Kherson Synagogue On Ukraine Frontlines Suffers Direct Hit
by Dovid Margolin – chabad.org
A large shell ripped through the roof of Kherson’s central synagogue late Thursday afternoon. The approximately five-foot long tube, which appeared to be the cargo section of a Russian cluster munition, pierced the synagogue roof, slamming through the second-floor sanctuary before coming to a stop in the rabbi’s office on the ground level. There were no casualties, though the building was occupied at the time.
Among those in the building at the time were synagogue staff and a Jewish woman who has lived there for the past three months, her own home being in too dangerous a part of the frontline city.
“What can I tell you, it is another miracle,” a weary Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolff told Chabad.org over the phone. The rabbi, who has directed Chabad-Lubavitch of Kherson together with his wife Chaya since 1993, had been in his office seven minutes earlier, only leaving to help a local Jewish community member place a mezuzah on their home.
The attack came at around 7 p.m. local time. The synagogue hosts daily morning and afternoon prayers, but due to city-wide curfew, not evening prayers. As the focal point of Jewish life in the war-torn southern Ukrainian city, the synagogue serves also as its Jewish community center, and aside from prayers and events is the site of food, medicine and other aid distribution, work Chabad of Kherson carries out with the help of the Jewish Relief Network Ukraine (JRNU).
Only three months ago, the rabbi and his family were driving into Kherson when a suicide drone hit their car, destroying it. Thankfully, the Wolffs escaped unharmed.
Built in 1895, Kherson’s synagogue was seized by Communist authorities around 1930 and returned to the Jewish community in the early 1990s. After years of use, it underwent a full restoration in the 2000s, reopening in 2010.
Said Rabbi Wolff: “We’re going to repair the synagogue, and we are going to continue our work here. We are not abandoning the Jews of Kherson.”
Click here to help repair Kherson’s synagogue and its Jewish community.
