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Ukrainian Jews gathering in historic Polish city champion solidarity with Israel
LUBLIN, Poland – With wars raging in Ukraine and Israel, many Ukrainian Jews feel doubly traumatized by the troubles roiling their native country and the Jewish homeland.
So when over 150 Ukrainian Jews gathered over a recent weekend in Poland for a three-day event hosted by Limmud FSU, the nonprofit organization founded by Israeli Chaim Chesler and American Sandra Cahn that seeks to foster Jewish identity and community among Jews from the former Soviet Union, the event served as an occasion for a welcome respite during difficult times.
Most of those who attended the Nov. 3-5 event traveled overland from Ukraine. The rest came from elsewhere in Poland as well as from the Netherlands, Germany and Israel.
The symbolism of hosting the Jewish event for Ukrainian Jews in Lublin, which for centuries before the Holocaust had been a thriving center of Jewish life and is located only 60 miles from the Ukraine border, was unmistakable.
“Since we couldn’t hold the conference in Ukraine we decided to do it in the very unique Jewish city of Lublin, with its huge yeshiva that was destroyed by the Nazis in 1939 and rebuilt only 10 years ago,” said Chesler. “We are here with our brothers and sisters from Ukraine, who are experiencing the same hardship that we now endure in Israel.”
For three days, the festival turned Lublin’s Hotel Victoria into a hub of Jewish learning, music, dance, games, food and joy.
“Two of the things I love most are history and Jewish culture,” said software developer Artem Linnyk, 30, a Ukrainian native who has lived in Poland for the last eight years. “Limmud is a great place to find both.”
Natalia Tolok, a tour guide and Hillel director in the Ukrainian city of Lviv, came to present a session on her favorite hobby: traditional Jewish dance.
“Limmud is not just a conference. This is a big family, a kind of separate Jewish world that embraces anyone related to Jewishness,” Tolok said. “We used to have huge Limmuds in Lviv and Odessa with hundreds of people. But right now not all who love Limmud can come, for various reasons. They are spread around the world, or in some cases they cannot leave Ukraine.”
Welcomed by Poland’s King Casimir in 1336, Jews comprised nearly half of Lublin’s population before World War II. Most were murdered during the Holocaust, and although only a few dozen Jews remain here today, reminders of the city’s glorious and painful Jewish past are everywhere.
Julietta Golovan displays her Ukraine shawl during a musical performance by Polish singer-songwriter Vladimir Svatyov, at the Limmud FSU event for Ukrainian Jews in Lublin, Poland, Nov. 3-5, 2023. (Larry Luxner)
A bronze plaque at the city’s main shopping center, Lublin Mall, commemorates the site of Lipowa 7, a forced labor camp where Nazi officers executed about 700 Jewish prisoners on Nov. 3, 1943. Limmud participants visited a restored yeshiva and synagogue, the Old Jewish Cemetery dating back to 1541, and the Nazi concentration camp site of Majdanek where over 80,000 Jews were killed.
“In these trying times for both the State of Israel and Ukrainian Jews, our event in Lublin stands as a testament to the resilience and unity we share,” said Matthew Bronfman, chairman of Limmud FSU. “As we convene in this historic city, we renew our steadfast support for one another, transcending the distances that separate us with a shared bond of solidarity.”
War has become a part of life for many of Ukraine’s Jews today. Photographer Boris Bukhman, a 62-year-old from Odessa, displayed 15 photos from an exhibit of his about the Russia-Ukraine war.
“We understand what’s going on in Israel just as Israelis understand pretty well what’s going on in Ukraine,” said Bukhman, who has documented battlefield amputations of soldiers. “I was asked not to bring my harshest photos of the war here, so people wouldn’t be traumatized all over again.”
Alexei Podorozhnyy, a Ukrainian currently living in Germany, has fled war twice: first eight years ago to Kyiv, and then to Frankfurt, where he has resided since the Russian invasion.
“I was so glad to see my friends from Ukraine at this event,” Podorozhnyy said in Lublin.
Since its creation in 2005 to strengthen Jewish connections and identity among Jews with roots in the former Soviet Union, Limmud FSU has held 85 festivals around the globe that have drawn more than 80,000 participants overall. Its work is supported by individuals and organizations around the world, including the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany, Nativ-Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, World Zionist Organization, Jewish National Fund – KKL, American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Wilf Family Foundation, Dutch Jewish Humanitarian Fund, Diane Wohl, Bill Hess and others.
The Israeli and Ukrainian national anthems were played during the closing event of the Limmud FSU event for Ukrainian Jews in Lublin, Poland, Nov. 5, 2023. (Boris Bukhman)
In her welcome message, Raheli Baratz-Rix, head of the World Zionist Organization’s Department for Combating Antisemitism and Enhancing Resilience, urged participants not to remain silent in the face of surging global antisemitism.
“Israel is under attack. It’s not just a phrase; it’s our reality right now,” Baratz-Rix said. “All around the world, we’ve seen a 500% increase in antisemitism since the war began — in Great Britain, Germany, France, the United States and Canada, as well as in the former Soviet Union. We need you by our side, more than ever, to fight together for the narrative. Israel is a strong country and will win, but no one can stay silent right now.”
Alex Mershon, director of Nativ’s Department of Culture and Education, said, “It is important to emphasize that the Limmud in Lublin is not just a prominent educational event but also a tangible demonstration of solidarity by Jewish communities in former Soviet Union countries with the State of Israel. At Nativ, we actively participate in this important project, particularly during these challenging times for the Jewish people in Israel and the Diaspora.”
Shlomo Voskoboynik, 56, is originally from Malin, a small town near Kyiv. He immigrated to Israel in 1994 and now works as an emissary in Estonia for Israel’s Education Ministry. At the Limmud in Lublin he led Kabbalat Shabbat prayers, explained the week’s Torah portion and led sessions on Jewish culture.
“This Limmud was less cerebral and more emotional,” Voskoboynik said. “We know that many presenters couldn’t come, but the feeling was very strong. There’s a war in Ukraine, there’s also a war in Israel now, and people want to feel united.”
This sentiment was especially evident at the closing ceremony, when the national anthems of Ukraine and Israel were played one after the other. Despite the challenges, participants said they were hopeful that the security situation in Ukraine is improving — especially in Kyiv, where life seems to be gradually returning to normal.
“Hopefully next year we can do this conference in Ukraine,” said Natasha Chechik, Limmud FSU’s Israeli executive director. “This is one of our main goals for 2024: bringing Limmud back to Ukraine.”
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The post Ukrainian Jews gathering in historic Polish city champion solidarity with Israel appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Security Warning to Israelis Vacationing Abroad Ahead of holidays
A passenger arrives to a terminal at Ben Gurion international airport before Israel bans international flights, January 25, 2021. REUTERS/Ronen Zvulun
i24 News – Ahead of the Jewish High Holidays, Israel’s National Security Council (NSC) published the latest threat assessment to Israelis abroad from terrorist groups to the public on Sunday, in order to increase the Israeli public’s awareness of the existing terrorist threats around the world and encourage individuals to take preventive action accordingly.
The NSC specified that the warning is an up-to-date reflection of the main trends in the activities of terrorist groups around the world and their impact on the level of threat posed to Israelis abroad during these times, but the travel warnings and restrictions themselves are not new.
“As the Gaza war continues and in parallel with the increasing threat of terrorism, the National Security Headquarters stated it has recognized a trend of worsening and increasing violent antisemitic incidents and escalating steps by anti-Israel groups, to the point of physically harming Israelis and Jews abroad. This is in light of, among other things, the anti-Israel narrative and the negative media campaign by pro-Palestinian elements — a trend that may encourage and motivate extremist elements to carry out terrorist activities against Israelis or Jews abroad,” the statement read.
“Therefore, the National Security Bureau is reinforcing its recommendation to the Israeli public to act with responsibility during this time when traveling abroad, to check the status of the National Security Bureau’s travel warnings (before purchasing tickets to the destination,) and to act in accordance with the travel warning recommendations and the level of risk in the country they are visiting,” it listed, adding that, as illustrated in the past year, these warnings are well-founded and reflect a tangible and valid threat potential.
The statement also emphasized the risk of sharing content on social media networks indicating current or past service in the Israeli security forces, as these posts increase the risk of being marked by various parties as a target. “Therefore, the National Security Council recommends that you do not upload to social networks, in any way, content that indicates service in the security forces, operational activity, or similar content, as well as real-time locations.”
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Israel Intensifies Gaza City Bombing as Rubio Arrives
Displaced Palestinians, fleeing northern Gaza due to an Israeli military operation, move southward after Israeli forces ordered residents of Gaza City to evacuate to the south, in the central Gaza Strip September 14, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Israeli forces destroyed at least 30 residential buildings in Gaza City and forced thousands of people from their homes, Palestinian officials said, as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio arrived on Sunday to discuss the future of the conflict.
Israel has said it plans to seize the city, where about a million Palestinians have been sheltering, as part of its declared aim of eliminating the terrorist group Hamas, and has intensified attacks on what it has called Hamas’ last bastion.
The group’s political leadership, which has engaged in on-and-off negotiations on a possible ceasefire and hostage release deal, was targeted by Israel in an airstrike in Doha on Tuesday in an attack that drew widespread condemnation.
Qatar will host an emergency Arab-Islamic summit on Monday to discuss the next moves. Rubio said Washington wanted to talk about how to free the 48 hostages – of whom 20 are believed to be still alive – still held by Hamas in Gaza and rebuild the coastal strip.
“What’s happened, has happened,” he said. “We’re gonna meet with them (the Israeli leadership). We’re gonna talk about what the future holds,” Rubio said before heading to Israel where he will stay until Tuesday.
ABRAHAM ACCORDS AT RISK
He was expected to visit the Western Wall Jewish prayer site in Jerusalem on Sunday with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and hold talks with him during the visit.
US officials described Tuesday’s strike on the territory of a close US ally as a unilateral escalation that did not serve American or Israeli interests. Rubio and US President Donald Trump both met Qatar’s Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdulrahman Al-Thani on Friday.
Netanyahu signed an agreement on Thursday to push ahead with a settlement expansion plan that would cut across West Bank land that the Palestinians seek for a state – a move the United Arab Emirates warned would undermine the US-brokered Abraham accords that normalized UAE relations with Israel.
Israel, which blocked all food from entering Gaza for 11 weeks earlier this year, has been allowing more aid into the enclave since late July to prevent further food shortages, though the United Nations says far more is needed.
It says it wants civilians to leave Gaza City before it sends more ground forces in. Tens of thousands of people are estimated to have left but hundreds of thousands remain in the area. Hamas has called on people not to leave.
Israeli army forces have been operating inside at least four eastern suburbs for weeks, turning most of at least three of them into wastelands. It is closing in on the center and the western areas of the territory, where most of the displaced people are taking shelter.
Many are reluctant to leave, saying there is not enough space or safety in the south, where Israel has told them to go to what it has designated as a humanitarian zone.
Some say they cannot afford to leave while others say they were hoping the Arab leaders meeting on Monday in Qatar would pressure Israel to scrap its planned offensive.
“The bombardment intensified everywhere and we took down the tents, more than twenty families, we do not know where to go,” said Musbah Al-Kafarna, displaced in Gaza City.
Israel said it had completed five waves of air strikes on Gaza City over the past week, targeting more than 500 sites, including Hamas reconnaissance and sniper sites, buildings containing tunnel openings and weapons depots.
Local officials, who do not distinguish between militant and civilian casualties, say at least 40 people were killed by Israeli fire across the enclave, a least 28 in Gaza City alone.
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Turkey Warns of Escalation as Israel Expands Strikes Beyond Gaza
Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan speaks during a press conference with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis (not seen) at the Presidential Palace in Ankara, Turkey, May 13, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Umit Bektas
i24 News – An Israeli strike targeting Hamas officials in Qatar has sparked unease among several Middle Eastern countries that host leaders of the group, with Turkey among the most alarmed.
Officials in Ankara are increasingly worried about how far Israel might go in pursuing those it holds responsible for the October 7 attacks.
Israel’s prime minister effectively acknowledged that the Qatar operation failed to eliminate the Hamas leadership, while stressing the broader point the strike was meant to make: “They enjoy no immunity,” the government said.
On X, Prime Minister Netanyahu went further, writing that “the elimination of Hamas leaders would put an end to the war.”
A senior Turkish official, speaking on condition of anonymity, summed up Ankara’s reaction: “The attack in Qatar showed that the Israeli government is ready to do anything.”
Legally and diplomatically, Turkey occupies a delicate position. As a NATO member, any military operation or targeted killing on its soil could inflame tensions within the alliance and challenge mutual security commitments.
Analysts caution, however, that Israel could opt for covert measures, operations carried out without public acknowledgement, a prospect that has increased anxiety in governments across the region.
Israeli officials remain defiant. In an interview with Ynet, Minister Ze’ev Elkin said: “As long as we have not stopped them, we will pursue them everywhere in the world and settle our accounts with them.” The episode underscores growing fears that efforts to hunt Hamas figures beyond Gaza could widen regional friction and complicate diplomatic relationships.