Ukrainian president urges Jews to speak out about Russian aggression

On Tuesday, a Russian rocket attack hit the TV tower in Kyiv, which is located right next to the memorial site in Baby Jar where the Nazis massacred 33,000 Jews in 1941. The memorial is also said to have been hit hard by the attack.

The Russian attack represents an attempt to erase Ukraine’s history and identity, Zelensky said in a speech delivered on Wednesday morning after another night of heavy fighting. He then addressed all the Jews of the world: “Don’t you see why this is happening? That is why millions of Jews worldwide must not remain silent right now. Nazism is born in silence”, Zelensky said. “So raise your voice about the killings of civilians. Shout about the killings of Ukrainians.” This was reported by the Norwegian daily Dagen

Zelensky also took to Twitter, asking what the point is “of saying never again for 80 years if the world remains silent when a bomb drops on the same site of Babyn Yar? ‘Never again’ refers to the Holocaust and, as a phrase, also appears on Holocaust memorial sites such as the Dachau concentration camp. Over time, the phrase has been used to condemn and mourn terrorist attacks and genocides worldwide.

Jews and Jewish groups around the world have stepped in to support Ukrainian Jews. Depending on how the estimate is made, they number between 43,000 and over 300,000, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency writes. Many of those Jews have joined an exodus of refugees pouring over the country’s borders.