us,&#8221; he said. &#8220;But we must not live inside it.&#8221; This distinction, he suggests, is essential for maintaining both memory and forward progress.<\/p><p>&#8220;We have to move forward, to learn from it, so that it will not happen again,&#8221; he said.<\/p><p>For him, the focus extends beyond the past to present actions. In Kyiv, this manifests in practical ways. People continue arriving in the city from other regions. Some simply try to maintain daily routines. The war remains ever-present. Simultaneously, the past stays close. Residents know the locations and understand what occurred there.<\/p><p>For Markovitch, this represents reality. Moving forward becomes necessary because alternatives don&#8217;t exist. &#8220;Everything depends on us,&#8221; he said. &#8220;On our strength, and on our understanding of what we must do, not to wait for someone else to do it for us.&#8221;<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rabbi Jonathan Markovitch, chief rabbi of Kyiv, reflects on Holocaust remembrance while serving his community during Ukraine&#8217;s ongoing war. He emphasizes the importance of remembering the past without being trapped by it, as his synagogue provides food and aid to thousands of displaced families.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":52122,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[835],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52123","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-religious"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776207147603.jpg?fit=189%2C54&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pbtNqq-dyH","jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":51533,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/israel-honors-holocaust-victims-with-focus-on-family-bonds-at-yad-vashem-ceremony\/","url_meta":{"origin":52123,"position":0},"title":"Israel Honors Holocaust Victims with Focus on Family Bonds at Yad Vashem Ceremony","author":"Admin","date":"April 13, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Israel commemorated Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day on April 13 with a ceremony at Jerusalem's Yad Vashem memorial, centering this year's observance on the theme of Jewish family life. The event highlighted how families served as sources of strength during the Holocaust and became symbols of renewal for survivors\u2026","rel":"","context":"In &quot;World News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"World News","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/world-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776118036745.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":52203,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/survivors-thousands-gather-at-auschwitz-as-world-marks-holocaust-remembrance\/","url_meta":{"origin":52123,"position":1},"title":"Survivors, Thousands Gather at Auschwitz as World Marks Holocaust Remembrance","author":"Admin","date":"April 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Holocaust survivors joined thousands of participants at the Auschwitz concentration camp for the March of the Living commemoration. Meanwhile, Israel conducted its official Holocaust remembrance ceremony in Jerusalem amid ongoing wartime tensions.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;World News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"World News","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/world-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776220640363.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776220640363.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776220640363.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776220640363.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":51881,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/holocaust-survivors-join-thousands-at-memorial-march-in-poland\/","url_meta":{"origin":52123,"position":2},"title":"Holocaust Survivors Join Thousands at Memorial March in Poland","author":"Admin","date":"April 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Fifty Holocaust survivors joined thousands of participants in Poland for the 38th annual March of the Living at Auschwitz on Holocaust Remembrance Day. The event honored the 6 million Jews killed during World War II and highlighted concerns about rising antisemitism worldwide.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;World News&quot;","block_context":{"text":"World News","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/world-news\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776175698641.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776175698641.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776175698641.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776175698641.jpg?fit=1000%2C666&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":52129,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/religious-leader-condemns-japanese-tv-hosts-comments-about-kushners-faith\/","url_meta":{"origin":52123,"position":3},"title":"Religious Leader Condemns Japanese TV Host&#8217;s Comments About Kushner&#8217;s Faith","author":"Admin","date":"April 14, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"A prominent rabbi has criticized a Japanese television commentator who suggested Jared Kushner should not participate in Iran negotiations because of his Jewish faith. The incident occurred during Holocaust Memorial Week and has sparked concerns about rising antisemitism worldwide.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religious&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religious","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/religious\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776207150126.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":55369,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/library-book-challenges-rise-holocaust-knowledge-gaps-among-young-americans\/","url_meta":{"origin":52123,"position":4},"title":"Library Book Challenges Rise; Holocaust Knowledge Gaps Among Young Americans","author":"Admin","date":"April 21, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"The American Library Association reports a surge in challenges to books containing LGBTQ themes and adult content. A new survey reveals nearly half of young Americans cannot identify a single Nazi concentration camp.","rel":"","context":"In &quot;Religious&quot;","block_context":{"text":"Religious","link":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/category\/religious\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776768735796.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776768735796.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776768735796.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776768735796.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=700%2C400 2x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/news-1776768735796.png?fit=1200%2C675&ssl=1&resize=1050%2C600 3x"},"classes":[]},{"id":62987,"url":"https:\/\/tvdelmarva.com\/wp\/german-artists-memorial-stones-transform-berlin-streets-into-holocaust-remembrance\/","url_meta":{"origin":52123,"position":5},"title":"German Artist&#8217;s Memorial Stones Transform Berlin Streets Into Holocaust Remembrance","author":"Admin","date":"May 7, 2026","format":false,"excerpt":"Artist Gunter Demnig has embedded over 126,000 brass memorial plaques in sidewalks across Europe to honor Holocaust victims. 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