Israel and Ukraine are both fighting the same evil in the Russia-Ukraine War and the Israel-Hamas War, Ukrainian chief rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman told The Jerusalem Post at the Yael Foundation Conference on Jewish education in Paphos on Wednesday.
"The same evil stands behind both wars," said Azman, explaining that there was a new "axis of evil" like that of the World War II Axis power.
Azman said Russia, Iran, North Korea, and Syria were members of this alliance. Iran provides munitions to Russia for use against Ukraine and Hezbollah used Russian-made Grad, Katyusha, and Kornet weapon systems to attack northern Israel, he said.
It was notable that the date of Hamas’s pogrom in southern Israel was also Russian President Vladimir Putin’s birthday, said Azman, who is affiliated with Chabad.
“Israel and Ukraine need more connections” and learn strategies and tactics from one another, he said.
Ahead of the anniversary of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Saturday, Azman said the war continued to be difficult after the initial miracle of pushing back the Kremlin at the beginning, but Ukraine had no choice but to continue fighting.
“Ukraine is defending the free world against barbarians,” he said.
During an interview with US journalist Tucker Carlson, Putin said Poland had antagonized Nazi Germany, thereby excusing Nazi leader Adolf Hitler’s aggression, Azman said.
“They say that they are antifascist, but they act like fascists,” he said.
The bombing of Ukrainian cities was continuing nonstop, and hundreds of people were dying on the eastern front, Azman said, adding that the topic was not being explored enough in Israeli newspapers.
There are still Ukrainian Jews who remain
“There are still many Ukrainian Jews in the country... patriots,” old people who had spent their entire life in Ukraine and don’t want to leave, or those who couldn’t because of the mandatory draft, he said.
“There are also those who have returned.”
“There are Jews serving in the army, there are those who fell in battle, [or who’ were wounded,” he said, adding that his community did what it could to support them.
Azman could not cite any figures, but he said there were still Israelis serving in the Ukrainian Army, but many returned to fight for Israel since the October 7 massacre. He had come to Israel himself recently and visited soldiers on the Gaza and Lebanon borders. He said he had blessed the soldiers and prayed for their victory.
True victory against the enemies of the Jewish people comes through education, Azman said. The importance of such education is why he had traveled for 27 hours to attend the conference, he said. He gave a speech on the importance of educating Jewish children at Tuesday night’s Gala.
The conference had gathered Jewish educators from across the world to help teach and advise on best practices and pedagogies. Azman said he was one of the few people who had seen the fruits of the organization’s initial planting of the seeds. Rabbi Shmuel Azman, his son, was chairman of the Yael Foundation and continues to be involved in its activities, he said. The family is close with co-founders and philanthropists Uri and Yael Poliavich.
Purim was approaching in March, and to help bring about the miracle that saw the reversal of the genocide of Jews at the hands of Haman, Mordechai had gathered thousands of Jewish children for Torah lessons and prayer for mercy, Azman told the Post. The merit of this education had secured the future of the Jewish people, he said.
Likewise, the Nazis and Hamas wanted to kill all Jews, Azman said, adding that teaching children about their heritage would help secure the future of the Jewish people against those who would seek them harm.
“This is our victory – education on Jewish tradition and history,” he said.