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Ukrainian Jewish life has always taken place in Russian. Now a race to translate is underway.
LVIV, Ukraine (JTA) – The rabbis sat around a breakfast table, discussing Russia’s war on the country where they work in a mixture of Yiddish, Hebrew and Russian. They named their hometowns as Lugansk, Lvov and Dnepr, the Russian names for Ukrainian cities that have vaulted into international headlines since Russia invaded Ukraine in February.
Although they were focused on Ukraine’s progress in the fighting, the rabbis uttered not a single word in Ukrainian. How could they? Like the vast majority of Jews in Ukraine, none of them speaks the country’s official language.
Russian has long been the first language for a wide swath of Ukrainians, including the majority of the country’s Jews. But after the Russian invasion, many Ukrainians decided they wanted to speak less Russian and more Ukrainian. Many Jews, similarly horrified by the sight of thousands of Russian soldiers pouring over Ukraine’s borders and wishing to demonstrate their Ukrainian bonafides, have made the same choice — even as it means disrupting a long linguistic tradition.
So when the rabbis’ successors meet for pancakes and sour cream, they will be far more likely to introduce themselves as the rabbis of Luhansk, Lviv and Dnipro, the Ukrainian names for their hometowns that have become the standard in English. They will also likely be able to hand their students and congregants Ukrainian-language versions of central Jewish texts that simply do not exist now.
“Many of my friends say that they are embarrassed to use Russian as a language. They say that we are Ukrainian Jews, and that Russia is a terrorist country fighting us and that we shouldn’t use their language,” said Rabbi Meir Stambler, from Dnipro. “Others say that [Russian president Vladimir] Putin doesn’t own the Russian language. It is an issue.”
He added, “This is something that people are discussing all the time.”
A decade ago, half of Ukrainians said they spoke Russian as their native language. That number has declined to 20%, fueled in part by resentment over Russia’s aggressions in Crimea, a contested region that it annexed by force in 2014. But Jews have remained predominantly Russian-speaking, even in parts of western Ukraine where Ukrainian has long been the dominant language. (Russian and Ukrainian are related linguistically, but their speakers cannot understand each other.)
Russia’s war on Ukraine has Ukrainian Jews playing catchup. Stambler, who heads the Federation of Jewish Communities, a body affiliated with the Hasidic Chabad-Lubavitch movement that operates a network of 36 synagogues around Ukraine, offers a stark prediction: “Within 10 years, every Jew in Ukraine will speak Ukrainian.”
The dominance of Russian among Ukraine’s Jews, who numbered in the tens of thousands before the war, has deep roots.
“The historical trajectory of Jews in what is now Ukraine led them in the 19th century to adopt Russian rather than Ukrainian,” says historian Natan Meir, a professor of Judaic studies at Portland State University. “That was because Ukrainian was perceived as a peasant language that did not have any high culture associated with it, and because there were no economic advantages to adopting Ukrainian at the time.”
Now, the upside of switching to Ukrainian — demonstrating a national allegiance during a time of war — couldn’t be clearer.
“Jews feel quite integrated into Ukrainian society, but a shift, even if it is a gradual shift, to Ukrainian is going to make that more tangible than ever,” Meir said, calling the Russian invasion “absolutely game-changing” for Ukrainian Jews. “They will be perceived even more strongly than they have been as being wholly Ukrainian and part of the fabric of Ukrainian society.”
Most Ukrainian Jews, especially those educated since the collapse of the Soviet Union, can now speak some Ukrainian. But their ability often depends on where they grew up: Many Jews in traditionally Russophone cities such as Odesa, Dnipro or Kharkiv can struggle with the language, while their grandparents often cannot speak it at all.
Books in both Hebrew and Russian sit on a bookshelf at Medzhybizh. (Jacob Judah)
“Not more than 20% were Ukrainian-speaking at home,” says Stambler. “Take President [Volodymyr] Zelensky. He knew Ukrainian, but he didn’t speak it at home, and he had to polish it up when he became president.”
It will not be simple for the Jewish community to suddenly switch to Ukrainian, the most widely spoken European language without a standardized translation of the Torah.
Two years ago, a team of translators working in Israel, Austria and Hungary began working to produce Ukrainian-language Jewish texts. But before the Russian invasion, the effort had so far produced only a Ukrainian book of psalms, or tehillim.
In May, two months into the war, a decision was made to accelerate work on a daily prayer book. A Torah could follow.
“The chumash is difficult,” said Stambler, who oversees the half-dozen-strong team of translators from his base in Dnipro, using the Hebrew word for the printed form of the Torah. “We are working on it.”
While translating sacred texts can take years, other changes have come faster. The leaflets, brochures and calendars that are a fixture at any Jewish center in Ukraine were quickly swapped out Russian for Ukrainian, at least at the federation’s headquarters. Before February, these had often been produced and printed by Russian Jewish communities and shared with those in Ukraine, for simplicity’s sake.
“This differentiation from Russian Jewry is going to be huge,” said Meir, the historian. “Up until this point they have essentially formed one linguistic and cultural space that all Jews, whether they were in Ukraine, Russia or Belarus could move freely between.”
Now, the ties between those communities are both logistically complicated to maintain — trade routes have been ruptured — and also potentially a liability at a time when anyone in either Russia or Ukraine showing an affinity for the other country can face suspicion or penalties.
“This shift, if it actually happens, is going to be marking out a totally new cultural space for Ukrainian Jews and almost a declaration of independence,” Meir said “Or at least that is the aspiration, because there is so much of their heritage which is still based in the Russian language that it is going to be a long time before they can fully separate.”
That separation process, which began to take shape most clearly after 2014, has quickened. “We started doing things ourselves,” said Stambler. “We used to do about 20% in Ukrainian for the Jews in western towns like Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk and Uzhhorod, but we are making a much stronger push now.”
He estimates that some 75% of material being distributed to Ukrainian Jewish communities by the Federation of Jewish Communities was in Ukrainian by September, up from 20% to 35% in January.
Young rabbis who come from the United States or Israel to serve small Jewish communities across Ukraine now say that they have had to add Ukrainian alongside their Russian classes.
“I began with Russian,” said one of those rabbis who works in Vinnitsya, until he decided over the summer that he had to learn Ukrainian. “I realized that I had to learn Ukrainian because I needed it on the street. I needed it to speak with the government and with the media.”
Signs in a synagogue in Ukraine are written in both Ukrainian and Russian. (Jacob Judah)
Some Ukrainian Jews are voting with their voices.
“My whole life, I spoke only Russian,” said Olha Peresunko, who before the war lived in Mikolaiv in southern Ukraine. “But after the 24th of February I am speaking only Ukrainian.”
Peresunko was speaking outside a Lviv synagogue this fall, where she and other refugees were waiting for food parcels. She had fled Mikolaiv, which has sustained repeated assault by Russian troops, for Lviv with her mother and two children while her husband is on the frontlines.
Her children are finding it hard to adjust to the exclusive Ukrainian environment in Lviv, but she is confident that they will make the shift. “They will speak Ukrainian as their first language,” Peresunko said.
Exactly how much the shift to Ukrainian will change local Jewish communities is a matter of debate. Rabbi Shalom Gopin, who fled to Kyiv in 2014 from his home community in Luhansk, an overwhelmingly Russophone city seized by Russia-backed separatists at that time, said he, too, believes that Ukrainian will displace Russian as the lingua franca of Ukrainian Jewry.
A Ukrainian woman displays her Ukrainian-language Jewish calendar as a source of pride, September 2022. (Jacob Judah)
“They are starting to slowly speak Ukrainian,” he said. “It is no problem. There are lots of Jews in America who speak English. We live here, and we speak the languages of the places that we live. It is normal.”
But Gopin said the linguistic shift “means nothing” amid other issues facing Jews in Ukraine, where Russia’s war is threatening to undo 30 years of Jewish community building, largely though not exclusively led by Chabad, Gopin’s Orthodox movement.
“The problem for the Jews of Ukraine is not language,” he said. “It is about how much they are going to synagogue, or how many children are going to Jewish schools, not about what they are speaking.”
Natalia Kozachuk, 45, a Jewish businesswoman in Lviv, sees only upside to shedding Russian, her native language. She has started to speak to her children only in Ukrainian.
“It will be hugely positive if Jews speak more Ukrainian,” Kozachuk said. This is the only way that Jews can truly “learn more about the Ukrainian people,” she said, “about their history and the positive qualities and strengths of Ukraine.”
“Only good can come of it,” she added. “We will understand each other better.”
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Zara Announces Partnership With Designer John Galliano, Who Has History of Antisemitic Comments
A Zara shop. Photo: Wikimedia Commons.
Zara announced on Wednesday a two-year creative partnership with John Galliano, who was fired as creative director of the French fashion house Christian Dior after being caught on camera going on a drunken antisemitic rant in 2011.
Zara said the British fashion designer, 65, “will re-author the brand’s archives through a series of seasonal collections,” which will be released seasonally during the partnership that will begin in September. “Mr. Galliano will be working directly with garments from Zara’s past seasons, deconstructing and reconfiguring them into new seasonal expressions and creations,” the Spanish company added.
Galliano spent two seasons with Givenchy before taking over in 1996 as creative director of Dior, which he helmed for 15 years. He was the creative director of the Paris-based fashion house Maison Margiela for 10 years, from 2014-2024. He has won the British Fashion Designer of the Year four times.
In February 2011, Galliano was accused of accosting a couple at the Paris restaurant La Perle in the Marais district. The couple, a Jewish woman and her Asian boyfriend, said the British designer told them: “Dirty Jewish face, you should be dead” and “f–king Asian bastard, I will kill you.” The incident led to Galliano’s arrest.
After the incident, a video surfaced that showed Galliano, in the same restaurant, making antisemitic comments at patrons while drunk in October 2010. He also expressed admiration for Nazi leader Adolf Hitler. “I love Hitler and people like you would be dead today,” he said. “Your mothers, your forefathers would be f–king gassed and f–king dead … you, you’re ugly.”
Dior fired Galliano in 2011 shortly after the video of his drunken antisemitic remarks were widely circulated. Galliano also faced a one-day trial in Paris, after being charged with “public insults based on origin, religious affiliation, race, or ethnicity” related to the incidents in 2011 and the year prior. He was ordered to pay a fine equivalent to $8,500 for making the antisemitic insults, and damages to each of his victims as well as to five anti-racism groups who were also complainants.
Galliano claimed he has no recollection of making the offensive remarks and blamed his actions on drug and alcohol addiction. He also denied being an antisemite or racist, and apologized for “allowing myself to be seen to be behaving in the worst possible light.”
“I fully accept that the accusations made against me have greatly shocked and upset people,” the designer said in 2011. “I only have myself to blame and I know that I must face up to my own failures and that I must work hard to gain people’s understanding and compassion.”
“I have fought my entire life against prejudice, intolerance, and discrimination, having been subjected to it myself,” he added. “In all my work my inspiration has been to unite people of every race, creed, religion, and sexuality by celebrating their cultural and ethnic diversity through fashion. Antisemitism and racism have no part in our society. I unreservedly apologize for my behavior in causing any offense.”
He told Vanity Fair in June 2013 that his antisemitic comments were “the worst thing I have said in my life.”
“But I didn’t mean it,” Galliano said. “I have been trying to find out why that anger was directed at this race. I now realize I was so f–king angry and so discontent with myself that I just said the most spiteful thing I could.”
He also apologized in his 2024 documentary, “High & Low — John Galliano.” He admitted in the film, “It was a disgusting thing, foul thing that I did. It was just horrific … I couldn’t recognize that person. I felt horrified. Ashamed. Embarrassed.”
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CAIR Sends Separate Letters to US Lawmakers Praising Democrats, Challenging Republicans on ‘Anti-Muslim Bigotry’
CAIR officials give press conference on the Israel-Hamas war. Photo: Kyle Mazza / SOPA Images/Sipa USA via Reuters Connect
The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR), a prominent Muslim advocacy organization that has been scrutinized by US authorities over alleged ties to terrorist groups, has sent two separate letters to Democratic and Republican congressional offices, calling on lawmakers to confront what it described as rising anti-Muslim rhetoric and to reaffirm commitments to religious freedom.
In its March 13 letter to Democratic offices, CAIR praised statements by House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries and others who have spoken out against anti-Muslim hate, urging lawmakers to go further by pursuing formal censure actions against Republican members accused of making inflammatory comments.
In a separate letter to Republicans, the organization struck a more critical tone, calling on the party to reaffirm its support for religious liberty and to distance itself from rhetoric it says targets Muslim Americans.
“At moments like this, the voices of elected leaders defending constitutional values matter greatly. We encourage Democratic offices to remain vigilant in confronting anti-Muslim bigotry using the full range of congressional tools, including the pursuit of censure resolutions against Rep. Fine and Rep. Ogles,” the letter to Democrats read, referring to Republican Reps. Randy Fine (FL) and Andy Ogles (TN).
CAIR pointed to remarks attributed to several Republican lawmakers, including Fine, Ogles, and Sen. Tommy Tuberville (AL), arguing that such statements contribute to a climate of hostility toward Muslims. Earlier this month, Ogles wrote on X that “Muslims don’t belong in America. Pluralism is a lie.” Meanwhile, Fine posted, “We need more Islamophobia, not less. Fear of Islam is rational.:
The organization also criticized the formation of the “Sharia-Free America” Caucus, claiming its policy proposals could infringe on the religious freedoms of Muslim Americans. The caucus, comprised of more than 50 Republican House members, declares that Sharia, or Islamic law, is a “direct threat to our Constitution and Western values and seeks to replace our legal system and erode our basic freedoms.”
At the same time, CAIR framed its appeal to Republicans within the party’s historical identity, invoking the “big tent” vision associated with Ronald Reagan. The group noted that Muslim American voters have, at times, supported Republican candidates, but argued that relationship has eroded in the years following the Iraq War.
The group warned that the “potential relationship between the Republican Party and American Muslim voters is rapidly deteriorating as anti-Muslim rhetoric from elected officials goes unchallenged by Republican leadership.”
CAIR’s criticism of political rhetoric comes amid renewed attention to the organization’s own history. Founded in 1994, CAIR has long denied allegations of links to extremist groups, but it has faced scrutiny over past associations. The group was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the federal prosecution related to the Holy Land Foundation trial, a case involving the largest terrorism financing conviction in US history. While that designation did not result in criminal charges against CAIR, it has been cited by critics as a point of concern.
In addition, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) announced in 2008 that it would suspend formal cooperation with CAIR pending further clarity about such concerns. CAIR has consistently rejected allegations of wrongdoing, stating that it condemns terrorism and supports constitutional principles.
Critics have also pointed to past statements by some CAIR officials and the organization’s positions on US foreign policy, particularly regarding Israel and the Middle East, as evidence of ideological bias.
Supporters, however, argue that CAIR plays a significant role in defending civil liberties for Muslim Americans and documenting discrimination. Several high-ranking members of CAIR openly celebrated and defended Hamas’s Oct. 7, 2023, massacre across southern Israel, a terrorist attack that left over 1,200 dead and more than 250 hostages.
In January, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott formally designated CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist organizations under state law, citing in part what officials described as longstanding ideological and operational ties with Islamist movements hostile to the US and its allies.
Abbott’s proclamation described CAIR as a “successor organization” to the Muslim Brotherhood and noted the FBI called it a “front group” for “Hamas and its support network.” The document also outlined the history of the organizations and their historical associations with figures and networks tied to Hamas, an internationally designated terrorist group.
“The Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR have long made their goals clear: to forcibly impose Sharia law and establish Islam’s ‘mastership of the world,’” Abbott said in a statement while announcing the designations last month. “These radical extremists are not welcome in our state and are now prohibited from acquiring any real property interest in Texas.”
In December, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis also signed an executive order designating CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as terrorist groups.
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Trump Hails Japanese Leader, Says Tokyo ‘Really Stepping Up to the Plate’ on Iran
US President Donald Trump shakes hands with Japanese Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, DC, US, March 19, 2026. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US President Donald Trump greeted Japan‘s Prime Minister Sanae Takaichi warmly at the White House on Thursday and said he believed Japan was “really stepping up to the plate” on Iran, unlike the NATO alliance.
Trump has lashed out at allies for their lukewarm support for the US-Israeli military campaign and said the US doesn’t need any help. However, he is still pushing for more ships to clear mines and escort tankers through the Strait of Hormuz, largely closed by Iran in the conflict.
Ahead of the meeting, Japan joined leading nations in Europe in a joint statement, saying they would take steps to stabilize energy markets and were ready to join “appropriate efforts” to ensure safe passage through the Strait.
Trump hailed Takaichi’s election victory last month as “record setting” as he welcomed her at the Oval Office. He said they would “be talking about trade and many other things,” including Iran.
“We’ve had tremendous support and relationship with Japan on everything, and I believe that based on statements that were given to us yesterday, the day before yesterday, having to do with Japan, they are really stepping up to the plate … unlike NATO,” Trump said.
He said he expected Japan to step up given the support the US gave the country and the tens of thousands of troops it has stationed there.
“We don’t need much; we don’t need anything,” Trump said. “We don’t need anything from Japan or from anyone else. But I think it’s appropriate that people step up.”
Takaichi told Trump she had “brought specific proposals to calm down the global energy market” and said Iran must never be allowed to obtain a nuclear weapon.
Takaichi condemned Iran‘s attacks in the Strait of Hormuz and said she believed only Trump could achieve peace. She also said the global economy was about to take a hit due to the turmoil in the Middle East.
At the same time, Takaichi said Tokyo had been reaching out to Iran.
Unlike Washington, Tokyo has diplomatic relations with Tehran, creating a potential avenue for diplomacy in any moves to end the war, although past attempts by Japan to mediate with Tehran in 2019 were unsuccessful.
JAPAN RELIES ON CRUDE OIL FROM GULF
Takaichi’s long-scheduled White House visit has been aimed at burnishing the decades-old security and economic partnership between Washington and its closest East Asian ally, but there have been concerns among Japanese officials that Trump will press her to do more than she is able to on Iran.
Takaichi has sought to move Japan away from a pacifist constitution imposed by Washington after World War Two, but with the Iran war unpopular at home, she has so far not offered to assist in clearing the Strait of Hormuz.
US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said earlier he would expect that Japan, which gets a large share of its crude oil supplies from the Gulf, would want to ensure its supplies are safe.
He told Fox Business Network Japan‘s navy has some of the best minesweepers and mine-detection capabilities and that he believed Japan would release more of its large petroleum reserve to supply the strained oil market.
Takaichi told the Japanese parliament on Monday Japan had received no official request from the United States on Iran but was checking the scope of possible action within the limits of its constitution.
Trump said a lot of his discussions with Takaichi would be about energy. Takaichi said they would discuss economic security in areas like energy and minerals.
Japanese officials said Takaichi hoped to remind Trump of the dangers posed by a regionally assertive China – especially to Taiwan – ahead of his planned visit there, which has now been pushed back from an earlier plan him to visit in two weeks.
On Wednesday US intelligence agencies created potential awkwardness for Takaichi when they said that remarks she made last year in support of Taiwan marked a “significant shift” for a Japanese leader.
Takaichi has maintained that her stance, which sent Tokyo’s relations with Beijing into a nosedive, was consistent with Japan‘s long-standing policy and Japan‘s government spokesperson said the US assessment was not accurate.
In the Oval Office, Takaichi said Japan was open to dialogue with China.
Japan expects Trump to ask Tokyo to produce or co-develop missiles that could help replace stocks of US munitions depleted by the Iran war and Russia’s war in Ukraine. Tokyo is still considering how to respond, Japanese government sources said.
Takaichi will also tell Trump that Japan intends to join the “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative that is meant to detect, track and potentially counter incoming threats from orbit, two Japanese government sources said.
She is expected to announce a fresh Japanese investment in Trump-approved projects in the US, from a $550 billion commitment made by the government to win relief from tariffs the US president imposed last year.
Japan could pledge some $60 billion as part of the second tranche of its investments spanning critical minerals and energy, said a person familiar with the plans, after already committing to three projects valued at $36 billion.