In an antisemitic attack, a Molotov cocktail was thrown at a synagogue in Kryvyi Rih, Ukraine. Photo: Screenshot

A Molotov cocktail was thrown at a synagogue in Kryvyi Rih, a city in central Ukraine, on Saturday night, as the local Jewish community continues to experience an increasing wave of antisemitic incidents.

Just hours after the Jewish holiday of Passover ended, Chabad emissary and city Rabbi Liron Edri was alerted by the synagogue’s security system — funded by Chabad World Assistance (CWA) and supported by the Jewish Agency’s Security Fund — that several Molotov cocktails had been thrown at the building.

Edri explained that the security system — which includes shatter-resistant windows, surveillance cameras, and a rapid-response alarm network — prevented a major disaster by stopping the Molotov cocktails from breaching the building and causing serious damage.

“Thanks to the window reinforcement installed in recent months, a large fire was prevented,” the city’s rabbi said.

He also warned that the attack followed a disturbing pattern, similar to a recent antisemitic incident in Mykolaiv, a city near the Black Sea in southern Ukraine, where Molotov cocktails were also thrown at a local synagogue.

“We fear this is a planned trend against Jewish communities,” Edri said. “There seems to be a growing pattern of coordinated attempts to intimidate and harm Jewish communities in Eastern Europe.”

As local authorities initiated an investigation into the attack, Edri praised their swift and effective response.

“We will not let fear stop us,” the rabbi said. “Light will dispel darkness, and I thank the police and government who immediately came to the synagogue and promised to conduct an investigation and arrest the perpetrators.”

Ukraine has experienced an increasing wave of antisemitic incidents, as Russia’s ongoing war has fueled political instability, amplified nationalist rhetoric, and sparked a rise in antisemitic discourse across certain regions.

Last week, a vehicle displaying Jewish symbols was vandalized, with its tires slashed, community emblems defaced, and paint splattered across the car’s body.

Edri condemned the antisemitic act, describing it as part of a growing wave of targeted assaults against the local Jewish community intended to harm and intimidate them.

“The vandalism was clearly targeted,” he said. “There was nothing random about it. This was an act aimed at harming us as a Jewish community.”

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Pope Francis holds prayer for migrants and refugees, with the ‘Angels Unawares’ monument, dedicated to the world’s migrants and refugees, behind him in St. Peter’s Square, at the Vatican, Oct. 19, 2023. Photo: Reuters

Major Jewish organizations around the world are mourning the passing of Pope Francis, who actively promoted interfaith dialogue between Jewish and Catholic communities and strongly condemned antisemitism.

Francis’s death was announced on Monday morning, one day after he marked Easter with a public appearance in the Vatican. He was 88.

In a released statement, World Jewish Congress (WJC) President Ronald S. Lauder described the Argentine-born Pope, who was the Catholic Church’s first Latin American pontiff, as “a true moral leader, a man of deep faith and humanity, and a steadfast friend to the Jewish people.”

“From his early years in Argentina to his papacy, Pope Francis was deeply committed to fostering interfaith dialogue and ensuring that the memory of the Holocaust remained a guiding lesson for future generations,” Lauder added.

With Francis’s leadership, the WJC opened an office on Via della Conciliazione, mere steps from St. Peter’s Basilica. In November 2022, the WJC’s executive committee held a private audience with Francis and launched the historic “Kishreinu” (Our Bond) initiative, further promoting Catholic-Jewish relations.

“While there were moments of difficulty, particularly in recent months, I remain deeply appreciative of his warmth, humility, and unwavering dedication to meaningful engagement between faith communities,” Lauder stated, seemingly referring to Francis’s outspoken criticism of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza. “On behalf of the World Jewish Congress and the more than 100 Jewish communities around the globe, I extend my deepest condolences to all those who were touched by his remarkable spirit. May his memory be a blessing and an inspiration to us all.”

Jorge Mario Bergoglio, who was elected to serve as pope in 2013, was the first non-European pontiff since 741. He assumed leadership of the Vatican after serving as a priest, bishop, archbishop, and cardinal in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he “enjoyed an exemplary relationship with the Argentinian Jewish community,” according to the American Jewish Committee (AJC).

Despite making statements over the past 18 months against Israel and its war against the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas, Francis has been a longtime supporter of the Jewish community and consistently condemned antisemitism. He was reportedly the first pope to visit the tomb of Zionist visionary Theodor Herzl.

“Early on in his tenure, [he] strongly affirmed positive Catholic-Jewish relations as an integral part of the post-Vatican II Church,” the AJC added in a statement. “Francis made pilgrimages that were substantive visuals of the new era in the Church’s understanding of Jews, Judaism, and the State of Israel,” including a visit to Israel in 2014, the Great Synagogue in Rome in 2016 and, the site of the former Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp in 2016. The pope also met with AJC delegations at the Vatican in 2014 and 2019.

“Pope Francis repeatedly condemned antisemitism and characterized it as both a sin against God and unchristian,” the AJC noted. “Francis stressed that ‘for a Christian any form of antisemitism is a rejection of one’s own origins, a complete contradiction.’”

“In this sixtieth anniversary year of Nostra Aetate, as we celebrate the positive transformation of Catholic-Jewish relations … we are grateful for Pope Francis’s indispensable leadership and contributions in this shared journey,” said AJC’s Director of Interreligious Affairs Rabbi Noam Marans. “We stand in solidarity with our Catholic brothers and sisters during this time of mourning. May the memory of Pope Francis be for a blessing.”

Francis “was a steadfast advocate for interfaith dialogue and mutual respect between religions,” the European Jewish Congress (EJC) said in a released statement. “His unwavering commitment to combating antisemitism and fostering a spirit of brotherhood between Christians and Jews will be remembered with gratitude and admiration.”

“We have fond and enduring memories of our audiences with the late Pope and his deep commitment to fostering dialogue with Jewish communities and fierce opposition to antisemitism,” added EJC Executive Vice-President Raya Kalenova.

Rabbi Pinchas Goldschmidt, president of the Conference of European Rabbis (CER), similarly praised Francis’s “untiring efforts in promoting peace.”

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, the Vatican camerlengo, read a text announcing Francis’s death on Monday from the chapel of the Domus Santa Marta, where Francis lived. Farrell was accompanied by Cardinal Pietro Parolin, the Vatican secretary of state; Archbishop Edgar Peña Parra, substitute chief of staff; and Archbishop Diego Ravelli, master of liturgical ceremonies. The Vatican did not give a cause of death, but Francis suffered multiple health issues in recent years, most recently overcoming double pneumonia.

“Dearest brothers and sisters, with deep sorrow, I must announce the death of our Holy Father Francis,” Farrell read. “At 7:35 this morning, the Bishop of Rome, Francis, returned to the Father’s house. His entire life was dedicated to the service of the Lord and His church. He taught us to live the values of the Gospel with faithfulness, courage, and universal love, especially for the poorest and most marginalized.”

Rabbi Abraham Cooper, associate dean of the Simon Wisenthal Center, remembered Francis for his efforts to denounce antisemitism, how he opened the Vatican’s secret World War II archives in 2020 and “urged people of faith to work together for a better world.”

Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs, who met Francis in 2017, said the relationship between the Catholic and Jewish communities “flourished under Pope Francis’s guidance.”

“He honored the shared heritage of our faiths and took meaningful steps to heal historical wounds, reinforcing a path toward mutual respect and collaboration,” Jacobs noted. “We especially appreciated Pope Francis’s consistent calls for dialogue and mutual respect between Israelis and Palestinians.”

For the first time since surviving double pneumonia, Francis made a grand public appearance in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday. He greeted tens of thousands of Catholics, after the Vatican’s celebration of Easter Mass, and shared an Easter message. He called on Hamas to release the remaining hostages – abducted during the terrorist group’s deadly rampage across southern Israel on Oct. 7, 2023 – and said the “growing climate of antisemitism around the world is worrisome.” He also condemned the “dramatic and deplorable humanitarian situation” in Gaza and reiterated his call for an immediate ceasefire to end the fighting.

“I express my closeness to the sufferings … of all the Israeli people and the Palestinian people,” read Francis’s Easter message. “I appeal to the warring parties: call a ceasefire, release the hostages and come to the aid of a starving people that aspires to a future of peace.”

In 2013, while speaking to the International Jewish Committee on Interreligious Consultations, Francis declared, “Due to our common roots, a Christian cannot be antisemitic!”

“I had the joy of maintaining relations of sincere friendship with leaders of the Jewish world,” added Francis. “We talked often of our respective religious identities, the image of man found in the Scriptures, and how to keep an awareness of God alive in a world now secularized in many ways. … But above all, as friends, we enjoyed each other’s company, we were all enriched through encounter and dialogue, and we welcomed each other, and this helped all of us grow as people and as believers.”

Francis also often urged his followers not to forget the lessons of the Holocaust. “The memory of the Shoah [Holocaust] and its atrocious violence must never be forgotten,” he said in a 2018 message, which was relayed through the Vatican’s secretary of state in Berlin. “It should be a constant warning for all of us of an obligation to reconciliation, of reciprocal comprehension and love toward our ‘elder brothers,’ the Jews.”

In 2010, Francis co-wrote, with fellow Argentine Rabbi Abraham Skorka, the book On Heaven and Earth, which focuses on the differences and similarities between Judaism and Catholicism. In 2017, Francis and Skorka co-authored an introduction for Morality and Legality in Dark Times, a book written by three Argentine doctors about medical experiments conducted by Nazis on concentration camp prisoners during World War II. They wrote that the “human arrogance exposed during the Shoah was the action of people who felt like gods, and shows the aberrant dimension in which we can fall if we forget where we came from and where we are going.”

The post Jewish Groups Mourn Death of Pope Francis, Who Condemned Antisemitism and Supported Interfaith Dialogue first appeared on Algemeiner.com.

Palestinians protest to demand an end to war, chanting anti-Hamas slogans, in Beit Lahiya in the northern Gaza Strip, March 26, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Stringer

While the fighting in Gaza has been renewed, diplomatic efforts to end the war have not abated. The Egyptians and the Emiratis in particular are trying to work out options for ending the war. The Emirati direction is closer to that taken by President Trump and Israel (the removal of Hamas from Gaza plus the evacuation of a portion of the Gaza population, at least temporarily), while the Egyptians are attempting to find a solution that is closer (though not identical) to the demands of Hamas (a non-Hamas government, but with Hamas remaining present in the Strip). The first Egyptian proposal was apparently dismissed out of hand by the US.

The official Hamas red line is its disarmament. Whether it directly governs Gaza or controls it from behind a front of supposedly independent technocrats seems, at present, to be less important to the group.

Hamas and Palestinian Islamic Jihad fired 20-25 rockets at southern Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and Beersheva from locations across the Gaza Strip (the exact number of rockets is not clear because there were some false alarms). At least one rocket fell inside the Strip. One salvo of 10 rockets aimed at Ashkelon injured nine people. Put together, the salvos wounded about 30 people, almost all through falls they suffered while rushing to shelter.

The rockets were fired from different areas. In one case, the launchers were placed right next to a humanitarian safe zone in Beyt Lahia.

After each launch, the population of the area from which the rockets were launched received orders from the IDF (leaflets, social media messages, etc.) to evacuate. The messages included maps showing which areas to leave and where to go. This was in addition to evacuation orders from areas the IDF ground forces were reentering. UNRWA claims that about 400,000 Palestinians have evacuated the areas as ordered by the IDF.

Israeli airstrikes on identified targets and Hamas senior and mid-level officials and military commanders continue, with more than a dozen killed so far. Among those killed were the Hamas prime minister (he was hiding in a hospital, and a small guided munition was fired into the room) and Hamas’s equivalent of a defense minister.

Israeli ground troops entered the Strip in various locations, increasing the depth of the 1-kilometer perimeter Israel has held since withdrawing during the ceasefire to several kilometers:

• From the northern border, Israeli forces are moving closer to Gaza City, especially along the coast (the same direction they originally entered Gaza in late October 2023)
• South of the city of Gaza, the IDF returned to the Netzarim Corridor, which separates northern and central Gaza. The IDF has not yet completely blocked the corridor. The coastal area is still open for travel
• In the south, the IDF moved back into two areas around the city of Rafah from which it had withdrawn. Another force advanced north along the coast, closer to the al-Muwasi humanitarian area declared by the IDF last year
• A new corridor, called Morag, is being taken north of Rafah, separating it from the rest of the Gaza Strip

The Hamas Ministry of Health, which had published numbers of killed including the missing, has gone back to its previous pattern of not including the missing. Its latest casualty update (24 March) is 50,810 killed and 115,700 wounded. Hamas still does not differentiate between combatants and non-combatants. According to the IDF, the killed include a verified total of more than 20,000 Hamas personnel and at least 3,000 personnel of other terrorist organizations. The number of wounded terrorists is not known but is probably at least similar to the number killed.

Whereas most Western countries have denounced Israel’s renewed offensive, the US government has declared unqualified support.

The humanitarian issue is again being trumpeted by Hamas, which claims that the stopping of supply convoys is threatening the population of Gaza with starvation and a lack of medical supplies. Israel responded that about 25,000 truckloads (enough for 50 days) entered Gaza during the ceasefire and Hamas is hoarding most of their contents – including supplies that arrived prior to the ceasefire – in its own warehouses and is selling them to the population at exorbitant prices to fund its activities.

In Gaza there have been increasing protests demanding that Hamas surrender and leave the Strip and complaining about Hamas not distributing the supplies that have arrived. These protests have been small in scale so far, but the number of participants is gradually increasing as is the spread. Initially, the protests were occurring only in northern Gaza, but they have taken place in central Gaza as well and have recently spread to southern Gaza.

It is still too early to tell if these protests are harbingers of change or just the expressions of a small minority. At first, Hamas did not respond with violence, instead trying to pass off the protests as directed against Israel. Hamas media and Al-Jazeera ignored the statements being made against Hamas and quoted only the demands that the ceasefire be renewed. But after a few days, Hamas began to capture and even kill some of the protesters. This diminished the number of protests but did not halt them entirely. In one case, the clan of a protester killed by Hamas security forces retaliated by killing the Hamas police officer who had shot their family member. There have been a few other skirmishes between clans and Hamas security forces.

There have also been many more posts on social media by Gazans saying they would leave Gaza permanently if only they were allowed to do so. While these posts are increasing in number, they are still relatively rare, and we cannot know how deep this sentiment really is — are they exceptions, or do they represent the feelings of a much larger proportion of the population?

Dr. Eado Hecht, a senior research fellow at the BESA Center, is a military analyst focusing mainly on the relationship between military theory, military doctrine, and military practice. He teaches courses on military theory and military history at Bar-Ilan University, Haifa University, and Reichman University and in a variety of courses in the Israel Defense Forces. A version of this article was originally published by The BESA Center.

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