Why Christians must stand with Ukraine’s Jewish community

Last year, after hearing reports of Russia’s persecution of Christians in occupied territories, we drove the entire length of Ukraine’s eastern front to capture these stories for our documentary, A Faith Under Siege. We met with pastors who were detained and tortured, saw shuttered churches, and prayed with fellow believers who often had to worship in basements for fear of constant Russian attacks. But we learned that it was not only Christians whose sacred spaces were destroyed and whole communities displaced. Ukraine’s Jewish community has also borne the heavy brunt of Russia’s war. 

Before the war, Ukraine’s Jewish community was one of the most vibrant in Europe. An estimated 200,000 people with Jewish heritage called Ukraine home. After centuries of repression and unspeakable cruelty — from czarist pogroms, to the Holocaust, to Soviet suppression largely banning religion — Jewish life in Ukraine had finally begun to flourish after the fall of the Soviet Union. Due to the fierce commitment of Ukraine’s Jewish leaders and backing from world Jewry, synagogues reopened, Jewish schools sprouted up, and cultural life was revived.