Jewish Community of Ukraine Addresses the Netherlands

Ukraine and its Jewish community — one of the largest in Europe — are now facing one of the most dramatic moments of their history. For the first time in hundreds of years, the many peoples who share the land of Ukraine have gotten the chance to truly create a nation together. This chance was the result of a victory won by Ukrainian civil society, wherein the Jews of Ukraine play a significant role, over the authoritarian and corrupt power of ex-President Victor Yanukovich.

Ukraine has one of the lowest rates of anti-Semitic incidents in Europe, is preparing to hold memorial events to commemorate the Babiy Yar shooting, which took place 75 years ago, and the Holocaust is being taught in history lessons in many large and small Ukrainian cities. Jewish community life has been restored during the years of Ukrainian independence: dozens of Jewish schools, synagogues, and community organizations are thriving in contemporary Ukraine.

Two years ago, Jews all over the country stood together with Ukrainians, Russians, Armenians, and Crimean Tatars to defend their joint European choice — a choice based on democracy, tolerance, the equality of all persons before law, and of respect for inalienable human rights. Many have paid for this choice with the highest possible price — their lives. The ethnic Armenian Sergey Nigoyan was the first of those who died at the Maidan in Kyiv, and the second victim was the Belarusian Mikhail Zhiznevskiy. Some of those left lying on the pavement were Jews — Josef Shilling of Drogobych, Alexander Scherbanyuk of Chernivtsi, and Evgeniy Kotlyar of Kharkiv. Ukrainian Jews today stand among those who are protecting and building a new European Ukraine.

These people's courage and sacrifice has allowed Ukraine to set upon the path which all European peoples have walked—the path to forming a political nation. Jews have lived in Ukraine for many years, and our relationship with our neighbors has not always been a good one — we have many tales to tell about discrimination, the pale of settlement, and persecution. But ratifying the association agreement between Ukraine and the European Union will allow us all to symbolically put our past behind us; it will help millions of Ukrainians of different ethnic heritages and faiths create a fair and just society. With the help of the agreement, we will walk with our own feet the path which the Kingdom of the Netherlands has walked before us when it gained its independence from the Spanish crown after the Eighty Years' War.

This is not about Ukraine joining the European Union. Ukraine only wishes to sign an association agreement—a gesture that will help Ukraine finally throw off the yoke of Russia, heir and legal successor to the USSR, and to firmly follow the European path of development.

This is why we ask that you go to the referendum on April 6 and vote for the association of Ukraine and the European Union. This will give our young democracy to make full use of the chance we  paid so highly for—the chance for peace, stability, and prosperity in the company of Europe.

Adamovskiy Andrei, Co-President of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Ukraine

Zissels, Josef, Co-President of the Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Ukraine

Suslensky Alexander, President of the All-Ukrainian Jewish Council

Kobzan Artem, Acting Chairman of the Zionist Federation of Ukraine

Ziskind Evgeniy, Executive Director of the Union of Jewish Religious Communities of Ukraine

Rabbi Stamov Reuven, leader of the Union of Ukrainian Traditional Judaism Religious Communities

Rabbi Dukhovny Alexander, Hear Rabbi of the Union of Ukrainian Progressive Judaism Religious Communities

Gaidar Alexander, Director of the Union of Ukrainian Progressive Judaism Religious Communities

Monastyrsky Arkadiy, President of the Jewish Forum of Ukraine

Zabarko Boris, Chairman of the All-Ukrainian Association of Jews — Former Prisoners of Ghetto and Nazi Concentration Camps

Finberg Leonid, Director for the Center of History and Culture of East European Jews

Podolsky Anatoliy, Director of the Ukrainian Center for Holocaust Studies

Rashkovsky Peter, Chairman of the Association of Jewish Communities of Small Towns of Ukraineы

Tkach Mikhail, Director of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine

Rabbi Meir Stambler, President of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine
 
Godyk Victoria, Chairman of the Ukrainian Union of Jewish Students Governing Board

Alina Teplitskaya, Director of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine

Rabbi Yakov Dov Bleich, Head Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine

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