Ukrainian President Lights Chanukah Candles with Chabad

On the occasion of the beginning of the Hanukkah holiday, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy took part in the Hanukkah candle-lighting ceremony together with the rabbis of Ukraine.

Chief Rabbi of Dnipro Shmuel Kaminetsky said a blessing and spoke about the meaning of Hanukkah, which symbolizes a great miracle.

“The battle between light and darkness continues. We see that thanks to you, the axis of evil is becoming much weaker, and we will soon defeat it. We will light these candles and hope that the Almighty will help us, and we will pray with everyone to see great miracles soon,” he said.

The Head of State congratulated the Jewish community on the holiday and thanked them for their prayers for Ukraine and Ukrainians.

“Thank you for being in Ukraine and supporting everyone. We have a unique country – today we celebrate both Christmas and Hanukkah. It is very good that in Ukraine we can all live together, fighting the darkness with the light that we have,” the President said.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy pointed out that the Hanukkah menorah lit today was presented to him by the President of Argentina, Javier Milei, during his inauguration last December, when it was the fourth of the eight days of Hanukkah 5784.

Rabbi Meir Stambler, Chairman of the Council of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, noted that Hanukkah also reminds the world of the victory of a small number of people over a powerful enemy.

The ceremony was also attended by Chief Rabbi of Beit Menachem Chabad (Kyiv) Jonathan Markovitch, Chief Rabbi of the Jewish Religious Community of the Central Synagogue of Kyiv Moshe Azman, Chief Rabbi of Simcha Chabad Left Bank (Kyiv) Mordechai Levenharts, Chief Rabbi of Lviv Mordechai Bald, Chief Rabbi of Mykolaiv Shalom Gottlieb, Chief Rabbi of Odesa Avraham Wolff, Chief Rabbi of Sumy Yechiel Levitansky, Chief Rabbi of Kharkiv Moshe Moskowitz, Chief Rabbi of Kherson Yossef Wolff, and Deputy Chairman of the Council of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine Rabbi Raphael Rutman.