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(JTA) — One week in the past, Jews outdoors of Ukraine knew Volodymyr Zelensky because the world chief on the opposite finish of the “good telephone name” that resulted within the impeachment of President Donald Trump.
However now, after days of watching Zelensky stability humor and gravitas whereas rallying his fellow Ukrainians to rebuff the Russian military invasion, they know him as a up to date Jewish hero.
“Zelensky offers fashionable Maccabee power,” Peter Fox, a author, wrote on Twitter.
Fox was referring to the traditional Jews who, although outflanked in each approach, fended off the efforts of overseas fighters, directed by a power-hungry ruler, to quash their independence and tradition.
That historical past may be seen as an apt comparability for what’s occurring in Ukraine — and it’s considered one of a number of causes that Zelensky’s management is resonating a lot with Jews the world over.
“As a Jew, it’s not possible to not really feel pleased with the braveness, dignity, and defiance proven by Zelensky at this second,” Molly Crabapple, a outstanding leftist author and artist, mentioned in a tweet late Friday evening, shortly after Zelensky posted a video displaying him within the heart of Kyiv, defiant within the face of encroaching Russian forces.
In Tel Aviv, individuals rallying for Ukraine chanted Zelensky’s title. A tweet by a former Israeli speechwriter encouraging people to pray for him by his Hebrew name was shared tens of 1000’s of occasions over the weekend. And a number of memes ricocheted across the web highlighting Zelensky as a robust embodiment of Jewish satisfaction.
“That is Volodymyr Zelensky. President of Ukraine. He’s Jewish. His grandfather fought Nazis in WWII. A lot of his family had been killed within the Holocaust,” mentioned considered one of them, shared by Good, a media firm. “He’s standing as much as a dictator. As a result of he’s courageous. As a result of he is aware of what occurs for those who don’t.”
One other, shared by the group Cease Antisemitism, emphasised Zelensky’s roots in a household decimated by the Holocaust. Over a photograph of Zelensky, the meme says, “A Jewish Ukrainian household had 4 brothers. 3 had been murdered by the Nazis. Only one survived,” referring to his grandfather.
Behind the feel-good sentiment of the memes lurks extra difficult subtexts. Some noticed the elevation of Zelensky as a Jewish hero as implying that others who got here earlier than him, doubtlessly together with Jewish victims of the Nazi genocide, lacked the bravery wanted to outlive, or {that a} Jewish president ought to be exceptional in a rustic the place, not so way back, greater than 1.5 million Jews flourished.
These embedded meanings are precisely why Zelensky’s management has been so inspiring to Jews, in accordance with Ben M. Freeman, the writer of the 2021 e-book “Jewish Satisfaction: Rebuilding a Individuals.”
Freeman recommended the adulation of Zelensky was an antidote to the “Jews went like lambs to the slaughter” allegation that haunted survivors after the Holocaust.
“Jewish persons are resilient. Jewish individuals struggle again. Jewish individuals have all the time resisted. And I believe many Jewish individuals really feel that it is a continuation of that,” Freeman advised JTA. He added, “There’s layers of Jewish resilience, however there’s additionally the rewriting of the Ukrainian Jewish relationship — not rewriting it to erase the previous as a result of we can’t — form of serving to us transfer ahead.”
Earlier than turning into Ukraine’s president in 2019, Zelensky was a comic, and his meteoric rise from simply one other world chief to beacon of democracy has elicited its share of jokes this week.
“As a Ukrainian-Jewish man, I’m getting just a little involved that Zelensky is setting some unachievable requirements of habits,” tweeted Sam Biederman, a public relations skilled in New York Metropolis. Fox tweeted about Zelensky’s peak, 5′ 7″, and known as him “an inspiration to quick Jews all over the place.”
However many others say they see in his management severe, and gratifying, implications for Jews in Ukraine and past.
For one factor, many see Zelensky’s success as a turning level within the historical past of Jews in Ukraine.
“If Zelensky has now turn into synonymous with the blue-and-yellow flag of his nation, it would sign an surprising end result of this battle that has discovered Jews feeling lastly, improbably, one with a land that has perpetually tried to spit them out,” wrote Gal Beckerman, the Soviet Union-born writer of a e-book about efforts to liberate Jews from oppression there, in The Atlantic Sunday. (Beckerman is married to Debbie Kolben, the editorial director of 70 Faces Media, JTA’s guardian firm.)
This historical past is a part of what Fox mentioned was so inspiring about seeing Zelensky in cost.
“In 1941 over 33,000 Ukrainian Jews had been murdered in a 2 day span within the Babi Yar ravine marking one of many deadliest massacres of the Holocaust,” Fox wrote, referring to the mass capturing — first reported by JTA — that was organized by Nazis however supported by native collaborators. “For 🇺🇦 to have a Jewish President descended from a Holocaust survivor standing as much as a dictator is absolutely empowering.”
On the identical time, Zelensky’s steadfastness within the face of acute hazard — and presents of evacuation — would seem to undercut a harmful, age-old stereotype about Jews, that they aren’t totally dedicated to the international locations through which they stay.
“Now is an efficient time to dispense with the concept Jews aren’t actually loyal to the nation of their start,” tweeted Elizabeth Picciotto, a author on Lengthy Island.
Unusually in a second of utmost polarization, Zelensky is drawing reward from Jews throughout the political spectrum.
“Fawning over politicians, particularly round militarism, makes me uneasy. That mentioned, we must always most likely get Zelensky this @truahrabbis shirt,” wrote Sophie Ellan-Golan, the director of strategic communication at Jews for Racial & Financial Justice, a liberal Jewish activist group. She pointed to the rabbinic human rights group’s swag, which reads: “Resisting tyrants since Pharaoh,” a reference to how Jews who had been enslaved in Egypt rose up, with the assist of a mighty chief, to liberate themselves.
One liberal Jewish activist recommended giving this shirt, produced by the rabbinic human rights group T’ruah, to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, who favors T-shirts. (Screenshot)
In the meantime, David Suissa, the editor of Los Angeles’ Jewish Journal, which incessantly decries progressive ideology on its editorial web page, wrote that he noticed a distinct aspect of Jewish custom mirrored in Zelensky’s resolve to not go away his native nation.
“Hundreds of years after our biblical patriarch Abraham’s poignant cry to God of ‘Hineni’ (‘Right here I’m’), the final word expression of accountability, a Jewish president within the midst of conflict uttered an identical message: “Pay attention. I’m right here,’” Suissa wrote. “Within the face of such braveness, it’s arduous to think about extra important phrases to embody the miracle of Jewish survival.”
Suissa linked Zelensky’s management to Israel, which he known as “the final word instance of Jews telling the world, ‘Pay attention, we’re right here. We’re not operating. We’re not hiding.’”
Politics are rising in a few of the Zelensky valorization. In a 3rd and extra charged meme, JewBelong, a gaggle that has just lately posted provocative billboards in a number of cities drawing consideration to antisemitism and what it says is Jews’ must struggle towards hatred of them, juxtaposed a picture of Zelensky in military fatigues subsequent to the well-known picture of U.S. Sen. Bernie Sanders sitting together with his legs and arms crossed and sporting giant mittens at Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration.
“What kind of Jew are you?” the meme requested — a message that confused some who noticed it however left others with the clear impression that the group, which is ardently pro-Israel, was suggesting that Sanders in contrast unfavorably to Zelensky.
However for probably the most half, as Zelensky seemingly single-handedly alters the best way the world responds to his beleaguered Ukraine, Jews are expressing one sentiment again and again.
“The one good factor to come back out of this humanitarian disaster is to see such an admirable and heroic Jewish president,” wrote Marion Haberman, who goes by My Jewish Mommy Life on-line, on Instagram this weekend.
Utilizing the congratulatory Hebrew time period that means “all the glory,” she added, “Kol haKavod to President Zelensky.”
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