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Kyiv Jews celebrate their 2nd wartime Purim with renewed resolve and optimism
KYIV (JTA) — In a historic building in the most industrial part of Podil, the hipster district of Kyiv that once was the heart of the Jewish trading community, a senior and passionate Esther seduces a much younger Ahasuerus. She flirts with the handsome king to the raucous giggling of the audience, which breaks into applause when the Purim shpiel comes to an end.
A year and a few days into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Jews in Kyiv and the rest of the country have celebrated Purim in precarious economic and emotional circumstances, under the continued threat of Russian attacks. Still, many of them are in much better spirits than in 2022, when the Jewish holiday of joy found Ukrainian Jews in a frantic state of worry and uncertainty about their immediate future.
“A year ago you could see the fear in people’s eyes; now they are very proud because Ukraine has resisted, and Jews are fully involved in the cause,” Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency during the movement’s Purim celebration in Podil. She is an Israeli rabbi who is the executive director of the Masorti movement-affiliated Schechter Institutes and periodically travels to Ukraine to serve the country’s Masorti communities. Masorti Judaism is similar to the Conservative movement in the United States.
“Last year it was very, very hard, because people were in shock, afraid, and they didn’t know what to do,” said Ariel Markowitz, Kyiv’s most senior rabbi from the Chabad-Lubavitch Orthodox movement, which held its own Purim celebration Monday night. “But now we know that we have a strong army, that we have a chance, and many people have actually returned to Kyiv.”
Rabbi Ariel Markowitz of Chabad Kyiv reads from the Megillah during his community’s Purim celebration, March 6, 2023. (Courtesy Markowitz)
The year-old war has shaken up Ukraine’s Jewish community, with members leaving the country or moving within it to avoid Russian shelling and its effects.
“Everyone has pretty much made a decision on whether to stay or to leave and we are reorganizing our community,” said Gritsevskaya.
Although at least 14,000 Ukrainians have moved to Israel since Russia’s all-out invasion started, and many more thousands have found refuge in Germany and other European countries, Gritsevskaya wants to focus on those who stayed. Estimates of the Jewish population in Ukraine ranged before the war from just under 50,000 to up to 400,000, depending on who counted.
One of the people who left the country was the former Masorti rabbi in Ukraine, Reuven Stamov, who moved with his family to Israel. Currently, the Masorti movement — whose Ukrainian following Grivtseskaya estimates in the thousands — does not have a rabbi permanently in the country. But the community keeps active in Kyiv and other cities, such as Kharkiv in the east, Odessa in the south and Chernivtsi in the southwest, thanks to activists, volunteers and rabbinical students, plus the visits by Gritsevskaya, who first returned for Purim last year.
“Community life has never been so important,” she said.
Gritsevskaya pointed to the difference that having access to material help, connections and emotional and spiritual support makes for those who arrive in new cities from places in the south or the east occupied by Russia or close to the front.
She acknowledged that some Jewish organizations have ceased their operations in Ukraine and stressed the need of strengthening the work of those who are committed to remain, so Jewish life in Ukraine could be as “diverse” as before and people “have options” to choose the way they practice their Judaism.
Among the Ukrainian Jews that decided to stay is the director of the MILI Foundation, the entity that organizes the Masorti community in Ukraine. Maksym Melnikov moved to Kyiv from his native Donetsk in 2014 after Russian-backed separatist militias declared the independence of part of the region and war broke out in Eastern Ukraine.
Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya poses with community members of the Masorti community in Kyiv, March 6, 2023. (Marcel Gascón Barberá)
“I came when they started to occupy our land in Ukraine,” Melnikov told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency at the Masorti Purim celebration in Kyiv, just before taking the stage to help Gritsevskaya read the Purim Megillah. “Almost a decade later, war came after me to Kyiv, and I don’t want to move this time, I’m staying.”
Since 2014, many of Melnikov’s friends and acquaintances from Donetsk have moved to Kyiv. While Russia’s full-scale invasion has pushed many Jews from Kyiv to move westwards or leave the country, the western city’s communities have received a new infusion of people from the eastern cities more affected by the war.
“Communities are changing constantly countrywide, and we are trying to reach out to those who arrive, both to help them start a new life and to build our community stronger,” said Grivtsevskaya.
She said the Masorti community in Chernivtsi has experienced a notable revival. Situated near the border with Romania, Chernivtsi is one of the few Ukrainian provincial capitals that has not been bombed by Russia, and thousands have moved there. “They have received another family and are very strong right now,” she said about the once-dwindling community in this historical Jewish center, where she hosted a Purim celebration after making her way into Ukraine in March 2022.
The massive uprooting of entire Jewish communities has been experienced keenly by Chabad, which has the largest Jewish presence in the country, with hundreds of emissaries serving Jewish communities in dozens of cities.
“We’ve seen a huge increase in those who come looking for help,” Markowitz told JTA hours before the start of Purim at Chabad’s community center in Kyiv. Many of them, he said, had come from Mariupol, a city bombed into submission by Russia at the beginning of the war.
Scenes of the Purim shpiel at the Masorti community in Kyiv, March 6, 2023. (Marcel Gascón Barberá)
Chabad is one of several organizations providing aid to Ukrainian Jews, including support in obtaining food, medical care and generators that keep power flowing amid widespread outages.
The rise of the demand for these services is not only driven by refugees, but by families and individuals who have lost their source of income due to the economic disruptions caused by the invasion.
“There is inflation, there are less jobs, a lot of companies closed and people lost their jobs or are unable to help their family members,” Markowitz said.
Besides the demographic and economic shake-ups, the war has brought changes in the way Jews relate to their Ukrainian identity. Perhaps the most striking has been a rapid shift away from speaking Russian, the first language of many Ukrainian Jews until recently.
“Even I started learning and speaking Ukrainian and you can definitely see how a new sense of national identity is being born,” Maria Karadin, a Russia-born Israeli who moved to Ukraine with her husband in 2005, said at the Masorti Purim event.
Maiia Malkova is 15 years old and one of the most active young members of the Masorti community in Kyiv.
“Last year I didn’t even think about Purim so much because I was so frightened,” she said while wearing a necklace with a tryzub, the trident that symbolizes Ukrainian statehood and independence. “But we kind of got accustomed to this situation. And it is great to be able to celebrate Purim again.”
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Iran Accelerates Ballistic Missile Production, Israel Warns
An Iranian missile is launched during a military exercise in an undisclosed location in Iran, Aug. 20, 2025. Photo: Iranian Army/WANA (West Asia News Agency)/Handout via REUTERS
Iran is rapidly rebuilding its missile arsenal following the 12-day war with Israel in June, raising alarm bells among Israeli officials as Tehran aims to restore its weakened military capabilities and extend its influence across the Middle East.
During a closed meeting of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee this week, a senior Israeli military official told lawmakers that Iran has resumed large-scale production of ballistic missiles, roughly six months after the June conflict, Israeli media reported.
Israeli intelligence assessments have confirmed that Tehran resumed massive production of long-range missiles, with factories operating “around the clock” to rebuild capabilities destroyed in Israeli and US strikes.
With Israel having destroyed key missile-production equipment, including planetary mixers, the Iranian regime is relying on older manufacturing methods to restart its missile program, according to the Israeli news outlet Ynet.
Israeli officials now reportedly fear that the damage inflicted on Iran’s ballistic missile program during the June war was less extensive than initially thought.
Earlier this year, Israel, with support from the United States, carried out large-scale military strikes against the Islamist regime in Iran, targeting critical nuclear enrichment sites — including the heavily fortified Fordow facility — after multiple rounds of negotiations over Iran’s nuclear program failed to yield results.
In the aftermath of the strikes, intelligence and media assessments of the damage to Iran’s nuclear and defense capabilities have been inconsistent and often contradictory, with some reports indicating only a short-term setback and others pointing to potentially years of disruption. Many experts believe the nuclear program has been set back by multiple years. However, Iran’s missile arsenal may have suffered less damage.
Earlier this week, Israel Defense Forces military intelligence chief Maj. Gen. Shlomi Binder told US Ambassador to the UN Mike Waltz that Iran still possesses roughly 2,000 heavy ballistic missiles — about the same number it had before the war, the Al-Monitor news outlet reported.
Since the end of the war, Iran has repeatedly threatened to respond to any future Israeli attack, as the regime has attempted to rebuild its decimated air defenses and expand its military capabilities.
Last week, Tehran conducted a major naval exercise in the Persian Gulf, carried out by the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps and featuring ballistic missiles, cruise missiles, and drones, as part of an effort to deter foreign threats.
Iranian state media reported that missiles struck mock targets in the Gulf of Oman with “high accuracy” and drones hit simulated enemy bases, while three air defense systems were deployed during the exercise under electronic warfare conditions.
“Utilizing artificial intelligence, these systems were able to identify flight and maritime targets in a fraction of the time and hit them with high accuracy,” according to Iranian media reports.
The commander of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard Navy, Rear Admiral Alireza Tangsiri, also said that a new missile was tested during the drills, reportedly capable of reaching beyond the length of the Persian Gulf, though he did not provide specific details.
“The Persian Gulf is 1,375 kilometers long – this missile’s range is beyond that,” he told Press TV.
Built domestically, the missile can be “guided after launch” and has demonstrated “very high precision,” Tangsiri said.
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Israeli-Palestinian Conflict a Low Priority for Young Americans, Despite Rising Anti-Israel Views, Poll Shows
People take part in “Shut it down for Palestine!” protest outside of Tyson’s Corner as shoppers participate in Black Friday in Vienna, Virginia, US, Nov. 24, 2023. Photo: REUTERS/Leah Millis
The Israeli–Palestinian issue barely registers as a meaningful priority when young American voters decide how to cast their ballots, despite anti-Israel and antisemitic sentiment rising sharply among this voting bloc, according to a new national survey.
The findings of the Yale Youth Poll, an undergraduate-led research project at Yale University, highlight a widening generational divide. According to the poll, which surveyed a roughly equal number of voters aged 18-34 and their older fellow Americans, younger respondents indicated they were far more likely to embrace narratives portraying Zionism as racist, to reject Israel’s existence as a Jewish state, and to support reducing or ending US military assistance to Israel.
A sizable share of voters 18–22 endorsed statements long used to measure antisemitic bias, including questioning Jewish-American loyalty to their home country (30 percent), supporting boycotts of Jewish-owned businesses as a form of political protest (21 percent), and agreeing that Jews have “too much power” in the US (27 percent). Among the youngest group, only a slim majority rejected all antisemitic statements measured.
The survey also shows a deep lack of clarity among young Americans about what constitutes antisemitism. Many respondents indicated they were unsure whether charged slogans such as “globalize the intifada” were antisemitic, and nearly half of the national sample said that calling the situation in Gaza a “genocide” was not antisemitic.
Younger voters were considerably more likely to choose definitions of Zionism that frame Israel as an oppressive or colonial project, rather than as the right of the Jewish people to self-determination in their ancient homeland. A striking 27 percent of those aged 18-22 said they believe Israel has a right to exist “but not as a Jewish state.” Just 24 percent of this age bracket believe that Israel should remain a Jewish state, according to the data. A plurality, 34 percent, said they are “not sure” what Israel’s political and cultural identity should reflect.
A large portion of young voters seem to be unaware of the definition of Zionism. Many of these Americans, according to the poll, perceive Zionism as an effort to dispossess Palestinians of their land and human rights. Among respondents aged 18-22 and 23-29, 27 percent and 25 percent, respectively, indicated they are “not familiar” with the term Zionism. Another 27 percent and 30 percent of voters aged 18-22 and 23-29, respectively, believe that Zionism is “a movement for self-determination
and statehood for the Jewish people.” A striking 36 percent of respondents aged 18-22 described Zionism as “establishing and maintaining a Jewish demographic majority in Palestine by driving out the native Palestinian population.” Similarly, 35 percent of those aged 23-29 responded with the same belief.
Yet at the same time, the poll reveals that Israel simply does not factor prominently into the political priorities of these same voters. When asked which issues would influence their vote, young Americans overwhelmingly named domestic concerns: cost of living, housing, democracy, jobs, and free speech. Foreign policy, including the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, fell near the bottom of the list, far behind economic pressures shaping daily life. Only 25 percent of voters indicated the issue was important, ranking below Russia and Ukraine (33 percent).
This disconnect appears to show anti-Israel attitudes and antisemitic beliefs are normalizing among the youngest slice of the electorate, but without clear political salience. The danger, according to some experts, is that these views may spread unchallenged because they sit unexamined in a political landscape consumed by economic anxiety.
The poll, conducted from Oct. 29 to Nov. 11, sampled 3,426 registered voters, including 1,706 voters aged 18-34.
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Tensions Escalate as Lebanon Faces Year-End Deadline to Disarm Hezbollah Amid Israeli Airstrikes, Iranian Influence
A civil defense member stands on rubble at a damaged site after Israel’s military said it struck targets in two southern Lebanese towns in Jbaa, southern Lebanon, Dec. 4, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Ali Hankir
As Israel steps up pressure on the Lebanese government ahead of a deadline to disarm the terrorist group Hezbollah, Lebanese officials fear an imminent Israeli operation that could push the country toward a renewed conflict with the Jewish state.
On Friday, the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) carried out a wave of airstrikes in southern Lebanon targeting Hezbollah sites, including a training facility, marking the second round of strikes on the Iran-backed terrorist group in a week following continued ceasefire violations.
Amid this week’s attacks, Lebanese Foreign Minister Youssef Raji said government officials are intensifying diplomatic efforts with Israel to prevent a larger conflict, reaffirming Beirut’s commitment to the ceasefire agreement with Jerusalem.
“We have received warnings from Arab and international sources that Israel is planning a large-scale military operation in Lebanon,” Raji told Al Jazeera in an interview.
The IDF has drawn up plans in recent weeks for a large-scale strike on Hezbollah targets in Lebanon should the government fail to disarm the Iran-backed terrorist group before the year-end deadline, Israel’s public broadcaster Kan News reported.
Meanwhile, Israel has reportedly informed the United States that if Hezbollah is not fully disarmed, the Jewish state will take action on its own, warning of potentially severe consequences for the terrorist group.
In the Al Jazeera interview, the top Lebanese diplomat said that all government efforts to negotiate the group’s disarmament have been repeatedly rejected, blaming Iran for its role in empowering the Shi’ite Islamist organization.
Tehran has long provided funding and support for the Lebanese terror group, which has been the Iranian regime’s chief proxy force in the Middle East.
“The role Iran plays in Lebanon specifically, and in the region more broadly, is extremely harmful,” Raji said, adding that Tehran’s policies are a major driver of regional instability.
He also emphasized that the Lebanese government is willing to engage in dialogue with Iran only if it stops funding “an illegal organization” in the country — referring to Hezbollah — and stops interfering in Lebanon’s internal affairs.
As Lebanon stands on the brink of a major new conflict, the government is intensifying efforts to meet the ceasefire deadline to disarm the Iran-backed terrorist group, while trying to avoid plunging the nation into a civil war.
Earlier this year, the Alma Research and Education Center, which focuses on Israel’s security challenges along its northern border, released a new study revealing that Hezbollah, with Iranian backing, has been actively rebuilding its military capabilities, in clear breach of the ceasefire agreement with Israel brokered in the fall of 2024.
According to the report, Hezbollah, with support and sponsorship from the Islamist regime in Tehran, is intensifying efforts to rehabilitate its military capabilities, including the production and repair of weapons, arms and cash smuggling, recruitment and training, and the use of civilian infrastructure as a base and cover for its operations.
In recent weeks, Israel has conducted strikes targeting the group’s network, particularly south of the Litani River, where Hezbollah operatives have historically been most active against the Jewish state.
For years, Israel has demanded that Hezbollah be barred from carrying out activities south of the Litani, located roughly 15 miles from the Israeli border.
The Lebanese government is now facing mounting pressure from Israeli and US officials to disarm Hezbollah and establish a state monopoly on weapons.
As the Lebanese government works to meet a year-end deadline to disarm the terrorist group, the army has been carefully dismantling Hezbollah arms caches nationwide, seeking to avoid inflaming tensions among the group’s Shi’ite base while giving officials more time to reach an agreement on the group’s weapons elsewhere in the country.
Earlier this year, Lebanese officials agreed to a US-backed disarmament plan, which called for Hezbollah to be fully disarmed by the end of the year in exchange for Israel halting airstrikes and withdrawing troops from the five occupied positions in the country’s southern region.
Even though the Lebanese government agreed to a five-stage plan aimed at restoring authority and limiting the influence of the Iran-backed terrorist group, Hezbollah has pushed back against any government efforts, even threatening protests and civil unrest if the government tries to enforce control over its weapons.
Dynamics in Lebanon changed last fall, when Israel decimated Hezbollah’s leadership and military capabilities with an air and ground offensive, following the group’s rocket and drone attacks on northern Israeli communities — which they claimed were a show of solidarity with the Palestinian terrorist group Hamas amid the war in Gaza.
In November 2024, Lebanon and Israel reached a US-brokered ceasefire agreement that ended a year of fighting between the Jewish state and Hezbollah.
Under the agreement, Israel was given 60 days to withdraw from southern Lebanon, allowing the Lebanese army and UN forces to take over security as Hezbollah disarms and moves away from Israel’s northern border.
However, Israel maintained troops at several posts in southern Lebanon beyond the ceasefire deadline, as its leaders aimed to reassure northern residents that it was safe to return home.
Jerusalem has continued carrying out strikes targeting remaining Hezbollah activity, with Israeli leaders accusing the group of maintaining combat infrastructure, including rocket launchers — calling such activity “blatant violations of understandings between Israel and Lebanon.”
Both Hezbollah and Iran’s influence across Lebanon plummeted in the wake of Israeli’s devastating military campaign last year.