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In a first, Volodymyr Zelensky met with Chabad rabbis ahead of Rosh Hashanah
(JTA) — Volodymyr Zelensky met with 32 Chabad emissaries and rabbis Thursday night ahead of Rosh Hashanah, marking the Jewish president of Ukraine’s first official meeting with Jewish leaders since Russia invaded in February 2022.
Also in attendance were 15 Jewish soldiers whom Zelensky presented with medals.
During the meeting, Zelensky made his latest appeal for military aid from Israel, including for its Iron Dome missile defense system, something Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly sought. Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has declined to supply Ukraine with Iron Dome capabilities because he fears the technology could then fall into the hands of Iran, an adversary of Israel that is allied with Russia.
At the meeting on Thursday, Zelensky involved Jewish religious observance in his request for Israeli aid. Israeli weapons, he said, would have made it easier for Ukraine to protect the tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims who are in the city of Uman for Rosh Hashanah to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, a Hasidic leader who lived at the turn of the 19th century. Those pilgrims traveled to Uman despite safety warnings from both Ukraine and Israel, where many of them live.
Zelensky also broadcast a message of appreciation at the event, which was organized by the Chabad-affiliated Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, an organization led by Rabbi Meir Stambler.
“Because of you, the glorious Jewish community continues to flourish here,” Zelensky said. “And you continue to do your part both within Ukraine and abroad, for the Jews here and for the general population.”
Ukrainian Jewish communities have been shaken by the war, as many Ukrainians fled the country or relocated to safer ground inside it once Russian troops invaded, leaving behind a population that is older and needier on average than was the case before the war. While some Chabad rabbis, who make up the majority of Jewish clergy in the country, helped their families leave early on, all have returned, in keeping with the philosophy of their movement, whose emissaries typically commit to the cities where they are stationed and stay there through thick and thin.
The meeting comes weeks after a landmark in Chabad’s recent presence in Ukraine: the first new emissary couple to arrive there since the war’s onset. Rabbi Mendy and Mushky Halperin, who came with their 4-month-old son Ari, now live in Chernivtsi, a western Ukrainian city which, due to its location, has largely been spared the war’s violence.
Before the war began, Chernivtsi was estimated to have about 2,000 Jewish residents, including many Holocaust survivors. Since February 2022, the city has become a refuge for Ukrainians, and the local Jewish community, too, has seen growth.
Chernivtsi’s Masorti community, which is affiliated with Conservative Judaism, saw attendance at its Shabbat services in the city roughly double as of last December. Chabad operations in Chernivtsi have also expanded — and local emissaries expect to host 500 people for Rosh Hashanah.
The Halperin family crossed from Moldova into Chernivtsi by land on Aug. 30, weeks ahead of the holiday that begins this Friday night. Mendy comes from Kfar Chabad, a Chabad-founded village in Israel, and Mushky hails from Riga, Latvia, where her parents serve as Chabad emissaries.
The couple will join Rabbi Mendy and Pnina Glitzenstein, directors of the Chabad of Chernivtsi, who have been at their posting since 2003. Mendy Halperin will work with Jewish university students, and Mushky Halperin will serve as the Jewish programming director of a preschool.
“We are overjoyed by the opportunity given to us,” Mendy Halperin told Chabad.org.
Now past the year-and-a-half mark, the war has become a grinding reality for Ukrainians as their army and Russia’s trade narrow slivers of territory and shelling punctuates daily life at unpredictable intervals. Zelensky is in the middle of another push for foreign aid, which he says is required for victory.
“We have come a long way, this very difficult year. In the new year, I wish all of you, your families, loved ones and the people you help health and peace. Peace can only come through Ukraine’s victory,” Zelensky told the rabbis. “Thank you for bringing this peace closer with your work, prayers, and activities together with the entire people of Ukraine, military and civilians.”
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The post In a first, Volodymyr Zelensky met with Chabad rabbis ahead of Rosh Hashanah appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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After False Dawns, Gazans Hope Trump Will Force End to Two-Year-Old War
Palestinians walk past a residential building destroyed in previous Israeli strikes, after Hamas agreed to release hostages and accept some other terms in a US plan to end the war, in Nuseirat, central Gaza Strip October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Mahmoud Issa
Exhausted Palestinians in Gaza clung to hopes on Saturday that US President Donald Trump would keep up pressure on Israel to end a two-year-old war that has killed tens of thousands and displaced the entire population of more than two million.
Hamas’ declaration that it was ready to hand over hostages and accept some terms of Trump’s plan to end the conflict while calling for more talks on several key issues was greeted with relief in the enclave, where most homes are now in ruins.
“It’s happy news, it saves those who are still alive,” said 32-year-old Saoud Qarneyta, reacting to Hamas’ response and Trump’s intervention. “This is enough. Houses have been damaged, everything has been damaged, what is left? Nothing.”
GAZAN RESIDENT HOPES ‘WE WILL BE DONE WITH WARS’
Ismail Zayda, 40, a father of three, displaced from a suburb in northern Gaza City where Israel launched a full-scale ground operation last month, said: “We want President Trump to keep pushing for an end to the war, if this chance is lost, it means that Gaza City will be destroyed by Israel and we might not survive.
“Enough, two years of bombardment, death and starvation. Enough,” he told Reuters on a social media chat.
“God willing this will be the last war. We will hopefully be done with the wars,” said 59-year-old Ali Ahmad, speaking in one of the tented camps where most Palestinians now live.
“We urge all sides not to backtrack. Every day of delay costs lives in Gaza, it is not just time wasted, lives get wasted too,” said Tamer Al-Burai, a Gaza City businessman displaced with members of his family in central Gaza Strip.
After two previous ceasefires — one near the start of the war and another earlier this year — lasted only a few weeks, he said; “I am very optimistic this time, maybe Trump’s seeking to be remembered as a man of peace, will bring us real peace this time.”
RESIDENT WORRIES THAT NETANYAHU WILL ‘SABOTAGE’ DEAL
Some voiced hopes of returning to their homes, but the Israeli military issued a fresh warning to Gazans on Saturday to stay out of Gaza City, describing it as a “dangerous combat zone.”
Gazans have faced previous false dawns during the past two years, when Trump and others declared at several points during on-off negotiations between Hamas, Israel and Arab and US mediators that a deal was close, only for war to rage on.
“Will it happen? Can we trust Trump? Maybe we trust Trump, but will Netanyahu abide this time? He has always sabotaged everything and continued the war. I hope he ends it now,” said Aya, 31, who was displaced with her family to Deir Al-Balah in the central Gaza Strip.
She added: “Maybe there is a chance the war ends at October 7, two years after it began.”
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Mass Rally in Rome on Fourth Day of Italy’s Pro-Palestinian Protests
A Pro-Palestinian demonstrator waves a Palestinian flag during a national protest for Gaza in Rome, Italy, October 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Claudia Greco
Large crowds assembled in central Rome on Saturday for the fourth straight day of protests in Italy since Israel intercepted an international flotilla trying to deliver aid to Gaza, and detained its activists.
People holding banners and Palestinian flags, chanting “Free Palestine” and other slogans, filed past the Colosseum, taking part in a march that organizers hoped would attract at least 1 million people.
“I’m here with a lot of other friends because I think it is important for us all to mobilize individually,” Francesco Galtieri, a 65-year-old musician from Rome, said. “If we don’t all mobilize, then nothing will change.”
Since Israel started blocking the flotilla late on Wednesday, protests have sprung up across Europe and in other parts of the world, but in Italy they have been a daily occurrence, in multiple cities.
On Friday, unions called a general strike in support of the flotilla, with demonstrations across the country that attracted more than 2 million, according to organizers. The interior ministry estimated attendance at around 400,000.
Italy’s right-wing government has been critical of the protests, with Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni suggesting that people would skip work for Gaza just as an excuse for a longer weekend break.
On Saturday, Meloni blamed protesters for insulting graffiti that appeared on a statue of the late Pope John Paul II outside Rome’s main train station, where Pro-Palestinian groups have been holding a protest picket.
“They say they are taking to the streets for peace, but then they insult the memory of a man who was a true defender and builder of peace. A shameful act committed by people blinded by ideology,” she said in a statement.
Israel launched its Gaza offensive after Hamas terrorists staged a cross border attack on October 7, 2023, killing some 1,200 people and taking 251 people hostage.
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Hamas Says It Agrees to Release All Israeli Hostages Under Trump Gaza Plan
Smoke rises during an Israeli military operation in Gaza City, as seen from the central Gaza Strip, October 2, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Dawoud Abu Alkas
Hamas said on Friday it had agreed to release all Israeli hostages, alive or dead, under the terms of US President Donald Trump’s Gaza proposal, and signaled readiness to immediately enter mediated negotiations to discuss the details.