Ukrainian Parliament Marks Holocaust Day With Shliach

For the first time in history, the Ukrainian Parliament marked Holocaust Day.

The event, which took place on Thursday, was attended by the Chief Rabbi and Head Shliach of Kiev, Rabbi Yonathan Markovitch, the Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine, Mr. Joel Leon, and many others, including a large number of MPs—representatives of Ukraine’s provincial cities. Members of the Jewish community, embassy representatives and many media people were also in attendance.

Speaking before the assembled, Rabbi Markovitch said: “My great grandfather Yonathan Benyamin, his wife and granddaughters (my mother’s sisters) were brought into the synagogue and all burned together. They burned girls and boys who did not even get a chance to go to school. One part of my family was burned and the other half was took to Auschwitz. They were taken so they won’t return.

“And here I stand in front of you today, named after my great grandfather Yonathan Benyamin, proud to continue to preserve my glorious ancestral tradition and to serve as Chief Rabbi of the Capital of Ukraine. Proud to stand and take part – for the first time in the Ukrainian legislature in Parliament, at the Holocaust Day – and to tell my great grandfather, and the children of the future generation, to Ukrainian Jewry and to world Jewry, they tried to destroy us but we rebuilt and today thousands of children are studying in Jewish educational institutions in the country. Thousands of young people, proud to be part of the Jewish organizations. Tens of thousands of elderly people receive help every year by Jewish organizations.

“I am proud and thank G-d for the privilege granted to me and proud to be the Shliach the Rabbi of the Ukrainian capital.”

Following Rabbi Markovitch’s speech, a community member whose family was sent to the camps, recited Kaddish (for the first time in parliament!) to the murdered.

Later, Rabbi Markovitch mentioned the Rambam’s Yartzheit that occurred this week and even learned Rambam with some of the participants.

It is also the first time that the head of Parliament has officially been presented with the photos of the Chabad Rebbeim who were active in Ukraine.