Ukraine’s chief rabbi, Moshe Azman, defended the dignity of President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Putin called “a disgrace to the Jewish people,” reported the Unian portal.
“I am proud of President Zelensky that he did not run away (after Russia invaded Ukraine) and is doing everything to help the Ukrainian people. And not only me. I think the whole world is proud of him,” said the rabbi, quoted by Unian.
It was a response to the words of the Russian dictator Putin, who on Friday at the International Economic Forum in St. Petersburg called Volodymyr Zelensky “a disgrace of the Jewish people”, claiming that his Jewish colleagues say that about the Ukrainian president. Putin himself has repeatedly called Zelensky and his entourage “neo-Nazis”. In an interview with a reporter from the Unian portal, Moshe Azman also referred to this.
“There are no neo-Nazis in Ukraine. There are decent people here who defend their homeland,” said the rabbi.
The Ukrainian president was born into a Jewish family, and his grandfather’s father and three brothers were murdered during the Holocaust. In 2022, the Israeli daily “Jerusalem Post” recognized the president of Ukraine as the most influential Jew in the world. Former Israeli Prime Minister Jair Lapid came in second, and French Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne came in third
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