KYIV, Ukraine — Greater than two years after Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky wrote its first letter, his Israeli counterpart Isaac Herzog has inked the ultimate letters of Torah scroll devoted to peace in each of their international locations.
The Torah was initiated in Ukraine shortly after Russia’s 2022 invasion and accomplished this week in Israel, now engaged in its personal conflict in Gaza. Alongside the way in which, letters have been written by Jews serving within the Ukrainian military, members of the Jewish group in Kyiv, households of Israeli fallen troopers and relations of Israelis kidnapped in Gaza, amongst others.
The writing of the Torah, which will probably be introduced again to Ukraine within the coming months and positioned in one of many synagogues within the nation’s capital, was an initiative of the Kyiv chief rabbi, Yonatan Markowitz.
“Each Jewish presidents wrote a letter within the Sefer Torah, devoted for the sake of peace and achdut (unity) in Am Yisrael, which will probably be positioned in Kyiv’s Nice Synagogue JCC, Beit Menachem,” the Chabad rabbi mentioned in a press release referring to Zelensky and Herzog, who’re the world’s solely Jewish heads of state.
First letter written by Zelensky, final written by Herzog
The primary letter of the Sefer Torah was written by Zelensky “in his workplace within the presidential bunker in Kyiv,” and Herzog wrote the ultimate letter in a ceremony held at his official residence in Jerusalem, in response to Markowitz.
“The combination of forces between the Jews of Israel and the Jewish group in Ukraine constitutes a strong power multiplier for the survival and continuity of the Jewish individuals,” Herzog mentioned in the course of the occasion. “There may be nothing extra shifting than being a part of writing a Sefer Torah that symbolizes this particular unity, particularly now.”
The ceremony was attended by relations of Zina Beylin, a 60-year-old Israeli lady of Ukrainian origin who was murdered on October 7 in Sderot along with a dozen different senior residents whereas on a bus journey, she had organized to the Lifeless Sea. Photos of their our bodies have been among the first to point out the carnage from that bloody day.
Additionally current on the Israeli president’s residence, Markowitz spoke of “the story of Jewish heroism and resilience” shared by “the Jews of Israel and Ukraine” and thanked Jews from Israel and around the globe for his or her help to Ukrainian Jews.
“After we started writing the Sefer Torah, we didn’t suppose we’d attain a scenario the place our brothers, the individuals of Israel within the Holy Land, would even be underneath the specter of a merciless conflict,” Markowitz mentioned.
