- September 13, 2024
- 8:01 pm
- Ukraine
Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine reported about organizing their funeral already 47 Ukrainian Jewish soldierswho died in battles with the Russian occupiers, although it is claimed that the number of Jewish soldiers killed could be 5 times higher.
“While the world sleeps. While someone in the world pretends to care. While someone in the world believes in the narratives that Putin is confronting Nazism in Ukraine, some neo-Nazis. Which Nazis exactly?
Today in Kyiv they are saying goodbye to our warrior, the fallen Ukrainian defender, the son of the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Azman. I would like to express my condolences to him and to all who have lost their relatives and loved ones.
Today, war concerns everyone. It concerns all of us in Ukraine, in Europe, in the world. All of us: men, women, our parents, but above all, our children.”
On September 13, 2024, Kyiv hosted the First Ladies and Gentlemen Summit for the 4th time — an international dialogue platform founded by the First Lady of Ukraine Olena Zelenska in 2021. This year, guests discussed child safety under the theme “Child Protection: Guarantees for a Safe Future.” The summit opened with a minute of silence in memory of the military and civilians, adults and children who died in the war.
To the Summit participants addressed President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky.
“Dear First Ladies and Gentlemen!
Dear attendees!
Dear ladies and gentlemen!
First of all, I thank you all, I thank the First Lady of Ukraine, all the participants and guests of this Summit. Thank you very much for this fruitful day, for this very important event. For coming to Ukraine in difficult times. And for the fact that we are overcoming these times together. Both now and in previous years, this global platform has proven that it is a necessary platform where important voices of the world are heard, and it is an effective platform where important solutions are found and then implemented. This gives the world more justice and more protection of life.
It is thanks to your activity, dialogue and initiatives, thanks to the fact that today you truly act as ambassadors of the bright side of history, defenders of human values, ambassadors of life.
I welcome you all on holding this fourth Summit. Despite the war, all the challenges, threats and difficulties, Ukraine once again gathers first ladies and gentlemen from all over the world. This is very important. Not to hide from challenges, but to overcome them, not to take our eyes off the threats. To talk about the painful and difficult. To seek and find answers. To maintain attention to Ukraine, not to let the world forget, because today not only Ukraine is under attack, but also the values of freedom and life of the whole world. And the current topic is the safety of children.
It is probably difficult to find two more polar, more opposite concepts than “war” and “children”. Unfortunately, in the modern world there are those who have made a choice in favor of the first – in favor of war. Aggressors, dictators – they are called by different names, who have chosen destruction instead of development. Merciless and constant violations of children's rights instead of protection and care for future generations.
And this is the most painful aspect of war. And the fact that children are the most vulnerable during war is not just words. It is a fact. Nothing squeezes the heart more and sounds more terrible than a child's “I'm scared.”
You can rebuild destroyed homes, you can rebuild the economy, you can restore infrastructure, you can clear territories littered with enemy mines — all of this can be done. But how can you return a childhood that was stolen? Is there a “compensation mechanism” for the fact that children were robbed of peace and security? I was recently told a story. About a conversation that took place between our fighters in one of the trenches on the front line. An experienced fighter, who has been defending Ukraine since the very beginning of the occupation, since 2014, praised his comrade for his bravery. They had just returned from a combat mission. And then he expressed regret that he had not met him earlier, when his qualities would have been most useful. He asked him: “Where were you in 2015?” And he answered: “In the 10th grade.”
I think this story is a tragedy. It is reality. And I think there are many such stories among us: at the front, in civilian life. Unfortunately, very many. Because of this war that Putin brought. Yesterday's children are today's warriors when they defend their native land and give their lives.
Some were in school, some went to university, and each of them had their childhood, their youth, their young adulthood taken away, a part of their life taken away.
This is what happens if evil is not stopped immediately, this is exactly what happens when the world ponders red lines for years, looks for diplomatic ways to deal with someone who has been undiplomatically killing, burning, and raping for years. For years, he has been annexing, starting wars, and waging them for as long as he needs. And he will continue to do so. While the world sleeps. While someone in the world pretends to care. While someone in the world believes in the narrative that Putin is confronting Nazism in Ukraine, some neo-Nazis. Which Nazis exactly? Today, Kiev is saying goodbye to our warrior, a fallen Ukrainian defender, the son of the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Azman. I would like to express my condolences to him and to all those who have lost loved ones. Today, war concerns everyone. It concerns all of us in Ukraine, in Europe, in the world. All of us: men, women, our parents, but above all, our children.
Ten days ago, Ukraine celebrated Knowledge Day. It is the beginning of a new school year. But the war brought our country and our children completely different knowledge. Knowledge that no child on the planet should receive. Going to the first lesson to the sound of sirens, learning not only the language, history, mathematics, but also short routes to a bomb shelter, adapting to online learning, adapting to learning in another country, in another language. This is also difficult.
And the worst thing is not to see your mother or father when our families are separated because of a full-scale war that has been going on for almost three years. Our children born after February 24 have already learned to walk. They have already learned to talk. The war, unfortunately, taught them the words: “alarm”, “attack”, “missiles”, “shelling”, “strikes”, “danger”.
These are not childish tests. And that is why today our children ask non-childish questions: “Is it flying again?”, “When can we go outside?”, “Was it an air strike or our air defense?”, “When will daddy come back?”, “Why doesn't God punish and take this Putin away?” And the most important question: “When will this war end?”
This question is from every child in Ukraine, from everyone. And this question is for all of us, for all of the adults on Earth. And this question requires honest answers. It requires that everyone be honest, first of all with themselves.
Because it is very easy to condemn a Russian missile that is flying towards our school. But it is not so easy to admit that this missile may contain parts from America, Europe, Asia, from any part of the world. You know, there is such a phrase: “the devil is in the details”. This example with missiles, unfortunately, proves it. In every sense of the word.
How is this possible? Why is this possible? And even if it is not easy to admit, is it not also easy to fix it, stop it, solve it?
This Summit in particular and all the efforts of Ukraine and our allies in general prove that the safety of children today concerns all of us, each and every one of us.
It should unite, and today it unites everyone, regardless of political levels. Leaders of states, first ladies and gentlemen, international organizations and institutions, active, courageous and caring people from all over the world. And in general – adults who have to overcome adult challenges.
Ukraine is definitely trying to solve this problem. Ukraine knows the answers to all these questions. It offers its solutions to the world. Our Peace Formula, our victory plan, the Peace Summit – there are all the fair answers for a fair end to the war. This is how it should be, when the one who encroached first of all on the safety of children will answer for what he did. And the repetition of such crimes in the future will become impossible.
So that children in Ukraine and children all over the world have a happy childhood, so that loved ones are close by and families are not torn apart by this shameful war that Russia brought. So that the world never again sees a picture of a child's room that has been hit by a shell, or a child being pulled out from under the rubble after a missile strike. This war and all wars must remain in the past. Ukraine wants this very much. Ukraine unites the world for this. Ukraine and the world must achieve this.
I thank you all once again for organizing the Summit, for participating in it, for coming to Ukraine, for the fact that we are fighting together and will definitely win. We are obliged to do this.
Thank you for your attention!
Glory to Ukraine!
The son of Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman, head of the Brodsky synagogue in Kyiv, Matityahu Samborsky, was buried after he died in battle with Russian troops.
Hundreds of people, including non-Jews, attended the ceremony at the synagogue and cemetery. Israeli Ambassador Michael Brodsky was also present. Ukrainian media covered the funeral extensively, sending dozens of journalists.
Samborsky, 32, whom Azman adopted from a Jewish orphanage 22 years ago, attended Chabad yeshiva schools in Kyiv and Dnipro. He was drafted and killed in the Donetsk region. His family knew his unit had been hit by a missile in the summer and his chances of survival were slim, but Samborsky’s body was only recently found and identified by his wife.
His first daughter was born in May, and the following week he was sent to the front.
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine said it had organized funerals for 47 Jewish soldiers, but believed the death toll was much higher.
“Ukrainian Jews do not have blue blood”“Asman said.
“Our best sons are on the front lines, defending our homeland from the Russian occupier. Matityahu went to the front and fought bravely for Ukraine, justice and peace. He died as a hero.”
«We will never forget him and dedicate events to his memory. You did not die in vain. We will win and will always remember you!»
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