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Now a judicial seal has been added to television propaganda.

On August 4, 2026, the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow satisfied the application of the General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia. Stepan Bandera, his brother Vasyl, Roman Shukhevych, Andriy Melnyk, six other figures of the Ukrainian national movement, as well as the Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army were declared

“accomplices of Nazi Germany in war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during the Great Patriotic War against the Soviet people.”

“The court’s decision is necessary to perpetuate the memory of the victims of the genocide of the Soviet people, to debunk the illegal actions of the regime in Kyiv, to annul decisions on the rehabilitation of war criminals, and to prevent acts of extremism against our country.”

“Given the above, the court fully satisfied the claims of the Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and recognized them as accomplices of Nazi Germany in war crimes and crimes against humanity.”

This was not an ordinary criminal case. All the named individuals have long been deceased, and no punishment was assigned to anyone. The Prosecutor General’s Office requested to establish a ‘fact of legal significance,’ and the court agreed with the ‘historical-legal construction’ prepared by Russian state bodies.

The practical result of the process is clear: previously, Russian propaganda claimed that Bandera, the OUN, and the UPA were Nazis. Now it can add: ‘This was established by the court.’

But it was not only long-deceased people who were ‘judged’ here.

Russian historian Mikhail Myagkov, involved in the case as an expert, directly stated that the current Ukrainian authorities, the SBU, the Main Intelligence Directorate of Ukraine, and Ukrainian military units are ‘factual and legal heirs’ of the OUN and UPA. He claimed that Russia is today fighting with the direct heirs of the Banderites.

Thus, the modern political goal of the court was not even hidden. Formally, its decision is dedicated to the events of the 1940s. In reality, it is intended to justify today’s Russian aggression against Ukraine.

What exactly happened in the Tverskoy court

The General Prosecutor’s Office of Russia asked the Tverskoy District Court of Moscow to officially recognize ten figures of the Ukrainian national movement as ‘accomplices of Nazi Germany’: Stepan and Vasyl Bandera, Roman Shukhevych, Andriy Melnyk, Mykola Arsenych, Taras Borovets, Dmytro Klyachkivsky, Mykola Kozak, Myron Matviyko, and Yaroslav Stetsko.

The Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN) and the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) were also included in the same accusatory construction.

The Russian side stated that the listed individuals and organizations were involved in ‘terror against the population of occupied territories,’ ‘punitive operations, mass executions, fighting against the Red Army, and the destruction of Soviet partisans.’ All these actions were combined by the Prosecutor General’s Office under the general formulation of crimes against the ‘Soviet people’.

As the main episodes, the Russian authorities named the ‘Lviv pogrom, the destruction of Belarusian Khatyn, and the mass killings of the Polish population in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.’ In some Russian publications, Babi Yar was also added to this list, although responsibility for this crime has a different organizational and historical structure.

Regarding Lviv, the Russian version claims that mass killings took place under the command of Roman Shukhevych, and the total number of dead Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles exceeded eight thousand.

The destruction of Khatyn is linked by the Russian side to the 118th auxiliary police battalion, which in public materials is presented as a formation consisting of members of the OUN and UPA.

In Volhynia and Eastern Galicia, the OUN and UPA are attributed with the killing of at least 120 thousand Poles. At the same time, Russian publications do not explain in detail by what methodology this exact figure was obtained, which territories and periods were included in the calculation.

But the most important political element of the accusation was not the description of the events of the 1940s. Mikhail Myagkov and the Russian Military-Historical Society transferred the responsibility of historical organizations to modern Ukraine, calling Ukrainian state, intelligence, and military structures direct heirs of the ‘Banderites.’

Thus, the Russian construction includes several levels at once. First, real crimes and confirmed cases of cooperation of individual Ukrainian nationalists with Nazi structures are listed. Then different organizations, units, and periods are combined into one system. After that, the responsibility of people from the 1940s is transferred to the Ukrainian state of the 21st century.

This version cannot simply be declared completely fabricated. The Lviv pogrom, the participation of local auxiliary police in the persecution of Jews, the crimes of Ukrainian collaborators in Belarus, and the mass killings of Polish civilians in Volhynia did indeed take place.

But in the Moscow presentation, reliable facts are combined with unproven personal accusations, controversial figures, incorrect identification of the OUN, UPA, auxiliary police, and German security units, as well as with direct political propaganda against modern Ukraine.

It is this mixed construction — part of which is based on real crimes, and part on generalizations and political conclusions — that the Tverskoy court formalized as a legally significant fact.

What documents were presented to the court

The Russian side reported that it used documents from archives:

• FSB of Russia;
• Ministry of Defense of Russia;
• Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Russia;
• State Archive of the Russian Federation;
• archives and courts of Belarus.

Written explanations were prepared by Mikhail Myagkov.

However, in the published RVIO retelling, there are no archival codes, a complete list of investigated cases, copies of documents, or an explanation of which specific source confirms each individual conclusion. There is also no full motivated court act with an analysis of the reliability of the evidence.

This is fundamentally important because the expression ‘document from the FSB archive’ in itself proves nothing.

In the former archives of the NKVD and KGB, the following may be stored:

• authentic documents of the OUN and UPA captured by Soviet authorities;
• German orders and reports;
• leaflets and internal reports of the underground;
• agent reports;
• interrogation protocols obtained under pressure;
• materials of Soviet show trials;
• propaganda notes compiled for a predetermined conclusion.

A document stored in the KGB archive is not necessarily created by the KGB. But a paper with an archival number does not automatically become reliable.

It is necessary to know who, when, and under what circumstances compiled the document, whether the original has been preserved, and whether it is confirmed by independent German, Polish, Ukrainian, Jewish, or Western sources.

The Moscow process did not provide the public with the opportunity to conduct such a check.

Mikhail Myagkov: a historian who has already chosen a side

Mikhail Myagkov has a professional historical education, a doctoral degree, and academic positions. Therefore, it would be incorrect to claim that he is a historian only by name.

But he cannot be presented as an independent expert in a case directly related to justifying Putin’s policies.

Myagkov was an official trustee of Putin in the 2024 presidential elections. His name is present in the list published by the Central Election Commission.

He holds the position of scientific director of the Russian Military-Historical Society — a state ideological structure involved in the preparation of textbooks, methodological materials, and programs of so-called patriotic education.

In February 2025, Myagkov participated in the presentation of a manual on the history of the ‘Ukrainian question.’ The authors openly stated that they relied primarily on Putin’s statements. Myagkov called Ukrainians and Russians ‘two parts of a single people,’ claimed that Ukraine was artificially separated from Russia, and expressed hope for the dissemination of materials in territories he called occupied by the ‘Kyiv neo-Nazi regime.’

As early as 2023, he claimed that Ukrainian society was supposedly brought up in such a way that it was ready to ‘exterminate’ Russians, and compared modern Western technology to German ‘Tigers’ and ‘Panthers’ of World War II.

In the Tverskoy court, Myagkov continued the same line. He did not limit himself to analyzing documents from 1941–1944, but immediately transferred the accusation to modern Ukraine.

Therefore, the problem is not that Myagkov does not have a diploma. The problem is that his politically biased conclusion is presented as a neutral historical expertise.

It turns out to be a closed system:

1. Russian security agencies select archival materials;
2. The Prosecutor General’s Office formulates the required conclusion;
3. Putin’s trustee gives the conclusion an academic appearance;
4. the Russian court declares it a legally significant fact;
5. state propaganda transfers the decision to modern Ukraine.

The main substitution: crimes against which ‘Soviet people’

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office and RVIO constantly use the formula ‘crimes against the Soviet people.’

Formally, by 1941, the residents of Lviv and Volhynia indeed found themselves under Soviet rule. But the Russian formulation deliberately hides how exactly these territories became Soviet.

Until September 1939, Lviv was part of Poland. On September 17, 1939, the Soviet Union invaded Poland from the east — sixteen days after Nazi Germany attacked it. The division of Polish territory between the two totalitarian states was provided for by the secret agreements of the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. Soviet troops occupied Lviv on September 22, 1939.

During the next twenty-one months, Soviet authorities conducted arrests, deportations, and executions in Lviv. Before retreating in the summer of 1941, the NKVD killed two to three thousand prisoners in local prisons — mostly Ukrainians suspected of ties to the nationalist underground.

Thus, the residents of Lviv became ‘Soviet citizens’ after military occupation and annexation, not as a result of free political choice.

A similar situation developed in Volhynia. Before the Soviet invasion, it was the territory of the Second Polish Republic. The main victims of the mass killings of 1943–1945 were Polish civilians, many of whom were citizens of pre-war Poland. The Polish Institute of National Remembrance directly calls these lands the eastern territories of pre-war Poland.

The Russian formula turns the murdered Poles of Volhynia into an impersonal part of the ‘Soviet people,’ although it was the USSR in 1939 that participated in the destruction of Polish statehood in these territories.

Khatyn was located in the Minsk region of the Belarusian SSR — on the territory of present-day Belarus. Its victims were residents of a Belarusian village destroyed during a joint punitive operation by the Dirlewanger German unit and the 118th auxiliary police battalion.

Today, Russia builds such a scheme:

• Lviv was Soviet — so its victims belong to Russian memory;
• Volhynia was Soviet — so Polish victims can be called ‘Soviet people’;
• Khatyn was in the USSR — so Russia can use Belarusian victims in its own accusatory process;
• modern Russia declares itself the sole heir of the USSR and gains the right to speak on behalf of all the dead.

But the Soviet Union is not equal to modern Russia.

Belarusians, Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles do not become Russians just because during the war Moscow called them ‘Soviet citizens.’ The memory of the Jews of Lviv, the Poles of Volhynia, and the Belarusians of Khatyn is not Putin’s property.

Especially cynical is the dissolution of Jewish victims in the general Soviet category. Even at Babi Yar, the Soviet monument installed in 1976 spoke of about one hundred thousand dead citizens but did not indicate that the main execution on September 29–30, 1941, was the targeted extermination of Jews.

Russia inherits not only the Soviet victory mythology but also the Soviet habit of erasing the nationality of victims when it interferes with a convenient state narrative.

What is really known about the Lviv pogrom

The Lviv pogrom was a real crime. Denying it or the participation of Ukrainian nationalists in it is impossible.

After the entry of German troops on June 30, 1941, the German occupiers and OUN-B activists began inciting anti-Semitic violence. The pogrom involved German soldiers, the newly created Ukrainian militia, Ukrainian nationalist activists, as well as some local Ukrainian and Polish residents.

Jews were beaten, robbed, humiliated, raped, and killed. The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum estimates the number of victims of the pogrom itself at a minimum of several hundred and possibly several thousand people. The most frequently cited figure of four thousand is now considered exaggerated, as it may include Jews shot by German units later in July.

The Russian side claimed more than eight thousand dead ‘Russians, Ukrainians, Jews, and Poles’ from June to August and attributed the mass killings to the command of Shukhevych.

But the public Russian retelling does not show a document that would prove that Shukhevych gave the order for the pogrom or directly commanded its execution.

This does not exonerate Shukhevych and does not remove questions about his service in formations associated with Nazi Germany. But a personal accusation of leading a mass murder requires a specific chain of evidence: an order, a report, a testimony of a direct participant, or documented subordination.

The formulas ‘nationalists participated in the pogrom’ and ‘Shukhevych personally commanded the pogrom’ are not the same.

Babi Yar: UPA could not have been there

In some Russian publications about the Moscow decision, Babi Yar was named among the proven episodes.

On September 29–30, 1941, 33,771 Jews were killed there. The organizers and main executors of the mass shooting were Sonderkommando 4a of Einsatzgruppe C, SS units, and German police with the participation of auxiliary forces.

The role of specific local policemen and collaborators should be investigated separately.

But declaring Babi Yar a crime of the UPA is impossible at least chronologically: the Ukrainian Insurgent Army in its main organizational form emerged later.

The Russian substitution is constructed as follows:

• among the auxiliary forces were residents of Ukraine;
• some Ukrainian policemen may have been connected to the nationalist movement;
• therefore, the crime is declared a crime of the OUN and UPA;
• then responsibility is transferred to the entire Ukrainian independence movement.

Thus, specific perpetrators disappear, and instead, a convenient propaganda collective image of the ‘Banderite’ emerges.

Khatyn: the Ukrainian battalion was not a UPA unit

On March 22, 1943, Belarusian Khatyn was destroyed during a joint operation of the 118th auxiliary police battalion and the SS special unit Dirlewanger.

Historian Per Anders Rudling established that the 118th battalion was a collaborationist formation within the German police system. A significant part of its composition consisted of Ukrainians, including people with a nationalist past. The participation of the battalion in the destruction of Khatyn is confirmed by research.

Therefore, it is impossible to deny the participation of Ukrainian collaborators in the crime.

But the Russian message takes the next step: it calls the battalion a unit consisting of members of the OUN and UPA.

This misleads the reader.

The 118th battalion was part of the German auxiliary police, not a military unit of the UPA. Even if some of its members were previously part of the OUN or later joined the nationalist underground, this does not turn the entire battalion into a UPA structure.

It is necessary to distinguish:

• German command;
• auxiliary police;
• nationality of the personnel;
• previous political affiliation of individuals;
• their subsequent fate;
• specific participation in the crime.

The Moscow trial replaced this complex work with a single general label.

Volhynia: a crime that cannot be denied

The most serious grounds for the Russian accusation relate to the mass killings of Polish civilians in Volhynia and Eastern Galicia.

The Polish Institute of National Remembrance qualifies the actions of the OUN-B and UPA as genocide and estimates the total number of Polish victims at about one hundred thousand people. On July 11, 1943, UPA units carried out coordinated attacks on almost one hundred Polish settlements.

The Russian Prosecutor General’s Office named a figure of at least 120 thousand dead, but did not explain the counting methodology and territorial boundaries in the public message.

The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance acknowledges that the main victims of the tragedy on both sides were unarmed civilians. It also emphasizes: people who participated in the killings of civilians cannot be unconditionally heroized. At the same time, the Ukrainian side reminds of the retaliatory killings of Ukrainians by Polish armed formations.

The historical context — pre-war Polish policy, German occupation, Soviet terror, and retaliatory crimes — is necessary to understand the reasons.

But no context justifies the mass killings of women, children, and other civilians.

That is why exposing Russian propaganda should not turn into Ukrainian glossing over history.

Did the KGB fabricate all the evidence

No.

The Soviet special services did indeed fabricate cases, extract confessions, conduct propaganda campaigns against Ukrainian emigration, and tried to present any independence movement as a Nazi conspiracy.

Therefore, Soviet interrogation protocols require critical verification.

But modern studies of the crimes of the OUN, auxiliary police, and individual UPA units are based not only on NKVD and KGB materials.

Historians use:

• German reports of Einsatzgruppen, SS, and police;
• documents of the occupation administration;
• materials captured by Western allies;
• German photographs and newsreels;
• documents of the Polish underground;
• testimonies of Jews recorded outside the USSR;
• Yad Vashem archives;
• documents of the OUN and UPA themselves;
• diaries, letters, and memoirs;
• materials of American, German, Polish, and other court processes;
• databases of victims and results of exhumations.

The newsreel of the Lviv pogrom was filmed by the Germans and then presented by the allies at the Nuremberg trial. The original materials are stored in American archives and Yad Vashem. The KGB could not fabricate them.

Yad Vashem, in its own reference on the OUN, points to cooperation with Germany, participation of organization members in German battalions, the formation of Ukrainian administration and police, as well as subsequent German repressions against the leadership of the proclaimed Ukrainian state.

American studies also conclude the participation of OUN members and UPA units in the destruction of Jews in Western Ukraine.

At the same time, modern researchers expose Soviet exaggerations. For example, they do not confirm the Russian thesis that almost the entire Ukrainian auxiliary police consisted of OUN members. The composition of the police was much more complex and included people of different nationalities, biographies, and political beliefs.

Therefore, both extremes are incorrect:

“The KGB proved everything” — false.

“All the crimes of the OUN and UPA were invented by the KGB” — also false.

What the Nuremberg trial decided

The Nuremberg Tribunal did not recognize the OUN or UPA as criminal organizations.

The indictment included the leadership corps of the Nazi party, Gestapo, SD, SS, SA, Reich government, General Staff, and High Command of the German armed forces. The OUN and UPA were not included in this list.

Bandera, Melnyk, and Shukhevych were also not defendants of the International Military Tribunal.

Therefore, Nuremberg did not condemn them.

But it also did not acquit them: the question of their personal criminal responsibility was simply not considered.

On February 11, 1946, the Soviet prosecution presented the testimony of former Abwehr officer Erwin Stolze. He claimed to have contacted Bandera and Melnyk and gave them instructions to organize anti-Soviet subversive activities after Germany’s attack on the USSR.

This is important evidence of cooperation with German military intelligence.

However, accepting the document as evidence of Abwehr activity is not a verdict on Bandera, Melnyk, or the OUN.

The correct formulation looks like this:

• Nuremberg received evidence of Bandera and Melnyk’s contacts with the Abwehr;
• Bandera and Melnyk were not defendants;
• The OUN and UPA were not considered as organizations that the tribunal should recognize as criminal;
• there was no separate decision on their guilt or innocence.

The Moscow court of 2026 did not repeat Nuremberg’s decision. It created a new internal Russian act for a modern political purpose.

Why Putin needed this now

The Russian propaganda construct works because it starts with real facts.

Some Ukrainian nationalists collaborated with Germany.

Some OUN activists participated in anti-Semitic violence.

Ukrainian collaborators served in the auxiliary police.

UPA units committed mass killings of Polish civilians.

But then substitutions begin.

Different factions of the OUN, UPA, Taras Borovets’ formations, German auxiliary police, and individual guard battalions are declared a single organization.

Different crimes — Lviv, Babi Yar, Khatyn, and Volhynia — are combined into one accusatory package.

The responsibility of specific individuals is transferred to the entire Ukrainian independence movement.

Then it is transferred to modern Ukraine.

A simple scheme emerges for the Russian domestic audience:

1. The OUN collaborated with Germany.
2. Ukraine honors some figures of the national movement.
3. Therefore, modern Ukraine is a Nazi state.
4. Consequently, the Russian invasion is supposedly a new fight against Hitler.

The last conclusion is a lie.

The United States Holocaust Memorial Museum stated back in February 2022 that Putin distorts and appropriates Holocaust history, falsely claiming that democratic Ukraine needs ‘denazification’.

The Moscow court added legal decoration to this propaganda.

This is especially needed by the Kremlin now, when the promised quick victory did not happen, Ukraine continues to resist, and the Russian audience needs to be explained again why the war is dragging on and why the aggressor cannot subdue the Ukrainian people.

Instead of acknowledging the failure, the Kremlin again offers the usual answer: the ‘Nazis’, ‘Banderites’, and the West are to blame.

What Ukraine must acknowledge

Russia has no right to use the crimes of the 1940s to justify modern aggression.

But Ukraine should also not respond to Russian propaganda with unconditional heroization of all OUN and UPA figures.

The struggle for independence is not an automatic indulgence.

A person could oppose Soviet totalitarianism and at the same time:

• hold anti-Semitic views;
• collaborate with Germany;
• participate in criminal structures;
• bear political or command responsibility for the killings of civilians.

An honest Ukrainian memory policy should include opening archives, continuing exhumations, publishing the names of victims, cooperating with Polish and Israeli researchers, and rejecting sterile biographies of historical heroes.

Such an approach does not weaken Ukraine.

It demonstrates the difference between a democratic society capable of discussing its own crimes and Putin’s Russia, where the court, prosecutor’s office, and state historian jointly produce the only permitted version of the past.

Israel should not choose between two myths

For the Israeli audience, this story has special significance.

Israel has the right to demand from Ukraine an honest conversation about the anti-Semitism of the OUN, the participation of nationalists in the auxiliary police, and the killings of Jews.

People and organizations with such a past cannot be turned into impeccable heroes without explaining the price paid by Jewish and Polish civilians for their activities.

But Israel should also not allow Russia to privatize the memory of the Holocaust.

Putin uses Jewish victims not to protect Jews, but to justify the war against Ukraine. The Russian state first dissolves the Jews of Lviv and Babi Yar into the category of the ‘Soviet people’, then declares itself the owner of their memory, and then uses this memory as an accusation against Ukrainians of the 21st century.

A consistent Israeli position should include four points:

• crimes against Jews must be named regardless of the nationality of the perpetrators;
• criminals cannot be unconditionally heroized;
• modern Ukraine is not a Nazi state;
• the memory of the Holocaust cannot serve as justification for Russian aggression.

NANews — News of Israel considers the Moscow process precisely from this point of view: acknowledging the crimes of Ukrainian nationalists does not mean recognizing the Kremlin’s version of history.

The memory of the Jews of Lviv, the Poles of Volhynia, and the Belarusians of Khatyn does not belong to Russia.

Putin condemned Bandera again, but the verdict is intended for Ukraine.

Stepan Bandera was killed by an agent of the Soviet special services in Munich in 1959. 67 years later, a Russian court issued him another symbolic verdict.

But Bandera can no longer respond to the accusations. The OUN and UPA in their historical form of the 1940s have long ceased to exist.

There exists a modern Ukraine, which Russia is trying to destroy and subjugate.

That is why Mikhail Myagkov in court spoke not only about the past. He directly called the current Ukrainian authorities and military structures the ‘legal successors’ of the Banderites and stated that Russia is fighting precisely against them today.

With this phrase, he revealed the meaning of the entire process.

The Russian authorities needed not only archives, not only Bandera, and not only the memory of the victims. They required judicial confirmation of the main propaganda thesis of the war: Ukraine is allegedly a continuation of the Nazi movement, and Russia is the liberator.

But the crimes of people from the 1940s are not inherited by an entire nation.

They do not turn a democratic state of the 21st century into the Third Reich.

They do not give Russia the right to attack, occupy territories, destroy cities, and kill Ukrainians.

Putin ‘condemned’ Bandera again because it is increasingly difficult for the Russian aggressor state to explain to its own audience why the heroic resistance of the Ukrainian people could not be broken.

The Moscow court did not restore historical justice.

It took real crimes, mixed them with unproven accusations, appropriated the memory of other peoples for Russia, and turned the deceased Jews, Poles, and Belarusians into tools of today’s Russian war.

How the material was prepared

The NANews editorial team compared the public statement of the Russian Military Historical Society about the process with materials from the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Yad Vashem, documents of the Nuremberg Trials, publications of the Ukrainian and Polish Institutes of National Memory, and academic studies of the destruction of Khatyn.

The editorial team did not receive its own copies of the materials presented by the Prosecutor General’s Office to the Tver Court and does not claim that every document in the case was falsified. The main complaint of the article relates to the absence of verifiable connections between individual documents and the broad political conclusions of the court in the public Russian retelling.

The original editorial value of the material lies in comparing specific Russian accusations with independent sources, analyzing the appropriation of the concept of the ‘Soviet people,’ and explaining why this process is important for the Israeli-Ukrainian audience.

“There is a law, and it says: ‘If someone comes to kill you — kill him first.’ The most important part. Therefore, defending your country is a commandment of God. There is such a commandment: ‘Do not cross the border.’ It is written in the Torah, in the Bible, right? Therefore, those who came here grossly violated this commandment. And those who defend — this is the Armed Forces of Ukraine, these are the hands of God in Ukraine. And they fulfill the commandment: ‘Do not kill, by destroying the enemy’, – Yakov Sinyakov.

Video of the channel “Details“ with Igor Sinyakov (also known as Rabbi Yakov) does not sound like an ‘interview about religion’. Rather, it sounds like a conversation on the front line, where a person has no extra words, but has a habit of calling things directly. He talks about war as maximum chaos, about the army as order, about why neutrality in such times is not just a convenient pose, but a moral trap, and why memory is not a burden, but a tool for the future.

Rabbi Yakov is the first officially recognized Orthodox Jewish chaplain in the history of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In the video, his path is described briefly and clearly: after February 24, 2022, he and his wife began helping refugees in Dnipro, then the volunteer work gradually shifted to the military — trips along the front line, meetings with units in different directions. In 2025, at the invitation of the commander, Brigadier General Yevhen Lasiychuk, Yakov joined the army and headed the chaplain service of the 7th Corps of the Air Assault Forces. This is an important detail: he does not ‘come sometimes’, he is integrated into the structure, constantly with people, and this explains the tone of the interview — without a tourist’s view of the war.

It is important to clarify: in this article, we took only the most noticeable theses and several key stories from the conversation — essentially a summary, not a full transmission of intonation and meaning. The full interview is much broader, deeper, and in places stronger precisely due to the live details, pauses, reactions of the interlocutors, and how Rabbi Yakov unfolds thoughts step by step. If the topic is close to you — be sure to watch the video in full: it gives a completely different sense of the reality of the front and how people hold on where ‘it’s a mess’ becomes a daily norm.

Who is Rabbi Yakov and why do not only believers listen to him

He himself constantly returns the conversation to the simple meaning of the word ‘rabbi’. It is not only a ‘servant’, it is a ‘teacher’. Not the one who comes to ‘perform rituals’, but the one who explains, holds the frame, helps a person not to fall apart at the moment when everything around is falling apart.

And here it is important: a chaplain on the front for many is not a ‘religious option’, but a human function. Someone believes, someone does not, someone is Orthodox, someone is Catholic, someone has not decided at all. But when there is a person nearby who knows how to listen, does not pressure, does not preach, but gives you the opportunity to speak out and cling to meaning — the confession fades into the background.

Rabbi Yakov seems to understand this better than many: he calmly says that God is one, Ukraine is one, and that the main ‘obstacles’ between people often arise not at the level of faith, but in the head — from wrong labels, fear, fatigue, and the habit of dividing the world into ‘ours’ and ‘others’.

‘The main thing is logistics and communication’: war without romance

One of the first thoughts in the conversation sounds like a professional habit: in the army, the main thing is logistics and communication. Not slogans, not beautiful texts, not ‘will to victory’ as an abstraction. But communication that works. The rear that keeps up. Delivery that arrives on time. Because if this is not there — heroism becomes a way to close gaps, and the gaps are endless.

From here grows his key thesis: war is maximum chaos. To withstand maximum chaos, maximum order is needed. And he sees this order in the army as the foundation of the state. Harshly, almost rudely: no army — no state. And even if all professions are important, the army is the basis on which all other life stands.

‘You need to choose a position’: about neutrality, corruption, and fatigue

The most conflicting piece of the interview is about choosing a position. Rabbi Yakov says what many do not want to hear, especially in peaceful cities or outside the country: neutrality in such times is an attempt to hide from responsibility. He quotes a famous phrase that the hottest circles of hell are ‘prepared’ for those who maintained neutrality in troubled times, and derives from this a practical advice: choosing a position is not only moral, it is psychologically easier. At least you understand who you are and where you stand.

Next is the topic of corruption. And here he specifically knocks out the usual justification for apathy. Yes, there is corruption. But what now — give up? His logic is simple and even annoying in its straightforwardness: do not be a corrupt person yourself. Do not justify your inaction by the fact that someone ‘there’ is stealing. This does not cancel the systemic problem, but returns personal responsibility and the ability to act to a person.

For readers of NANews – news of Israel this sounds especially acute: many Israelis of Ukrainian origin live between two realities — the war in Ukraine and their life in Israel. And the most dangerous emotion here is ‘I decide nothing, it does not depend on me’. In the interview, there is a constant reverse signal: it depends. Even if not on the scale of the state — on the scale of your position, help, choice, words, behavior.

‘I come to them for energy’: who helps whom on the front

There is a moment where he breaks the stereotype of a chaplain as a person who ‘brings morality’. He admits: at first, he thought he was coming to the military ‘to give them something’ — words, instructions, support. And then he realized that he was coming… to receive. To receive experience, energy, inspiration from people who live in conditions where fear is not a theory, but a daily reality.

He describes the fighters as ‘real heroes’ without gloss: they can be rude, tired, sometimes broken, but they hold on to the idea, do their job, and this fills him. In this honesty, there is an important detail: he does not play the role of a ‘saint’, he shows himself as a person who is also fueled by someone else’s strength.

Israel as an example: memory is not a punishment, but strength

In the interview, there is a line that is almost inevitable for the audience in Israel: the host talks about the ‘genetic memory’ of the Jewish people, about the habit of living in a state of war, about how holidays and traditions preserve the memory of enemies and trials of millennia ago.

Rabbi Yakov responds not with pathos, but with the thought of memory as a tool. Israel, in his words, is strong because it remembers: history, language, painful moments. And that is why the current Ukrainian experience cannot be ‘forgotten for the sake of peace’. It needs to be passed on to the next generations — not to cultivate hatred, but to build strong statehood on this experience.

This is an important turn: memory not as a constant wound, but as the foundation of the future.

‘Where is God in war?’ — and why he does not give a sweet answer

One of the heaviest questions of the interview is asked in direct words: if God exists, where is he in war? Bucha, Irpin, Izyum, executions of prisoners on camera. This is a question that kills any beautiful sermons.

Rabbi Yakov answers in an unexpectedly ‘earthly’ way. He does not try to explain the horror with a ‘higher plan’. He shifts the responsibility to people: the choice to attack, to come to kill, to cross the border — was made by people, not God. The world is ‘given into our hands’, and in this sense, a person is responsible for what he does with his freedom.

And then he adds an important thought: when a person chooses the right position and does what he must, help comes to him. Not as magic, but as a life effect of the right choice and inner composure.

The boundary between defender and killer: commandments and the right to defense

The host asks about the moral boundary of the first shot: how to explain to a recruit where the ‘defender’ ends and the ‘killer’ begins?

He answers through the ten commandments and the idea of two ‘tablets’: one about a person’s relationship with God, the other about a person’s relationship with a person. And in this context, ‘do not kill’ sounds like a principle: it would be ideal if no one killed anyone. But within the real world, there is a law of defense: if someone comes to kill you — stop him.

He formulates it as directly as possible: defending your country is not a ‘sin’, but a duty in the logic of defense. And at the same time, he emphasizes: invasion is a violation of the border, a violation of the basic prohibition ‘do not cross the line’.

Hatred and prisoners: how not to become the one you are fighting against

One of the most delicate moments is the conversation about hatred. The host’s question is very precise: hatred does not destroy the enemy, it destroys you and strengthens evil. What to do with this?

Rabbi Yakov tells that he has seen prisoners. And he says something that many in war may find unbearable: even in the enemy, he sees a ‘divine soul’. At the same time, he does not romanticize and does not ‘whitewash’: if a person has committed a crime punishable by death, he must be punished. But the moral boundary ‘do not mock’ must still exist. This is not about softness, but about preserving humanity in oneself.

Stories from the front: wounded, laughter on the edge, and ‘slowing down time’

The interview contains many specific episodes. They do not look like fiction — precisely because they sound uneven, with everyday details.

He talks about a fighter who was wounded in the arm and leg, left alone in the cold, bandaged his wounds himself for several days, and then walked for eight hours to the exit. And then he was surprised himself: ‘I felt like I could move mountains’. This is a story not about a ‘superman’, but about how the body sometimes pulls a person beyond the edge of the possible.

He tells about another episode: an officer was wounded, he was losing consciousness, coming to and asking for a cigarette. And next to him, a person who fills out documents is already tired of rewriting reports: ‘he dies, then revives’. And they laugh at this. Funny? No. This is a protective mechanism of the psyche, which cannot live only in horror.

There is also a personal episode: an explosion nearby, the whistle of shrapnel, bricks flying, and suddenly there is a feeling of ‘slowing down time’. He runs and thinks some almost funny thought — ‘if I fall, I’ll be dirty’. Then he takes out his phone and starts filming the ‘mushroom’ of the explosion. This is how the brain works in an extreme situation: the everyday and the deadly mix.

Suicides and despair: what he does when a person ‘goes there’

The interview also raises the heaviest topic — suicides among the military, signs of a dangerous state, what to do if a person starts talking about it.

Rabbi Yakov speaks practically: if a person voices such thoughts — it is already an alarm. And he tells a case when he was already leaving, but a conversation with a fighter suddenly fell into hatred for everyone — society, commanders, the world. He stopped, returned, let the person speak out, and then led him to support — to his daughter. Not ‘be ashamed’, not ‘pull yourself together’, but a simple question: what will happen to the child if you do what you are talking about?

This is an important principle of chaplain work: not to break a person with morality, but to find a thread of meaning that he himself can hold on to.

After the war: why he does not believe in mass ‘where were you’

There is another topic that scares society in advance: the gap between those who fought and those who did not. Will there be aggression later?

Rabbi Yakov confidently says: there will be no mass aggression. The main problem will be with the veterans themselves — inside, in adaptation, in trauma, in how to return to normal life. He recalls the example of Vietnam and says that society needs not to be afraid of the military, but to turn to them: respect, help in integration, normal attitude without labels.

He adds another thought, important for ‘peaceful’: do not rush to condemn — neither others nor yourself. Fear is normal. Justifying yourself is sometimes also part of the path. And even if you do not fight, you can be useful in another form. He gives an example of friends abroad who help the army and thus close the internal need ‘to be part’.

Everyday life and honesty: kashrut, lard, and a very human war

At the end of the interview, there is a piece that unexpectedly makes it as lively as possible: the everyday life of an Orthodox Jew in the army. There are no kosher rations — he carries food with him, a pot, a frying pan. The guys nearby cook solyanka, cut lard, the smell drives you crazy — but you can’t. He jokes, they joke. And in these jokes, an important thing is visible: war does not cancel differences, but can teach to respect differences without aggression.

He also talks about a gift — a book of Psalms of King David with text in Hebrew and an official Ukrainian translation, which is given to the military, and which he presented to various Ukrainian leaders. This is also a detail: he not only ‘talks about faith’, he does specific things that become a symbol of support.

‘A miracle is when you have done everything you could’

The final meaning of the interview is unexpectedly not religious and not military. He talks about a miracle as a result of action. He recalls the story of crossing the sea: the sea parted not when people stood and asked, but when a person went far enough, almost to the limit.

A miracle, in his logic, is the end of a process where you have done everything possible. And then he very harshly adds: if the country does not change, if corruption remains, if people maintain neutrality, if ‘I don’t care’ — it means we have not yet reached the point where the sea should part.

What this video gives to the viewer in Israel

For the Israeli audience, especially for Israelis of Ukrainian origin, the interview hooks for several reasons.

Firstly, it constantly returns to the theme of memory and resilience — the very one on which Israel has built its security and statehood for decades.

Secondly, it shows the war not as a television background, but as human mechanics: fear, laughter, anger, faith, everyday details that keep the psyche afloat.

Thirdly, it asks an uncomfortable question: where is your position? Are you inside the events or are you trying to wait it out until ‘it passes by itself’?

And finally — it reminds that religion in war can be not a set of answers, but a way to keep a person from turning into emptiness.

Video

Video ““This is a MESS” revelations of a JEWISH CHAPLAIN from just the FRONT” February 19, 2026: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xRGKkKVovOg

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Author: Alexander Khmelnitsky

On October 5, 2026, the Kyiv Jewish community in Obolon reported on the meeting of the Israeli Minister of Finance Zeev Elkin with representatives of Jewish communities in Ukraine. It took place at the Israeli Cultural Center “Nativ” in Kyiv.

Along with Elkin, the new Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Israel to Ukraine, Roi Rosenblit, the head of the Nativ organization, Alon Shoham, and other Israeli officials attended the meeting. In a photo published by the community, Elkin and Rosenblit are seen lighting candles in memory of those who died on October 7, 2023.

It was there that a phrase was uttered that perhaps best explains the emotional background of the current visit.

According to the Kyiv Jewish community in Obolon, Zeev Elkin stated: “After October 7, 2023, we stood on our feet and changed the entire Middle East”.

This was said on October 5 — two days before the third anniversary of the Hamas attack on Israel. But it was said not in Jerusalem or Tel Aviv, but in Kyiv, a country that itself continues to live under missile and drone attacks.

Why specifically “Nativ”

For the Israeli reader, the name “Nativ” may sound familiar, but the significance of this structure in the current meeting needs clarification. It is not just a cultural venue where Hebrew courses and events about Israel are held.

“Nativ” is a state Israeli structure historically working with Israel’s connections with Jews from the former USSR countries. The Kyiv Israeli Cultural Center has been operating for over 30 years, cooperating with Jewish organizations in Kyiv and other cities of Ukraine, conducting educational and cultural programs, studying Hebrew, and maintaining a constant communication channel between the Israeli state and local communities.

And here an important detail emerges: Zeev Elkin is responsible for the activities of “Nativ” at the level of the Israeli government. Therefore, his current meeting with Ukrainian Jews is not a random addition to a diplomatic trip.

NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency has already followed this line. In November 2025, Elkin, together with Alon Shoham, visited Dnipro. At that time, “Nativ” announced its intention to restore the volume of its activities in Ukrainian cities to the level that existed before the full-scale war. More about this in our article “Nativ” will restore its activities in Ukraine “in pre-war format”.

And on January 22, 2026, it was Elkin and the chairman of the Jewish Agency “Sokhnut” Doron Almog who initiated an emergency meeting on the situation of Jewish communities in Ukraine amid a severe energy crisis. The reason was the appeals of the leaders of the communities themselves, who faced power and heating outages after Russian strikes on Ukrainian infrastructure. Alon Shoham also participated in that meeting. Our material on this story — “The situation of Jewish communities in Ukraine in light of the serious energy crisis”.

It turns out to be a consistent chain: Dnipro in November, emergency work with communities in winter, and now — Kyiv in October.

Elkin traveled to Kyiv through the border, near which an explosion occurred in the morning

The current visit had another context.

On the morning of October 5, a serious incident occurred at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border. The Moldovan border police officially reported that around 09:38 in the area of the Palanca — Mayaki — Udobne crossing, during Russian attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure, a shell fell. After hitting the ground, it ricocheted and hit a bus standing near the barrier.

The bus and the control booth were damaged, and one Moldovan border guard received a minor injury. The operation of the crossing was temporarily halted.

Several Israeli publications reported on the same day that it was through this border crossing that Zeev Elkin was heading to Ukraine and arrived there a few minutes after the incident. The minister himself was not injured and continued his trip.

Here it is important to separate two levels of information. The explosion itself, the damaged bus, and the injury of the border guard are officially confirmed by the Moldovan side. The fact that Elkin’s route passed through this crossing a few minutes after the incident is reported by Israeli media.

But even in such a cautious formulation, the geography of the visit looks indicative. The Israeli minister was traveling to meet with Jews in Ukraine through the border of a state where the consequences of the war can no longer be perceived as something distant.

For Elkin, Ukraine is not just a direction of foreign policy

Zeev Elkin himself has a biographical connection with Ukraine.

He was born in Kharkiv in 1971. In his youth, he studied Hebrew, participated in the Jewish and Zionist life of the city, and was connected with the work of the local Jewish community. In December 1990, at the age of 19, he repatriated to Israel. He later pursued an Israeli academic and political career.

Today his official position is Minister in the Ministry of Finance of Israel. Among other things, he is involved in the restoration of areas in Israel affected after October 7 and the subsequent war, and simultaneously oversees “Nativ”. The Knesset lists him specifically as Additional Minister in the Ministry of Finance.

Therefore, Elkin’s phrase that after October 7, Israel “stood on its feet” in Kyiv acquires another shade. It is spoken by a person who himself left Ukraine as a young repatriate and, decades later, returns here as a minister of the Israeli government — in the midst of another war.

Next to him is the new Israeli ambassador, who has just started working in Ukraine

In the photo with the candles, next to Elkin stands Roi Rosenblit.

For the Israeli reader, this also requires a brief explanation: Rosenblit is the new Israeli ambassador to Ukraine. Deputy Head of the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry Alexander Mishchenko received copies of his credentials only on August 21, 2026. At that time, the parties discussed Russian strikes, Israeli humanitarian aid, Ukrainian energy, and Israel’s participation in events marking the 85th anniversary of the Babi Yar tragedy.

At the same time, Rosenblit almost immediately began to go beyond the usual diplomatic protocol. In September, he visited the Kyiv Regional Hospital, where the use of Israeli experience in the rehabilitation of military and civilians was discussed, and then celebrated Rosh Hashanah with the Jewish community of Kyiv.

NANews detailed these first weeks of the new ambassador’s work: on Rosenblit’s meetings and the formation of a new Ukrainian-Israeli agenda and on his Rosh Hashanah meeting with the Kyiv Jewish community.

Thus, on October 5, at the table in “Nativ,” there were three levels of Israeli presence in Ukraine: a minister directly responsible for the work of “Nativ,” the head of the organization Alon Shoham, and the new Israeli ambassador.

Kyiv between Babi Yar and October 7

There is another temporal point that cannot be overlooked.

Just six days earlier, on September 29, Kyiv marked the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the mass shootings at Babi Yar. President Volodymyr Zelensky placed a memorial lamp at the Menorah memorial. Alongside him, rabbis, representatives of Jewish organizations, diplomats, and representatives of international missions honored the memory of the victims. Israel was represented, among others, by Roi Rosenblit.

On September 29–30, 1941, the Nazis shot about 34,000 Kyiv Jews at Babi Yar. Later, Roma, prisoners of war, Ukrainian underground fighters, psychiatric hospital patients, and other victims of the occupation regime were killed there. In total, it is about 100,000 victims. For Israel, this is not just a Ukrainian place of memory — it is one of the central points of the Holocaust history of Eastern European Jewry.

Some Israeli publications on October 5 linked Elkin’s visit with the ceremony at Babi Yar with Zelensky’s participation. However, the main state ceremony with the President of Ukraine took place on September 29. The commemorative program did not end there: on October 5, a pilot launch of the digital archive of the National Historical and Memorial Reserve “Babi Yar” was planned in Kyiv, and other events continue throughout October.

Therefore, it is more accurate to say that Elkin’s current visit falls on the ongoing month of Babi Yar memory, rather than on one separate ceremony.

NANews also detailed the anniversary itself: how the ceremony in Kyiv on September 29 took place and why it had to be protected by air defense and snipers, and why Babi Yar is again at the center of the Ukrainian-Israeli dialogue.

And another Kyiv, which in Israel is now known by the name of Daniel

There is also a very recent story, due to which the current visit of the Israeli minister to Kyiv cannot be perceived only as a conversation about diplomacy or historical memory.

On September 25, a 14-year-old Israeli citizen, Daniel Umansky, was killed in a Russian strike on Kyiv. He studied in Tel Aviv, and at the time of the strike, he was with his family in Ukraine. A few days later, his body was brought to Israel.

NANews reported on Daniel’s last schoolwork — a notebook left unfinished after the drone strike: “The Last Homework of 14-year-old Daniel Umansky”.

Thus, in just a few days, three different memories converged. On September 29, Kyiv remembered the Jews shot at Babi Yar 85 years ago. Israel buried a boy who died in the current war. And on October 5, Elkin and Rosenblit lit candles in Kyiv in memory of Israelis killed on October 7, 2023.

Comparing these tragedies with each other would be wrong. But it is impossible not to notice how close they are today in one city and in one political trip.

What this meeting means

The meeting at “Nativ” itself did not bring a loud interstate agreement. There was no announcement of a new military aid package or a diplomatic breakthrough. And perhaps that is why its meaning should be sought elsewhere.

At one table sat an Israeli minister, the head of a government structure responsible for connections with Jewish communities of the former USSR, a new ambassador, and representatives of Ukrainian Jews. And this happened not in a calm period, but during an ongoing war, after another Russian attack, and literally a few hours after a dangerous incident at the Moldovan-Ukrainian border.

Israeli state structures over the past year have gradually been restoring their presence in the Jewish life of Ukraine: restoring the work of “Nativ,” discussing community support, working with medical and humanitarian projects, participating in the preservation of Babi Yar memory. The current meeting in Kyiv continues this line.

And the photo with the candles leaves another detail that is difficult to convey in a protocol message.

Elkin was born in Kharkiv and left here as a young man for Israel. Rosenblit is just beginning his work as an ambassador in a country living under the daily threat of strikes. Representatives of Ukrainian Jewish communities remain here and continue their lives during the war.

And here in Kyiv, two days before October 7, they together light candles for those who died in Israel.

Elkin’s phrase — “we stood on our feet” — therefore sounds here not only as a story about what happened to Israel after 2023. In Kyiv, it inevitably meets another reality: the lives of people who have also been learning to stand up after each new blow for several years.

One of the organizers of the operation was not going to put up with this.

Author: Stas Shifer

Her name was Ruth Kluger. With the support of Bucharest Jewish banker Gheorghe Mandel, she pushed her way to people who could change the decision: to high-ranking officials, the entourage of King Carol II, and Foreign Minister Grigore Gafencu. Historian Jurgen Rover describes how, after Gafencu’s intervention, the ship was finally allowed to set sail. Another source dedicated to the Jews of Bessarabia also records the joint work of Ruth and Yosef Bar-Pal and her personal appeal to Gafencu regarding the detained refugees.

A few weeks later, Tiger Hill would be off the coast of Tel Aviv. British forces would open fire. Two people would die.

But the story of the woman who reached the Romanian king for the sake of a ship with Jewish refugees did not begin in Romania.

It began in Kyiv.

Before Kluger and Aliav, she was Ruth Polishuk

According to the most detailed version of her biography today, Ruth Polishuk was born on April 27, 1910, in Kyiv, then part of the Russian Empire. She was the youngest of eight children in a Jewish family. Her father, a horse trader, left shortly after her birth, and Ruth effectively grew up without him.

Old directories mention the year 1914, and notes to her biography record several other options. But the Chernivtsi Museum of the History and Culture of Bukovina Jews and the modern Hebrew biography use the date April 27, 1910, and Kyiv.

For our section “Jews from Ukraine“, this is not a formal line “place of birth”. The first approximately two decades of Ruth’s life are associated with several territories of modern Ukraine: Kyiv, Podolia, and Chernivtsi.

Even before the start of World War I, little Ruth was sent to her grandmother and her mother’s sisters. By the summer of 1914, she was already living with them in one of the Jewish shtetls near Kamianets-Podilskyi, then the administrative center of the Podolia Governorate of the Russian Empire. The name of this shtetl is not reported in biographical sources. Within a few dozen kilometers of Kamianets were large Jewish communities of Zhvanets, Orynyn, Kytayhorod, Balin, Smotrych, and Dunaivtsi.

At the same time, Kamianets-Podilskyi itself was a major Jewish center of Podolia. In 1910, about 22.3 thousand Jews lived in the city — about 47% of the total population. There were dozens of synagogues and prayer houses, Jewish schools, charitable institutions, and a hospital.

When World War I began in 1914, four-year-old Ruth was with her grandmother and maternal aunts in one of the Jewish shtetls near Kamianets-Podilskyi. Its name is not mentioned in known biographies. Possible options include Orynyn and Zhvanets: both were located about 15–20 kilometers from Kamianets and had large Jewish communities. However, no direct document linking Ruth’s family to one of these shtetls has been found yet.

A regular trip to relatives turned into a long separation from her mother, brothers, and sisters. Due to the war, Ruth could not return to Kyiv and, along with her aunts, moved from place to place in the following years, while the Russian Empire collapsed around them, borders and power changed. Biographies mention the anti-Jewish violence seen by the child during those years; in Orynyn, for example, anti-Jewish demonstrations were documented as early as 1914, and later — pogroms of 1919–1920. But there is no basis to assert that Ruth was there.

About seven years later, the family reunited in Chernivtsi. These seven years were not a road from Kamianets to Chernivtsi, but a time of separation, war, and multiple relocations. Ruth learned very early what it means to be caught between war, changing borders, and a road that suddenly closes.

Two decades later, she would be opening such roads for others.

Chernivtsi: the city where the future participant of Aliyah Bet was formed

The Chernivtsi Museum dates Ruth’s reunion with her family to 1918. The Hebrew biography speaks of seven years of separation, which rather leads to the early 1920s. It is difficult to determine the exact date today, but both versions agree on one thing: after her childhood wanderings, Ruth ended up with her mother, brothers, and sisters in Chernivtsi.

For an Israeli reader, it is easy to get lost on the map here. Today, Chernivtsi is a regional center in western Ukraine. But after the collapse of Austria-Hungary, Bukovina became part of Romania, and in Ruth’s youth, the city was called Cernăuți. It was not a provincial episode of her biography but one of the largest Jewish cultural centers in Eastern Europe.

Ruth finished primary school and secondary school here — in sources, it is usually called a gymnasium. The name of the specific educational institution has not yet been established, and attributing her to one of the well-known Chernivtsi gymnasiums would be incorrect.

It is much better known what she did outside of school.

In Chernivtsi, Ruth joined “Ha-Shomer Ha-Tzair” — Hashomer Hatzair. For a modern Israeli, the name is familiar, but in 1920s Bukovina, it meant much more than an ordinary youth movement. The Chernivtsi organization grew out of groups of Jewish teenagers who returned from Vienna after World War I. Already in 1918, they began creating the first groups of the future Hashomer Hatzair in the city, holding meetings, learning Hebrew, discussing Zionism and Eretz Israel.

By 1923, the Bukovina center had united with groups from Bessarabia. In 1924, the movement became part of the worldwide structure of Hashomer Hatzair, with the Romanian organization, in which Chernivtsi played a significant role, considered one of the largest. In the city itself, hakhshara groups appeared — practical training for young Zionists for aliyah and future life in Eretz Israel. One of them bore the name Yosef Trumpeldor and consciously switched to Hebrew in everyday life even before departure.

There is no basis to assert that Ruth was part of this group. But this was her environment.

Therefore, Ruth Polishuk’s road to the future Israel did not begin in a Romanian port or on the deck of Tiger Hill. It began in Chernivtsi — among Jewish youth for whom aliyah was not a beautiful slogan but a plan for their own lives.

Seven languages, eight or nine — and why Chernivtsi is more important than the number

Later, Ruth’s ability to talk to almost anyone would become one of the reasons for her success in underground work.

The Hebrew biography lists seven languages she spoke: Russian, Yiddish, German, Romanian, English, Spanish, and Hebrew. Later, she learned Portuguese. The Chernivtsi Museum provides a broader list of nine, adding French and counting Portuguese among the main languages.

Here, the interest is not in the debate over the number but in the origin of this ability.

Jewish Chernivtsi lived in several linguistic spaces at once. Even after Bukovina came under Romanian rule, German remained an important language of the city’s Jewish culture; simultaneously, there was the Romanian state environment, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Hebrew, and the languages of families who came from the former Russian Empire. In the history of Bukovina’s Hashomer Hatzair, it is directly noted that German remained the everyday language of its participants for a long time, alongside the persistent study of Hebrew.

Ruth grew up within this multilingualism. Later, it would become a practical tool: with one person, she would need to speak as with an official, with another — as with a banker, with a third — as with a ship’s captain, and sometimes switch between several countries and several political worlds in one day.

Vienna, law, and aliyah

After finishing school in Chernivtsi, probably in the late 1920s, Ruth went to Vienna, where she began studying law. The exact years of her studies are not specified in the found biographical sources, so tying her admission to a specific year would be incorrect.

Old encyclopedias contain the wording that Ruth graduated from the Faculty of Law of the University of Vienna. However, modern Israeli biographies clarify: she completed a significant part of her studies but left Austria before completing her final work. Therefore, it is more correct to say that Ruth studied law in Vienna but did not formally complete her university education.

For her further biography, the question of a diploma is not the only important one. To the multilingual environment of Chernivtsi were added legal training, life in a European capital, and another experience of existing between different cultural and political worlds.

By 1934, Ruth was still in Europe. That year she married Emanuel Kluger. A year later, in 1935, the couple made aliyah to the British Mandate “Palestine” and settled in Mishmar HaEmek — a kibbutz of the Hashomer Hatzair movement in the north of the country.

For Ruth, this was a logical route. Already in Chernivtsi, she entered the Hashomer Hatzair environment, where aliyah and life in Eretz Israel were not an abstract idea but part of the practical preparation of young Zionists. Now what was discussed in the Chernivtsi youth groups became her own life.

The first years were difficult. Ruth and Emanuel’s first child died of meningitis at an early age. Ruth found it hard to adapt to kibbutz life, and already in 1936, she moved to Tel Aviv, where she began working in the foreign relations department of Histadrut — the General Federation of Jewish Workers in Eretz Israel, one of the key institutions of the Yishuv before the creation of the state.

This work turned out to be more important for her than it might have seemed from the outside. To the multilingual environment of Chernivtsi and the legal training of Vienna were added international contacts, negotiations, and constant communication with people from different countries. It was this set of skills that would soon make Ruth especially valuable to those involved in illegal aliyah.

By this time, the Ukrainian period of her life had already ended geographically. But Chernivtsi continued to be part of her biography: it was there that Ruth came to the Zionist movement, learned to exist between several languages and cultures, and first linked her own future with Eretz Israel.

The next turn in her life would again be connected with Romania — but first not at all as it would happen in the summer of 1939.

Sixteen people in sailor uniforms

During this period, Ruth’s biography first mentions a trip to Romania. What exactly brought her there, available biographical sources do not specify. Therefore, linking this trip to a specific assignment from Histadrut or future work in “Mossad le-Aliyah Bet” would be incorrect.

It is known that on the way back from Romania, Ruth met 16 Polish Jews in one of the Greek ports. They were trying to get to Eretz Israel but did not have the necessary certificates, documents, and money.

There was no pre-prepared operation. Kluger began to act on her own.

She collected money from first-class passengers and even from Greek Orthodox priests. Then she made arrangements with two officers of the ship.

Sixteen people were dressed as sailors. Among them were four girls — they had to cut their hair short. At night, the group was brought onto the ship and hidden in a free first-class cabin.

For these sixteen people, the improvised operation meant the opportunity to continue their journey to Eretz Israel. For Ruth herself, it became the moment when all the skills acquired earlier unexpectedly converged at one point: languages, negotiations, the ability to quickly find money and the right people, and act where there was simply no official solution.

When Eliyahu Golomb and Berl Katznelson, already familiar with Ruth from work in Histadrut, learned about this story, it became clear that her abilities would be useful for much larger operations.

And this was happening at a time when such people were becoming especially needed.

After Kristallnacht in 1938, the danger for Jews in Germany and Austria sharply increased. At the same time, in May 1939, Britain established a new immigration policy for the British Mandate “Palestine”: about 75,000 Jewish immigrants over the next five years, after which further Jewish immigration was to depend on the consent of the Arab population. The document separately provided for the fight against illegal immigration.

The number of European Jews who needed a way out of Europe was growing precisely when legal opportunities to reach Eretz Israel were shrinking.

One of the Yishuv’s responses was Aliyah Bet — illegal, from the point of view of the British authorities, transportation of Jews to the British Mandate “Palestine”. The coordination of these operations was handled by the “Haganah” structure “Mossad le-Aliyah Bet”, led by Shaul Avigur.

This is not the current Israeli “Mossad”. We are talking about another, earlier organization created to bypass British immigration restrictions. USHMM dates the systematic coordination of its operations to 1938.

In June 1939, Ruth joined “Mossad le-Aliyah Bet”. She became the tenth member of the organization and the only woman in its then team.

And now Romania appeared in her life in a completely different capacity.

Ruth was sent there with a specific task to organize illegal aliyah. Her knowledge of the country and the Romanian language was especially useful. In Romania, Yosef Bar-Pal was already working, with whom she was to organize the dispatch of refugees.

Officially, Kluger represented Keren Kayemet LeIsrael. In fact, her work looked different: raising money, finding ships, establishing contacts, obtaining permits for Jewish refugees to enter Romania, and then — permits for ships to leave Romanian ports.

What began in a Greek port as a spontaneous attempt to help sixteen people now turned into systematic work, where it was already about hundreds of human lives.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already analyzed how deep the Ukrainian trace turned out to be in the history of Israeli intelligence services. Ruth is important here also because her activities relate to the earlier world of underground structures of the Yishuv, from which later the state institutions of Israel would grow.

Jews from Ukraine: how immigrants from Ukraine formed the “Mossad”

Romania: train, banker, minister, and king

So Ruth found herself in Romania again. Only now she came there as a participant in “Mossad le-Aliyah Bet”.

Together with her worked Yosef Bar-Pal, and one of the financial supports was the Bucharest Jewish banker Gheorghe Mandel. For the next operation, an old Greek steamship was chartered, named Tiger Hill.

Initially, small groups from Bulgaria, the Baltics, and Germany boarded. Then a train with about five hundred chalutzim — young Zionists preparing for aliyah — was sent from Poland.

The Romanian authorities tried to stop it at the border. Kluger managed to get the train further, but in Constanța, the train was placed on a guarded track.

Hundreds of people found themselves very close to the ship that was supposed to take them out of Europe, but they could not get on it.

The very cabinet war began, with which this story opens.

With the support of Gheorghe Mandel, Ruth reached the highest echelons of Romanian power and the entourage of King Carol II. Foreign Minister Grigore Gafencu intervened.

Permission was obtained.

Tiger Hill left Romania with approximately 729 people on board.

But this is not the final number.

At the end of August, the ship approached Beirut and took on passengers from another refugee ship — Frossoula, stranded off the Lebanese coast. After loading people, Tiger Hill was overcrowded.

That is why different sources cite different final numbers: the Israeli biography speaks of 1,417 passengers, while the official report of the American Consul General in Jerusalem records 1,205 people on board when the ship was off the coast of Tel Aviv.

On September 1, 1939, Germany attacked Poland. World War II began. On the same day, Tiger Hill was already near Tel Aviv.

To the shore, for which Ruth fought through the offices of Romanian officials, there were only a few kilometers left.

The American diplomatic document records that on September 2, the ship was grounded near Tel Aviv, British authorities opened fire, and two passengers were killed.

Their names have been preserved: Zvi Binder, a member of the “Chalutz” movement from Poland, and Dr. Robert Schneider from Czechoslovakia, who, according to a passenger, tried to help the wounded.

Residents of Tel Aviv gathered on the shore. Some of the arrivals managed to escape and blend into the crowd. One of the passengers recalled about 300 people who managed to leave and about approximately 1,200 detained, sent to Sarafand.

On September 11, they were released.

The numbers of this testimony do not fully match the diplomatic statistics, but the sequence of events matches: landing, an attempt to hide some people, mass detention, and subsequent release.

The operation, which began with a detained train in Romania and negotiations in royal offices, ended on the shore of the future Israel.

Chernivtsi appeared in her life again

There is a detail that makes this story especially fitting for the section “Jews from Ukraine”.

While working in Romania in 1939–1941, Ruth met her own brothers, their wives, aunts from Chernivtsi and Vienna, as well as her youthful love and his family from Chernivtsi.

Now she was persuading them to board ships while such an opportunity still existed.

Once, the war cut off little Ruth Polishuk from her Kyiv family and led her through Podolia to Chernivtsi. Now adult Ruth Kluger was trying to get people out of Europe from the very world in which she grew up.

Chernivtsi returned to her life not as a city of youth, but as the faces of people she knew and whom she was now trying to open a road out of Europe.

This is not the only Ukrainian-Israeli maritime story of those years. In our section, we have already told about Aryeh Grevnov from Ichnia, who in 1933 raised the blue and white flag with the Magen David over his own ship.

Jews from Ukraine: Aryeh Grevnov and the Jewish flag over the sea

After Tiger Hill were Hilda and Darien II

Tiger Hill was not the culmination of Kluger’s career. Rather, it was the moment when the scale of her work became especially noticeable.

In December 1939, the operation Hilda began. The ship was long blocked in Bulgarian Balchik. Conditions on board were becoming increasingly difficult, passengers were exhausted, and there was a conflict with the crew and local authorities.

Ruth again had to deal with not one specific task, but everything at once. She managed to obtain new supplies and even arranged for people to wash in an abandoned hammam at the palace of Romanian Queen Maria.

After new delays, Hilda reached Eretz Israel on January 23, 1940; the men among the passengers were sent by the British authorities to the Atlit camp.

In the same 1940, Ruth divorced Emanuel Kluger.

By the end of 1940, the situation in Romania became too dangerous for Kluger herself. She moved to Istanbul but did not stop working.

The next big story was Darien II, related to Jewish refugees stranded in Yugoslav Kladovo and Šabac.

On February 19, 1941, Darien II departed from Romanian ports, passed through Varna, and eventually reached Haifa with almost 800 people. Among them were 70 survivors from the sinking of another refugee ship — Salvador.

The same Kladovo–Šabac refugees who could not be evacuated were later killed during the Holocaust.

A heavy conflict arose around Darien II within the Yishuv itself: the leadership of the Haganah wanted to use the ship in cooperation with the British for military tasks against Germany, while the people of Mossad LeAliyah Bet, including Kluger, insisted on rescuing the refugees.

This dispute later became known as the “Darien Dilemma”.

Egypt, France, and liberated Europe

By 1943, Ruth found herself in Egypt as a representative of Mossad LeAliyah Bet and the Jewish Agency. Officially, she was engaged in fundraising for soldiers of the Jewish units of the British army; simultaneously, she sought ways to evacuate Jews from Egypt, Syria, and Lebanon, sources of weapons for the Haganah, and contacts with allies, including representatives of “Free France” under Charles de Gaulle.

In 1944, Ben-Gurion sent her to France as one of the first representatives of the Yishuv.

After the liberation of the camps, Kluger entered a world for which her previous experience with secret ships was only preparation: displaced persons camps, searching for Jewish children hidden during the war, negotiations with military administrations.

She visited Bergen-Belsen a week after its liberation, participated in organizing a Passover Seder for approximately four thousand children, including survivors of Buchenwald, and helped search for children who had been hidden during the war.

In 1945, after meeting with General Dwight Eisenhower, American Colonel Ernest Witte gave her the opportunity to use the transport ship Ascania to transport approximately 2,500 Jewish refugees.

In the memoir-biographical tradition, this episode is also described as Kluger receiving an honorary colonel status, allowing her to issue necessary orders. The Americans did not allow a repeat voyage due to British pressure.

The scale changed, but the principle of her work remained the same as it once was in the Greek port: to find an opportunity where officially there was almost none.

The state that did not yet exist finally appeared

In 1947, Ruth returned to Eretz Israel, but not for long. In early 1948, she was sent to raise funds in South America for the future state and its defense.

On May 14, 1948, the day the State of Israel was proclaimed, she was in the United States.

For a woman who had been sending ships to the shores of a country that legally did not yet exist for years, this day marked the end of one era and the beginning of another.

Around that time, the name by which she is most often remembered in Israel today appeared in her life — Aliav. JTA wrote that David Ben-Gurion suggested she take this surname because of her many years of work in Aliyah Bet. Encyclopaedia Judaica directly associates “Aliav” with the name of this underground aliyah.

In early 1949, she returned to Israel and joined ZIM. She organized and led the Jerusalem office of the company until 1955, then established ZIM representations in South America, represented the company in East Asia and Australia, and from 1958–1972 headed the public relations department.

For her work during the war, Ruth received the French Cross of Lorraine and the Legion of Honor. In 1974, the National Council of Jewish Women of the USA named her Woman of the Year.

Her memoirs, written with Peggy Mann, were published in English in 1973 under the title The Last Escape. Later, the book The Secret Ship, dedicated to the story of Hilda, appeared.

She adopted and raised two children who survived the Holocaust.

Ruth Kluger-Aliav died on February 16, 1980, and was buried in Mishmar HaEmek — the very kibbutz where she arrived at the beginning of her life in Eretz Israel.

From Kyiv to Tel Aviv

In Israeli history, she can be described in various ways: an activist of Aliyah Bet, a representative of the Yishuv in Europe, an organizer of refugee ships, an employee of ZIM.

But in the history of Jews from Ukraine, her path begins earlier than all these positions.

First, there was Ruth Polishuk from Kyiv. Then — a child with relatives near Kamianets-Podilskyi. Then — Chernivtsi, school, gymnasium, German and Yiddish around, Hebrew in Hashomer Hatzair, and conversations about the land yet to be reached.

From Chernivtsi, she went to Vienna. From Vienna — to Eretz Israel.

And then the road turned back.

First, there was a trip to Romania, the purpose of which biographical sources do not explain, and a chance meeting on the way back with sixteen Polish Jews in a Greek port. Then — joining Mossad LeAliyah Bet and a new trip to Romania, now with a specific mission: to evacuate hundreds of people from Europe, find ships, money, and permits for them, argue with officials, and reach ministers and the royal entourage.

In 1939, the former Kyiv girl was seeking permission from the Romanian authorities to evacuate Tiger Hill. In the same year, the ship reached the shores of Tel Aviv, and the people for whom negotiations were held set foot on the land of a country that did not yet exist.

Nine years later, the State of Israel appeared.

And a little later, the name of the cause to which Ruth dedicated years of her life became part of her own name — Ruth Kluger-Aliav.

For Ruth, Ukraine is not just a formal line ‘place of birth’. The first approximately two decades of her life are connected with several territories of modern Ukraine: Kyiv, Podolia, and Chernivtsi. It is precisely such fates — of people whose journey began in Ukraine and continued in the history of Israel — that we collect in the section “Jews from Ukraine”.

In the Ukrainian Wikipedia, there is a separate article about Ruth Kluger-Aliav.

Birth and Childhood in Poltava (1904–1924)

Moshe Segal was born in Poltava on February 23, 1904 (6 Shvat 5664) to the family of Avraham-Mordechai ha-Levi Segal and Henna-Leah Minkin. His home was traditionally Jewish, with deep religious and Zionist traditions.

From an early age, he was distinguished by his eagerness for books. Segal’s “second school” was not a gymnasium but the Poltava Jewish Community Library, where he spent hours reading philosophical treatises, chronicles, and journalism. There he first became acquainted with the works of medieval thinkers, while simultaneously getting involved in Poltava’s Jewish youth organizations: already in 1916 he joined “Tikvat Yisrael,” and from 1920 he actively participated in “Tzeirei Zion” and “Hechalutz.” These unions combined learning with practice and instilled in teenagers the aspiration for aliyah — relocation to Eretz Yisrael.

During World War I, the Mir Yeshiva was evacuated to the city for several years (1914–1921), and Moshe studied at the Mir Yeshiva in Poltava from about the age of ten to fifteen. This accustomed him to the discipline of the beit midrash and the “bundle” of three words: Torah, Eretz Yisrael, action.

By the early 1920s, Moshe Segal had ceased to be just a curious teenager. He became one of those who connected the “reading” youth with the “practitioners”: he participated in organizing hachsharot — agricultural internships to prepare for relocation to Eretz Yisrael. These camps helped teenagers and young people not only physically prepare for future life but also feel the unity of the cause. Moshe supervised the dispatch of young people to farms in southern Ukraine, ensuring that the community in Poltava was not only a center for studying books but also a launching pad for action.

These twenty years in Poltava shaped him as a “man of action.” It was there that book learning, public work, and the first leadership qualities merged, which he carried throughout his life — from the arrest at the Western Wall to participation in underground organizations and the establishment of Israel.

Reference: What is the “Mir Yeshiva” and what does it have to do with Poltava

The “Mir Yeshiva” is one of the most influential Lithuanian (Ashkenazi) Torah academies. Founded in the town of Mir (now Belarus) in 1815–1817 by the Tiktin family (Rabbis Shmuel, Avraham, and Chaim-Leib Tiktin), it became the flagship of the “Volozhin” school with an emphasis on deep Talmudic study and strict academic discipline. At the turn of the 19th–20th centuries, it was strengthened by Rabbi Eliyahu-Baruch Kamai and his son-in-law, the future Rosh Yeshiva Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel; the spiritual “engine” of the interwar period was the mashgiach Rabbi Yerucham Levovitz — under him, Mir was called “the yeshiva where future heads of yeshivas are raised.”

The key to our topic is the Poltava period. With the start of World War I, in 1914, the yeshiva was evacuated from Mir to Poltava, where it operated until 1921. It was during these years that Moshe Segal studied at “Mir” in Poltava: the beit midrash, the rhythm of study, partner responsibility, and the “bundle” of three words — Torah, Eretz Yisrael, and action — were formed in him not in an abstract “Lithuanian” environment but in the specific Ukrainian Poltava.

After the Poltava period, the Mir Yeshiva had a rather dramatic fate:

• 1921 — after the Civil War and Soviet power in Ukraine, it became impossible to maintain a religious educational institution. The yeshiva left Poltava and returned to the town of Mir (then Poland).
• 1939 — after the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact and the division of Poland, part of Belarus went to the USSR. The yeshiva found itself under Soviet rule, making its existence impossible.
• 1940–1941 — the leaders and students of the yeshiva moved to Lithuania. From there, thanks to the help of Japanese consul Chiune Sugihara and Dutch diplomat Jan Zwartendijk, several hundred students received transit visas.
• 1941–1947 — refugees from the yeshiva ended up in Shanghai (China), which was then under Japanese occupation. There, the yeshiva continued to function, which is considered a unique case of preserving a traditional Talmudic school during the Holocaust years.

During World War II, “Mir” experienced a unique escape “via the eastern route”: Mir → Vilna/Keidan (Lithuania) → transit visas → Kobe (Japan, 1941) → Shanghai (1941–1947).

After the war, two main centers grew from this line: in Jerusalem (officially established in 1944–1945, Beit Yisrael district) and in Brooklyn (Mirrer Yeshiva, established in the 1950s under the leadership of Rabbi Avraham Kalmanowitz). The Jerusalem branch was successively headed by Rabbi Chaim Shmulevitz, Rabbi Nachum Partzovitz, Rabbi Binyamin Beinush Finkel, Rabbi Nosson Tzvi Finkel; today it is led by Rabbi Eliezer Yehuda Finkel along with other senior roshei yeshiva (including Rabbi Yitzchok Ezrachi).

Where and how many students now. The Jerusalem “Mir” is the largest yeshiva in the world: according to open data, it has about over nine thousand students (≈9–9.6 thousand). The American Mirrer Yeshiva in Brooklyn has several hundred students (school branch and post-school program), which is significantly smaller but historically key to preserving tradition in the USA.

The conclusion for our material is simple: “Mir” is the “Oxford” of the Torah world; Poltava was its temporary home in 1914–1921; Segal is one of those whom the “Poltava Mir” shaped. Therefore, in his biography, we highlight both the yeshiva itself and its connection with Poltava in such detail.

Poltava: Ukrainian and Jewish History to the Present Day

Middle Ages. The first mention of Poltava dates back to 1174. At that time, it was a fortified settlement on the Vorskla River, part of the Principality of Pereyaslav.

Tatar-Mongol Invasion. In the 13th century, Poltava, like other cities of Kievan Rus, suffered from Batu’s campaigns (1237–1240). The city was destroyed, the population partially exterminated or taken captive. For several centuries, the territory was under the influence of the Golden Horde.

Polish-Lithuanian Period. From the 14th century, Poltava was under the rule of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, and then the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. During this period, the first Jewish families and traders appeared.

Cossack Era. In the 17th century, Poltava became the center of a Cossack regiment. During Bohdan Khmelnytsky’s uprising (1648–1657), the city played a significant role in the struggle for autonomy.

Battle of Poltava. In 1709, the decisive battle of the Great Northern War took place here: the alliance of Charles XII and Ivan Mazepa was defeated by Peter I. After this, Poltava was secured for the Moscow state.

Second Half of the 18th Century. By this time, a Jewish community already existed in Poltava, although Jews were formally restricted from living in central areas of Ukraine. Despite this, the first synagogues, charitable funds, and schools were formed here.

19th Century. In 1802, Poltava received the status of a provincial center. The city became the cultural capital of Left-Bank Ukraine: Ivan Kotlyarevsky worked here, Nikolai Gogol began his studies, and theaters opened. By this time, the Jewish community had reached significant influence: according to the 1897 census, 11,046 Jews (20.5% of the population) lived in Poltava. There were 10 synagogues, a Talmud Torah with 300 students, a women’s school, a library (8,000 books), and a Jewish hospital.

World War I and Interwar Period. From 1914–1921, the famous Mir Yeshiva evacuated from Belarus was located in Poltava — one of the largest centers for Torah study. During this time, future activist Moshe Segal studied here. In 1926, about 93,000 Jews lived in the province, and in the city itself — 18,476 (20.1% of the population). But by 1939, the share had decreased to 9.9%.

World War II. The Germans entered Poltava on September 18, 1941. Already on September 25, about 5,000 Jews were shot, and on November 23 — another 3,000. In total, during the occupation, more than 22,000 Jews died in the region.

Soviet Period. After the war, the community partially recovered, but under atheistic policies. In 1959, the authorities closed the last functioning synagogue, and Jewish life went underground. Meanwhile, the city developed as an industrial and educational center of the Ukrainian SSR.

Independent Ukraine. Since the late 1980s, the community began to revive. In the 1990s, a Chabad center, the “Or Avner” school, and the “Hesed Nefesh” program appeared in Poltava. According to the 2001 census, about 1,800 Jews (0.3% of the population) lived in the city.

Russian Aggression (2022–2025). Poltava was again under attack.

• April 2, 2022 — first rocket attacks on infrastructure.
• September 3, 2024 — rockets hit the Military Institute of Communications and a hospital: dozens killed, hundreds injured.
• February 2, 2025 — a rocket destroyed a residential five-story building, killing 14 people, including children.
• March 28, 2025 — mass attack by “shaheds” on industrial zones.
• July 3, 2025 — drones hit the military enlistment office and neighboring houses.

Today. Despite the threats, Poltava remains part of independent Ukraine — the administrative center of the Poltava region and an important industrial and cultural hub of Central Ukraine. According to various data, about 280–320 thousand people live in the city, and together with the surrounding villages in the urban community — up to 600–650 thousand. The Jewish community, though small, is active: the synagogue, Chabad center, “Or Avner” school, social projects, and memorial initiatives remind of the past and help shape the future.

Jews of Poltava: Notable Figures

The history of the Jewish community of Poltava is reflected in the biographies of its outstanding natives and residents. These names are known far beyond Ukraine, and their contributions have become part of world Jewish history.

• Yitzhok Yitzhak Krasilshchikov — a rabbi nicknamed “The Gaon of Poltava.” He was the author of a fundamental commentary on the Jerusalem Talmud and is considered one of the key figures in its study in the 20th century.
• Elias Tcherikover — born and raised in Poltava. Historian, one of the founders of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research in Vilna. His works are dedicated to the history of Jewish life and pogroms in Eastern Europe.
• Yitzhak Ben-Zvi — a native of Poltava, the second president of the State of Israel. In Poltava, he received a Jewish education, participated in the Zionist movement, and in Israel became one of the central state figures.
• Alina Treiger — born in Poltava, became the first female rabbi ordained in Germany after World War II. Her activities became a symbol of a new stage in the development of Judaism in Europe.
• Jacob (Yasha) Gegna — a klezmer musician from Poltava, a famous violinist and teacher. His name is associated with the development of Jewish musical tradition in the early 20th century.
• Pavel Gertsyk — a Poltava colonel during the time of Ivan Mazepa. He came from a Jewish family that moved to Poltava. His family occupied a prominent place in the Cossack and Ukrainian elite of the 18th century.

The Move of Moshe Segal to Palestine and the Path to the Kotel

In 1924, Moshe repatriated to Palestine with his parents.

In Palestine, Segal worked as a stonemason, studied at “Merkaz ha-Rav”, and got involved in “Beitar”.

Summer-Fall 1929 — defense of Tel Aviv during the Arab riots; at the Kotel, he participated in demonstrations and organizational work. In the fall of 1930, he was detained for several days for participating in a protest against the visit to Palestine of the British Under-Secretary of State for the Colonies Dr. Drummond Shiels; a few days later, all detainees were released by order of the High Commissioner.

Episode at the Kotel (1930): How It Happened

After the riots of 1929, police restrictions of the mandate administration were in effect at the Western Wall: it was forbidden to bring “demonstrative religious items” and blow the shofar; the police enforced this already in 1930 (the law would come later).

Yom Kippur 5691 fell on the evening of October 1 → evening of October 2, 1930 (not “September 21” — this date is mistakenly mentioned in several materials).

Segal took a shofar in advance from Rabbi Yitzhak Avigdor Orenstein (the first official “rabbi of the Wall”) and hid it under his tallit. At the end of Ne’ilah, he gave a long final sound tekiah gedolah, as is customary to conclude the fast; the police detained him on the spot and took him to the Kishle station.

The Chief Rabbi of Eretz Yisrael Rabbi Avraham Yitzhak Kook called the administration and stated that he would not conclude the fast until Segal was released; closer to midnight, Moshe was free.

Segal did this as a religious-political gesture: to conclude Yom Kippur with the prescribed tekiah gedolah at the holy site and remind that this place is a sanctuary of the Jewish people.

He consciously concluded Yom Kippur with a tekiah gedolah at the Kotel, openly challenging British prohibitions and asserting the right of Jews to pray according to their custom. The gesture worked as mobilization: after his arrest and Rabbi Kook’s intervention, the shofar sounded there annually until 1948, turning into a ritual of nonviolent disobedience.

In the following years until 1948, at Segal’s initiative, young people annually smuggled a shofar to the Kotel and gave a tekiah gedolah — despite arrests and fines.

What Was This Law and Where Is the “Logic” of the Dates

The International Commission on the Western Wall (Chairman — Eliel Löfgren, members — Charles Barde, Johann van Kempen) completed its work in December 1930. The commission recognized the Muslim waqf‘s ownership of the wall and the plaza, and for Jews — the right of “free access for prayer” with reservations: a ban on the shofar and a list of what can/cannot be brought to the wall.

These findings were turned into law in the Palestine (Western or Wailing Wall) Order in Council, 1931, which came into force on June 8, 1931; for violation — fine of 50 pounds or imprisonment up to 6 months. Consequently, in 1930, Segal was detained under existing police instructions, and in 1931, the same regime was codified.

After the “Sound”: Not Only Protest but Also Construction

Segal remains a man of long distance.

In the 1930s and 1940s, he went through right-wing national movements (Etzel/Irgun from 1931, contacts with “Lehi” from 1943; in parallel — Brit ha-Biryonim 1931–1932, Brit ha-Hashmonaim from 1937) — this is evident from his organizational “trail.” After the declaration of the state, he moved into community routine: in the 1950s, he participated in the establishment of Kfar Chabad (the settlement was founded in 1949), worked in agriculture and the secretariat.

After June 1967 (Six-Day War), Segal returned to the Old City and contributed to the revival of the “Tzemach Tzedek” synagogue and regular minyan; in the 1970s, he participated in religious and public initiatives to strengthen presence at holy sites (including movements like “El Har ha-Shem”/“El Har ha-Bayit”).

Recognition and Memory

In 1974, he was awarded the title of “Yakir Yerushalayim” (Honored Citizen of Jerusalem). This is one of the highest municipal awards given to people who have made a significant contribution to the development of the city.

In his memory, a square near Mount Zion in Jerusalem is named after him. This fact emphasizes that his name and act — blowing the shofar at the Western Wall — are entrenched not only in historical memory but also in the urban toponymy of Israel’s capital.

He died on Yom Kippur, September 25, 1985 (10 Tishrei 5746), and is buried on the Mount of Olives.

Final Note

For our section “Jews from Ukraine“, this is almost a textbook example.

Poltava is not just a line in a questionnaire, but a school of character: the library and circles, study at the Mir Yeshiva specifically in Poltava, experience of self-organization and hachshara. Jerusalem is the continuation of the same line: where formal rules humiliate the meaning of prayer, he blows; where the noise subsides, he builds — a settlement, a synagogue, community institutions.

And yes, if someone looks up “September 21, 1930” in the wiki — we will point to October 1–2, 1930 as the real dates of Yom Kippur 5691 and that the ban was initially police, and on June 8, 1931 it became law. This removes all “logical” nitpicks.

Author: Editorial Staff of NANews

The author of the photo wrote in Ukrainian: “Ось такі в Ізраїлі є автобуси! Дякую Тобі Боже за Твій народ” (These are the buses in Israel! Thank You God for Your people). We paused at the photo, then opened the carrier’s page, the official website, old Facebook posts — and as a result, instead of one beautiful photo, we got quite an interesting story of an Israeli company that seems to have something to offer to enterprises, event organizers, and tourist groups.

Let’s immediately say why we decided to talk about Polly Tour not only because of the trident. The company turned out to have a serious set of charter transportation: regular routes for organizations, employee transportation, buses for conferences and corporate days, tourist groups, weddings, excursions, Ben-Gurion, vehicles for passengers with limited mobility. This is no longer a story about a symbol on a bus, but about a service that many in Israel really need.

The section for the Israeli reader should be made deeper — so that the reader understands that the buses of Polly Tour do not just have “Ukrainian colors,” but symbols with a history long before the emergence of modern independent Ukraine in 1991.

Blue, yellow, and trident: what the symbols on Polly Tour buses mean

Polly Tour buses are noticeable from afar: the fleet’s design features a lot of blue and yellow, and on some vehicles, a golden trident is placed above the windshield. Today, such a combination is almost unequivocally associated with Ukraine, but both the colors and the sign itself appeared in Ukrainian symbolism long before the proclamation of modern Ukraine’s independence in 1991.

The most common modern explanation of the flag’s colors is very simple: blue — sky, yellow — wheat field. This is how the combination is often perceived today. However, this is more of a popular symbolic interpretation rather than a meaning enshrined by law. The resolution of the Verkhovna Rada, which approved the modern state flag, defines the colors and proportions of the canvas but does not establish the official interpretation of “sky and wheat.”

The blue and yellow themselves appeared in the symbolism of the lands of modern Ukraine much earlier. The Ukrainian Institute of National Memory points to the combination of a blue background and golden or yellow images even in medieval heraldry. For example, the golden lion on a blue field is associated with the Galician principality. Later, especially in the 17th–18th centuries, Cossack regimental and company banners featured blue canvases with yellow or golden crosses, stars, weapons, and images of saints.

But it was precisely as Ukrainian national colors that the blue-yellow combination was established much later — during the European “Spring of Nations” in 1848. In June of that year, such a flag was raised over the town hall of Lviv. After that, blue-yellow banners were increasingly used by Ukrainian organizations and participants in national events in Galicia, Bukovina, and Transcarpathia. In the territories of the Russian Empire, their open use spread after the revolution of 1905–1907.

In 1917, the blue-yellow flag was already widely used by the Ukrainian movement. Under such banners, thousands of Ukrainian demonstrations took place in Kyiv and Petrograd, and in the summer of 1917, the Ukrainian regiment named after Bohdan Khmelnytsky went to the front under the blue-yellow flag. Ukrainian flags began to be raised on individual ships of the Black Sea Fleet.

During the period of the Ukrainian People’s Republic, the colors turned from a national sign into an element of state symbolism. In January 1918, the blue-yellow canvas was enshrined in the legislation of the UPR on the fleet. In the documents of the Ukrainian authorities of 1918, the order familiar to us today was used: blue or light blue stripe on top, yellow on the bottom. The blue-yellow symbolism was preserved under the Ukrainian State of Hetman Pavlo Skoropadsky, used by the Directorate of the UPR, and in November 1918, the blue-yellow flag was declared the state flag of the Western Ukrainian People’s Republic.

After the establishment of Soviet power, this symbolism was no longer the state flag of the Ukrainian SSR, and in the USSR, its public use was prosecuted. The blue-yellow flag continued to exist in Ukrainian emigration and various movements associated with the idea of Ukrainian independence. At the end of the Soviet period, it began to appear publicly again. After the proclamation of Ukraine’s independence, the Verkhovna Rada on January 28, 1992 officially approved the state flag as a canvas of two equal horizontal stripes: blue on top and yellow on the bottom.

The history of the trident is even older.

What is today called the trident originates from the princely signs of the Rurik dynasty during the times of Rus. The sign of Prince Volodymyr the Great, who ruled Kyiv at the end of the 10th — beginning of the 11th century, is especially well-known. Similar signs were found on princely coins and other items of that period. At the same time, historians do not have a single indisputable answer to what this sign originally depicted: there are several interpretations of its form and origin. Therefore, it is more correct to speak not of a proven ancient meaning of the word “trident,” but of a princely sign that much later received this name and modern state significance.

It was returned to during the Ukrainian revolution of the early 20th century. Already on January 6, 1918, Volodymyr’s sign appeared on the first UPR banknote with a denomination of 100 karbovanets, created by artist Heorhiy Narbut. And on February 25, 1918, the Small Rada officially approved the “sign of the Kyiv State from the times of Volodymyr the Saint” as the coat of arms of the Ukrainian People’s Republic. On March 22, the large and small coat of arms of the UPR, developed by Vasyl Krychevsky, were approved.

The choice was not accidental. The leaders of the UPR thus emphasized the historical continuity of the new Ukrainian statehood from medieval Rus. The trident was used on state seals, documents, money, and other official attributes. Under Hetman Skoropadsky, it also did not disappear from state heraldry, and after the loss of Ukrainian statehood, it continued to be used by the UPR government in emigration.

After the restoration of independence, modern Ukraine returned both historical symbols. On January 28, 1992, the blue-yellow state flag was officially approved, and on February 19, 1992, the Verkhovna Rada approved the golden trident on a blue shield as the small State Emblem of Ukraine and the main element of the future large state emblem.

Therefore, the design of Polly Tour buses looks especially characteristic. Here, two recognizable Ukrainian symbols are simultaneously present: the combination of blue and yellow, which has centuries-old heraldic roots and became national in the 19th century, and the trident, which dates back to the princely signs of Kievan Rus and was officially used by Ukrainian statehood as early as 1918.

Polly Tour has not been operating since yesterday: what we managed to verify

On its official website, Polly Tour writes that it has been operating in Israel for over 20 years and serves private clients, businesses, and institutions. The company is primarily based in the center of the country but carries out transportation throughout Israel.

We went to check the history ourselves.

The oldest post on the official Facebook page that we managed to find is dated November 5, 2014. Even then, Polly Tour offered transportation throughout the country on new buses. In June 2015, a large blue-yellow bus appeared on the page, and then such vehicles were regularly visible in photos from 2016, 2017, and 2018.

And on December 9, 2016, on one of the buses published by the company, the Ukrainian trident was already clearly visible above the windshield. In the same publication, Alex Polykov was noted. Later in Polly Tour’s history, Kosta Polykov appears: in 2022, he posted an announcement on behalf of the carrier about looking for a driver.

We also found an even more illustrative photo. On the side of one of Polly Tour’s buses, two contact names and numbers are directly applied:

Kosta — 052-……..
Alex — 053-……..

Next to it is the name Polly Tour / פולי תור. In the old publications of the page, we also see Alex Polykov and Kosta Polykov, so their direct connection with the carrier’s work is almost beyond doubt.

There is also an interesting detail here that is hard not to notice: Polykov is a surname, and the company is called Polly Tour. We did not ask the carrier’s representatives whether the name Polly Tour is indeed derived from the surname Polykov, and therefore we cannot assert this as an established fact. But the similarity of the name with the surname of people who have been associated with the company for many years looks obvious enough to draw attention to it.

Who exactly among them is or was the owner of the business, it would also be incorrect to establish based on some Facebook posts and inscriptions on the bus. But we can say something else with certainty: Kosta and Alex were not random people next to Polly Tour, but its long-term contact persons — their names and phone numbers were directly applied to the company’s buses.

At the same time, the current legal entity פולי תור בע”מ / Polly Tour Ltd., №516448453 was registered on August 11, 2021, and has the status of an active private Israeli company. The legal address in the registry data is Beit Aryeh.

There is no contradiction here. An Israeli business can well operate for many years in one organizational form and then register a new LLC. But that’s why we separate two statements: Polly Tour itself talks about more than 20 years of experience; the independently traceable public history of the company is confirmed at least since 2014.

And even these twelve years of continuous public history for a small private carrier are already not a page opened yesterday with three photos.

What exactly can be ordered from Polly Tour

Here it becomes practical for organizations.

On the Polly Tour website, there is a separate direction for regular transportation of employees and organizations. The company offers both permanent routes and one-time trips, and on the page of regular transportation, enterprises, schools, and day centers are separately listed. You can agree on the schedule, route, and boarding points for a specific organization.

For businesses, there are transportation services for corporate events, leisure days and team building, seminars, training, and conferences. That is, you don’t have to gather employees in twenty cars, worry about parking, and who will drive back after the event. The company itself offers to build a route with several collection points and adjust the schedule to the event program.

There is a separate service for bus rental with a driver — from a one-day trip to long-term support of an organized group. According to Polly Tour’s description, this includes vehicle selection, driver, route planning, and trip logistics. This format is suitable for companies, educational institutions, excursion organizers, conferences, and group outings.

Another large direction is tourism and excursions. Polly Tour works with tourist groups, organized groups, and delegations, including when a bus is needed for several consecutive days. On the tourist transportation page, the company separately mentions inbound tourism and group support throughout Israel.

There are excursion trips and one-day tours: collection points, stops, and places to visit are determined in advance. For a group, several boarding points can be made and then passengers can be taken back.

Separately declared are transfers to Ben-Gurion Airport for families and groups. For a large team, this is sometimes simply more convenient than ordering a dozen taxis, especially when there are suitcases and several collection points. The company refers to this service as one of its main directions.

There are transportation services for weddings, bar and bat mitzvahs, family celebrations, and corporate events. For a wedding, for example, the site allows you to set a route there and back, several boarding points, return time, and intermediate stops.

And this is the case when the Israeli specifics are understandable without long explanations: a wedding somewhere out of town, relatives coming from Tel Aviv, Rishon LeZion, and Petah Tikva, parking is unknown where, then still have to drive back at night. One properly organized bus sometimes solves half the headache.

From 19 to 60 passengers — and a separate accessible bus

According to Polly Tour, the fleet includes minibuses for up to 19 passengers, buses for about 55 people, and a large bus for up to 60 passengers. The company also declares a specialized accessible bus with places for up to ten wheelchairs in addition to regular seats.

For organizations, this is not a trifle. When the team consists of 45 people, there is no point in paying for two random vehicles. When 15–18 people are traveling, a large bus, on the contrary, may be excessive. And if there is a passenger in a wheelchair in the group, the availability of truly adapted transport becomes one of the first questions when choosing a carrier.

The company writes that its buses undergo regular maintenance, and some pages separately indicate transport control by a קצין בטיחות בתעבורה — transport safety officer/specialist, a position provided for by the Israeli system of supervision over commercial fleets.

For Israelis: this is not Egged and not a city bus

Here is a small point that may not be obvious to the reader.

Polly Tour is not a public transport operator. It does not have a city route where you come with a Rav-Kav and board at the nearest stop. This is a charter carrier: an enterprise, family, school, tourist group, conference or excursion organizer pre-arranges a vehicle, time, route, and number of passengers.

The company’s main market is the center of Israel, but Polly Tour itself declares transportation throughout the country. The site has separate pages for Tel Aviv, Holon, Rishon LeZion, Lod, Petah Tikva, Shoham, Hadera, and other directions.

Therefore, an organization’s request can look very different: picking up employees from several cities every day and bringing them to the enterprise; taking the entire office to the north for a יום גיבוש; meeting a foreign delegation at Ben-Gurion; organizing a bus for a conference; picking up guests from the train station and returning them after a wedding.

That’s what Polly Tour is tailored for.

And what about the Ukrainian trident?

We still return to it because that’s where this story began.

Polly Tour’s blue-yellow buses appeared at least in 2015. By December 2016, one of the vehicles already had the Ukrainian trident. In modern photos on the official website, this sign is visible on several buses.

Why the owners chose the Ukrainian emblem, the company itself does not explain on the pages available to us. Therefore, we will not invent a family biography or declare its origin.

But the fact remains: the Israeli carrier has been using the Ukrainian trident on its fleet for many years.

For NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, this fits well into the part of Israeli life that we constantly talk about. Ukraine exists here not only in big politics: there is a Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv, events, communities, businesses, and thousands of ordinary human connections.

Why it makes sense for organizations to at least request a proposal

We will not write that we personally tested every Polly Tour vehicle or conducted a control trip — that did not happen. Therefore, evaluating the company with the words “the best in Israel” would be advertising noise.

But adding Polly Tour to the list of carriers from whom to request a proposal, we can recommend quite specifically.

The business has a long-standing public trail, a visible fleet, vehicles of different capacities, transport for passengers in wheelchairs, regular transportation for organizations, tourist and event routes, and the ability to work not only with a one-time order but also with the permanent logistics of an enterprise. This set is what matters to someone who is really responsible for transporting twenty, fifty, or a hundred people, not choosing a bus based on a beautiful photo.

For the company, we would immediately pass on to Polly Tour the number of passengers, cities and boarding points, date, departure and return time, the need for several stops, luggage volume, and accessibility requirements when requesting. Then the carrier will be able to select a vehicle and calculate a proposal without endless message exchanges.

Currently, the official website lists the office at HaYotzrim 6, Or Yehuda, phone 073-8022252, e-mail Pollytour1@gmail.com. Office hours: Sunday–Thursday 07:30–19:30, Friday and pre-holiday days 07:30–15:00.

You can submit a request directly through the company’s website: there is a form with departure and destination points, dates, time, number of passengers, and additional stops.

Official Polly Tour website — request transportation

Official page – https://www.facebook.com/pollytour1/

And we started with just a photo of a bus on Facebook. Then it turned out that behind the blue-yellow vehicle with the trident is a carrier with a large fleet and quite a wide range of services.

So if your company, organization, tourist group, or event organizers need a bus in Israel — Polly Tour is at least worth adding to the list of those to call and request a quote. And let the Ukrainian trident above the windshield remain a pleasant bonus to this story.

Author — Elena Gunko

For Israel, it sounds especially convincing. Several months of sun, heat, sea, pools, and air conditioners have ended, which means the hair is simply reacting to the summer. Sometimes the season really plays a role, but it does not automatically explain prolonged hair loss, a widened parting, or a gradual decrease in density.

What is visible in autumn could have started in the summer

Hair does not always react to changes in the body immediately. Several months can pass between severe stress, illness, high fever, sudden weight loss, surgery or childbirth, and noticeable increased hair loss.

Therefore, October hair loss sometimes needs to be mentally returned to July or August. The woman is already sleeping normally, the illness is over, the difficult period has passed — and the hair is just beginning to show the consequences.

The American Academy of Dermatology describes such a delay in telogen effluvium. Seasonal fluctuations were also observed in studies: for example, a study with data from 823 women showed a change in the proportion of hair in the telogen phase at different times of the year.

For Israelis, there is another factor here. NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already reported, why prolonged stress during war and anxiety can affect hair with a delay. If the difficult period was several months ago, it is easy not to associate it with what is happening now.

After summer, hair may not fall out but break

On the floor and in the bathroom, the difference is not always noticeable. For the hair itself, it is fundamental.

The Israeli summer means a lot of sun, and for many, also the sea, pool, coloring, hairdryer, straightener, and more frequent washing. After several such months, hair may become drier, harder to comb, and more likely to break along the length.

Therefore, it is worth looking not only at the quantity. If among the fallen hair there are many short broken fragments, the ends are dry and split, and the length has become noticeably worse, part of the problem may be precisely in the damage.

If, however, mostly whole long hairs are falling out and the overall density is decreasing at the same time, it is more difficult to explain everything only by the sea and sun.

“Autumn” is convenient because almost everything can be blamed on it

Women have several reasons for hair loss that easily coincide with the beginning of autumn.

This is the period after childbirth, changes in hormonal contraception, thyroid disease, iron deficiency, sudden changes in diet or weight, past illness, and prolonged stress. There is also a female type of androgenetic thinning, which develops gradually.

It especially easily goes unnoticed. Hair does not necessarily fall out in clumps: first, the central parting may slightly widen, then the volume of the ponytail may decrease, and the scalp begins to show more on photographs or under bright lighting.

Therefore, the calendar is useful as a hint, but not as a diagnosis.

Instead of counting hairs, look at your parting

A common guideline is 50–100 naturally shed hairs per day. But at home, this number helps less than it seems.

If the head is washed every three days, several days’ worth of shed hair will be in the shower at once. Long hair looks much more voluminous than short hair, and combing and hairstyles also change the picture.

It is easier to compare yourself with yourself at the beginning of summer. Has the ponytail become thinner? Has the parting widened? Has a zone appeared where the scalp has become more visible? Has the usual volume returned after washing and styling?

If visually nothing changes, temporary increased shedding looks like one situation. If the density gradually decreases — it is already another.

Vitamins at random do not answer the question “why”

In autumn, many start in about the same way: “anti-hair loss” shampoo, biotin, hair complex, then iron on the advice of acquaintances.

But hair loss is not one cause and not one pill. If a woman really has an iron deficiency or another substance, its correction may be necessary. If the reason is completely different, a random jar of vitamins will not eliminate it.

With iron, thyroid, and other possible systemic causes, it is more reasonable to go through a doctor and necessary tests. And the condition of the hair and scalp can be assessed separately.

When it is no longer worth waiting for winter

Several weeks of increased shedding without noticeable changes in density do not yet mean that something serious is happening. The situation is different if changes continue to accumulate.

The parting becomes wider, the ponytail thinner, noticeable thinning appears in a certain area. Or itching, redness, soreness, pronounced flaking of the scalp are added to the shedding.

Separately, it is worth paying attention to suddenly appeared bald patches or very rapid pronounced shedding. In such cases, waiting until December just to check the “seasonality” version makes little sense.

What to do first

It is useful to start not with a cosmetics store, but with the last two to three months. Were there any illness, high fever, severe stress, weight loss, dietary changes, childbirth, surgery, or medication changes?

After that, it is worth assessing the hair itself: is the density changing, is the parting widening, is the hair falling out whole or breaking, are there changes in the scalp?

If the problem continues, the next step is to find out the cause. In some cases, a doctor and laboratory examination will be needed, in others, the first noticeable question will be the condition of the hair or scalp.

Procedures come after this. For example, NAnews separately analyzed, what PRP for hair is, who such a procedure may be considered for, and why the choice should start with a consultation, not with a promise of results.

Autumn can indeed coincide with more pronounced shedding. But if the hair has objectively become different than two or three months ago, it is more useful to find out the reason than just wait for the season to change.

Abramsky Hair Health Center in Haifa

Abramsky Hair Health Center operates in Haifa with inquiries about hair loss and thinning, hair damage, and changes in scalp condition.

The center’s approach starts with an assessment of the hair and scalp, after which the further direction is determined. This may involve working with damaged hair and scalp, discussing available procedures, or recommending additional medical examination first.

The center is located at Ha-Histadrut Avenue, 44, Check-Post area, Haifa. More about the directions of work, diagnostics, and appointments can be found on the official website of the Abramsky Hair Health Center.

But the most frightening thing in this story is not the statistics themselves, but what lies behind them. Through schools, the occupying power builds a mechanism of pressure in which children are gradually changed in terms of language environment, educational content, historical memory, and the very sense of belonging to Ukraine. In March 2026, in the analytical report of the Center “Almenda”, this is directly described as a policy of destroying the identity of children in the occupied territories.

For the Israeli reader, there are too many familiar signals here to consider this topic distant. When the blow is struck at children, at memory, at language, and at the upbringing of the next generation, it is no longer just a humanitarian crisis. It is an attempt to steal the future of a nation.

How exactly Ukrainian children are broken

Militarization instead of childhood

One of the key parts of this system is militarization. Children and teenagers in the occupied territories are drawn into structures like the “First Movement” and “Yunarmiya”, where instead of normal development, creativity, and free choice, they are imposed with a cult of loyalty, submission, and war. Ukrainian and international sources describing the report’s findings indicate that Russian authorities are accelerating the militarization of education, introducing ideological subjects, and embedding elements of state propaganda into school life.

This looks especially cynical because everything is presented under the guise of “upbringing”, “patriotism”, and “care for youth”. In reality, the child is gradually accustomed to the idea that their future should be connected not with Ukraine, but with the state that came to their land with war. And here it becomes clear: this is not about education as such, but about preparing a loyal generation for a foreign system.

Fear as an everyday norm

An equally important element is fear. In the occupied territories, school becomes not a place of choice, but a place of coercion. Parents find themselves under pressure, and teenagers are deprived of the opportunity to openly speak about their pro-Ukrainian position. Even maintaining an internal connection with their country becomes a risk there. This is also mentioned in the materials accompanying the “Almenda” report and in the stories of children who are later managed to be taken out of occupation.

Thus, an environment is built where silence becomes a way to survive. A child learns not to think freely, but to hide their feelings, beliefs, and memory in time. And this is already a blow not only to children’s rights but also to the very possibility of society to reclaim these children without severe consequences for their psyche.

That is why the topic of Ukrainian children in the occupied territories should not fall out of the international agenda. NAnovosti — Israel News | Nikk.Agency in such a conversation sounds not like a formality, but as part of a common effort not to let the world turn away from what is happening right now.

Why Save Ukraine is so important here

Who they are and what they do

Save Ukraine is a Ukrainian humanitarian organization founded in 2014. On its official website, it explains its mission as saving children, supporting families, and forming a strong generation capable of restoring the country’s future. After the start of the full-scale war, the organization became one of the most prominent structures engaged in evacuating civilians, returning Ukrainian children from occupation and from Russia, as well as their further rehabilitation.

In the context of this topic, Save Ukraine is important not as an abstract charity fund, but as an organization that deals with the most severe consequences of occupation in practice. It conducts rescue missions, helps return children home, accompanies families, provides temporary safety, and then helps children go through the path of recovery after experiencing pressure, isolation, ideological processing, and fear. On the Save Ukraine website, it is separately emphasized that it is about children who faced separation from families, militarization, persecution, and other forms of violence.

Save Ukraine:
https://www.saveukraineua.org/

That is why mentioning Save Ukraine in this topic carries special weight. This is not a story “about sympathy”, not a beautiful logo, and not a set of the right words. This is a structure that really pulls children out of the trap where they were tried to be deprived of home, memory, and a normal childhood.

Why this is a question of Ukraine’s future

On the organization’s website, messages about new rescue operations are regularly published.

At the end of March and the beginning of April 2026, Save Ukraine reported on new groups of children and teenagers who were managed to be taken out of occupation and deportation. This shows that the problem has not remained in the past and has not been reduced to isolated cases — it continues, and the fight for each child is literally happening now.

Therefore, the issue of returning Ukrainian children cannot be perceived only as a humanitarian mission. It is a question of whether Ukraine will be able to maintain a connection with the next generation, which the enemy is trying to rewrite for itself. Every child who manages to break out of this system is not just a saved fate. It is also a blow to the very logic of occupation, which is built on the calculation that over time children will forget who they are, where they are from, and to which country they belong.

And that is why this needs to be spoken about loudly. Not only in Kyiv. Not only in the human rights community. Not only in reports.

This should be known in Israel, in Jewish communities, in international institutions, in the media, and in political circles. Because here the war is not only for territories. Here the war is for memory, for identity, and for the future of an entire generation of Ukrainian children.

Dean Liras is one of those. An American cinematographer, specialist in complex filming, a member of the second director’s group, and a producer. His professional biography includes ‘The Blues Brothers,’ ‘Con Air,’ ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ ‘Masada,’ and other major projects.

Author: Pavel Shveiko

On October 18, 2026, he will be in Tel Aviv.

But the meeting itself is interesting not so much for the opportunity to hear more stories about Hollywood. Here, everything turned out to be noticeably more complex. Liras’s Hollywood career intersects with Israel, the memory of the Holocaust, and a new documentary project about Ukrainian women.

The meeting is organized by Israeli Friends of Ukraine. It will be held at the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv.

When Hollywood couldn’t be ‘painted over later’

Dean Liras’s career began in a completely different cinematic era.

Today, a complex scene can be shot with digital cameras, drones, stabilizers, and then assembled and corrected in post-production for a long time. During Liras’s early career, a significant part of what the viewer saw really needed to be physically set in front of the camera.

If a car was needed, it drove.

If a plane was needed, it flew.

If the camera needed to work in the air, it was lifted there.

On ‘Con Air,’ released in 1997, Liras worked as director of photography: aerial unit, meaning he was responsible for the cinematography of the aerial shots.

This is precisely the case when a dry line in the credits explains a lot. In the film with Nicolas Cage, John Cusack, and John Malkovich, aviation is not just a backdrop. It is part of the action.

His filmography also includes ‘Dumb and Dumber,’ early Hollywood films, and work in the second filming unit—the very one that often shoots chases, wide shots, complex stunts, and material without which the main unit would have to spend much more time on set.

And here comes Israel.

‘Masada’ is a name that hardly needs explaining to an Israeli

Liras also participated in the work on the American miniseries Masada, released in the early 1980s.

For a reader in Israel, this name sounds very different than it does to someone somewhere in Europe or the USA. Masada is an ancient fortress by the Dead Sea, associated with the last stage of the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome.

It is one of the most recognizable historical sites in Israel. Schoolchildren and tourists are taken there, historians argue about it, and the image of Masada has been an important part of Israeli historical memory for decades.

The American series told the story of the Roman siege of the fortress. One of the main roles was played by Peter O’Toole.

Therefore, the conversation on October 18 about filming Western projects in Israel is not just a general topic for the evening. Liras really worked within such a production.

And it is interesting here to hear the details: how Israel was seen by the foreign film crew at that time, how the country looked through the Hollywood camera, and how much all this differed from the familiar picture today.

He witnessed several Hollywoods

The organizers formulate one of the themes of the meeting as a conversation about Hollywood then and now.

In the case of Liras, this is not an advertising phrase.

He witnessed several technically different eras of cinema. Film and digital. Large physical sets and computer graphics. Filming where a mistake was sometimes impossible to correct, and modern production where a huge part of the work continues after the set.

At the same time, his career did not end with memories of old films.

Now he participates in independent and international projects. And it is at this point that the meeting in Tel Aviv ceases to be just an evening of Hollywood nostalgia.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency draws attention to this event primarily because one of Liras’s new works is directly related to Ukraine.

A film about a man who was silent for decades

Among Liras’s latest projects is The Optimist: The Bravest Act Is Truth.

This is a story of a completely different scale. Without planes, stunt scenes, and Hollywood chases.

The film is connected with the story of a Holocaust survivor, Herbert Heller. As a teenager, he went through Auschwitz-Birkenau and then managed to escape during the death march.

After the war, he spoke little about what he had experienced.

For decades.

And only much later did this story begin to come out.

Here, an Israeli reader seemingly does not need a separate explanation, but the context is important. In Israel, the testimonies of Holocaust survivors are not just a history studied from books. For many families, it remains part of their own biography. And with each passing year, there are fewer people who can tell about their experiences firsthand.

From here arises a theme that is much broader than a single film.

What happens to memory when there are almost no witnesses left?

Can cinema preserve not only facts but also the human voice?

And where is the line between genuine testimony and artistic reconstruction?

For Liras’s project, this is a completely different type of work than what his name was previously associated with.

And then — Ukraine

During the meeting in Tel Aviv, they promise to separately discuss another documentary project by Liras.

It is dedicated to Ukrainian women.

Currently, there is little public information about it. There is no point in inventing a title that the organizers have not named or retelling a plot that no one has officially published yet.

Another important detail is known: Ukrainian artist Yana Dereza is participating in the project.

And here the dates align almost perfectly.

On October 16 and 17, just before the meeting with Liras, Dereza’s exhibition ‘Threads of Identity’ is held at the same Ukrainian Cultural Center.

For Israelis, it is worth explaining that this is not a typical exhibition of folk souvenirs.

Dereza works with motanka—a traditional Ukrainian doll made from fabric and threads, usually without a painted face. In Ukrainian culture, motanka is associated with family memory, protective symbolism, and the transmission of tradition between generations.

For Dereza, this form has become contemporary art. She combines traditional technique with personal history, war, displacement, and the question of identity.

And already the next day after the exhibition, she appears in a different capacity—as a participant in a documentary project by an American filmmaker.

This well illustrates how the Ukrainian cultural theme is gradually moving beyond the usual format of diaspora events in Israel.

It becomes part of the conversation with international cinema.

Why this Ukrainian story is of interest to Israel

In recent years, the Israeli audience has become accustomed to seeing Ukraine almost exclusively through news about the war.

Missile attacks.

Destroyed cities.

Negotiations.

Military aid.

Diplomatic conflicts.

But behind this, it is easy to lose another layer—people who continue to live, work, create art, and rebuild their lives.

Especially women.

Millions of Ukrainian women found themselves in a situation where their previous normal life disappeared literally in a few days after the Russian invasion. Some went abroad with their children. Some stayed in Ukraine. Some lost their homes, jobs, or loved ones. Some are trying to build a new life while remaining part of the war.

And if Liras’s documentary project is indeed built around these human stories, then it is much more interesting than another film that tries to explain the war only through frontline footage.

What exactly will be included in the project is still unknown.

Therefore, one of the most obvious questions for Liras on October 18 is who exactly he is filming and why he decided to tell the story of Ukraine through women.

Who will be asking the questions

The moderator of the meeting is Max Freeman, author of the Telegram channel ‘CineManiac’ — @cinemaniacmax.

This is an author’s channel about cinema for an audience in Israel.

It features reviews, news, trailers, recommendations, and materials about both international and Israeli cinema.

So the choice of moderator here is quite understandable. The meeting is planned to be structured not as an official lecture by a filmmaker to the public, but as a normal conversation between someone who knows cinema from the inside and someone who constantly writes and talks about it.

After the main part, they promise to give the opportunity to communicate with Liras without a formal interview.

October 18: What you need to know

The meeting will take place on Sunday, October 18, 2026.

Location — Ukrainian Cultural Center, Irmeiyahu Street, 22, Tel Aviv–Yafo.

Doors will open at 19:00.

After the main part of the program, approximately from 20:30 to 21:00, the organizers have planned informal communication with Dean Liras.

And here is one important point.

The meeting will be entirely in English, without translation.

So those who find it difficult to follow a long conversation in English should take this into account in advance.

The number of seats is limited, and entry is paid.

Buy tickets via the link

Organizer — Israeli Friends of Ukraine, an Israeli public organization working with Ukrainian-Israeli projects, cultural initiatives, and aid to Ukraine.

Here, Hollywood is less interesting than where the person went after it

Of course, it’s easiest to advertise this meeting with familiar names.

‘The Blues Brothers.’

‘Dumb and Dumber.’

‘Con Air.’

‘Masada.’

These films work well on the poster.

But if you remove them, a much more interesting story remains.

A person who filmed major American cinema for decades is now engaged in the story of a Holocaust survivor and simultaneously making a documentary project about Ukrainian women.

At first glance, there is no connection between these themes.

And then you realize that there is a connection after all.

In both cases, it’s about people who have experienced events much larger than themselves—and then have to somehow continue living and telling what happened to them.

This is what might make the most interesting conversation on October 18 in Tel Aviv.

25 years later, Russian media are revisiting this story, often recalling the words of then-President of Ukraine Leonid Kuchma: “Don’t make a tragedy out of this.” These words were indeed spoken. But the story of flight 1812 does not end there: after initial denials, the Ukrainian leadership acknowledged the aircraft was hit by its missile, apologized to Israel and Russia, and Ukraine later paid $15.4 million to the families of the victims. However, legal responsibility in interstate agreements was specifically excluded, and years later, a Ukrainian forensic examination challenged the conclusion that the aircraft was hit by a missile.

Author: R.Verter

On October 4, 2026, it was exactly 25 years since the Tu-154 disaster over the Black Sea. In Russian publications, it is often referred to as the story of the “Novosibirsk plane” shot down by Ukraine.

Formally, it’s clear why: the flight was headed to Novosibirsk, the airline and crew were Russian.

But from Israel, this story looks different. The plane departed from Ben Gurion, most of the passengers were Israeli citizens, and an ordinary festive flight for dozens of families ended in the deep waters of the Black Sea.

Flight 1812 began at Ben Gurion

On October 4, 2001, a Tu-154M with registration number RA-85693 of Sibir Airlines, later becoming S7, was operating flight 1812 from Ben Gurion Airport to Novosibirsk.

On board were 66 passengers and 12 crew members — a total of 78 people. No one survived.

Among the passengers were 51 Israeli citizens and 15 Russian citizens. Many Israelis were immigrants from the former USSR and were flying to Siberia to visit relatives during the Sukkot holiday.

In the morning, they arrived at Ben Gurion, went through the usual airport procedures, and set off to their families. A few hours later, contact with the plane was lost.

What the IAC established

The main technical document of the investigation was the final report of the Interstate Aviation Committee — IAC.

For the Israeli reader, let us explain: the IAC was created after the collapse of the USSR and dealt with the investigation of aviation incidents in several former Soviet republics.

According to the commission’s findings, the Tu-154 was flying along international route B-145 at an altitude of about 11,100 meters and was hit by the warhead 5B14Sh of the 5V28 missile of the S-200V complex.

The S-200 is a Soviet long-range anti-aircraft missile system. It is not a portable weapon but a full-fledged air defense system with a ground launch installation, radar tracking, and calculation.

According to the IAC version, the missile was launched by a Ukrainian air defense unit during training firing from a position in Crimea near Feodosia. The commission concluded that the radar system of the complex tracked the passenger plane until the warhead detonated.

The striking elements pierced the fuselage of the Tu-154. Depressurization occurred, local fires broke out, the plane lost control, and fell into the Black Sea.

Thus, the technical investigation did not stop at the assumption of a possible missile. The report named specific missile type, warhead, and launch area.

Exercises were held in Crimea

At the time of the disaster, large-scale air defense exercises with live firing were taking place in Crimea.

The firing was conducted in the area of the Opuk training ground. At that time, the Russian Black Sea Fleet was also in Crimea, and the infrastructure of the training ground and the organization of the exercises existed within the framework of the then-close Ukrainian-Russian military cooperation.

This context is important for understanding the organization of the firing, but it does not change the main conclusion of the IAC: the S-200 missile, according to the commission, was launched by a Ukrainian air defense unit.

What happened at sea after the fall

Ben Gurion — Black Sea — Novosibirsk.

This geography is especially important for Israel.

The search operation unfolded about 180 kilometers from the Sochi area. After the fall, the Tu-154 disintegrated, and a significant part of the plane, along with the deceased, sank to a depth of about two kilometers.

That is why rescuers physically could not simply descend to the fuselage and lift the people inside.

They primarily searched for what remained on the water’s surface or was brought there after the plane’s destruction: small debris, interior elements, clothing, open suitcases, personal belongings, bodies, and separate human remains.

The current quickly spread the finds over a large area.

The area was combed by rescue ships and helicopters. At one stage, 11 ships and more than 400 rescuers participated in the operation. A remotely operated underwater vehicle was also used to search for large fragments and flight recorders.

However, a full-fledged operation at a depth of about two kilometers to lift the main part of the liner was not possible. The flight recorders were not found either.

Therefore, of the 78 deceased, only about 15 bodies and separate human remains were found. These were mainly those deceased or their remains that did not sink with the main mass of debris after the plane’s destruction.

By October 10, 14 of the found deceased were identified.

Most passengers and crew members remained deep underwater.

Specialists and about a hundred relatives arrived from Israel

Israel almost immediately joined the operation.

An Israeli Air Force Hercules transport aircraft delivered a group of Israeli military personnel and police to Russia, who helped with the identification of the deceased and interacted with Russian services.

Following a special flight, about a hundred relatives of the passengers arrived in the Sochi area.

Of course, they did not go out to sea. They were invited to identify the found deceased, clothing, and personal belongings, and were asked to describe special features. If visual identification was insufficient, additional information from relatives and DNA samples were used.

For most, this trip ended without the opportunity to take a loved one home: among those raised from the sea, their relatives were not found.

Of the 51 deceased Israeli citizens, only the remains of seven passengers were returned to Israel. They were delivered on October 10, 2001.

For the remaining families, the bodies of their loved ones were never found.

On October 11, an official day of mourning was held in Israel. Flags were lowered on government buildings, the Knesset held a special mourning session, and funerals were held for those whose remains were returned.

Relatives also held a memorial ceremony at the Black Sea — over the place that for dozens of families effectively became the only possible grave.

Initially, Kyiv denied involvement

In the first days, the Ukrainian leadership denied the possibility that the passenger plane was hit by a Ukrainian missile.

On October 8, Leonid Kuchma said that technically such an option seemed impossible, although all versions needed to be investigated. Ukrainian military also claimed that the missiles fired during the exercises could not have reached the Tu-154.

But within a few days, the position began to change.

“Don’t make a tragedy out of this”

On October 10, Leonid Kuchma uttered a phrase that remains one of the most famous parts of this story a quarter of a century later.

“Don’t make a tragedy out of this.”

Kuchma was reflecting on a possible military error and said that disasters of even greater scale had occurred in the world.

But for the families of the 78 deceased, and especially for Israel, where they were waiting for the return of their citizens’ bodies at that moment, these words sounded extremely painful.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency in such a story, it is important not to remove inconvenient facts just because today they are used by Russian media. Kuchma’s phrase was there. The initial denials were also there.

But the chronology does not end there.

On October 13, the Minister of Defense apologized

Three days after Kuchma’s words, Ukrainian Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk publicly acknowledged the involvement of the Ukrainian military in the disaster.

“We know we are involved in this disaster.”

He offered deep apologies to the relatives and loved ones of the deceased.

On October 24, Kuchma acknowledged the aircraft’s hit and apologized to Israel

On October 24, 2001, Leonid Kuchma spoke on Ukrainian television.

He acknowledged that the passenger plane was hit by a Ukrainian missile, accepted the resignation of Defense Minister Oleksandr Kuzmuk, ordered a review of the exercise procedures, and limited missile firings.

The main point for the current discussion: Kuchma officially apologized to Russia and Israel, as well as to the families of the deceased.

This was recorded by international and Russian media directly on October 24–25, 2001. Therefore, the claim that Ukraine “never apologized” does not correspond to the chronology of events.

One can discuss the initial denial, Kuchma’s words on October 10, and how late the acknowledgment was. But official apologies did indeed follow.

Israel was paid $7.59 million

The next important stage came two years later.

On November 20, 2003, the governments of Ukraine and Israel signed a special agreement to settle claims related to the disaster.

Under it, Ukraine committed to transferring $7,590,933.34 to the Israeli side for the heirs, successors, and dependents of the deceased included in the agreement.

The document was ratified by the Verkhovna Rada. Its text and information about the ratification are available in the official database of Ukrainian legislation.

A separate agreement was concluded with Russia for $7,809,066.66.

Together, these two amounts total $15.4 million.

So to the question of whether Ukraine paid compensation to the families of the deceased, the answer is unequivocal: yes, it did.

At the same time, it was specifically about payments to relatives. The airline did not receive this money for the destroyed aircraft.

Why the payment did not mean legal recognition of responsibility

At first glance, there seems to be a contradiction: the Ukrainian leadership acknowledged the aircraft was hit by a Ukrainian missile, apologized, then the state paid millions of dollars — but simultaneously stated that it did not recognize legal responsibility.

The explanation lies in the ex gratia formulation.

For the Israeli reader: this is a legal term denoting a voluntary payment that does not in itself imply recognition of a legal obligation or responsibility.

This is how the agreements with Israel and Russia were structured.

Politically, the Ukrainian leadership acknowledged the aircraft was hit by its missile and apologized.

Financially, Ukraine paid compensation to the families.

But legally, the documents were drafted so that the fact of payment did not constitute recognition of Ukraine’s international legal responsibility.

These are different levels, and mixing them into formulas like “Ukraine acknowledged everything” or “Ukraine acknowledged nothing” is incorrect.

Why the airline S7 did not receive compensation

After settling the families’ claims, Sibir Airlines, later becoming S7, separately demanded that Ukraine compensate for the cost of the destroyed Tu-154 and related losses — more than $15.3 million.

It was in this legal process that a new line emerged.

The Kyiv Scientific Research Institute of Forensic Examinations in 2008–2010 prepared a conclusion questioning the possibility of the Tu-154 being hit by a Ukrainian S-200 missile under the described circumstances.

The defendants’ side referred to this expertise.

Ukrainian commercial courts denied the airline compensation, and in December 2012, the High Commercial Court of Ukraine upheld the previous decisions.

Representatives of the airline disputed the experts’ conclusions. They tried to involve IAC specialists and obtain additional materials, but the corresponding motions were not granted.

But here it is important not to make the opposite mistake.

The phrase “the Ukrainian court proved there was no missile” would be too strong a conclusion.

The courts considered a specific property claim by the airline and the question of whether there were sufficient grounds for recovering money.

At the same time, the final technical report of the IAC continues to contain a different conclusion: the Tu-154 was hit by the warhead of a Ukrainian S-200 missile.

Memory of flight 1812 in Israel

For Russian media, the natural point of this story remains Novosibirsk. For Israel — Ben Gurion and the families, most of whom could not even bury their loved ones.

Twenty years later, the Israeli National Film Fund supported a documentary “Flight 1812: In Search of Mom”.

Its protagonist, Ilya Zeltser, lost his mother Oksana on this flight. He was 13 years old at the time. The film essentially poses a question to Israeli society: why has a tragedy with so many of the country’s citizens gradually almost disappeared from public memory.

A memorial place for the victims of flight 1812 has been created in the Ben Shemen Forest.

That is why the term ‘Novosibirsk tragedy’ is too narrow. Novosibirsk was the final destination of the route. But the plane took off from Israel, and for dozens of families, this story began right here.

Today NAnews has to report on a completely different tragic connection between Israel and Ukraine. On September 25, 2026, in Kyiv, a Russian drone killed 14-year-old Israeli Daniel Umansky. We have thoroughly reconstructed the story of his family and the circumstances of his death, and separately compiled how Israel has reacted to Russian strikes on Ukraine since 2022.

This does not mean that the events of 2001 and 2026 can be equated. The reasons, circumstances, and responsibilities are completely different. What remains common is this: for thousands of families, the boundary between ‘Israeli’ and ‘Ukrainian’ history is much less noticeable than on the political map.

What remains after 25 years

The story of flight 1812 is difficult to honestly fit into a single political slogan.

The main technical investigation concluded that the passenger Tu-154 was accidentally hit by a Ukrainian S-200 missile during exercises. The Ukrainian leadership initially denied such a possibility. Leonid Kuchma indeed said: ‘There is no need to make a tragedy out of this.’

But then came the admission of involvement by the Ukrainian military, official apologies to Israel and Russia, and compensation to the families of the victims.

The legal framework was different: interstate agreements specifically did not recognize Ukraine’s legal responsibility. Later, in a dispute with the airline, Ukrainian forensic experts challenged the missile version, and S7 was unable to recover the cost of the aircraft.

In this dispute over wording, it is easy to lose sight of the main point.

78 people took off from Ben Gurion and did not return. Of the 51 Israeli citizens who died, only the remains of seven were brought home. Most of the victims, along with the wreckage of the plane, remained at the bottom of the Black Sea.

But amid the destruction, losses, and anxiety, there are also stories that inspire — especially for the Jewish community, both in Ukraine and in Israel.

One of the largest portals for the ultra-Orthodox audience in Israel, “בחדרי חרדים” (Behadrei Haredim), on June 20, 2025, published two stories from Kyiv that vividly reflect how Putin’s aggression affects Jewish life in Ukraine.

On one hand — the shelling and destruction of a Talmud Torah building in Kyiv.

We already reported about this on June 10, 2025 — in the photo — a burned Hanukkiah thrown by the explosion, Kyiv, Artem Business Center, Hlybochytska 4, June 10, 2025

On the other hand — the personal story of a Ukrainian soldier who, after witnessing the death of his comrades, discovered his Jewish roots and decided to undergo brit milah (circumcision).

These two events are about pain and hope, about war and faith, about sacrifice and choice. They touch on the deepest levels of how Jewish Ukraine experiences the war — and why it matters for Israel.

A soldier who became Jewish not by blood, but by choice

A young Ukrainian man, a musician and sound engineer by profession, was invited to a studio where a song for the Jewish community of Kyiv was being recorded. The project was coordinated with the participation of Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, whose work includes dozens of Jewish initiatives across the country.

During the recording, choir members noticed a kippah on the sound engineer’s head. The question came half-jokingly: “Are you Jewish by any chance?” The answer turned out to be unexpectedly serious:

“Yes, I’m Jewish. But I’m completely secular. I don’t know anything about religion. I just know I’m Jewish, so I wear a kippah.”

That initial interaction with the Jewish community did not go any further. The young man went to the front lines. But fate had already prepared a turning point that would bring him back to his true self.

Pain, explosion, and rebirth: how tragedy became a choice

A few weeks later, while on a combat mission with fellow soldiers, a Russian missile hit their position. It was one of the many shellings that Putin’s army relentlessly carries out on Ukrainian soil. Several of his comrades were killed instantly, and others were seriously wounded. He miraculously survived — with a hand injury, but alive.

This moment was life-changing. Having experienced fear, pain, and death firsthand, he realized he needed to rethink his life. While in the hospital, he told Avraham Bleich, the son of the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine:

“With God’s help, I want to begin getting closer to Judaism.”

A week later, in a modest yet moving ceremony, he underwent brit milah. It was not just a formality. He took the name Moshe — in honor of Moshe Rabbeinu, as he explained: “Moshe gave the Torah, and now I want to accept it.”

This story is not just about a religious act. It is a story of inner transformation, one that happens not in a synagogue, but against the backdrop of war, under the sound of sirens, when a person searches for meaning to hold on to.

While some choose faith, others lose their home: the Talmud Torah attack

At the same time, a Russian missile struck the Talmud Torah building in Kyiv. Before the war, it was a place of education for children from Kyiv’s Jewish community, including students from the Chabad movement and others connected to Rabbi Bleich’s educational programs. The building, a spiritual home for dozens of families, was completely destroyed.

Photos from the site show severe destruction: collapsed walls, destroyed classrooms and prayer halls. Study materials, religious books, ritual objects — all buried under rubble.

“We are witnessing not just the destruction of buildings, but of spiritual centers. The destruction in Kyiv echoes what we experience in Israel from Iranian attacks. But in these moments, we see more Jews returning to their roots, despite everything,” said Rabbi Yaakov Bleich.

A shared front: Israel, Ukraine, and spiritual resistance

The website NAnews – Israel News emphasizes that such stories must not be overlooked. Because they concern what is most essential — the preservation of Jewish identity, even in the midst of total war. When a young man undergoes circumcision, despite his injury and recent trauma, it is an act of inner resistance, an act of faith, an act of belonging to the Jewish people.

When Jewish schools are destroyed — it’s not just about walls. It’s about how Russia attacks not only Ukraine but Jewish roots, education, and the future.

These moments make the closeness between the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples all the more evident. In recent years, cooperation between the communities of both countries has intensified. And the way Ukraine protects its Jewish institutions — even during war — is an example to the world.

Conclusion: Moshe’s path and a destroyed school — two faces of one war

A soldier no one had known became a symbol of spiritual rebirth. He didn’t just survive — he returned to his roots and became Moshe.

And the destroyed Talmud Torah in Kyiv became a symbol that the enemy destroys not only buildings, but meaning itself. But Jewish life continues — even under fire.

The website NAnews – Israel News will continue to report on such stories. Because in them lies the truth about war and faith, about the line between loss and rediscovery.

The advice is too simple. VPN, ad blocker, and DNS filtering work with different parts of the internet connection. Sometimes a person needs one of these tools, sometimes two, sometimes none. And certainly neither VPN nor ad blocker negates the need to check where exactly the link from the SMS leads.

Therefore, it’s better to understand not which program promises “complete protection,” but what specific problem needs to be solved. For an Israeli user, this is especially a practical question: the same phone can work at home, in the office, in a cafe, at the airport, and already in another country within a week.

This material contains AdGuard affiliate links. If a reader purchases a product after clicking such a link, NAnovosti may receive a commission. This does not increase the price for the buyer and does not affect the editorial assessment of the product.

VPN: not “protection from everything,” but a specific tool

VPN creates a connection between the user’s device and the VPN server. The internet resource then sees the server’s IP through which the connection is made, not the user’s regular external IP.

In practice, this can be useful without any spy stories. A person works through hotel Wi-Fi, sits with a laptop at the airport, is outside Israel, or wants to use another internet exit point. VPN here performs a clear job — changes the connection route and adds an encrypted section between the device and the VPN server.

One option for such a task is AdGuard VPN. But buying it just because the word VPN is everywhere now makes no sense. First, you need to understand if this function is needed.

VPN will not fix the mistake of a person who opened a phishing site and entered a password there. It will not remove already installed malicious applications. It will not turn a dubious online store into a real one and will not check the phone number from which they call you.

These are different levels of problems.

Why ads didn’t disappear after turning on VPN

Here begins another confusion. A person buys a VPN, opens a site — and the banners are still there. It seems that the service “doesn’t work well.”

In fact, it is not obliged to solve this task at all.

For ads, pop-ups, and some tracking elements, blockers are used. In the case of AdGuard, this is a separate product — AdGuard Ad Blocker.

AdGuard uses filters — sets of rules that determine advertising, tracking, and other elements. The official documentation separately describes basic, mobile, regional filters, tracking protection, removal of tracking parameters from URLs, and other mechanisms.

So the situation “I want to change IP” and the situation “I want to remove banners” are two different tasks.

If the main complaint about the internet is that pages are filled with ads, VPN may not be the tool to start with at all.

And vice versa: an ad blocker does not become a VPN just because it also relates to privacy. It is not intended to give the user another external IP.

As in other practical materials NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, it is more useful here not to put all the words about security in one box. Otherwise, a person first buys a product, and the next day finds out that they expected a completely different function from it.

DNS: the third layer that the average user almost doesn’t think about

There is also DNS. It sounds technical, although we use it constantly.

When a person enters a website name, the device needs to determine which network address to contact. To simplify, DNS works like one of the internet’s address services.

And filtering can already be done at this level.

AdGuard DNS allows using blocklists for advertising and tracking domains, as well as lists designed to protect against phishing and fraudulent resources.

This approach has its application. Especially at home, where more than one computer has long been connected to the internet: phones, tablets, TVs, consoles, sometimes even equipment where a regular browser extension cannot be installed.

But again, DNS filtering should not be turned into a magic net that catches all the bad. It works with domains and rules. A new fraudulent resource may not yet be in the used lists, and a legitimate site may behave in such a way that too aggressive filtering breaks part of its functions.

Task map: what to use in which situation

Imagine a person who often flies from Israel, works with a laptop on the road, and connects to networks they do not manage themselves. Their first task is connection, traffic route, external IP. Here it makes sense to look at VPN.

Another person has no problems with IP. They are simply tired of banners, pop-ups, ad inserts, and some trackers. For them, it makes more sense to first deal with an ad blocker.

The third wants to set up filtering immediately for the home network and several devices. Here DNS already appears.

And there is a fourth case: a person does not need any new paid service at all. They sit at home, do not change the connection country, are not particularly bothered by ads, do not want to set up DNS. Buying three subscriptions “just in case” is unnecessary here.

Such an answer is also normal.

Israel: where VPN sometimes helps, and where it creates an extra problem

In Israel, there is its own everyday specificity. Many people have accounts and services distributed across several countries. An Israeli bank and kupat holim are next to a Ukrainian service, an old account from another country, a foreign subscription, and applications that a person uses during trips.

VPN in such a construction sometimes solves the problem with the connection location, and sometimes becomes the reason for additional verification.

If after turning on the VPN, the banking application or sensitive service starts behaving strangely, you should not immediately reinstall the phone. First, check through which country the connection is currently going. Sometimes the service simply does not like that five minutes ago the user was in Israel, and now their IP suddenly ended up in another state.

On a trip, the situation is the opposite. A public network in a hotel or airport is just the scenario where VPN has a clear practical purpose.

For a NAnovosti reader who lives in Israel but continues to use Ukrainian services or regularly travels between countries, this is not exotic. There is no one constant mode of “VPN always on” or “VPN never needed.” The network and task change — so does the setup.

NAnovosti has already analyzed the situation when users from Israel faced access problems to Russian resources and certificates. There, VPN could help with one part of the problem, but did not fix everything automatically. More details — in the material about the Russian “Cheburnet” and access problems.

We also have another material on how such restrictions are felt outside Russia: Russian “Cheburnet” continues to affect users abroad.

But with SMS from the “bank,” VPN almost doesn’t help

A separate story is phishing.

A message arrives: the package is delayed, the card is blocked, you need to urgently pay 6.90 ₪, confirm Bit, update banking details. A person opens the page, it looks like the real one, enters the card number and code.

At this moment, you can use the most expensive VPN on the market. If the fake resource was not stopped by other mechanisms and the user themselves provided the data, VPN does not solve the main problem here.

DNS filtering or protective lists can filter out some already known phishing domains. But even this mechanism is built on rules and known addresses, not on the ability to read the user’s mind.

Therefore, digital security still remains a combination: system updates, two-factor authentication, checking the site address, caution with messages, and only then additional tools.

NAnovosti also talked about schemes where Israeli residents were processed through specially organized call centers. There the problem was not at all in the absence of VPN. More details — in our material about the operation of the Ukrainian and Israeli police.

And free options?

A free VPN is not necessarily bad, a paid one does not automatically become good either. The same story with blockers.

You need to look at real limitations: is there a traffic limit, which servers are available, what happens with speed, how the service is funded, what data is collected, how many devices can be connected, and what functions are actually included in the free option.

If VPN is needed a couple of times a year, a person may well be satisfied with a free solution. If work traffic goes through it daily from several devices — the requirements are already different.

And with DNS, a similar picture. Simple DNS filtering and full device management, statistics, and custom rules are not the same.

Explanation for Israeli readers

VPN — Virtual Private Network. A secure connection is created between the device and the VPN server, and the visited sites see the VPN server’s IP.

IP address — network connection address. Among other things, an internet service can approximately determine the user’s country by it.

DNS — a system that helps the device determine the network address of a site by its name. DNS filtering allows blocking requests to certain domains.

Tracker — a site or application element used to collect information about user behavior. This can include visited pages, clicks, device parameters, and other data.

Phishing — an attempt to trick a person into voluntarily disclosing a password, banking details, confirmation code, or other information. A fake page is often specifically made to look like a familiar service’s site.

And one more detail for multilingual Israel: filtering systems have regional rules for different language segments of the internet. Therefore, working with Russian-, Ukrainian-, English-, and Hebrew-language sites may differ.

What to choose in the end

If the problem is primarily with ads, pop-ups, and tracking elements, the first candidate will be AdGuard Ad Blocker. It works specifically with filtering ads and other unwanted content; VPN is not necessary to buy for this task alone.

If the task is connecting through public networks, working on trips, changing external IP, and additional connection privacy, then it makes sense to look at AdGuard VPN. But it does not replace an ad blocker, antivirus, and the habit of checking suspicious links.

If you need to manage filtering at the DNS level and for multiple devices or a home network, a separate option is AdGuard DNS. Here the focus is not on changing IP, but on which domain requests are allowed or blocked.

You can use one product or several — depending on the task. Buying everything as a package just because the names are next to each other is not necessary.

AdGuard: all three options in one place

For those who have reached the end and want not to read about terminology, but to choose a specific tool, let’s repeat without technical fog.

AdGuard VPN — open the service should be considered by those who need a different external IP, VPN for trips, public networks, and additional connection privacy. This option is specifically about VPN, not about universal “internet protection.”

AdGuard Ad Blocker — view versions for devices is intended primarily for blocking ads, banners, pop-up elements, and some tracking mechanisms.

AdGuard DNS — open settings and rates is needed for another level: DNS filtering, blocklists, and managing requests from connected devices. This can be more convenient where a single browser extension installation does not solve the task.

NAnovosti has also requested a separate promo code from AdGuard for readers. After its approval, we will update this material and add the code along with the current discount conditions.

Links to AdGuard products in this material are affiliate links. If a reader makes a purchase after clicking one of them, NAnovosti may receive a commission. For the reader, the affiliate link does not increase the product price.

For the Israeli audience, there is a particularly important detail in this poster: the tour starts from Israel.

The first concert is scheduled for November 10, 2026 in Tel Aviv, at the Reading 3 club.

The next day, November 11, 2026, the band will perform in Haifa, at the Theatron Hatzafon hall.

Details and tickets are published on the tour page on UNOW: https://unow.com.ua/tour/boombox-eu/

Why this tour starts with special meaning

Boombox is one of the most recognizable Ukrainian musical phenomena of the last two decades.

The band was founded in 2004 and became known for its combination of rock, hip-hop, soul, and live stage energy.

But after February 2022, Boombox’s story gained another dimension.

The band’s leader, Andriy Khlyvnyuk, became one of the voices of Ukrainian resistance.

His a cappella performance of “Oh, the Red Viburnum in the Meadow” on Sophia Square in Kyiv became a symbol of Ukraine’s struggle and gained viral popularity far beyond the country’s borders.

This song was picked up by musicians, volunteers, artists, and ordinary people in different countries.

Thus, the Ukrainian melody turned into an international flash mob supporting Ukraine.

Therefore, “Dronotour ’26” is not just a concert route.

It’s a meeting with a band for whom music, stage, donations, merch, and public voice have become part of one big story — a story of help, memory, resistance, and connection with Ukraine.

Boombox concerts in Israel

Tel Aviv — November 10, 2026

The first concert of “Dronotour ’26” will take place in Tel Aviv.

Venue — Reading 3.

The UNOW page for this date lists the starting ticket price — from 249 ILS.

For Israel, this is the main start of the tour: it is from Tel Aviv that the entire Boombox route through European countries begins.

Haifa — November 11, 2026

The second Israeli concert will take place in Haifa.

Venue — Theatron Hatzafon.

The tour page lists the starting ticket price — from 219 ILS.

For northern Israel, this is a separate important date because Haifa traditionally gathers a large audience connected with Ukraine, Ukrainian culture, and the Russian-speaking scene without political slogans, but through music, memory, and personal experience.

Details and tickets are published on the tour page on UNOW: https://unow.com.ua/tour/boombox-eu/

Route of “Dronotour ’26” by cities

Bratislava — November 19, 2026

After the Israeli concerts, the tour will continue in Bratislava.

Venue — MMC.

This date opens the European part of the route after the start in Israel.

Frankfurt — November 21, 2026

The next stop is Frankfurt.

The concert will take place at Haus Sindlingen.

Germany occupies a prominent place in the tour route: several German cities are included in the Boombox poster.

Stuttgart — November 22, 2026

In Stuttgart, the band will perform at LKA Longhorn.

This date follows immediately after Frankfurt and continues the German block of the tour.

Düsseldorf — November 24, 2026

The concert in Düsseldorf is scheduled at Stahlwerk.

In the tour poster, this city is listed as one of the key stops in Germany.

Bremen — November 26, 2026

In Bremen, Boombox will perform at Aladin Music-Hall.

The route in Germany continues almost throughout the second half of November, showing the scale of the band’s audience outside Ukraine.

Dresden — November 27, 2026

The next date is Dresden.

Venue — Club Tante JU.

For Ukrainian listeners in Germany, such concerts often become not only a musical evening but also a meeting of the community, friends, and people with a shared memory of home.

Hanover — November 29, 2026

In Hanover, the concert will take place at Kulturzentrum FaUST.

This date closes another stage of the German part of the route before Hamburg.

Hamburg — November 30, 2026

The last November concert of the tour is announced in Hamburg.

Venue — Grosse Freiheit 36.

After Hamburg, “Dronotour ’26” will move to the December part of the route.

Dublin — December 2, 2026

Boombox will start December in Dublin.

Venue — Opium.

The band’s message separately emphasized that the route goes “from Israel to Germany, from England to Poland, from Ireland to Slovakia and the Czech Republic.”

Dublin just becomes the Irish point of this big tour.

London — December 3, 2026

In London, Boombox will perform at Electric Brixton.

The British date follows immediately after Dublin and is part of the December block of the tour.

Prague — December 5, 2026

In Prague, the concert will take place at SaSaZu.

The Czech Republic became one of the countries on the route where the Ukrainian audience has been particularly noticeable since 2022.

Krakow — December 7, 2026

The Polish part of the tour will start in Krakow.

Venue — Klub Studio.

The UNOW page for this date lists the starting ticket price — from 179 PLN.

Warsaw — December 9, 2026

The final date of the poster is Warsaw.

The concert will take place at Progresja.

The tour page lists the starting price — from 199 PLN.

It is Warsaw that concludes the announced route of “Dronotour ’26”.

What Boombox is bringing to this tour

The tour description states that Boombox will present the maxi-single “Zhiviy“.

The program will also include songs from various albums of the band.

Boombox formulated this very precisely: they will bring a new maxi-single on tour, enhanced by compositions under which listeners grew up, and under which their children are now growing.

This is an important detail.

Boombox has long ceased to be a band of one generation.

For some listeners, this is the music of student years and first concerts.

For others, it is the voice of wartime, a symbol of support for Ukraine, and a reminder that culture can also be a form of resistance.

The band separately addressed listeners with a request to buy tickets in advance, as well as to prepare money for donations and merch.

Therefore, the name “Dronotour” in this poster sounds not like an ordinary marketing move, but as a continuation of the line in which concerts help gather support for Ukraine.

Where to see details and buy tickets

Tickets, prices, cities, and venues are published on the UNOW tour page.

Before purchasing, it is worth carefully checking the city, date, venue, and ticket category.

For Israel, two dates are currently listed in the poster:

November 10, 2026 — Tel Aviv, Reading 3

November 11, 2026 — Haifa, Theatron Hatzafon

Details and tickets are published on the tour page on UNOW: https://unow.com.ua/tour/boombox-eu/

For NAnews readers — Israel News this is one of the main Ukrainian music posters of autumn 2026 in Israel.

Because “Dronotour ’26” starts here — from Tel Aviv and Haifa.

This is not an ordinary creative evening and not a standard meeting with an artist.

In the program, Filippenko combines literature, theater, personal memories, and a conversation about time — the very time that for many people was divided into “before” and “after” after February 24, 2022.

For the Israeli audience, this visit is important not only as a cultural event. Filippenko is an artist with a significant Soviet and Russian biography, but recent years have added another context to his name: a public anti-war stance, departure from Russia, support for Ukraine, and continued performances beyond the official Russian stage.

Where and when will Alexander Filippenko’s performances take place in Israel

The tour schedule covers four cities in Israel. All performances will start at 19:00.

Netanya

October 7, 2026, Wednesday
Hechal HaTarbut – Auditorium
4 Raziel St.

Ashdod

October 9, 2026, Friday
Matnas Duna-Yud
90 Keren Kayemet LeIsrael St.

Haifa

October 11, 2026, Sunday
Rappoport Hall
138 HaNasi Ave.

Tel Aviv

October 13, 2026, Tuesday
Tel Aviv Museum – Recanati Hall
27 Shaul HaMelech Ave.

Tickets

Tickets – are already available for purchase via the link

For Netanya, Ashdod, Haifa, and Tel Aviv, such evenings usually become not just part of the program but a meeting point for different audiences: people who remember Filippenko from cinema and theater, repatriates from Ukraine, the Ukrainian community in Israel, viewers for whom the topic of culture after the war is no longer neutral.

What is ‘Where is the Exit? Where is the Road?’

The program ‘Where is the Exit? Where is the Road?’ is structured as a monologue and personal conversation with the audience. Alexander Filippenko takes the stage not only as a performer of texts but as a person who lives these texts together with the audience.

The evening will be composed of prose, poetry, theatrical memories, and life stories. The program includes excerpts from Nikolai Gogol’s ‘Dead Souls’, Mikhail Zoshchenko’s works ‘The Steamboat’ and ‘Product Quality’, Sergey Dovlatov’s ‘The Reserve’, Boris Pasternak’s ‘Christmas Star’, as well as poems by Semyon Kirsanov, Yuri Levitansky, and Zhenya Berkovich.

The intonation itself is important here. Filippenko has long been known as an actor who can work on the edge of grotesque, irony, and tragic depth. His manner is not limited to beautiful reading of the text: he turns literary material into a living scene, where behind every word lies experience, memory, and inner freedom.

A special place in the program will be occupied by the artist’s personal stories — about filming in two versions of ‘The Master and Margarita’, working with Sergey Yursky, Alexei German, Sergey Loznitsa, and other directors. For the audience, this is a chance to hear not only famous texts but also the backstage story of an era, told by a person who was its direct participant.

Filippenko: why this evening sounds different

Alexander Filippenko was born on September 2, 1944, in Moscow. He graduated from MIPT, then the Shchukin Theater School, worked at the Taganka Theater, the Vakhtangov Theater, the Mossovet Theater. His filmography includes more than a hundred works, including ‘Visit to the Minotaur’, ‘Hard to Be a God’, ‘The Master and Margarita’, ‘Our Armored Train’, ‘Throw’, ‘Steps of the Emperor’, and other films.

At the same time, the Ukrainian trace in his biography is also noticeable.

Filippenko acted in films and TV projects related to Ukrainian cinema and Ukrainian studios: ‘Bumbarash’, ‘Born by the Revolution’, ‘The Last Resort of Kings’, ‘The Black Arrow’, ‘The Bridge Through Life’, ‘The Pit’, ‘A Woman for All’, ‘I Am Alone’.

For many viewers, he is remembered as one of the most striking performers of ‘dark side’ roles in Soviet and post-Soviet cinema. Filippenko played characters with sharp, almost grotesque energy: Koschei the Immortal, Death, Koroviev, and Azazello in versions of ‘The Master and Margarita’. Later, the wide audience also remembered him for the role of Andrey Zabaluev in the series ‘Poor Nastya’.

But today, Filippenko’s biography is read not only through the list of roles.

Back in March 2014, after the Russian intervention in Ukraine and the occupation of Crimea, he, along with a number of well-known Russian figures in science and culture, expressed disagreement with the Russian government’s policy in Crimea. This position was outlined in an open letter.

In 2018, Filippenko also supported Ukrainian director Oleg Sentsov, who was in Russian custody.

After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the artist openly spoke out against the war. Ukrainian and emigrant media reported that his departure from Russia was related to his political position. The Mossovet Theater did not renew his contract in 2022, and concerts in Russia began to be canceled.

In his interview with DW, Alexander Filippenko stated that for him, February 24, 2022, when Russia attacked Ukraine, is one of the most shameful days in his life. He left his native country without hesitation and settled with his family in Lithuania.

The actor stated that he is ashamed of Russia and does not want to return to a country where dictatorial times have returned, against which he spoke out even during the USSR.

Moreover, Alexander performed a concert in Vilnius, where all proceeds from ticket sales were directed to help the Armed Forces of Ukraine. The actor also criticizes Russian propaganda and disinformation about the war.

A special symbol was his photograph in an embroidered shirt, published on Ukrainian Embroidery Day. In the caption, the artist recalled Kyiv, the Dovzhenko studio, chestnuts, friends, coziness, and warmth. For many, this gesture was important precisely because it came from a person whose professional life had been associated with the Russian stage for decades, but who did not hide behind it after the start of the war.

Together with his family, he lives in Vilnius (Lithuania) and is engaged in volunteer activities, participating in fundraising to help Ukrainians.

After moving to Europe, the artist did not stand aside and actively helps to raise funds for Ukrainians affected by the war.

The artist speaks sharply about dictatorial regimes and has repeatedly stated that he does not intend to return to Russia.

In a number of publications, it was also reported that Filippenko performed literary concerts in Europe, and the proceeds from certain events were directed to help Ukraine and the Armed Forces of Ukraine. In addition, the actor criticized Russian propaganda and disinformation about the war.

For NAnovosti — Israel News – Nikk.Agency, Alexander Filippenko’s visit to Israel looks not only as a point on the cultural program. This event is at the intersection of theater, memory, war, and personal choice. In Israel, where a large Ukrainian community lives and many people are connected with the culture of the former USSR, this context is especially acute.

The name of the program ‘Where is the Exit? Where is the Road?’ in this sense sounds almost biographical. It is a question not only literary but also human. Where is the exit for an artist when the familiar country becomes a source of war? Where is the road if the old stage closes and silence becomes a form of consent?

Filippenko answers this not with a slogan, but with a stage. Literature. Voice. Memory.

That is why the Israeli performances in October 2026 may become more than just a tour of a famous actor. For some viewers, it will be a meeting with a master of theater and cinema. For others, an evening about the price of personal position. For others, an opportunity to hear how classical literature suddenly begins to speak about today without direct political declarations.

‘Where is the Exit? Where is the Road?’ — a question that each viewer may hear in their own way. But in Alexander Filippenko’s story, it has already received a specific continuation: not to be silent, not to return to a convenient role, and to go where the word can still sound free.

Tickets are already available

The tour schedule covers four cities in Israel. All performances will start at 19:00.

Netanya

October 7, 2026, Wednesday
Hechal HaTarbut – Auditorium
4 Raziel St.

Ashdod

October 9, 2026, Friday
Matnas Duna-Yud
90 Keren Kayemet LeIsrael St.

Haifa

October 11, 2026, Sunday
Rappoport Hall
138 HaNasi Ave.

Tel Aviv

October 13, 2026, Tuesday
Tel Aviv Museum – Recanati Hall
27 Shaul HaMelech Ave.

Tickets

Tickets – are already available for purchase via the link

As promised, we continue our discussion of a Jew from Ukraine – Ze'ev Jabotinsky. #jewsukraine

📝 The biography of Vladimir Zeev is really full of interesting facts, so today we are publishing the second of two posts about him. — First see – Jews from Ukraine: Vladimir Zeev Jabotinsky.

👦🏻 Childhood and youth: Vladimir Jabotinsky was born into a Jewish family in Odessa. Thanks to his literary abilities and knowledge of languages, already at the age of 18 he became a foreign correspondent for the newspapers “Odessky Listok” and “Odesskiye Novosti”, working first in Bern (Switzerland 🇨🇭) and then in Rome (Italy 🇮🇹).

📚 Literary heritage: In addition to his political activities, Jabotinsky was a famous writer, translator and publicist. He created novels, autobiographical works, translated the poetry of Edgar Allan Poe into Hebrew, edited the weekly magazine “Svitanok”, and also wrote an autobiographical novel “Five”, describing the life of a Jewish family in Odessa.

💡 Interesting fact: Jabotinsky refuted Russian fakes about Ukrainian anti-Semitism a hundred years ago. For example, about Simon Petliura he said:
“I grew up with them, together with them I fought against anti-Semites and Russifiers – Jewish and Ukrainian. Neither I nor other thinking Zionists can be convinced that such people can be considered anti-Semitic.”

📌 Memory: 55 streets in Israel are named after Vladimir Ze'ev Jabotinsky. Residents and visitors of the central part of the country are well aware of one of them – Jabotinsky Street, which is an important transport route connecting Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, Bnei Brak and Petah Tikva.

🇮🇱 In Israel there is also the Jabotinsky Institute, the Jabotinsky Prize for achievements in literature, as well as Jabotinsky Day, celebrated annually on Tammuz 29 according to the Jewish calendar.

🇺🇦 Since 2022, Zhabotinsky Street has appeared in Kyiv, not far from the Nivki metro station. A mural dedicated to Jabotinsky was also created in Odessa.

Photo materials:

1. Portrait of Jabotinsky
2. Jabotinsky Street in Israel
3. Mural in Odessa
4. Street in Kyiv

This article was prepared specifically for the site NAnewswhere you will find even more interesting stories about prominent Jews of Ukraine, such as Vladimir Jabotinsky.

Veda section @davidkrutonog — Jew from Ukraine and founder of a marketing agency tlv.agency

Leave a comment in Telegram channel NAnews ↓ — Israel News

This was reported on August 7, 2026, by the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine. Its message is the original source of this publication.

The news could have ended with one line: they found an old Jewish tombstone and returned it to where it belongs.

But in Lviv, one found matzevah is almost never the story of just one stone.

Under roads, in courtyards, retaining walls, and other city structures, tombstones from destroyed Jewish cemeteries still remain. Sometimes names can still be read on them. Sometimes dates. Sometimes the place of birth, the name of the father or husband.

And then from under the asphalt, they return not just a stone.

They return a person.

For this material, NAnews — News of Israel compared the current message from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine with the open database Jewish Stones UA, materials from the Lviv Volunteer Center, and documented previous operations to return Lviv’s matzevot. The author of the material, Alexander Khmelnitsky, is responsible for the editorial conclusions. However, the publication is not an epigraphic or archaeological examination of the specific found slab: NAnews did not decipher its inscription independently and does not establish its origin without documentary confirmation.

What is known about the matzevah found now — and what we do not yet know

According to the message from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, the tombstone was discovered in Lviv, after which it was transported to the territory of the Jewish cemetery.

Residents of the city helped in this work. The Lviv Volunteer Center thanked Julian Lahun and Andriy Lahun.

At the time of the editorial check on August 7, 2026, in the original message available to NAnews, the exact location of the find, the name of the person on the tombstone, the date of death, and the original place of installation of this matzevah are not named.

This is fundamentally important.

We will not write that this particular slab was removed from the cemetery by the German occupiers. Nor will we claim that it was used as building material by the Soviet authorities.

Both practices in Lviv are documented. But the history of a specific matzevah must be confirmed separately.

If a readable epitaph has been preserved, the next question is much more interesting than the mere fact of the find: whose grave is this?

Why Jewish tombstones ended up under Lviv

Before World War II, there were four large Jewish cemeteries within Lviv and its then suburbs.

The oldest was located west of the historical center. The first documentary mention dates back to 1414, although the cemetery may have existed even earlier. By the official closure in 1855, there were, according to researchers, 25–30 thousand graves on an area of about three hectares.

During the German occupation, the cemetery was systematically destroyed, and the tombstones were used as building material.

A particularly terrible testimony remained in the report of the head of the SS and police of the Galicia district, Friedrich Katzmann, in 1943. The document, next to a photograph of the Lviv Jewish cemetery, reported receiving approximately 2000 cubic meters of building material from the Jewish cemetery in Lemberg — as the occupation authorities called Lviv.

After the end of the war, the process did not stop.

Jewish Stones UA indicates that the Soviet authorities removed the remaining matzevot and used them for paving streets, squares, and courtyards of public buildings, as well as for constructing retaining walls. In 1947, the Krakiv Market appeared on the land of the old Jewish cemetery.

Thus, the stone on which the family paid the master for the name of the deceased and the prayer formula became road material.

This detail is important because it explains the current finds: most of the matzevot removed then did not disappear anywhere.

They remained within the city.

New cemetery: the likely source of many found matzevot

After the closure of the old cemetery in 1855, a new Jewish cemetery was opened at the western end of the current Zolota Street, next to Yanivsky.

It was also heavily destroyed during the years of German occupation. Thousands of tombstones were toppled, removed, and reused.

Researchers of Jewish Stones UA believe that many matzevot found under Lviv streets and inside walls in recent years were likely removed from here. This is indicated, in particular, by the dates on the found slabs — often the first decades of the 20th century.

But here again, the boundary of proof is important: this is a conclusion regarding the array of finds, not the established biography of that specific matzevah reported by the Federation now.

“The whole street is made of matzevot”

The scale of the problem became especially noticeable in the summer of 2018 on Hanna Barvinok Street.

During roadworks, Jewish tombstones were discovered under the asphalt.

Residents of the area knew about them before: during previous utility works, individual slabs had already appeared from the ground. When the road surface was opened again, the information reached the Lviv Volunteer Center.

The head of the center, Sasha Nazar, then described what he saw very simply:

“The whole street is made of matzevot.”

At first, the stones were removed manually. Shovels, crowbars, lifting straps, and jackhammers were used. Some tombstones weighed more than 300 kilograms. Then, thanks to collected donations, it was possible to attract heavy road equipment and a truck.

During the operation, volunteers extracted 125 whole tombstones and large fragments and transported them to the new Jewish cemetery in Lviv.

Initial media reports featured smaller preliminary estimates — about a hundred slabs. This is not a contradiction: the count continued as the stones were extracted, and the final documented result of the project was 125 tombstones and large fragments.

And this is a good example of why NAnews distinguishes between operational figures and the final result of the work.

The stone from under the road became the grave of Chaim Salomon Davidman again

Here appears the human layer, without which the history of matzevot turns into mere statistics.

In the Jewish Stones UA database, there is a tombstone with the number LVN010.

Once it lay under the asphalt of Barvinok Street.

The slab preserved a Polish inscription:

CHAIM SALOMON DAWIDMAN.

From it, researchers established that Chaim Salomon Davidman was born in 1855 in Ozimina and died on May 15, 1936.

While the stone was under the street, it split into two parts. But both main halves were found together and returned to the Jewish cemetery.

And here the meaning of all this work changes.

One could write: one of 125 slabs was extracted from under a Lviv street.

Or one could write differently:

the grave of Chaim Salomon Davidman, a man who lived about 80 years and died in the spring of 1936, was extracted from under a Lviv street.

Before the Holocaust.

Before the destruction of the Lviv Jewish world.

Before his tombstone was turned into part of the road.

This is no longer “old building material.”

This is a name.

Another woman returned from under the asphalt: Reizel Weinreb

There are also more detailed epitaphs.

The matzevah LVN029, also raised from Barvinok Street, belonged to a woman named Frima Reizel, daughter of Shimshon Weinreb.

The preserved text also mentions her husband’s name — Yosef Grosstern. The slab also indicates that Reizel Weinreb was from Busk. The upper part of the tombstone is lost, but most of the text is preserved.

For a casual passerby, this is a stone slab.

For a descendant of the Weinreb, Grosstern family, or a person researching Jews from Busk and Lviv, this is already a genealogical document.

This is where a direct connection with Israel arises.

Why Israel is relevant

A huge number of descendants of Galician Jews today live outside Ukraine — including in Israel.

After the Holocaust, the family history of many lineages survived fragmentarily: the grandfather’s surname, the name of the town, a few photographs, a story about relatives “from Lviv” or “from Galicia.”

A found matzevah can sometimes add a specific date, father’s name, spouse’s name, place of origin, or a variant of the surname spelling to this.

And this is not a theoretical possibility.

The Jewish Stones UA project specifically creates digital records of found tombstones. The database allows for recording almost 30 characteristics of one stone, including the location of the find, photographs, condition, name, dates, and epitaph texts. Inscriptions are transcribed and translated, and volunteers from Ukraine, Israel, and the USA participate in the work. The project exists in Ukrainian and English, with the English version directly aimed at descendants of families from Western Ukraine living around the world.

Therefore, for an Israeli whose family comes from Lviv, Busk, Rohatyn, Drohobych, or other cities of former Galicia, such a database may not be just a historical site.

It is another place to check one’s surname.

NAnews — News of Israel has already thoroughly examined how Jewish matzevot of Ukraine are arranged, what the inscriptions and symbols mean, and what information they can preserve. The previous material by Alexander Khmelnitsky “Matzevot as a Code of Memory: How Forgotten Jewish Heritage of Ukraine Comes to Life” is available here: NAnews material on matzevot and Jewish cemeteries of Ukraine. The current find in Lviv effectively continues this topic already on the example of one specific returned tombstone.

About 50 fragments were found right in the wall

Barvinok Street was not an exception.

In February 2020, the Lviv Volunteer Center extracted about 50 fragments of Jewish tombstones from a retaining wall behind a residential building on the neighboring Konotopska Street.

In April and June 2021, new fragments were found near the buildings and the botanical garden of the National Forestry University on Pryrodna Street.

Jewish Stones UA writes directly: the exact location of the overwhelming majority of removed Lviv matzevot is unknown. Many are likely still under the roads and buildings of the city.

Therefore, the current single find does not seem accidental.

On the contrary, it shows that this process is far from over.

More than 350 matzevot under the courtyard of the “Prison on Lontskoho”

The most extensive of recent stories occurred in a place with its own heavy history — on the territory of the former “Prison on Lontskoho”.

In 2020, during excavations, an extensive layer of Jewish tombstones was discovered under the courtyard covering.

The extracted slabs could not be immediately transported. Access was complicated by the COVID-19 pandemic, the regime of the object, and after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine — security requirements.

Only five years later was it possible to complete the return.

In July 2025, Sasha Nazar organized the transportation of the collected matzevot to the new Jewish cemetery in Lviv. Currently, the Jewish Stones UA database documents more than 350 tombstones and fragments from this complex.

But physical transportation is only the first stage.

The stones are photographed in good lighting. Then specialists and volunteers work with the epitaphs: they transcribe the text in Hebrew, translate it into Ukrainian and English, compare dates and names, and then create a separate digital card.

Thus, a pile of stone gradually turns into a database of people.

What to do if a similar matzevah is found in Lviv

This story also has a quite practical conclusion.

Jewish Stones UA notes that new finds often begin the same way: a tombstone is noticed by an ordinary passerby or resident during repairs, earthworks, or dismantling. After that, the information is passed on to people engaged in preserving Jewish heritage; in Lviv, such operations have been carried out for many years by Sasha Nazar and the Lviv Volunteer Center.

If you see a stone slab with inscriptions in Hebrew or characteristic Jewish burial symbolism:

• photograph it and the location before moving it;
• save the exact geolocation or address;
• do not attempt to clean the old inscription with aggressive chemicals or mechanically scrape the surface;
• report the find to specialists or the Lviv Volunteer Center so that the slab can be recorded and safely returned.

And if your family comes from pre-war Lviv or other cities of Western Ukraine, it makes sense to check the surname in the Jewish Stones UA database: a matzevah once found under the road may already be digitized there.

Why is this important for modern Ukraine

There is another fundamental layer in this story.

The Nazi occupation regime used Jewish tombstones as building material in the process of destroying the Jewish community of Lviv itself. After the war, the Soviet system continued the destruction of cemeteries and the reuse of stone in urban infrastructure.

Today, the reverse process is happening.

A resident notices a slab.

Another helps to transport it.

Volunteers pull the stone out of the wall.

People photograph the epitaph.

Someone reads Hebrew.

Another translates the text.

And the name returns to the public space of Ukraine.

This does not correct what was done and does not restore the destroyed pre-war community. But the attitude towards the same stone changes fundamentally: from building material, it once again becomes a human tombstone.

And that is why gratitude to Julian Lagun and Andrey Lagun in the current message has more meaning than it seems.

They did not pass by.

Sometimes the preservation of historical memory begins precisely with this.

The current matzevah still has no name

But the specific story with which this publication began remains unfinished.

We know that a Jewish tombstone was found in Lviv.

We know that the city’s residents helped preserve it.

We know that it has already been returned to the territory of the Jewish cemetery.

But we still do not know the most important thing:

to whom it belonged.

If the inscription is preserved and can be read, the next news may sound completely different.

Not “another matzevah was found in Lviv.”

But:

in Lviv, after decades, the grave of a specific person was found and their name was returned.

Chaim Salomon Davidman has already gone through this path — from a slab under asphalt to a record in an open database.

Reizel Weinreb too.

Now somewhere in the Lviv Jewish cemetery lies another returned stone.

Perhaps, on it, the name can still be read.

And then the story only begins.

Sources and editorial transparency

The original message about the current find: Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine — Федерация еврейских общин Украины, material “У Львові знайдений єврейський надгробок повернули на єврейський цвинтар”, submitted for editorial work for this publication.

For historical and documentary context, materials from Jewish Stones UA, a joint project of the Sholem Aleichem Jewish Cultural Society of Lviv and Rohatyn Jewish Heritage; materials from the Lviv Volunteer Center; research on the restoration of matzevot from Barvinok Street A Guide to Jewish Cemetery Preservation in Western Ukraine; archival materials from Jewish Heritage Europe were used.

Information verified by the editorial team from open sources on August 7, 2026.

NAnews separately distinguishes established facts and assumptions. The origin of the currently found matzevah, its original installation place, and the name of the person on it at the time of publication are not established in the data available to the editorial team.

Author: Anton Pshedinsky

The meeting will take place on October 15, 2026, at 19:30 at the Ukrainian cuisine restaurant SHO? in Tel Aviv. The organizers deliberately limit the number of participants: the format is conceived not as a large event, but as an evening for a small company where people can truly talk to each other.

The name of the meeting is “Tales from the Suitcase”, which literally means “Tales from the Suitcase”.

And the suitcase here is not just a beautiful image.

“Almost all of us once came here with a suitcase. Some for a short time, some forever, and some, as it turned out, “for a short time” for already fifteen years,” writes the project author Anna Andrienko.

But along with things, people brought a completely different baggage: habits, mom’s phrases, grandma’s recipes, jokes, memories, and family stories.

Such a suitcase should become one of the central elements of the evening.

What will be taken out of the suitcase

The organizers do not reveal all the details of the program in advance. It is known that participants will be treated to stories, questions, small games, tasks, and unexpected finds.

According to Anna Andrienko, the idea is that some things should be taken with you after the meeting, and some — perhaps, on the contrary, symbolically left in the suitcase.

It turns out to be not quite a performance, not a lecture, and not an ordinary meeting of compatriots. Rather, a conversation about one’s own memory and what happens to a person when several homes appear in their life at once.

For the Israeli reader, it is easy to recognize a familiar plot here: the country is largely built by people who came here from different parts of the world and brought with them languages, dishes, family stories, and habits. In the case of this evening, it is primarily about the Ukrainian experience and how it gradually intertwines with the Israeli one.

Old clothes are asked to be brought with you

The evening will also have a quite material part.

Anna Andrienko wants to revive the tradition of her childhood: old things were cut into strips of fabric, and then paths were woven from them.

Therefore, guests are invited to bring an old T-shirt, shirt, or other item that is no longer worn and can be cut without regret.

From the fabric, participants will together make a path. Those who do not want to engage in weaving can make a small item for a bag, suitcase, or keys.

Old clothes thus get a second life — but at the same time become part of a shared memory.

NANovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency talk about such projects not only as Ukrainian events in Israel. Here, the process itself is more interesting: the culture that a person brought with them ceases to exist separately and gradually becomes part of their new Israeli life.

From deruny to hummus

The organizers decided to literally put this idea on the table.

The evening will start conditionally still “there”: with Ukrainian deruny with sour cream and horseradish vodka.

And then participants will gradually move “here” — to pita, hummus, and arak.

“Because we are all already a little from there and a little from here. And, probably, that’s why we are — Tuteshni,” explains Andrienko.

The Ukrainian word “tuteshni” can be roughly translated as “locals”, “those from here”. In the context of the project, it acquires another meaning: a person can remember the place they came from, but at the same time already belong to the place where they live now.

And perhaps that’s why the name “Tales from the Suitcase” is especially fitting for such an evening. The suitcase once helped to transport things across the border. Years later, it turns out that what was impossible to put inside is much more important: language, memory, the smell of homemade food, family expressions, and the sense of one’s place.

When and where

Date: October 15, 2026
Time: 19:30
Place: Ukrainian cuisine restaurant SHO?
Address: 3 Karlebach St., Tel Aviv
Registration:  https://www.facebook.com/share/p/14qddGd8dmb/

The number of places is limited.

And the main principle of the project was formulated by the organizers quite simply:

“Tuteshni. Because people need people”.

Information about the availability of demonstrations, travel geography, and payment options is provided by the company representative; current conditions should be clarified before contacting.

In a religious or Haredi family, house cleaning is rarely limited to one major campaign a year. Preparation for Shabbat is repeated every week, and throughout the year, it is joined by Rosh Hashanah, Yom Kippur, Sukkot, Simchat Torah, Hanukkah, Purim, Passover, Shavuot, and family celebrations.

The larger the family, the harder it is to leave all the work for the last day. The kitchen continues to be used, children move from room to room, festive dishes are prepared, spaces are cleared for guests, and additional sleeping places are organized. A freshly washed floor can get dirty again, and fingerprints quickly appear on glass doors, cabinets, and tables.

For the preparation of this material, Israeli blogger and author of NANews Elena Gunko, who has Ukrainian roots and media experience, spoke with a representative of the GENIUS steam cleaning system. The focus of the conversation was not on advertising promises but on practical questions: what tasks the equipment can really ease, for which surfaces hot steam is not suitable, how to safely use the system in a home with children, and what happens during a free demonstration.

You can clarify the possibility of a free GENIUS home demonstration, available cities, and current payment options on the website: https://green-cleaner.nikk.co.il/

A large house needs a different cleaning order

The usual advice “start cleaning in advance” is of little help to a family where the kitchen operates several times a day, the living room simultaneously serves as a place for rest, study, and children’s games, and the bathroom is constantly used by all family members. During the conversation, the GENIUS representative explained that it is more practical to divide the house into zones and determine in advance which tasks can be completed over several days and which inevitably have to be left for the eve of Shabbat or a holiday.

In advance, you can tidy up window and door tracks, grout lines, space under furniture, guest rooms, and hard-to-reach areas of the kitchen. It is also better to perform work in advance that requires moving tables, chairs, or other pieces of furniture.

Closer to the holiday, floors, sinks, work surfaces, the dining table, the entrance area, and rooms that the family continues to use every day usually remain.

This distribution does not make cleaning instantaneous. But it helps avoid a situation where, in the last few hours, the whole family tries to simultaneously clean the kitchen, prepare rooms, set the table, and make space for guests.

Why the kitchen takes the main load

In a home where large family meals are regularly prepared, the kitchen usually becomes the most challenging area.

Grease settles around the stove and oven, steam rises to the hood and cabinets, crumbs fall under appliances, and dirt gradually darkens in the grout lines between tiles. Cabinet handles, countertop edges, chair legs, and the sides of the refrigerator quickly get dirty.

Before the holiday, attention is most often focused on the countertop, stove, and sink. However, many contaminants remain in window tracks, under the table, around appliances, and in the joints between furniture elements.

The GENIUS representative told Elena Gunko that hot steam can ease the cleaning of some suitable hard surfaces and hard-to-reach places. It helps soften certain types of dirt and reach areas where it is inconvenient to work with a regular sponge or cloth.

At the same time, the result depends not only on the power of the equipment. The material of the surface, the nature of the contamination, the chosen nozzle, and the correct use of the system are important.

For which tasks hot steam can be used

When following the manufacturer’s recommendations, the steam system can be considered an additional tool for regular home maintenance.

This may involve grout lines, window tracks, certain tile areas, the bathroom, suitable kitchen surfaces, some glass elements, and those types of floors for which temperature and moisture exposure is allowed.

The main advantage of this approach is not in trying to clean the entire house in one day. Separate labor-intensive tasks can be distributed throughout the week: today deal with the tracks, in a few days — the bathroom grout, then — a suitable kitchen area.

As a result, preparation for Shabbat or a holiday begins not with dirt accumulated over several months, but with regular tidying up.

Which surfaces require caution

During the conversation, limitations were discussed separately. There is no universal mode suitable for absolutely all materials.

Natural wood, some types of laminate, painted coatings, adhesive joints, and delicate upholstery may be sensitive to high temperature and moisture. Damage may not appear immediately: the material can change color, deform, lose its protective coating, or start to delaminate.

Before treatment, it is necessary to check the manufacturer’s recommendations for the surface and test the impact on a small inconspicuous area. The steam jet should not be held in one spot for too long.

The fact that the system operates on water does not mean it can be used without checking on any furniture, floor, textile, or kitchen equipment.

Can household chemicals be completely abandoned

In a home with children, not only cleanliness matters but also the ability to quickly return the room to regular use. After using some strong agents, the kitchen or bathroom may need to be ventilated, and treated surfaces additionally rinsed with water.

The steam system operates on water and, when performing suitable tasks, can reduce the need for some traditional household chemicals.

However, it is not about completely abandoning cleaning agents. Some stains require special compositions, and certain surfaces cannot be safely treated with hot steam.

You can clarify the possibility of a free GENIUS home demonstration, available cities, and current payment options on the website: https://green-cleaner.nikk.co.il/

Therefore, it is wiser to evaluate each task individually. When dirt can be removed with water and steam, there is no need to automatically apply a strong-smelling agent. If the material or stain requires special treatment, the manufacturer’s recommendations should be followed.

How to safely use the system in a home with children

The system should be used by an adult. Children and pets should be kept at a safe distance from the hot steam jet, heated nozzles, and the equipment itself during operation.

During the demonstration, it is important to ask the representative to show how to prepare the device for operation, correctly install the nozzle, hold the hose, stop the steam supply, and clean the equipment after use.

It is also necessary to find out:

• how long it takes for the system to heat up and cool down;
• which surfaces are prohibited from being treated;
• how to change nozzles;
• whether water can be added during operation;
• what actions can damage the equipment;
• where special caution should be exercised.

Safety should be more important than cleaning speed.

How preparation changes before Jewish holidays

Each holiday has its own household tasks. Therefore, there is no single cleaning plan for the entire year.

Rosh Hashanah

Before Rosh Hashanah, the main focus is on the kitchen, festive table, chairs, living room, bathrooms, and rooms where relatives will stay overnight.

If guests are expected, it is advisable to complete deep kitchen cleaning before the active preparation of festive dishes begins. Bedding and additional sleeping places should also be prepared in advance.

Yom Kippur

Many families strive to complete major household tasks before the start of the fast. Almost immediately after Yom Kippur, preparation for Sukkot begins, so it is better not to postpone complex tasks to the short interval between holidays.

Sukkot and Simchat Torah

In addition to regular house cleaning, the balcony, yard, entrance area, sukkah installation site, and passages that guests will use are added.

After the holiday, it is necessary to clean leaves, dust, crumbs, and traces from moving tables and chairs.

Hanukkah

During Hanukkah, additional load falls on the stove, kitchen backsplash, table, and floor. Oil, frying, donuts, candles, and children’s activities can leave greasy, sticky, or waxy traces.

Wax should be removed in a way suitable for the specific material. Hot steam should not be automatically directed at it without checking the permissible method of surface treatment.

Purim

Mishloach manot, drinks, sweets, packaging, and the festive meal increase the load on the kitchen and living room.

Sticky stains are better removed immediately before they dry on the table, chairs, or floor.

Shavuot

Before Shavuot, the load on the kitchen, oven, refrigerator, and dining area increases again. It is more convenient to combine baking and dairy dish preparation with phased cleaning, not leaving all the work for the last hours.

Can steam replace koshering before Passover

Elena Gunko discussed this question separately with the representative, as before Passover, regular physical house cleaning intersects with the requirements of family religious practice.

During preparation, cabinets, drawers, the refrigerator, tracks, space between chairs, areas under appliances, and other places where crumbs might have remained are checked.

The steam system can help with the physical cleaning of suitable surfaces. However, using hot steam by itself is not halachic koshering of the kitchen, dishes, or equipment.

Questions of hagalah, libun, separation of meat and dairy, and family traditions should be discussed with a rabbi.

The physical cleanliness of a surface and its halachic status are not the same. The steam system can be a tool for cleaning but does not replace religious rules for preparing the kitchen and dishes for Passover.

Not only holidays: guests and family events

Large families prepare the home not only for dates in the Jewish calendar. Additional cleaning is required before a brit milah, bar mitzvah, engagement, Shabbat Chatan, family meal, or the arrival of relatives.

In such cases, priority is given to areas that guests will use: the entrance area, living room, dining room, kitchen, bathrooms, and prepared sleeping places.

The complex and less noticeable part of the work can be done in advance. On the day of the meeting, floor washing, table setting, and final arrangement of things remain.

How the free GENIUS home demonstration works

One of Elena Gunko’s main questions was how a family can evaluate the system before deciding to purchase.

The GENIUS offer is structured so that a person does not have to rely solely on photos, advertisements, or videos. First, a representative’s visit is agreed upon, who comes home and shows the equipment’s work on real surfaces.

The family can pre-select one or two areas that really create difficulties during regular cleaning. For example, grout lines, window tracks, tiles, glass surfaces, part of the kitchen, or a suitable floor area.

During the meeting, the representative shows the nozzles, explains the operation procedure, maintenance, limitations, and safety requirements. They can be asked questions about specific materials and check how well the equipment meets the conditions of this particular home.

According to the provided information, the demonstration is conducted for free and does not create an obligation to purchase the system. The decision is made after the family has seen the equipment in action.

Detailed information about the home demonstration is available on the website:

https://green-cleaner.nikk.co.il/

When cost and payment options are discussed

The cost and payment methods are discussed after the demonstration if the family decides that the equipment suits them.

The representative informs about the current payment options. This may include the possibility of spreading the amount over several payments.

The number of payments, payment methods, and other commercial conditions should be clarified directly before ordering, as offers may change.

This sequence allows first to see the result on one’s own surfaces, ask questions, assess the convenience of use, and only then proceed to discuss the purchase.

In which cities can the possibility of a demonstration be clarified

According to the information provided by the GENIUS representative at the time of preparing the material, the possibility of a home demonstration can be clarified in several cities in the north and center of Israel.

In the north, this includes Haifa, Kiryat, Akko, Nahariya, Karmiel, Safed, Tiberias, Afula, Nof HaGalil, Nazareth, Nesher, Tirat Carmel, Yokneam Illit, Migdal HaEmek, and Katzrin.

In the central region, the possibility of a demonstration can be clarified in Tel Aviv, Petah Tikva, Bnei Brak, Ra’anana, Hod HaSharon, Givat Shmuel, Ramla, Lod, Modi’in, and Rishon LeZion.

Representatives can also work in certain areas with a large number of religious and Haredi families. In Haifa, this includes Hadar, Ramat Vizhnitz, and Meonot Geula. In Bnei Brak — Ramat Elchanan, Zichron Meir, Kiryat Herzog, Pardes Katz, and Kiryat Vizhnitz.

The availability of visits depends on the specific address and the specialist’s schedule. Before scheduling a meeting, it is necessary to confirm whether the home is within the current service area. The list of cities and areas is provided in the material.

What questions to ask during the demonstration

The home demonstration is useful not only for the opportunity to see the result. It allows getting answers to practical questions.

It is advisable to find out in advance:

• which surfaces are allowed to be treated;
• which materials are sensitive to temperature and moisture;
• how long it takes to prepare the system;
• which nozzles are included in the kit;
• how to clean and maintain the equipment;
• how to use it safely in a house with children;
• what are the existing limitations;
• what is the current cost;
• is installment payment available;
• does the specific address fall within the service area.

It’s better to choose in advance a section that is really difficult to clean in the usual way. Then the demonstration will show not abstract possibilities of the system, but its operation in the conditions of a specific house.

Not a miracle remedy, but an additional home tool

The steam system does not cancel regular cleaning, is not suitable for all materials, and does not turn a large house into a constantly sterile environment.

Its possible advantage lies elsewhere: individual labor-intensive tasks can be distributed throughout the week. One day to clean the guides, another day the tile joints, then tackle the appropriate section of the kitchen or bathroom.

It is reasonable to make a final decision only after testing the equipment on real surfaces and getting answers to questions about safety, limitations, maintenance, and payment.

You can find out about the possibility of a free GENIUS home demonstration, available cities, and current payment options on the website: https://green-cleaner.nikk.co.il/

The decision to purchase is made after the demonstration. The possibility of installment payments and other commercial terms must be confirmed directly before processing.

Author: Anton Pshedinsky

The Israeli team of the international running community #RunForUkraine invites everyone to a charity run, which will take place on Saturday, October 3, 2026, at the Tel Aviv Port. Gathering is scheduled for 07:45, start — at 08:00. Participants will cover five kilometers, and the main result will not be the finish time, but the assistance to Ukrainian military medics.

From the organizers – https://t.me/runforukrainetelaviv/12232

The event is part of the international charity challenge “TIME OF LIFE. UNBREAKABLE” organized by the Ukrainian Safe Charity fund.

The central event of the campaign will take place in Kyiv on October 4. Tel Aviv joins a day earlier.

The organizers’ invitation includes a phrase that quite accurately explains the meaning of the whole endeavor: the war cannot be ended tomorrow, but life, movement, and support for your military can be maintained every day.

For residents of Israel, this is an opportunity to participate in an international initiative to support Ukraine. Without ceremonial speeches, a long official program, and the need to be a professional athlete. Just come to the sea in the morning.

Five kilometers in Tel Aviv: where participants meet

The starting point was chosen as Tel Aviv Port — known to Israelis as Namal Tel Aviv. It is a popular promenade area on the Mediterranean Sea, with wooden decks, restaurants, and open spaces.

Landmark for participants — the large sign I ❤️ TLV.

The organizers announced the following conditions:

• Date: Saturday, October 3, 2026.

• Gathering of participants: 07:45.

• Start of the run: 08:00.

• Distance: 5 kilometers.

• Declared average pace: 6 minutes per kilometer.

• Estimated time to complete the distance at this pace: 30 minutes.

• Clothing: comfortable sportswear and shoes. Ukrainian flags, yellow-blue symbols are welcome.

Six minutes per kilometer is just a guideline for the group. Everyone can choose their own comfortable speed, so the lack of habit of regular runs should not stop those who wish to join.

The exact route scheme has not yet been published. Also, the organizers did not specify a mandatory minimum donation amount specifically for the Israeli run.

However, the meeting place is extremely specific. You won’t have to search for the group among dozens of kilometers of the city promenade.

What they run for: 800,000 hryvnias for the 66th military hospital

Behind the sports part is a very specific medical task.

The SAFE fund announced the collection of 800,000 hryvnias for the equipment of the operating room and the needs of military medics of the 66th military mobile hospital of Ukraine, working in the Pokrovsk direction.

For the Israeli reader, let us explain: Pokrovsk is a city in the Donetsk region of Ukraine, around which the Russian army is conducting military operations. The Pokrovsk direction is the name of a section of the front, not the designation of one specific settlement.

The 66th hospital is not an ordinary city hospital. It is a military medical institution providing assistance to wounded servicemen. Its task is to receive the injured, perform operations, stabilize patients’ conditions, and ensure further treatment or evacuation.

The history of the hospital is directly connected with Pokrovsk since 2015. Medics worked with the wounded during the battles in Donbas, including after the events near Debaltseve and in the Donetsk airport area.

In January 2025, the hospital’s surgical units were evacuated from Pokrovsk due to the threat of Russian strikes. Therefore, the current collection is related to the medics of the Pokrovsk direction, not with the assertion that the operating room is still located in the city itself.

Operating equipment for such an institution is not a matter of comfort or planned renewal of medical inventory. The equipment determines the doctors’ ability to perform surgical interventions and provide assistance to the severely wounded.

That is why the organizers decided to combine the international sports initiative with a specific medical collection.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency previously reported on another direction of Ukrainian-Israeli medical cooperation: how Ukrainian patients and doctors arrived in Israel as part of the UNBROKEN project to receive assistance and gain experience from local specialists.

The current campaign works in the opposite direction. People living in Israel are raising funds for Ukrainian military medicine.

Who is behind #RunForUkraine and why the project appeared during the war

The Israeli part of the initiative is conducted by the international running community #RunForUkraine.

Its founder is marathon runner Olga Amelina, who also leads the Israeli direction of the project.

The community appeared in the spring of 2022, shortly after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine.

The first large-scale action was the participation of runners and supporters of Ukraine in the Toronto marathon in May 2022. Hundreds of people took to the distances in special yellow T-shirts #RunForUkraine.

Then there were marathons in Ottawa, Chicago, Tel Aviv, charity events in Canada and other countries. The project also organized a collection of funds for winter shoes for Ukrainian servicemen.

Now the community has participants and teams in Israel, Poland, the UK, and other countries. Tel Aviv is one of the active platforms of the project.

Here, the model itself is important. There is no need to organize an expensive concert or gather a huge audience in one hall. People go out for a regular workout, invite friends, make a donation, and turn an ordinary sports event into an international initiative.

A similar practice is developing in other public initiatives in Israel. For example, on October 17 in Jaffa, the “Ukrainian Gratitude Meeting” — a meeting of Ukrainians and Israelis, part of the funds from which will be directed to help the signalmen of the 47th brigade of the Armed Forces of Ukraine is planned.

Different formats, different organizers. But behind them is one very practical thing: helping Ukraine does not stop after the next public action ends.

Kyiv, October 4: international challenge and memory of the fallen commander of “Azov”

The day after the Tel Aviv run, on October 4, the central program “Time of Life. Unbreakable” will take place in Kyiv. The start is scheduled for 10:00.

Participants are promised a joint workout, international online connections, and a special sports complex “Bilotur”.

The ambassador of the event is announced as Viktoria Onopriyenko — Ukrainian gymnast, European champion, Olympic Games finalist in Tokyo. The host will be Daniel Salem. The organizer is the SAFE charity fund, the co-organizer and general partner is the Agency of Mass Sports of Ukraine.

The name of the sports complex is also not chosen by chance.

“Bilotur” is the call sign of Ukrainian officer Dmytro Bukaryov, deputy commander of the “Azov” regiment, who participated in the defense of Mariupol and “Azovstal”.

After the defenders of Mariupol were taken prisoner, Bukaryov ended up in a Russian colony in Olenivka, where he died on the night of July 29, 2022.

The complex is named in memory of him and other fallen defenders of Ukraine.

Thus, the international initiative has two tasks at once. The first is to raise money for those who save the wounded today. The second is to preserve the memory of people who can no longer return home.

For participants in Tel Aviv, this does not mean the need to perform the Kyiv sports program. The Israeli team organizes its own five-kilometer run as part of the overall campaign.

What the SAFE fund represents

Safe Charity is a Ukrainian charitable fund working with humanitarian, educational, cultural, and medical projects.

One of its activities is helping people affected by the war, psychological support, organizing medical collections, and charity events.

In July 2025, the fund held a charity evening in Kyiv, where, according to its own data, it raised almost two million hryvnias for special unit servicemen and medics.

The current challenge continues this work but uses a different tool — mass sports.

People from different cities and countries can participate in it, even if they have never met each other.

How to register and make a donation from Israel

Registration of participants in the international challenge and collection of donations are organized through a special page of the Ukrainian Agency of Mass Sports.

Official registration and donations:

https://sportforall.gov.ua/chas-zhyttia-nestrymni/

Additional page of the SAFE charity fund:

https://safecharity.org.ua/chas-zhittya-nestrimni

The fund’s and organizers’ page contains information about the event. People who do not physically participate in the run can also support the collection.

In Israel, organizational issues are handled by the #RunForUkraine team.

Email for contact: runforukraineil@gmail.com.

Project website: https://runforukraine.org.ua/

The final list of equipment and the exact cost of individual medical positions are not provided in the published announcement. The announced amount is the overall goal of the charity collection, not a report on already received funds.

Tel Aviv, Ukraine, and five kilometers, behind which there is much more

For some Israelis, Pokrovsk is just the name of a Ukrainian city that regularly appears in military reports. For people whose relatives are in Ukraine, this is a completely different story.

Some have relatives serving in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Some have been helping civilians and military personnel since 2022. Others have long lived in Israel but continue to look for opportunities to do something useful for Ukraine.

And there are those who have never lived in this country but consider it necessary to support people affected by the Russian invasion.

The #RunForUkraine initiative allows everyone to unite without a complex organizational structure.

On Saturday morning, participants will meet by the sea, run five kilometers, make donations. And on Sunday, the international campaign will continue in Kyiv.

How many people will start in Israel is still unknown. What part of the total amount will be collected thanks to the Tel Aviv run is also unknown.

But the address of the help is already determined. These are the medics who receive the wounded and perform operations in the Pokrovsk direction.

And even if a person does not intend to put on sneakers and go the distance, they can join the collection separately.

October 3, 2026, 07:45. Tel Aviv Port, near I ❤️ TLV.

Five kilometers. One common goal. And very specific people who need help.

Kyiv collective “Bow Nashir” continues to amaze: Ukrainian students perform songs in Yiddish and Hebrew, creating a unique cultural bridge between Ukraine and Israel.

But what is behind this project? Why do students, many of whom are not Jewish, choose such an unusual musical path?

I told this story Eduard Doks, from Kyiv, specially for Vesti

The Sholom Aleichem Museum in Kyiv became a place where famous Jewish songs were heard. Students Department of Vocals, Kyiv University named after Boris Grinchenko presented a program including compositions in Yiddish and Hebrew.

One of the most memorable performances was Roman Stukalo’s performance of the famous Israeli song “Shema, Yisrael”. It was followed by Yiddish songs such as “Afn veg shteit a boym” And “Oifn prypichek brent a firel”performed by students David Zagorulko and Anastasia Troshchinskaya.

David's older sister, Dasha Zagorulko, and Anastasia Grishchenko supplemented the program with Israeli hits such as “Tzel etz tamar le oh yareah” And “Yerushalayim shel zaav”.

History of the group “Bow Nashir”

The Bow Nashir team was created in 2010 on the basis of the Beiteinu Jewish community center. Its artistic director is Svetlana Gmyrina, senior lecturer at Boris Grinchenko University of Kyiv.

Svetlana Viktorovna says:

“We select complex and beautiful compositions that require serious vocal training. This is excellent practice for students, and an opportunity for listeners to get in touch with the Jewish musical tradition.”

A special feature of the project is that most of its participants do not have Jewish roots. However, some students learn about their origins through participation in the group.

Why is this important for cultural connections?

The performance of songs in Yiddish and Hebrew in Ukraine symbolizes not only the preservation of Jewish culture, but also the strengthening of ties between Ukraine and Israel.

According to research, before the Holocaust, about 3 million Yiddish speakers lived in Ukraine. Today in Ukraine the language Yiddish is taught at the academic level at the Kiev-Mohyla Academybut its use in everyday life is extremely rare.

Table: Contribution of “Bow Nashir” to the development of culture

Reviews and prospects

Director of the Sholom Aleichem Museum Irina Klimova highly appreciates the performances of the group:

“Bow Nashir concerts are always an event. Young performers sing with such soul that you want to listen to them again and again.”

However, according to Svetlana Gmyrina, the band has not yet had the opportunity to perform outside of Ukraine or record studio albums.

Jewish culture in Ukraine: revival through music

Today “Bow Nashir” is more than just a musical group. This is a symbol of how young Ukrainians, through Jewish music, find new cultural connections and restore historical memory.

As noted NAnews – Israel Newssuch projects help strengthen relations between our peoples and help to better understand each other.

Read more about similar initiatives on the website NAnews and stay tuned for news that connects hearts.

…

Read on WhatsApp — channel NAnews ↓ — Israel News

Read on Telegram – channel NAnews ↓ — Israel News

When it needs to attack Ukraine, it repeatedly recalls the SS Division ‘Galicia’, the battalions ‘Nachtigall’ and ‘Roland’, Ukrainian nationalism, individual episodes of collaborationism, and wartime crimes.

But as soon as it comes to Russian formations that served the Third Reich, the tone changes dramatically.

There, they no longer speak of a ‘Russian trace.’

They speak of ‘traitors,’ ‘Vlasovites,’ ‘renegades,’ ‘anti-Soviets,’ as if these people existed outside of Russian history, outside of Russian society, and outside of Soviet reality.

In fact, on the side of Nazi Germany, there were numerous Russian, Cossack, and broader Soviet collaborationist structures: Vlasov’s ROA, Kaminsky’s RONA, Russian Corps in Serbia, Cossack units, Russian units in German service, auxiliary police, Hiwi, and eastern battalions.

But this topic requires not slogans, but precision.

Because not all Soviet collaborators were ethnic Russians.

And not all Russian collaborators can be hidden under the general phrase ‘Soviet citizens.’

Why this topic is important today

Talking about Russian formations in the service of the Third Reich is not an attempt to absolve other nations of responsibility.

Ukrainian, Belarusian, Baltic, Caucasian, and other collaborationism existed.

This is part of the tragic and complex history of World War II.

But Russian collaborationism also existed.

Moreover, it was not a marginal legend, but a significant historical phenomenon: from the Vlasov movement to the Lokot Autonomy, from White émigré units in the Balkans to Cossack formations, from individual Russian units to the broad mass of Soviet prisoners of war and defectors who found themselves in the German system.

Historian Mark Edele in his book Stalin’s Defectors: How Red Army Soldiers became Hitler’s Collaborators, 1941–1945 emphasizes that among Soviet prisoners of war, the proportion of defectors was unusually high compared to other Allied armies, but simultaneously warns: the desire to survive, dissatisfaction with the Stalinist regime, and the willingness to actually fight for Hitler are different things.

This is what is important for honest memory.

History does not become true if inconvenient Russian pages are cut out of it.

Vlasov’s ROA: the main symbol of Russian collaborationism

The most famous Russian formation in the service of the Third Reich is the Russian Liberation Army (ROA), associated with the name of General Andrey Vlasov.

Vlasov was born in 1901, was a Soviet general, participated in the Battle of Moscow and the defense of Leningrad, was captured by the Germans, and then switched to the side of the Third Reich. The Institute for European, Russian, and Eurasian Studies at George Washington University describes Vlasov as a Soviet general who, after being captured, created the Russian Liberation Committee with the support of Nazi propaganda, and then the associated Russian Liberation Army. It is also emphasized that at an early stage, it was a structure of several hundred officers and several thousand soldiers who switched from the USSR to the German side.

This is an important detail.

In mass memory, the ROA is often presented as an immediately huge army.

In reality, the Vlasov movement developed gradually, and real large formations appeared very late — already in the final phase of the war.

At the end of 1944, the Committee for the Liberation of the Peoples of Russia (KONR) was created. It was a political umbrella under which various anti-Soviet forces were attempted to be gathered.

Therefore, the ROA, KONR, 600th Division, 650th Division, aviation units, and other related units cannot be considered as completely independent masses of people.

Here, a double count easily arises.

In a broad late count, the number of structures associated with the ROA / Armed Forces of KONR is often estimated at about 120–130 thousand people. But this figure requires clarification: it does not refer to the early ROA as a real combat army, but to the later and broader Vlasov framework.

The fate of Vlasov himself is known.

He was arrested by Soviet troops in Czechoslovakia, convicted of treason, and executed by Soviet authorities in 1946. In 2015, Russian archival institutions released three volumes of documents on the ‘Vlasov case,’ collected from the archives of Russia, Belarus, Germany, and the USA.

Kaminsky’s RONA: Lokot, punitive operations, and Warsaw

The second major example is RONA, or the Russian Liberation People’s Army of Bronislav Kaminsky.

This structure grew out of the Lokot district, which came under German control in October 1941. A collaborationist administration was created in the region, known as the Lokot Autonomy or Bryansk-Lokot Republic. After the death of Konstantin Voskoboinik in January 1942, Kaminsky became its leader.

Based on the local militia, he created an armed brigade. According to Warsaw Uprising data, its number reached about 10–15 thousand people. In the middle of 1942, about 85% of the composition were local residents, mainly Russian volunteers; the rest came from deserters of the Red Army and Soviet prisoners of war.

RONA participated in anti-partisan operations in the Oryol region in May 1943, then in Belarus in April–May 1944, and later was transferred to Poland. In July 1944, RONA was reorganized into a Waffen-SS brigade.

The darkest episode of its history is participation in the suppression of the Warsaw Uprising of 1944.

In early August 1944, about 1700 RONA fighters under the command of Major Yuri Frolov were sent to the group of SS General Heinz Reinefarth. They operated in the districts of Ochota and Wola from August 3 to 27, 1944, and then in the Kampinos Forest from August 27 to September 4, 1944. During the battles, RONA lost about 400 people — about 40% of the sent contingent.

After Warsaw, Kaminsky was arrested and executed by the Germans. In November 1944, RONA was effectively disbanded, and the remaining 3000–4000 fighters were sent to Münsingen to be included in the forming Vlasov army.

This is another example of why numbers cannot be automatically summed up.

RONA and the later 29th Waffen-SS Grenadier Division RONA are not two completely separate armies, but related stages of one structure.

Russian Corps in Serbia: White emigration against the USSR

Separately stands the Russian Corps in Serbia.

This formation was not part of the ROA in the original sense. It arose in occupied Yugoslavia and consisted primarily of Russian White émigrés who perceived Germany’s war against the USSR as a continuation of their struggle against Bolshevism.

The American military work German Antiguerrilla Operations in the Balkans (1941–1944) indicates that in 1941 in Serbia, the Russian Guard Corps was formed under the command of General Steifon. It had three regiments and about 4000 people, was included in the Wehrmacht, and consisted mainly of anti-Soviet émigrés who had served in the armies of Tsarist Russia. The Germans used the corps mainly for security, including protecting the Belgrade-Nis railway line.

Later estimates give higher numbers: up to about 11,197 people at maximum strength and about 17,090 who passed through the corps during its existence.

There is no contradiction here.

These are just different ways of counting: current strength, peak strength, and the total number of people who passed through the formation over the years of the war.

The Russian Corps shows that Russian collaborationism was not only Soviet.

It was also émigré.

Cossack formations: an important but complex category

Cossack formations occupy a special place.

There were indeed Don, Kuban, Terek, and other Cossack units in German service. But they cannot be automatically and completely recorded as ‘ethnic Russians.’

Some Cossacks considered themselves Russian.

Some perceived Cossackdom as a separate historical community.

Some were connected with the White émigré tradition, some with Soviet prisoners of war, some with anti-Soviet sentiments after the policies of dekulakization, decossackization, and repression.

American researcher Samuel Newland in his work Cossacks in the German Army, 1941–1945 provides several important numbers.

In the spring of 1944, there were about 25,000 Cossacks in the Novogrudok self-governing area.

When these groups were transferred to Northern Italy in July 1944, the composition was mixed: 9000 Cossack soldiers, 6000 senior Cossacks, 4000 civilians, 3000 children, as well as 2000 Caucasian soldiers and 2000 Caucasian civilians.

This is fundamentally important.

If you count only the fighters — one number.

If you count together with families, the train, the elderly, and children — another.

If you then separately add the XV Cossack Corps, the Don Army, the Kuban Army, and the Cossack Camp, it is easy to get an overestimation.

For the XV SS Cossack Cavalry Corps, an estimate of about 50,000 people is often given. Newland writes that the corps numbered about 50,000 people, but emphasizes: this number did not represent all Cossacks in general.

Therefore, the correct formula is this: Cossack formations were a large part of the anti-Soviet collaborationist field, but their numbers cannot be mechanically added to ‘ethnic Russians’ without explanations.

Hiwi, Schutzmannschaft, and eastern battalions: a large gray area

The most complex part of the counts is not the ROA and not the RONA, but the broad categories of German service that included former Soviet citizens.

First of all, we are talking about Hilfswillige, or Hiwi.

This is not an ethnic formation and not a separate Russian division.

Hiwi could be translators, drivers, kitchen workers, guards, camp assistants, porters, informants, auxiliary personnel with Wehrmacht or SS units.

USHMM notes that due to German losses and a shortage of personnel, the Third Reich authorities began recruiting collaborators among Soviet prisoners of war. Some cooperated for survival, others out of support for the Nazi movement, and others out of opposition to Soviet power. According to USHMM, hundreds of thousands of Soviet prisoners of war collaborated with the Germans in one form or another — often as informants, translators, or camp guards.

This also includes Schutzmannschaft — auxiliary police in the occupied territories.

Research reviews on the topic emphasize: this was a multinational category, not a ‘Russian army.’ Russians, Ukrainians, Belarusians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Tatars, Caucasians, and representatives of other groups could serve in it. Therefore, the huge numbers of auxiliary police and Hiwi cannot be automatically turned into the number of ethnic Russians.

The same applies to Ostbataillonen — eastern battalions.

They were also multinational.

Former Soviet citizens of different nationalities served in them, and only some of them were Russians.

How many Russians served the Third Reich

There is no single exact number.

And there cannot be if the methodology is not explained.

Historians and researchers count different things:

• some count only combat units;
• some add the police;
• some include all Hiwi;
• some count all who passed through formations over the years of the war;
• some take peak numbers;
• some talk about ethnic Russians;
• some — about all former Soviet citizens.

In old broad estimates, a range of 600 thousand — 1.4 million former Soviet citizens included in the German military and auxiliary system is encountered. But such estimates refer specifically to Soviet citizens and broad categories of service, not to ethnic Russians as a separate group. RAND research by Alex Alexiev is dedicated to Soviet nationalities in German military strategy and considers a very wide range of military cooperation with Germany.

There are also more cautious approaches.

Mark Edele shows that mass surrenders, defections, and cooperation cannot be explained by a single motive. Many sought to survive, many hated the Stalinist regime, but this does not mean that the majority wanted to fight for Hitler.

Ukrainian historian Andriy Bolyanovsky in a public presentation of his research spoke of more than 400 thousand Russians who fought in the armed forces of Germany, and at least half a million Russians who passed through various armed formations of the Third Reich. This is a high estimate, but it is still more cautious than the slogan of ‘more than a million ethnic Russians.’

Therefore, the most accurate formula looks like this:

we are talking about hundreds of thousands of Russians and other Soviet citizens who in various forms served the military, police, and auxiliary structures of the Third Reich.

Main structures and estimates of numbers

What is confirmed, what is disputed, what is incorrect

Why Russian propaganda is silent about this

Soviet post-war memory was built around the image of a united victorious people.

In this image, there was no place for millions of Soviet prisoners of war, complex stories of occupation, anti-Soviet sentiments, local collaborationist administrations, and even more so for Russian formations in the service of Germany.

After the collapse of the USSR, Russian state memory went even further.

It turned the victory in World War II into a political religion.

And in this religion, the Russian people can only be victors, liberators, and victims.

But not participants in collaborationism.

Therefore, Ukrainian collaborationism in Russian propaganda is always emphasized as ‘national’.

And Russian — dissolves in the words ‘traitors’ and ‘Vlasovites’.

For NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency this topic is important not as archival polemics, but as part of the modern information war. The Israeli audience understands well that the memory of World War II and the Holocaust cannot be turned into a tool of selective political revenge.

If we talk about collaborationism — it means talking about everyone.

If we remember crimes — it means remembering not only others’.

If we demand historical honesty — it means not hiding the Russian pages of World War II.

Conclusion

Russian formations in the service of the Third Reich are a historical fact.

Vlasov’s ROA, Kaminsky’s RONA, Russian Corps in Serbia, Cossack units, separate Russian structures in the German system, Hiwis, auxiliary police, and eastern battalions show: Soviet war history was much more complex than the official myth of a united victorious people.

But numbers require caution.

You cannot turn all Soviet collaborators into ethnic Russians.

You cannot add up structures that were part of each other.

You cannot consider the political committee as a separate army.

You cannot present Hiwis and Schutzmannschaft as purely Russian formations.

The most honest formula is:

on the side of the Third Reich served numerous Russian, Cossack, and other Soviet collaborationist formations; it was about hundreds of thousands of people in different service categories, but the exact number of ethnic Russians remains a matter of dispute and depends on the counting methodology.

The history of World War II does not become more honest if inconvenient facts are cut out.

And if Russian propaganda demands remembering others’ collaborationism, it will have to acknowledge its own.

Shmuel Agnon (born July 17, 1888, Buchach, Ukraine) is a famous Jewish writer whose life and work are closely connected with Ukraine. The events of his most famous novels, “The Bridal Canopy” and “A Guest for the Night,” for which he received the Nobel Prize in Literature, take place in his native Buchach and its surroundings.

In Ukrainian Buchach

To date, not many of Agnon’s works have been translated into Ukrainian, but interest in them is growing in Ukraine, which means that Ukrainian readers are in for an acquaintance with his books.

The Nobel Prize in Literature laureate of 1966 “For his profoundly original narrative art with motifs from Jewish folk tales.” He became the first laureate of one of the Nobel Prizes representing Israel. He wrote in Hebrew and Yiddish.

The influence of the Talmud on Shmuel Agnon’s work was significant. He was born as Shmuel Yosef Halevi Czaczkes in July 1887 in Buchach, now Chortkiv district of Ternopil region. His father, Shalom Mordechai Halevi Czaczkes, was a rabbi and fur trader, knowledgeable in the Torah and Talmud, and often explained them to the local Jewish community.

Shmuel’s mother, Esther Farb, and grandfather, Yehuda Farb, were also educated people. Shmuel attended a cheder and received a good home education, studying Yiddish, Hebrew, German, and Ukrainian languages, as well as the Talmud under his father’s guidance.

Starting to write early, at the age of 8, Shmuel published stories in local newspapers. At 19, he moved to Lviv and worked in a Jewish newspaper. In 1907, his first novella “Forsaken Wives” was published, which in Hebrew sounds like “Agnon,” becoming his pseudonym and official surname since 1924.

Palestine and Berlin

In the same year, Agnon went to Palestine, and then to Berlin, where he wrote, lectured, gave private Hebrew lessons, and published works in the newspaper Jude.

He was supported by patron Zalman Schocken, who provided a five-year scholarship for organizing an anthology of Jewish literature and writing new works. Agnon’s works were published in German at Schocken’s publishing house in Berlin.

Love Against All Odds

In Berlin, Shmuel Agnon found true love — Esther Marks, or “dear Esterlein,” as he called her. The girl’s father was against their marriage, but they married anyway, and the ceremony was conducted by Rabbi Yechiel Yaakov Weinberg.

They had a daughter, Emuna (“faith”), and a son, Shalom Mordechai, whom they called Hemdat (“soul’s desire”) at home.

Three Destroyed Homes

In 1924, the family moved to Jerusalem. The move was preceded by tragedy: the writer’s house in Hamburg burned down, destroying the library and manuscripts, including the novel “The Community of the Ever-Living.”

Agnon decided to return to the Promised Land. He moved to Jerusalem first, and a year later called for Esther and the children. In 1927, an earthquake occurred in Jerusalem.

“The disaster did not destroy our souls,” Agnon wrote, “only the house we lived in.”

Two years later, in 1929, the new Agnon home in Jerusalem was looted during Arab riots. “Esterlein,” he wrote to his wife, “we need to start everything anew: the house is ruined, things are stolen or broken. But… do not grieve and do not think about it.”

World Fame and the Nobel Prize

Agnon gained world fame in the late 1940s when his works began to be published in English. In 1966, Agnon became the first writer writing in Hebrew and Yiddish to receive the Nobel Prize for the novels “The Bridal Canopy” and “A Guest for the Night.”

In his speech, he noted that he draws inspiration from spiritual literature.

“Keep Quiet! Agnon is Working!”

Israel is proud of its Nobel laureate. When a construction site was opened in the Talpiot area, Mayor Teddy Kollek installed a sign saying: “Keep quiet! Agnon is working!” European critics compared him to Marcel Proust, James Joyce, and William Faulkner.

Agnon wrote in various genres but was wounded by the fact that many of his readers became victims of the Holocaust. His last novel, “Just Recently,” set in Palestine during the Second Aliyah, is dedicated to the catastrophe of European Jewry.

Memory of the Writer

Shmuel Agnon died of a heart attack on February 17, 1970, in Jerusalem at the age of 82. He was buried on the Mount of Olives, and his apartment became a memorial museum.

In his native Buchach, which he last visited in 1930, a monument was erected in his honor, a street is named after him, and a bas-relief of the writer adorns the entrance to the local “ART-Court.”

Author: Lev Varshavsky

On September 20, 2026, the fact-checking project StopFake published a verification of a photograph that was actively spread in the pro-Russian segment of social networks at that time. The image allegedly showed a Ukrainian advertisement for renting a “Hasid costume.” It was suggested that a man could wear black clothes, a hat, and payot to hide from the TCC during the mass arrival of Jewish pilgrims in Uman.

TCC — territorial recruitment and social support centers of Ukraine. For an Israeli reader, it is easiest to explain them as structures that conduct military registration and participate in mobilization procedures. It is around the actions of the TCC that a huge number of real conflicts, emotional stories, rumors, and Russian disinformation have existed for several years.

In the story with the “Hasid costume,” only one thing turned out to be true: stage clothing of this type does indeed exist.

Everything else began to fall apart upon verification.

“Dress up as a Jew”

StopFake reported that the distributed image contained signs of synthetic origin — the SynthID marking. The fact-checkers did not find the Ukrainian advertisement itself, where the costume would be offered as “camouflage from the TCC.”

However, a real similar costume was found at the Kyiv creative workshop Mi-Parti. But they offer it not to men fleeing mobilization, but for costume parties and corporate events.

So, we have a fairly simple technique: a real item is taken, a fake advertisement is created around it, and then the picture begins to live as evidence of an allegedly existing Ukrainian phenomenon. StopFake

But more interesting than the photomontage itself was the idea that the audience was offered to accept without evidence.

If a Ukrainian needs to dress up as a Hasid so that TCC representatives do not stop him, it means the Hasid is in some special position in Ukraine.

It turns out he can do what the local cannot.

And here the story stops being just a joke about mobilization.

First, they create a privilege, then they offer to envy it

StopFake notes that some publications with the “costume” were accompanied by anti-Semitic and xenophobic comments. The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation, which the fact-checkers refer to, associates such stories with the promotion of the thesis about the allegedly “privileged position” of the Hasidim compared to Ukrainians.

This is an important construction.

An anti-Semitic plot does not necessarily begin with the words “Jews are bad.” It is much more effective to show a neighbor that some group allegedly receives more than him.

Some are allowed. Others are forbidden.

Some are given money. Others are sent to fight.

Some are provided with transport. Others are caught on the street.

After this, hatred almost does not need to be explained — the audience should draw the conclusion themselves.

NAnews has already encountered exactly this sequence.

On September 11, the platform “Ukraine.ru,” owned by the state media structure MIA “Russia Today,” published a material with the headline “To the sounds of sirens and on the transport of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Hasidim are again capturing Uman”. This is not a retelling of an anonymous Telegram channel: on the page of the publication itself, the material is marked as a publication of “Ukraine.ru.”

The word “capturing” here is especially indicative.

Every year, tens of thousands of Breslov Hasidim indeed come to Ukrainian Uman for Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year. The reason has nothing to do with Ukrainian politics or territorial claims: the city is home to the grave of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, one of the most important spiritual leaders of Breslov Hasidism.

For many Israelis, Uman has long been a well-known destination for religious pilgrimage.

But there is a significant difference between the phrases “tens of thousands of pilgrims came to the city” and “Hasidim are capturing the city.”

The second already sets the relationship between “us” and “them.”

“The Armed Forces of Ukraine transport Hasidim, and the TCC takes Ukrainians”

The material “Ukraine.ru” was built not only on fabrications. This is what makes such texts significantly more convincing than a primitive fake.

Pilgrims did indeed arrive.

Due to their number, housing prices did indeed rise.

Problems with garbage, transport, and organizing a huge religious event are also quite real.

On this layer of facts, another frame was superimposed: transport with Ukrainian military symbols, talks about allegedly special logistics for pilgrims, comments about the TCC, and the image of Jews as a group to which the Ukrainian state provides special opportunities.

We have already analyzed this material in detail in the article “The Jews stole everything and fled to Israel”: how Russian propaganda spins an anti-Semitic plot around Ukraine.

There you can clearly see another feature of this construction: a real everyday conflict gradually connects with the idea of some separate and extremely influential “Jewish power.”

And a few days later, the “Hasid costume” appeared.

It turned out to be an almost perfect plot for social networks: while the allegedly privileged Jew is being transported and guarded, the Ukrainian is left to buy payot and pretend to be him to avoid ending up in the army.

Only the “evidence” itself turned out to be artificial.

Then 200 thousand hryvnias appeared

The story did not end there.

In September, short videos began to spread on social networks, formatted as ordinary street interviews. Men in Hasidic clothing told the camera that Ukraine allegedly pays 200 thousand hryvnias to pilgrims wishing to stay in the country, helps them with housing, and provides special benefits.

NAnews analyzed this wave in the material “200 thousand hryvnias to Hasidim” and “independent Uman”: why Russian propaganda needed a new Jewish conspiracy. NAnews Israel News Nikk.Agency

The Ukrainian Center for Countering Disinformation reported that there are no state programs providing such payments to foreign pilgrims for resettlement in Ukraine.

But the plot itself was already moving further.

Now the Jew is not just “allowed more.”

He is also paid by the Ukrainian state.

From money to a “Jewish state” in Uman

The next step looks almost caricatured, but the mechanics remain the same.

In new videos, men in Hasidic clothing already declared that they want to stay in Uman forever, create families there, and turn the city either into an “autonomous region” or even into a separate “independent state.”

StopFake checked one of these videos using HiveAI. The service estimated the probability of its generation by artificial intelligence at 97.7%. No real Jewish organizations demanding Uman’s autonomy were found by the fact-checkers. StopFake

It turns out to be a complete story.

First “they” come.

Then “they” get more than the locals.

Then the Ukrainian state allegedly starts paying “them” money.

And then “they” plan to take the city for themselves.

This is one of the oldest mechanisms of ethnic conspiracy, only now it is no longer necessary to find actors, set up a camera, and negotiate with extras for its production.

A neural network is enough.

Even a real story quickly turns into the desired plot

The mechanism is especially visible where the initial event was not invented at all.

On September 18, information appeared in Israeli Haredi media about a 49-year-old resident of Beitar Illit, returning home after a pilgrimage to Uman. At the Ukrainian border, the man was stopped, after which his relatives could not contact him for some time.

The story had real documents, real relatives, and a real person.

But literally within a few hours, versions appeared in the Russian information field that the Israeli Hasid was allegedly being sent “from Uman straight to the front”.

NAnews thoroughly reconstructed this transformation in the material “From Uman — “straight to the front”?: what is known about the Israeli Hasid and how Russian propaganda changed his story in a few hours. NAnews Israel News Nikk.Agency

This is an important episode precisely because a completely invented event is not always required to produce a propaganda plot.

Sometimes it is enough to add one unchecked conclusion to a real fact.

And then another one.

No need to invent “one office”

Here, however, it is important not to respond to conspiracy with another conspiracy.

NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency does not have evidence that every anti-Semitic message about Uman was written by one center, that any pro-Russian Telegram channel receives instructions from Russian state structures, or that all the listed stories are the product of a single operation.

Such claims would themselves require evidence.

We see something else — and that is already enough for analysis.

Russian state media publishes material with wording about Hasidim “capturing Uman.”

A fabricated picture about “camouflage from the TCC” is spread in the pro-Russian segment, with fact-checkers recording anti-Semitic comments nearby.

Synthetic videos about state payments to Jews appear.

Then synthetic “Hasidim” appear, demanding a Ukrainian city for themselves.

All stories are different.

But the supposed conclusion for the audience is surprisingly similar: Jews in Ukraine allegedly have a special status, special money, special connections, and ultimately their own plans for Ukrainian territory.

That is why a single “Hasid costume” is much less interesting than the entire sequence.

Why this is important in Israel

For the Israeli reader, there is another unpleasant layer in this story.

In such publications, the Hasid is no longer a specific religious pilgrim.

He becomes a convenient visual symbol of “Jews in general.”

A hat, black suit, and payot allow you to instantly designate a group, after which any collective properties can be attributed to it: money, political influence, connections with Zelensky, special treatment by Ukrainian authorities, a desire to acquire territory.

The real diversity of Israeli and Jewish society disappears in the process.

As does the real history of Ukraine’s relations with its Jewish communities — from the tragedy of Babi Yar to today’s Ukrainian Jews serving in the army, working in public organizations, or simply living their lives during the war.

What remains is a familiar conspiratorial character: “Jews” who act as a single entity and necessarily get something at the expense of others.

Today, to produce such a character, you don’t even need a real person.

He can be generated.

Old anti-Semitism has received new tools

In this, perhaps, lies the main difference of the current wave.

The plots themselves have hardly changed.

“Jews have special privileges.”

“Jews control power.”

“Jews are given money.”

“Jews want to take territory.”

What is new is the speed and cost of producing evidence.

A fake advertisement looks like a screenshot of a store. An artificial person in a video looks like a random passerby. The next user sees not just a statement from an anonymous Telegram channel, but seemingly a photograph, a product, an interview, a live witness.

And if in two weeks the same image goes from “they are served better than Ukrainians” to “they want their own state in Ukraine,” the question is no longer just whether a specific image is real.

The question is — what picture of the world is assembled from these images.

In the case of Uman, the answer is quite clear.

First, the Hasid is turned into a privileged outsider.

Then — into a competitor of the Ukrainian.

And then — into a threat.

It is precisely at this point that the usual fake ends and the anti-Semitic narrative begins.

An Israeli company’s website can be hosted on a server outside of Israel and still function properly in Hebrew, English, or multiple languages simultaneously. For visitors, the speed of page loading, stability, security, and accessibility of the site are important, not the country of registration of the hosting company.

One such international solution is the company “Hosting ‘Ukraine'”, operating on the domain Ukraine.com.ua.

It offers:

1. regular virtual hosting,
2. enhanced business plans,
3. VPS,
4. dedicated servers,
5. domain registration,
6. corporate email, and
7. cloud services.

The main reason we consider this service not as a random advertising recommendation is personal experience: the NANews site is hosted on the ‘Business 4G’ plan of the company “Hosting ‘Ukraine'”.

NANews is a multilingual news project on WordPress with a large number of publications, images, constant database updates, and regular visits by search robots. We use this plan ourselves and therefore recommend it to Israeli site owners based on real work, not just descriptions on the provider’s page.

What is known about the company “Hosting ‘Ukraine'”

The service’s history began in 2004 when the hosting infrastructure was launched for its own projects and client sites. Public hosting appeared in 2006, and in 2008 the company moved to the address Ukraine.com.ua and began actively promoting site hosting services.

In 2010, the number of servers serving the hosting exceeded 100. In 2013, the company opened a data center with 28 server racks with a calculated capacity of 240 kW, and in 2015 it received ICANN accreditation. By 2020, the number of servers exceeded 1000. In 2021, a second server with a capacity of 350 kW was launched.

The exact current number of clients is not published on the open page, so it would be incorrect to provide an unconfirmed figure. But the published history shows that this is not a newly created small project, but an infrastructure that has been developing for more than twenty years.

The company declares its own server infrastructure, server connections at 10 Gbps, and a total network bandwidth of 280 Gbps. NVMe disks, AMD EPYC and AMD Ryzen processors, ECC error-correcting memory, and IPv6 support are used.

The company calls its service the first fully automated hosting and domain registrar in Ukraine. Ordering services, activating hosting, registering domains, payments, and a significant part of technical operations are performed automatically. According to the company, the API covers 99% of the control panel functions.

This is hosting for any sites

The company’s name does not limit the geography of clients or the language of hosted sites.

On the servers, you can host:

• an Israeli company’s site;
• a project in Hebrew;
• a site in English;
• a multilingual portal;
• an online store;
• a news resource;
• a lawyer’s, realtor’s, or private clinic’s site;
• a blog;
• an educational platform;
• a corporate portal;
• an application in PHP, Python, or Node.js;
• several sites of a web studio.

The service interface and control panel are available in English, Russian, and Ukrainian. The site’s content can be in any language.

For Hebrew, the right-to-left text direction — RTL — is important. It depends not on the hosting, but on the WordPress theme, template, and CSS. Modern management systems use UTF-8 encoding, so Hebrew works correctly on the server just like English or any other language.

Why an Israeli site does not necessarily need to be hosted in Israel

The physical location of the server affects network latency but is not the only or even always the main factor in site speed.

WordPress loading is significantly affected by:

• the quality of the theme;
• the number and quality of plugins;
• the size of images;
• caching;
• the state of the database;
• third-party advertising scripts;
• connected fonts;
• video;
• the overall weight of the page.

A well-optimized site on an international server can load faster than a poorly configured site physically located in Israel.

For the Israeli audience, Cloudflare can also be connected. CDN stores the site’s static files in a distributed network and delivers them to the visitor from the nearest available node. This reduces the impact of the distance to the main server and simultaneously helps filter out some malicious traffic.

The company declares a direct connection of the data center to major international communication operators and the ability to move sites between servers without stopping their operation. The online migration technology has been used since 2009.

Regular hosting for small sites

For a business card site, blog, landing page, or small company, it is not necessary to immediately purchase a powerful business plan.

The minimum ‘Fast’ package provides:

• 10 GB on an NVMe disk;
• hosting for one site;
• 512 MB memory limit;
• free SSL;
• automatic backups;
• email on your domain;
• protection against malicious bots;
• antivirus check;
• five-day test.

The price starts from €4 per month with long-term payment. The monthly price is €7.

According to the official exchange rate of the Bank of Israel on July 31, 2026, one euro equals 3.5 shekels.

Therefore, €4 is approximately ₪14, and €7 is about ₪25 excluding the bank’s currency transaction fee.

The ‘Best’ plan provides 20 GB, allows hosting up to five sites, and increases the memory limit to 1 GB. The cost starts from €8 per month, and monthly payment is €13 — approximately from ₪28 to ₪46.

The ‘Quality’ plan provides 30 GB and a memory limit of up to 1.5 GB. It costs from €12 per month or €18 with monthly payment — approximately from ₪42 to ₪63.

The ‘from’ prices apply when a long payment period is selected. Before ordering, you need to check the final cost and the period for which the payment is deducted.

What is included in regular hosting

Even the minimum package provides not only space for files.

Among the declared features:

• NVMe disks;
• free SSL certificate;
• Apache and OpenLiteSpeed;
• MySQL 8.4 or 5.7;
• different PHP versions;
• SSH;
• Python;
• Git and SVN;
• Memcache and OPcache;
• IPv6;
• backup;
• antivirus;
• two-factor authentication;
• protection against CMS password guessing;
• email with POP3, IMAP, and SMTP;
• email virus and spam check;
• automatic installation of popular CMS.

Some additional features and cloud services may be paid separately. Therefore, before ordering a specific plan, you need to check the marks and notes in the current description.

WordPress, WooCommerce, and other systems

Through the control panel, you can automatically install WordPress, Joomla, OpenCart, Drupal, MODX, PrestaShop, Moodle, and other CMS.

For a regular company site or blog, the minimum plan is sufficient. For several projects, the ‘Best’ package is suitable. A small WooCommerce store can also start with regular hosting if the catalog is still small and there are not many heavy extensions on the site.

A more powerful solution will be needed when:

• traffic increases;
• the database grows;
• the WooCommerce cart slows down;
• many plugins are installed;
• the site regularly experiences sharp traffic spikes;
• several active projects are running simultaneously;
• the regular plan starts hitting CPU or memory limits.

Why did NANovosti choose the ‘Business 4G’ plan

NANovosti operates on the ‘Business 4G’ plan. This is the main practical argument for our recommendation.

A news project differs from a regular business card website. It constantly adds materials and images, updates plugins, supports multilingualism, search indexing, caching, backups, and additional WordPress features.

‘Business 4G’ provides:

• 32 GB on an NVMe disk;
• 4 GB of RAM;
• two CPU cores;
• PHP memory limit up to 4 GB;
• the ability to host multiple sites and subdomains within the resources;
• MySQL 8.4 or 5.7;
• OpenLiteSpeed;
• PHP-FPM;
• Node.js;
• Python;
• Redis, Memcached, and OPcache;
• SSH;
• Git and SVN;
• free SSL;
• backups;
• email on a separate mail infrastructure;
• antivirus;
• two-factor authentication;
• protection against password guessing;
• a five-day trial period.

The current price of the plan is €38.44 per month. At the representative rate of the Bank of Israel, this is about ₪135 per month, before any possible Israeli bank commission.

Balance is important to us. The plan provides dedicated resources but does not require self-administering a full VPS.

How business hosting differs from a regular plan

On shared hosting, sites of different clients use common server resources and operate within set limits.

On business hosting, CPU cores and memory are allocated to a specific account. They do not have to be shared with neighboring sites. Additionally, there are no restrictions on the number of CPU minutes, the number of files, and the size of the database, although the total disk volume and allocated resources of the plan are maintained.

In terms of resource allocation, this is similar to a VPS. But VPS has an important complexity: the operating system, web server, security, and updates need to be maintained independently or by hiring an administrator.

On business hosting, management remains as simple as on a regular plan. Backups are stored separately, email does not consume hosting account resources, and DDoS protection and standard server settings are provided by the provider.

This is why ‘Business 4G’ turned out to be convenient for NANovosti: we received 4 GB of memory and two cores without the need to turn site maintenance into independent Linux server administration.

Comparison with similar Israeli hosting

Comparing ‘Business 4G’ with the cheapest Israeli shared hosting is incorrect. The closest class of services is a managed VPS or specialized powerful WordPress hosting with comparable CPU and memory.

One of the Israeli providers offers a fully managed WordPress VPS with two cores, 4 GB RAM, and 100 GB SSD for $145 per month. At the Bank of Israel rate on July 31, 2026, this is approximately ₪443 per month. The cost includes management, cPanel, LiteSpeed, protection, and backup infrastructure.

The same provider’s regular managed VPS with two cores, 4 GB RAM, and 100 GB SSD costs $53 per month — about ₪162. However, this is already a server service, the set of included features and the nature of management need to be checked separately.

Another Israeli provider offers a managed Linux server with 4 GB RAM, four cores, and 50 GB SSD for ₪357 per month before VAT. The price includes server management, support, and site transfer. After adding Israeli VAT, the cost becomes even higher.

Against this background, ‘Business 4G’ for approximately ₪135 per month looks significantly more affordable. This does not mean that all offers are completely identical: Israeli servers may have more disk space, more cores, local infrastructure, and support in Hebrew.

But for a site owner, the end result is important. If you need 4 GB RAM, two CPU cores, WordPress, SSL, backups, email, protection, and a simple panel without self-administration, the price of ‘Business 4G’ is noticeably lower than many comparable managed solutions in Israel.

How much can be saved

‘Business 4G’ costs about ₪135 per month, or approximately ₪1620 per year at the current representative rate.

The Israeli managed WordPress VPS from the comparison costs about ₪443 per month, that is, more than ₪5300 per year before considering possible additional payments.

The difference exceeds ₪3600 per year.

Even when compared to a cheaper Israeli VPS for about ₪162 per month, the ‘Business 4G’ plan remains cheaper, while simultaneously providing a ready hosting environment without the need to independently configure the operating system and server software.

For a small site, the savings on a regular plan can be even more noticeable. The minimum package of ‘Hosting “Ukraine”‘ starts at about ₪14 per month, while Israeli WordPress hosting often costs tens of shekels monthly.

Security and protection against attacks

For sites targeting Israel, protection against attacks is of particular importance. This concerns businesses, public organizations, media, and information projects.

The company claims HTTP flood filtering, UDP flood blocking at the router level, and the use of separate server infrastructure for handling SYN floods. Also applied are:

• antivirus scanning;
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No hosting can guarantee absolute invulnerability. A WordPress owner must still regularly update the core, theme, and plugins, remove unused extensions, and apply unique passwords.

Backup outside the main server

The company automatically creates backups of sites and allows users to create custom copies through the panel.

The official page states that a hosting copy is created once a week, and mailboxes are copied every two hours to servers in Germany. The company also claims to store backups in several countries.

This is especially important given that the main data center is located in Kyiv and continues to operate during Russian aggression.

At the same time, for a critically important project, it is advisable to adhere to the universal rule: keep another independent copy outside the main hosting. It can be stored in cloud storage, on a separate server, or a local device.

Domains for Israeli sites

The company registers hundreds of international and national domain zones and is ICANN accredited.

For example, a .com domain costs €19 per year — approximately ₪67 at the current rate. Prices for .com.ua, .in.ua, .shop, .store, .site, and other zones are also published on the main page.

Domain and hosting do not have to be purchased from the same company.

An Israeli .co.il domain can be registered with an accredited local registrar, and the site files can be hosted on ‘Hosting “Ukraine”‘. To do this, it is enough to point the domain’s DNS records to the server.

The visitor will see the usual .co.il address and will not know the hosting location from the site name.

Interface and management

The panel allows managing:

• sites;
• files;
• domains;
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• temporary developer access.

The delegation function allows providing a programmer or SEO specialist with limited temporary access without sharing the main account password.

This is convenient for an Israeli business owner who orders site creation and promotion from an external specialist.

Which plan to choose

For one small company site, portfolio, landing page, or blog, the ‘Fast’ plan is usually sufficient.

When you need to host up to five projects, it is more reasonable to consider the ‘Best’ plan.

For a web studio or a larger site, there is the ‘Quality’ plan.

For an active online store, news resource, several loaded sites, or a project that no longer fits within regular limits, business hosting should be considered.

The ‘Business 4G’ plan is especially interesting for projects that need:

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• Redis;
• OpenLiteSpeed;
• PHP-FPM;
• increased stability under load;
• simple management without a separate system administrator.

It is on this plan that NANovosti operates.

When is it better to choose an Israeli provider

Local hosting may be preferable when:

• technical support in Hebrew is mandatory;
• the server must be physically located in Israel;
• the contract requires data storage in a specific jurisdiction;
• an Israeli tax document from the supplier is needed;
• minimal network latency is critical;
• the company requires fully individual server support on-site.

But for a regular business website, WordPress project, online store, or informational resource, these conditions are not always necessary.

Why we recommend “Hosting ‘Ukraine'”

Our recommendation is based on personal use.

NANovosti operates on the ‘Business 4G’ plan. For a multilingual news site, it provides sufficient memory and processor resources, while we do not have to maintain the VPS ourselves.

We received:

• dedicated resources;
• a clear control panel;
• WordPress;
• OpenLiteSpeed;
• backups;
• SSL;
• mail;
• protection;
• developer tools;
• the ability to increase resources as the site grows.

At a cost of about ₪135 per month, this plan is noticeably cheaper than many comparable managed solutions from Israeli providers.

For a small project, you can start with a regular plan from €4 per month. If the site grows, the transition to business hosting is automatic and, according to the company, seamless for visitors.

Reliable hosting for a site in Israel without overpaying

An Israeli site does not necessarily need to be hosted by an Israeli provider. It is much more important to get sufficient resources, stable operation, backups, SSL, protection, and the ability to restore the site after a failure.

“Hosting ‘Ukraine'” offers all this at a price that for many projects is noticeably lower than local rates.

The service is suitable for sites in Hebrew, English, and other languages, supports WordPress and WooCommerce, provides regular and enhanced business plans, and allows scaling the project without an immediate transition to a self-managed server.

View current rates and register via the NANovosti affiliate link:

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Author: R.Verter

The evening program includes a story about the culinary traditions of Chernivtsi, tasting of dishes characteristic of Bukovina, a quiz with prizes, dancing, photographs, and fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

The event is being prepared by “Historical Arsenal: Meetings and Lectures with Iryna Sakhno” together with the Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv. These same venues have already held events in Israel dedicated to Chernivtsi.

In Tel Aviv, the Day of Chernivtsi will be celebrated on October 4 — the same weekend when the city itself traditionally celebrates its birthday. In Chernivtsi, City Day falls on the first Saturday of October and is associated with the first written record of the city on October 8, 1408.

What was eaten in Chernivtsi and why the city’s cuisine turned out the way it did

One of the central parts of the evening will be a gastronomic excursion by Iryna Sakhno.

Throughout its history, Chernivtsi lived at the crossroads of Ukrainian, Jewish, Romanian, Austrian, Polish, and other cultures. States and borders changed, languages on the streets and rules of city life changed — but recipes remained in families, mixed, and passed from neighbor to neighbor.

This is exactly what the organizers propose to talk about on October 4: how the large and rather complex history of the city was reflected in the most ordinary Chernivtsi plate.

And then the theory can be practically tested.

The tasting of dishes is prepared by a native of Chernivtsi, Halyna Doskalyuk.

One of them is mariturs. For the Israeli reader, the word may sound unusual: this is what they call an assortment of homemade pickled vegetables — cucumbers, peppers, tomatoes, and other seasonal vegetables in Bukovina. This is not a restaurant reconstruction, but a quite lively home tradition that is still preserved in the region.

There will also be Chernivtsi forshmak. In Israel, most readers probably don’t need an explanation of what forshmak is, but the Chernivtsi version has its own local tradition. The organizers promise to serve it with homemade sourdough bread from Halyna.

Another dish is kapronova babka, which guests of previous meetings could already try. This is one of the dishes of the modern Bukovinian gastronomic tradition, which is also found in stories about the cuisine of the Chernivtsi region.

Not just food

The evening will not be limited to just mariturs.

A separate story for the guests was prepared by a Chernivtsi native, Olexander Gusak. The organizers call him an intellectual from Chernivtsi and promise a separate story about the city.

Then — a quiz with prizes. So knowledge about Chernivtsi, Bukovina, and their traditions may come in handy right on the spot.

After the conversational part, the program will become noticeably less academic: Roman Zots is responsible for the dances, and Tatiana Gur will be taking photographs of the evening.

During the event, there will also be a fundraising in support of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Why Chernivtsi is so recognizable in Israel

For Israel, this story is not foreign at all.

Chernivtsi was one of the important centers of Jewish life in Bukovina. In 1908, the famous Chernivtsi Conference on Yiddish was held here, and Jewish culture was a natural part of city life for decades, alongside Ukrainian, German, and Romanian.

After World War II, many natives of Bukovina ended up in Israel. Along with them, family stories, music, and, of course, recipes moved here.

NANovosti has already detailed the history of the city and why Chernivtsi and Israel are much more connected than it might seem at first glance.

Therefore, the current evening in Tel Aviv is a story not only for those who were born in Chernivtsi or once lived there.

NANovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already written about the previous Chernivtsi evening in Tel Aviv. The new format noticeably shifts the focus towards gastronomy: the city is offered to be remembered through dishes, homemade bread, old recipes, and conversations at the table.

October 4 — another date in the city’s history

The date of the event also has an interesting historical coincidence.

It was on October 4, 1875, that the solemn inauguration of Chernivtsi University, founded by Emperor Franz Joseph, took place. Subsequently, the university became one of the symbols of the city.

At the same time, the organizers themselves in the published announcement do not associate the choice of the event date with the anniversary of the university’s opening, so it is more correct to speak of a coincidence rather than a reason.

What will happen on October 4

So, the program of the “Day of Chernivtsi 2026” in Tel Aviv includes:

— a story by Iryna Sakhno about the culinary history of Chernivtsi;

— tasting of dishes by Halyna Doskalyuk;

— Bukovinian mariturs;

— Chernivtsi forshmak with homemade sourdough bread;

— kapronova babka;

— a story by Olexander Gusak;

— a quiz and prizes;

— fundraising for the Armed Forces of Ukraine;

— dances with Roman Zots;

— photography by Tatiana Gur.

Date: October 4, 2026.

Place: Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv.

Event page:
https://www.facebook.com/events/2057065661602232/

The organizers invite not only natives of Chernivtsi. The evening is open to everyone interested in Bukovina, the history of the city, Ukrainian and Jewish culture — or just wants to finally find out what mariturs are and why after the first one you usually want to take another.

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Author: Alexander Khmelnitsky

He wrote about respect for other people, helping orphans, and protecting those who are weaker.

Daniel did not have time to finish his work.

Around eight in the morning, a Russian drone struck a residential building in the Pechersk district of Kyiv. Daniel died in his room. His mother sustained a hand injury and was hospitalized. His younger brother, who was also in the apartment, survived.

A few days later, Ukrainian human rights activist, head of the Center for Civil Liberties, and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Oleksandra Matviychuk published a photo of Daniel’s unfinished work. According to her, the school notebook remained open among the apartment’s ruins, and traces of blood were visible on the pages.

Oleksandra Matviychuk is a Ukrainian human rights activist and lawyer, head of the Center for Civil Liberties in Kyiv. The organization is engaged in human rights protection, documenting war crimes, and issues of accountability for violations of international law. In 2022, the Center for Civil Liberties became one of the Nobel Peace Prize laureates along with Belarusian human rights activist Ales Bialiatski and the Russian organization ‘Memorial’.

Matviychuk noted that in the last minutes before the strike, Daniel was writing about helping the weak, respecting other people, and the responsibility of those who have power.

She saw terrible symbolism in this: a 14-year-old boy was trying to comprehend moral principles formulated many centuries ago in modern words — and did not have time to finish this work.

Why Daniel was writing about Vladimir Monomakh

For a reader in Israel, the name Vladimir Monomakh might not mean anything, although for the history of Kyiv, he is one of the key figures of the early 12th century.

Vladimir Monomakh was born in 1053 and belonged to the Rurik dynasty. From 1113 to 1125, he was the Grand Prince of Kyiv. His reign occurred during a period when Kyiv remained one of the main political and cultural centers of Eastern Europe. Monomakh tried to reduce internecine wars among princes, strengthen Kyiv’s influence, and organized campaigns against the Polovtsians.

But in Daniel’s story, Monomakh the politician is not as important as Monomakh the author.

Around the beginning of the 12th century, he created a work known as ‘Instruction to Children’. In it, the prince reflects on what a person with power and responsibility should be like: not lazy, helping the poor and orphans, caring for the weak, respecting other people, and being accountable for one’s actions.

That is why a modern Ukrainian schoolboy could receive such an assignment. ‘The Instruction of Vladimir Monomakh’ is studied in the Ukrainian school curriculum as one of the literary monuments of the Kievan Rus era. Daniel needed not just to retell the biography of an ancient prince but to think about what the moral rules formulated almost nine centuries ago mean today.

Hence his notes about respect for people, helping orphans, and protecting the vulnerable.

For an Israeli reader, there is another important historical layer here. Kyiv of that time was already connected with Jewish history.

Jewish presence in the city is recorded at least from the 10th century. One of the most famous testimonies is considered to be the Kievan Letter from the Cairo Geniza — a document in Hebrew related to the Jewish community of Kyiv and usually dated to about the 10th century. In it, community representatives appeal for help for a person who fell into debt bondage.

That is, organized Jewish life existed in Kyiv long before Monomakh became the Grand Prince.

In the 11th–12th centuries, the city was located on important trade routes between Eastern Europe, Byzantium, and more distant regions. Medieval sources and later studies associate a separate district of Kyiv with the Jewish population. In the chronicle tradition, the so-called Jewish Gates are mentioned — one of the city gates, the name of which is usually associated with the nearby Jewish quarter.

Individual representatives of the Jewish intellectual life of medieval Kyiv are also known, in particular, Moses of Kyiv, who is attributed to Jewish scholars of the 12th century.

At the same time, the life of the community was not peaceful. In 1113, after the death of Prince Sviatopolk Iziaslavich and just before Vladimir Monomakh came to power in Kyiv, riots broke out in the city. Among those who suffered violence were representatives of the Jewish community.

It turns out that Daniel’s school assignment inadvertently leads far beyond a regular literature lesson. Monomakh is not only a figure from Ukraine’s medieval past. Kyiv of his era was already a city where different peoples, religions, trade routes, and cultures intersected, including the Jewish community.

For the Ukrainian school, ‘Instruction’ is part of its own literary and historical heritage. For an Israeli reader, another layer is added: the Jewish history of Kyiv began long before modern times and already existed in the era Daniel wrote about.

On the morning of September 25, he was working on just such an assignment — trying to explain in modern words old concepts of responsibility, helping the weak, and respecting another person.

This work remained unfinished.

Where Daniel studied

After the first reports of the boy’s death, most Israeli publications referred to him primarily as a 14-year-old Israeli citizen who died in a Russian strike.

But gradually, details of his life in Kyiv became known.

Daniel studied in 8th grade at Lyceum No. 5 in the Pechersk district of Kyiv.

And this is known not only from reports about the subsequent visit of the Israeli ambassador.

In an official document of the Kyiv education system for the 2025/26 academic year, NANews found the entry ‘Umansky Daniel Zakharovich’, 8th grade, Lyceum No. 5 Pechersk district. The same document lists his result — 25 points. The full name, age, class, and district match the data of the deceased Daniel Umansky.

The official document of the Kyiv education system allows for more precise identification of the school than the first media reports, where its name was not mentioned.

Daniel had a biography that is difficult to describe with a single national identity.

He held citizenship of Israel and Ukraine. The family previously lived in Israel, where Daniel studied at the Tel Aviv school ‘Ahavat Zion’. Later, the parents moved with the children to Kyiv due to the father’s work. Grandparents and other relatives continued to live in Israel.

In Kyiv, Daniel already lived the life of a Ukrainian schoolboy — he attended the lyceum, studied with his classmates, and learned Ukrainian history and literature.

Later, his teachers will reveal another detail: Daniel especially loved the Ukrainian language and wanted to become a Ukrainian language teacher in the future.

Therefore, the definition ‘Israeli child who ended up in Ukraine’ oversimplifies the story. Israel was part of his life and family, but Kyiv was also his home.

The strike on September 25 and Israel’s reaction

The Israeli Foreign Ministry confirmed Daniel’s death on the day of the attack — a 14-year-old citizen of Ukraine and Israel died in a Russian strike on a residential building in Kyiv.

His mother was injured, and his younger brother was physically unharmed.

The Israeli Foreign Ministry condemned the Russian attack and expressed condolences to the family. The Israeli embassy and consular service contacted the relatives. Later, ZAKA, Jewish organizations in Ukraine, and Chabad representatives joined the assistance.

NANews previously detailed how Israel’s diplomatic position on Russian strikes on Ukraine changed — from direct condemnation of the Russian invasion to significantly more cautious rhetoric in certain periods.

Daniel’s story had another dimension for Israel: it was not only about a diplomatic reaction to a war in another country. An Israeli citizen — a child whose family continued to live between Israel and Ukraine — died in a Russian strike.

At first, it was unknown where the parents would decide to bury their son.

Later, the family decided to transport the body to Israel.

Babi Yar and the road home

On September 29, four days after Daniel’s death, events were held in Kyiv to mark the 85th anniversary of the beginning of the mass shootings at Babi Yar.

The ceremony was attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, representatives of Jewish organizations, and diplomats from dozens of countries. Among them was Israeli Ambassador Roi Rosenblit.

For an Israeli reader, Babi Yar is one of the most well-known Holocaust sites in Ukraine. On September 29–30, 1941, the Nazis shot 33,771 Kyiv Jews there.

NANews detailed the 85th anniversary of the tragedy and how the Babi Yar memorial space is arranged today.

But in 2026, the ceremony had a completely different, modern context.

While Kyiv was remembering those who died eighty-five years ago, Israeli and Ukrainian structures were processing the documents necessary for transporting Daniel’s body.

NANews already wrote that during the events at Babi Yar, it became known about the preparation for his transfer to Israel.

After completing the necessary procedures, the teenager’s body was transported to Israel, where his grandparents live.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency follows this story precisely because it spans two countries. The Russian war in Ukraine was never an event far from Israel for this family.

Parents said goodbye to their son in two languages

On October 1, 2026, Daniel was buried in Israel.

The funeral was attended by Knesset member Gilad Kariv, chairman of the Committee on Aliyah, Absorption, and Diaspora Affairs.

After the ceremony, Kariv said that the father and mother said goodbye to their son in two languages.

He wrote:

“Israel must stand on the side of the citizens of Ukraine.”

Here it is important to maintain political accuracy: this was a statement by an opposition member, not a change in the official position of the Israeli government.

It was Kariv who reported some details of Daniel’s Israeli biography — in particular, that before moving to Kyiv, the boy studied at the Tel Aviv school ‘Ahavat Zion’.

NANews detailed Kariv’s speech and Daniel Umansky’s funeral in a separate article.

The Israeli ambassador visited Lyceum No. 5

After the funeral, the story returned to Kyiv.

Israeli Ambassador to Ukraine Roi Rosenblit visited the school where Daniel Umansky studied.

The visit was reported by the Embassy of Israel in Ukraine. On October 2, details were published by JewishNews — a project of the United Jewish Community of Ukraine.

Rosenblit met with the lyceum’s director, teachers, Daniel’s classmates, and the school staff.

Teachers remembered him as a bright, kind, and sincere boy. It was from them that a detail emerged that allows us to see a very specific teenager behind the reports of the deceased ’14-year-old Israeli citizen’:

Daniel loved the Ukrainian language and dreamed of becoming a Ukrainian language teacher.

One of his classmates said:

“This should never have happened. I want this to be the last case where children die.”

Roi Rosenblit replied:

“We must do everything possible to ensure that no other child becomes a victim of this war.”

The visit was not limited to condolences.

The ambassador discussed with the director and her team the possibilities of further cooperation between the Embassy of Israel and the lyceum, including joint commemoration of Daniel’s memory.

It is not yet reported what form it will take — a memorial plaque, a school project, an event, or another format.

Kyiv between lessons and alarms

In the publication about Daniel, Oleksandra Matviychuk provides another figure: according to her data, there were 235 air alarms in Kyiv in September 2026 alone.

We provide this statistic specifically with reference to Matviychuk — a separate verification of the full number of alarms for the month within this material was not conducted by NANews.

But the events of the following days show the context itself.

After Daniel’s death, Kyiv was again subjected to Russian attacks. Buildings of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, the Dobrobut medical center, and other civilian objects were damaged.

NANews analyzed these strikes in the material ‘There are no more rules’: Zelensky announced Putin’s order to lift restrictions on strikes.

For an Israeli reader, such a military everyday life is understandable without long explanations. The city cannot completely stop life every time: children continue to study, adults work, doctors receive patients. Sirens, shelters, and waiting for a possible strike exist simultaneously with lessons, homework, and ordinary family affairs.

So it was on the morning of September 25.

Daniel Umansky was sitting in his room answering a school question: what do responsibility, helping the weak, and respecting others mean today.

A Russian drone did not allow him to finish this answer.

Now at Lyceum No. 5, they are discussing how to preserve the memory of a boy who wanted to one day return to school not as a student, but as a Ukrainian language teacher.

The official page of the Ukrainian producer Beykush (73/2, Chornomorka, Mykolaiv region, Ukraine) describes Yafe Nagar as a white dry wine from a historical series, a blend of Chardonnay and Riesling, dedicated to the Jewish winemakers of the Black Sea region.

The purpose of this article is not to retell the entire history of the Jewish colony Efingar: there are already many materials, archival references, and research publications about it on the internet. What is more important here is to show modern Ukraine, where the memory of the Jewish past does not necessarily remain only in museums, tragic dates, and scientific texts. It can return through culture, local initiatives, an honest attitude to history, and respect for traditions. The wine Yafe Nagar from Beykush in this sense becomes not just a drink, but a sign of respect: a Ukrainian winery in the south of the country takes a Hebrew name, connects it with the real Jewish history of the region, and thereby reminds that the Jewish heritage of Ukraine is not a foreign topic, but part of the common memory of this land.

Efingar: ‘beautiful river’ on the map of Jewish Ukraine

The name Efingar is associated with the Hebrew expression יפה נהר — ‘beautiful river’. In the Slavic tradition, there are variants Efingar, Efingar, Efengar. The electronic Jewish encyclopedia indicates that it was a Jewish agricultural colony on the Inhul River, in the former Kherson province, on the territory of the current Mykolaiv region of Ukraine.

There is a slight discrepancy with the founding date. Beykush on the wine page indicates 1807, while the electronic Jewish encyclopedia states 1809. Therefore, it is more correct to say: the colony was founded in the early 19th century, and different sources mention 1807 and 1809.

In 1835, the colony had 755 inhabitants. In 1845, Efingar had 99 households (60 stone and 39 earthen houses), 2 Jewish prayer houses, a shop, and a bathhouse, with 111 families, and 15 non-settled families.

This is an important clarification because the history itself does not change from this. In southern Ukraine, there really was a Jewish agricultural settlement associated with agriculture, viticulture, crafts, trade, and the life of the Jewish community outside the usual image of a shtetl.

Not only memory but also labor

The history of Efingar is the history of people who tried to build a new life on the land. The first decades were difficult: lack of experience, crop failures, poverty, struggle for survival.

In one of the detailed historical materials about the colony, an episode with the crop failure of 1811 is mentioned: settlers lived in huts without roofs because the straw had to be removed to feed the cattle, and they themselves ate boiled sorrel. Later, the colony strengthened: sources mention shops, workshops, mills, oil mills, cheese factories, a wine factory, and a soda water factory.

A particularly important detail from Joseph Perl’s book, where the colonists’ products were described as high quality: their butter and cheese were bought even by Christians, despite the high price. This breaks several stereotypes at once — about Jews in Eastern Europe, about southern Ukraine, and about how closely Jewish, Ukrainian, and Black Sea history were intertwined.

For the Israeli audience, there is a separate depth in this story. This is not an abstract ‘Jewish trace’ somewhere far away in Eastern Europe. This is the story of people who spoke Jewish languages, used a Hebrew name, worked on the land, built an economy, and left behind a memory that was later attempted to be destroyed twice.

September 10, 1941: the day Efingar ceased to be a Jewish settlement

The most terrible date in the history of Efingar is September 10, 1941.

After the arrival of the German occupiers, the entire Jewish population of the colony, remaining under Nazi rule, was destroyed. The electronic Jewish encyclopedia indicates the number 521 people. More detailed materials about Efingar provide clarification: among the killed were 377 children.

According to these data, the Jews were herded into a school, then led to a sand quarry a few kilometers from the village and shot there. This was not just another tragedy of the Holocaust in the occupied territory. It was the end of an entire community.

The colony, which existed for more than a century, disappeared in one day.

After the war, Efingar was renamed Plyushchevka. The electronic Jewish encyclopedia writes that the inscription on the monument did not indicate that those shot were Jews, and the old Jewish cemetery was destroyed.

This is what makes the story even more painful.

First, people were killed as Jews.
Then their memory was depersonalized.

In the Soviet formula, they became ‘peaceful residents’, ‘victims of fascism’, ‘local residents’ — without the name of the people, without Jewish history, without language, without that very יפה נהר, from which it all began.

Why this is important today

For NANews — Israel News this story is important not only as a historical episode. It shows how deep Jewish life existed on Ukrainian soil, which cannot be reduced to either tragedy or propaganda clichés.

Ukraine is not only Babyn Yar, not only Odesa, not only Lviv, not only Uman. It is also small Jewish colonies, the names of which have almost disappeared from memory. These are people who grew grapes, made butter and cheese, ran workshops, built houses, raised children, spoke their languages, and lived next to Ukrainian villages.

That is why the story of Yafe Nagar sounds so strong.

Because here memory returns not through an official memorial report and not through a dry archival reference. It returns through a wine label, through a Hebrew name, through a Ukrainian product that says: this story was, these people were, their name cannot be erased.

Beykush and Yafe Nagar: when wine becomes a bearer of memory

The Beykush winery is located in the Mykolaiv region, in the Black Sea region. On the page Yafe Nagar https://beykush.com/en/product/yafe-nagar/ it directly states: this is wine from a historical series, its name translates from Hebrew as ‘beautiful river’, and the wine itself is dedicated to the Jewish winemakers of the Black Sea region.

Wines from Ukraine also describes Beykush Yafe Nagar as tribute wine — a wine dedicated to the Jewish winemakers of the Black Sea region. It is noted that this is a white dry wine from Chardonnay and Riesling, associated with the Mykolaiv region.

There is another important detail: on the Beykush website, in a separate material, it is said that Jewish colonists were associated with winemaking, and the white Jafe Nagar preserves the memory of the contribution of Jewish farmers to the development of the region.

This is not just a beautiful gesture. This is an example of how Ukrainian business, regional culture, and Jewish memory can work together.

Wine becomes not a souvenir, but a form of conversation.

Opening a bottle of Yafe Nagar, a person can tell friends not only about grape varieties, aging, or the region. He can tell about Efingar. About the Inhul River. About Jewish farmers. About September 10, 1941. About the children who were killed. About the monument on which they were not allowed to write that they were Jews.

And this is already a completely different level of memory.

The answer to Russian lies is not a slogan, but a fact

There is also a modern political nerve in this story.

While Moscow continues to sell the world the myth of ‘denazification’ of Ukraine, a Ukrainian winery releases wine with a Hebrew name in memory of a Jewish colony destroyed by the Nazis. This does not cancel the complex pages of Ukrainian history. But it shows what Russian propaganda deliberately does not want to see: in Ukraine, there is a living space of memory where Jewish history is not foreign.

For Israel, this is especially important.

The memory of the Holocaust cannot be turned into a tool of Kremlin manipulation. It is not allowed for those who today destroy Ukrainian cities to hide behind words about fighting Nazism. And it is not allowed to forget that real memory is not a slogan, but specific names, places, and dates.

Efingar.
יפה נהר.
September 10, 1941.
521 killed.
377 children.

NANews — Israel News reminds: such stories matter precisely because they return a name to people. Not ‘local residents’, not faceless statistics, not abstract ‘war victims’, but the Jews of Efingar — a community that was destroyed, but whose memory can still be returned.

Why such stories cannot be lost a second time

There are stories that do not disappear immediately.

First, people disappear. Then the name disappears. Then the cemetery disappears. Then in the official inscription, the word ‘Jews’ disappears. Then the new generation no longer knows that there was a Jewish town, colony, community, school, workshops, wine factory, families, children on this site.

And then suddenly a bottle of wine with a Hebrew name appears.

And memory returns.

Not completely. Not instead of an archive, not instead of a memorial, not instead of historical research. But it returns so that it can be spoken aloud again.

Yafe Nagar is not only wine from the Mykolaiv region. It is a small sign that the Jewish history of Ukraine did not end in mass graves and did not dissolve in Soviet formulations.

It can return through language.
Through a name.
Through a label.
Through a story at the table.

And if this story is passed on further, then Efingar has not disappeared a second time.

The reason for writing this publication was a note on Facebook, unfortunately, it was lost, but thanks to the author.

https://renovation.nikk.co.il/

That is why the topic of apartment painting goes far beyond repair as such.

In northern Israel, it is closely linked with trust, local housing specifics, humidity by the sea, old housing stock, apartments after tenants, and the owner’s desire to put the property in order without heavy capital intervention. For NAnews readers, this story is also interesting because it very accurately shows how client behavior is changing in Israel: people are less and less reacting to the loud ‘cheap’, and more and more looking for peace of mind, a clear estimate, and normal human organization of the process.

Why apartment painting has become a separate topic for the Israeli housing market

In theory, painting seems like one of the simplest services. But in reality, it often becomes decisive for the perception of an apartment. Old traces from fixtures, stains on the ceiling, scuffs, unevenly painted areas, traces of dampness, darkened corners, visual fatigue of the walls — all this makes the housing less attractive, even if otherwise it is quite suitable for living.

For Haifa and the entire Krayot belt, this is especially noticeable. Humidity, the age of some buildings, an active rental market, and constant tenant turnover lead to the fact that it is the walls and ceilings that begin to show the apartment’s fatigue the fastest. Therefore, painting in the local reality is not a cosmetic trifle, but a full-fledged tool for preparing real estate.

Where this is especially felt

The most typical scenarios for northern Israel look like this:

• the apartment is being prepared for a new family to move in;
• the housing needs to be quickly refreshed after tenants;
• the owner wants to make the property visually tidier before selling;
• after dampness, stains, or a local leak, the room needs to be returned to a normal appearance;
• the family does not want to start a major renovation but wants to remove the feeling of neglect.

In all these cases, the client is looking not for ‘the cheapest painting’, but for a solution that will relieve household and financial anxiety.

Why the Israeli client looks at such a service differently

In Israel, there is a very strong sensitivity to time and predictability of expenses. People are willing to pay not only for manual work but also for the absence of chaos. That is why for Haifa, Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Haim, Nesher, and Tirat Carmel, not abstract promises of quality work best, but specific and understandable formulations: a predetermined volume, agreed deadlines, the ability to work in a residential apartment, neatness, help with damp walls, and no sudden additional charges.

What exactly the apartment painting market in Haifa and nearby sells

If you look at how the topic of apartment painting is presented in Israel, it quickly becomes clear: the market sells not just a master. It sells peace of mind, speed, a clear price, and no surprises. This is the key logic that today cannot be ignored by either business or the editorial office if it wants to honestly explain to the audience why some offers work better than others.

The main triggers that the client responds to

Urgency

One of the strongest motivators is the ability to do it quickly. Before moving in, after tenants, before holidays, before selling — in these situations, it is important for a person not in a month, but now. Therefore, the promise of quick deadlines and a predetermined schedule has become one of the strongest market arguments.

Work in a residential or furnished apartment

This is no longer an additional bonus, but a full-fledged competitive advantage. Not every family can move out furniture, vacate the apartment, and turn off normal life for several days. The ability to paint housing without moving and without completely freeing up space is a serious factor in choice.

Dampness, mold, and problematic walls

For coastal Haifa and parts of the northern regions of Israel, this is a separate topic. The client often looks not just for painting, but for a solution to a more painful problem: traces of moisture, mold, peeling old paint, and tired ceilings. Where the contractor can not just ‘paint over’, but honestly assess the condition of the surface and prepare it, trust is higher.

Clear estimate before starting

The Israeli client is extremely sensitive to an inflating price. Therefore, the strongest offers are those where the estimate is discussed in advance, the volume is fixed before the start, and does not spread during the process.

Cleanliness and neatness

For a residential apartment, this is one of the main factors. People are not afraid of the painting itself, but of turning the house into a mess. Where neat work, furniture protection, and normal handover of the object are promised, conversion is higher.

Why a cheap offer is not always the best for the northern Israel market

At first glance, it may seem that the one who promises a lower price wins. But in reality, too aggressive cheap offers often attract not the highest quality leads. The client comes for the price ‘from…’, and then faces the fact that in reality, everything is more expensive, more complicated, and more unpleasant. As a result, both sides are dissatisfied.

For Haifa and Krayot, a different model works stronger. Not ‘from 400 ₪ and then we’ll see’, but a calm bundle:

• fix the volume in advance;
• work neatly even in a residential apartment;
• help with mold, dampness, and problematic walls;
• do not impose unnecessary;
• discuss deadlines in advance;
• do not create sudden additional charges out of thin air.

This logic is perceived today as mature and reliable. For the Israeli audience, this is much closer to the real request than the loud ‘cheapness at any cost’.

How this is related to the real estate market and the psychology of the apartment owner

Painting is also about control. When an apartment is being prepared for rent, sale, or occupancy, the owner wants to quickly regain a sense of manageability. He is not always ready for large-scale repairs, but wants to remove obvious visual problems.

Here the practical power of the service is manifested. Well-organized painting allows:

• quickly change the first impression of the apartment;
• make the property visually brighter and tidier;
• reduce the feeling of ‘fatigue’ without heavy investments;
• prepare the housing for the next stage of use.

For the Israeli reality, this is especially relevant in cities where the rental market is active, and apartments often work as an investment asset. And here NAnews — Israel News can look at the issue more broadly than the household level: painting becomes part of a real estate management strategy, not just a household trifle. That is why NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers this topic not only as a service but also as socio-economic: it is about how Israelis reduce costs, speed up housing preparation, and try to minimize stress around property.

What is especially important for Haifa, Krayot, Nesher, and Tirat Carmel

The local context is critical here. You cannot talk about painting an apartment in a conditionally new residential complex and in an old house with a history of dampness, dozens of traces of previous rentals, and walls that have not been updated for years in the same way.

Local specifics of the area

For this zone, the following are characteristic:

• old housing stock;
• coastal humidity;
• apartments after long-term rentals;
• the need to quickly prepare housing for re-renting;
• high sensitivity to deadlines and price.

That is why a separate service page, separate advertising, and a separate presentation of the topic work better than general texts ‘about repairing everything in the world’.

Why it is important to list cities, not hide behind the word ‘Krayot’

For trust and SEO, it is very important to say not only ‘Krayot’, but specifically: Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Haim, plus Nesher and Tirat Carmel. When a person sees their place directly, the text is perceived as a response to their real situation, not as a universal template.

Which offers really work best

Below is a short table of what most effectively removes client fear and better sells the service in this market.

What apartment owners should consider before ordering painting

Before choosing a contractor, it is useful for the owner to check not only the price but also the logic of the offer itself.

What to look at first

Is there a clear explanation of the scope of work

If it is unclear what exactly is included in the price, there will almost always be problems later.

Are they ready to work in a furnished apartment

For families and busy people, this is often one of the main questions.

Is there an honest conversation about problem areas

If there are traces of moisture on the ceiling or mold on the walls, it is important not the promise ‘everything will disappear’, but a real assessment.

Do they understand the local specifics

Haifa and northern Israel are not an abstract market. Here, humidity, old stock, and quick housing preparation scenarios are important.

Where you can view services on the topic

Russian version:

https://renovation.nikk.co.il/

Hebrew:

https://renovation.nikk.co.il/he/

English version:

https://renovation.nikk.co.il/en/

Conclusion

Apartment painting in Haifa, Kiryat Ata, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Haim, Nesher, and Tirat Carmel is no longer a story about ‘finding a painter and refreshing the walls’. Today it is a full-fledged service where peace of mind, speed, a clear estimate, neatness, work in a residential apartment, and no unpleasant surprises are sold.

For the Israeli audience, this is especially sensitive because an apartment here is not only a place of life but also an expensive asset, a rental object, family security, and a constant source of household solutions. That is why the market is increasingly moving away from cheap loud promises and moving towards normal, clear, and predictable service.

For business, this means one thing: the winner is not the one who shouts the loudest about the price, but the one who best alleviates the client’s fears. And for the reader, it means something else: when choosing a painting service, it’s important not to look at the attractive number in the first line, but at how well the scope, deadlines, limitations, and real results were explained to you in advance.

NANovosti believes that it is precisely such local topics that today form the true picture of everyday Israel: where decisions are made not at the level of advertising, but at the level of trust, practicality, and the ability to save a person time, money, and nerves.

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On July 9, 2025, the second episode of the “Balachky” podcast was released on the UDM Israel channel, in which Hanna Andriienko, owner of the “SHO?” restaurant, spoke about her journey from economist to the hostess of one of the most heartfelt Ukrainian establishments in Tel Aviv.

Below we will reveal the main topics of the conversation and recommend watching the full video to hear all the details firsthand:

Main Topics of the Conversation

• The story of turning a karaoke club into the “SHO?” restaurant
• Adapting “SHO?” to wartime restrictions and switching to takeout and delivery
• Cultural mission: gastronomic evenings, “Territory Show” and “Odessa Courtyard”
• The role of “SHO?” in the life of the Ukrainian community in Israel: support, gatherings, and traditions
• Challenges and achievements of Ukrainians in Tel Aviv: how the community unites and develops

The “SHO?” Restaurant – A Home for the Ukrainian Soul in Israel

• Origin story: a sudden call from the former owner of a karaoke club and Hanna’s bold decision to create a “place of strength.”
• Atmosphere and menu: interior with Ukrainian rushnyky, family recipes for borscht, varenyky, deruny, and six types of signature nalivky.
• Supporting guests: the switch to takeout and delivery during the crisis when it was important to keep warmth in the community.

Subscribe to the “SHO?” Restaurant on Facebook: facebook.com/shoukrainianfood

3 Karlibach Street, Tel Aviv, Israel

The Ukrainian Community in Israel: Challenges and Achievements

Community Challenges

Emotional burnout after intense months, lack of coordination among initiatives, adaptation of new arrivals, and the need to preserve traditions.

Main Achievements

Regular “Zdybanka” gatherings with hundreds of participants, cultural projects “Territory Show” and “Odessa Courtyard,” volunteer campaigns, and the growth of the UDM Israel channel, confirming keen interest in the topic.

UDM Israel and the “Balachky” Podcast

UDM Israel https://www.youtube.com/@udmIsrael is the first Ukrainian-language channel from Israel where activists and entrepreneurs share stories of resilience and support in the “Balachky” format.

The high production quality and live format make this project a true bridge between cultures.

On the NAnews — Israel News website, we continue to tell stories of resilience and mutual aid. The stories of “SHO?” and UDM Israel inspire and show: together we are stronger.

Ephraim Katzir (Katchalski)

This includes Ephraim Katzir (Katchalski) – a native of Kyiv, an outstanding biophysicist, and an influential Israeli politician, the fourth President of Israel.

Born in Kyiv

He was born in 1916 in Kyiv, but a few years later the family moved to “Palestine.” Ephraim grew up in an intellectual family where his grandfather was a respected rabbi, so respect for Jewish traditions was always important to him. After settling in Palestine with his family, the boy graduated from a gymnasium in Jerusalem and then entered the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

Scientific Activity and Achievements

His professional interest and area of development became the world of biophysics, as evidenced by his successes in university studies and research: in 1941, Ephraim received a doctorate in biophysics.

His research on amino acids and proteins gained recognition and attracted attention in the scientific world. In 1950, he received the Weizmann Prize, followed by the Israel Prize and the Rothschild Prize. For significant scientific achievements, Ephraim Katchalski was admitted to the National Academy of Sciences of Israel, and later he was invited to membership in the American Academy of Sciences.

4th President of Israel

Such a successful scientific career played a special role for Ephraim: he was invited to run for the presidency of Israel by Golda Meir, who was then the Prime Minister. Katchalski was an unquestionable moral and intellectual authority of that time, so he received great support in the presidential elections.

In May 1973, he assumed the position of the fourth President of Israel. His tenure was not without challenges; on the contrary, it was full of historical and fateful decisions for the state.

In 1973, as president, he, along with the country, experienced the Yom Kippur War and a series of complex diplomatic challenges of that time. Ephraim Katzir’s popularity was significant, giving him a strong chance of being re-elected for a second presidential term in 1978, but he decided to return to scientific work.

Memory of Ukraine

Ephraim Katzir always remembered and frequently recalled the city of his birth and childhood – Kyiv.

In his memoirs, written shortly before his death, Kyiv memories often appear. After his presidency, he visited Kyiv, particularly as a world-renowned scientist.

Buried in Jerusalem

He lived a bright, meaningful life, fulfilling himself as a political figure and as a researcher. He died in 2009 in Israel at the venerable age of 93, surrounded by his loved ones. He is buried in Jerusalem.

For news of the day in Israel, news feed, news of Israel and the world, events of the day and the last hour, analysis – Israel News: Ephraim Katzir (Katchalski) 1916-2009.

This is a place for exhibitions, meetings, lectures, and community events, where not only Ukrainians come, but also Israelis who find it important to understand neighbors and partners not through headlines, but through people and meanings.

What is this center and why is it needed in Israel

The center is associated with the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel and operates as a cultural point of presence for Ukraine in the city.

To put it simply: it’s a space where you can see, hear, and “touch” Ukraine through culture — without unnecessary ideology and without the officialdom that often repels.

The Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv started on October 13, 2021 — in reports about the opening, this was called the beginning of work in test mode.

Separately, on the page of the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel, it is noted that the center has been operating “since October 2021” and that it was previously in Bat Yam.

Where is it located

The address used in announcements and reference information:

22 Yirmeyahu Street, Tel Aviv, Israel.

How to get there – https://maps.app.goo.gl/YdLnoL4dH34XU7cP6

For the Israeli audience, it’s convenient to explain it like this: it’s a regular city address, not “somewhere in the suburbs,” and you can get there just like to any venue in Tel Aviv — the main thing is to check the time of the specific event.

What events are held there

Exhibitions and project presentations.

Public talks and lectures — from history and culture to contemporary topics.

Community evenings: intimate meetings, readings, music, conversational formats.

Sometimes practical classes appear — for families, teenagers, new immigrants, volunteer groups.

What makes this convenient for an Israeli: you can come “for one evening” and leave with an understanding of the context, which then significantly changes the perception of news and conversations on social networks.

Why this is important for Israel

Israel lives in a reality where cultural diplomacy is not an abstraction, but a part of everyday security, social resilience, and relations with neighbors and allies.

That is why NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency regularly pays attention to such platforms: sometimes one calm cultural conversation gives more than dozens of emotional discussions “in the comments.”

In the Israeli environment, this is also a way to maintain bridges between communities — without pressure, without slogans, but with real contacts and human normalcy.

If you want to propose your event or partnership

The most effective way is not a “post to nowhere,” but a short letter: who you are, what you want to do, for which audience, in what language, what format, and how many people you expect.

Organizers usually critically need to understand two things: whether it will be safe and understandable for the local audience, and whether the cultural platform is turning into a political rally.

What you can do right now

If you are Israeli and just want to understand — start with one event and see if it’s “yours” or not.

If you are from the Ukrainian community — use the center as a place where you can not only miss home but also gather around real activities: art, language, support, and communication.

And if you are media or a city activist — such points help explain the complex regional agenda in normal human language, without overheating and without cheap labels.

How to contact if you want to come or clarify details

Provided contact details:

Phone: 054-352-4326

Email: zoryan.kis@mfa.gov.ua

Follow announcements about events held at the “Ukrainian Cultural Center”:

https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=61561521344927

Here is an important nuance: such centers often live by the logic “from event to event,” so it’s better to clarify the language of the event, the format of entry, and the need for registration, even if you think “well, it’s just an exhibition.”

Author: Anton Pshedinsky

Kuvaev is charged with two criminal offenses: public calls for activities against the security of Russia via the internet and failure to fulfill the duties of a so-called “foreign agent.” The prosecution also demands a fine of 290 thousand rubles, a year of restricted freedom, and a ban on administering websites and internet channels for almost five years.

What was found in “Masyanya”

The main episode of the case was the 169th episode of “Masyanya” — “Idoliada”, published in 2023.

At the end of the episode, Masyanya addresses Russian military personnel. She calls the war against Ukraine an invasion, says there is no valor in participating in it, and suggests that Russian soldiers use the Ukrainian project “I Want to Live”, which is intended, among other things, for organizing the surrender of Russian military personnel.

The Russian accusation regarded this not as political satire or an author’s statement, but as a public call to actions against state security. The defense disagrees with this. The state-appointed lawyer asks for Kuvaev to be fully acquitted and claims that no evidence of the crime was presented to the court. According to SOTAvision, the episode of “Masyanya” itself was not even shown in the court session.

NANews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency has already written about how criminal and administrative legislation in modern Russia is used against public anti-war statements. Kuvaev’s story is particularly notable for the Israeli audience also because the Russian court is considering the case in absentia not of a person who recently fled the country, but of a citizen of Israel who has been living here since 2006.

That is, Israel appeared in this story long before the current criminal process.

After the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, Kuvaev began releasing sharply anti-war episodes of “Masyanya.” In 2022, the Russian authorities blocked the animated series’ website, and in December 2023, the Ministry of Justice of the Russian Federation included the author in the register of “foreign agents.”

Now, the Russian prosecution demands a real prison term in absentia for the creator of one of the most recognizable characters of the early Russian-speaking internet, who has been living in Israel for almost twenty years.

On October 5, it will be known whether the court will support this demand.

Author: Alexander Khmelnitsky

And then the billions begin: more than 58 billion shekels in payments to reservists, over 9 billion to victims, families of the deceased, and hostages, billions to evacuees and those who lost their jobs. The Bank of Israel separately estimates the budgetary cost of the war in the hundreds of billions of shekels.

But if you simply add all this up into a long column of numbers, you get statistics and people almost disappear. Therefore, I tried to understand what exactly the state counts in these reports, whom different departments account for separately, and what today’s data actually say about Israel three years after the morning of October 7, 2023.

1,029 civilians killed — and here it’s important to understand who is counted

Bituach Leumi — the Israeli National Insurance Institute, which is responsible, among other things, for payments to civilian victims of terrorism and war — reports 1,029 civilians killed since the start of the war. This category includes foreign citizens but does not include military personnel, police officers, and other security forces: they are handled by another state system.

In the attack on October 7 itself, 778 civilians were killed, including 70 foreigners. Of the total number of those killed since the start of the war, 668 were men and 361 were women, 88 people were foreign citizens.

The age breakdown looks particularly grim: 63 of the deceased were children and teenagers under 18. Six were no older than three years, five were between four and six, six were between seven and ten, 19 were between 11 and 14 years old, and another 27 were between 15 and 18.

Here, by the way, there is a small but fundamental problem in the published statistics. With a total of 1,029 and 778 killed directly on October 7, arithmetically after October 7, 251 people remain. This exact number of 251 is cited by Ynet. In another current retelling of Bituach Leumi data, 252 is indicated, which would already give 1,030. Therefore, until a corrected primary table appears, it is more accurate to use the combination 778 + 251 = 1,029, rather than mechanically transferring contradictory numbers.

This is a trifle only at first glance. When it comes to the deceased, arithmetic should not become approximate.

87,286 affected — but the most severe number here is different

Since the start of the war, Bituach Leumi has been dealing with 87,286 new civilian נפגעי פעולות איבה — “nifgaei peulot eiva”, that is, people officially recognized as victims of terrorist, rocket, and other hostile actions.

This is a legal status, not just a household definition of ‘victim’. It opens access to treatment, compensation, rehabilitation, and, if there are long-term consequences, to the procedure for establishing disability. Military personnel injured during service go through the rehabilitation system of the Ministry of Defense.

Of these 87,286 people, 43,004 have applied for the establishment of a degree of disability. Decisions have already been made on 40,407 applications, the rest are under consideration by medical commissions.

And here appears a number that, in my opinion, much better describes the consequences of this war than another billion in budget expenditures.

34,878 people received disability based on psychological trauma.

Another 3,171 people were recognized as disabled due to physical injuries, and 2,355 due to a combination of physical and psychological consequences.

That is, the overwhelming part of already recognized disability among civilian victims is associated not with amputations, burns, or shrapnel wounds, but with what is often impossible to see externally.

For Israel, this means that the consequences of October 7 cannot be measured only by cemeteries, destroyed houses, or the number of people who ended up in hospitals in the first days. The state system continues to record trauma months and years later.

A year ago, on the second anniversary of the war, Bituach Leumi reported 36,315 disability applications and 33,983 already established cases. Psychological trauma was then the basis for recognizing disability in 30,462 people. Now there are already 43,000 applications, and almost 35,000 psychological cases.

In other words, the war did not end for a person the moment the siren ended.

Behind one deceased person, there are often several broken biographies

Since the start of the war, the circle of civilian mourning has been joined by 1,216 orphans. Of these, 345 were minors at the time of losing a parent.

300 people were widowed — 231 women and 69 men. 1,204 parents lost a child, and 156 of them had no other children after the death of a son or daughter. 2,281 people lost a brother or sister.

These data are important because the Israeli state counts not only the deceased. For Bituach Leumi, an entire family appears that may need benefits, psychological help, rehabilitation, and support for many years.

NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency has already written about why, a thousand days after the attack, the issue of October 7 in Israel remains not only a matter of memory but also a matter of state responsibility and investigation of what happened. A thousand days after October 7 — Israel demands memory, answers, and a state commission

Now the statistics show another side of this process: the state has to not just remember the catastrophe. It has to live with its social consequences for decades.

216 civilian hostages returned — alive or for burial

A separate system of payments and support had to be practically built for hostages and their families.

According to current Bituach Leumi data, 216 civilian hostages were returned from Gaza. 154 returned alive, including 29 foreign citizens. The bodies of another 62 civilian hostages were returned to Israel for burial; six of them were foreigners.

Here, too, an explanation is necessary: this is specifically the civilian category of Bituach Leumi. It should not automatically be perceived as a universal account of all the people captured on October 7, because military personnel and some security forces are accounted for under different departmental rules.

This is why the numbers from different Israeli institutions sometimes seem contradictory, although in reality, they simply count different categories.

Another 1,318 killed — already in the Ministry of Defense system

Separately from civilians, the Ministry of Defense reports 1,318 fallen, included in the category חללי מערכות ישראל — “halalei maarachot Yisrael”, that is, those killed in wars and while performing security system tasks.

Of these, 1,153 are IDF soldiers. This figure includes 43 members of local kitot konenut — armed rapid response teams at settlements, who on the morning of October 7 were the first to engage terrorists in many kibbutzim and moshavim.

In addition, the state statistics include 116 deceased police officers, nine employees of the Shin Bet — Israel’s General Security Service, five employees of the fire and rescue service, 11 employees of the Prison Service, and 24 people with military disabilities who later died from their injuries.

Since the start of the war, more than 7,150 relatives have been added to the official circle of families of the deceased in this system: 2,143 parents, 355 widows, 880 children, and 3,772 brothers and sisters.

There are two huge parallel systems — civilian through Bituach Leumi and military through the Ministry of Defense. Simply adding 1,029 and 1,318 and calling the resulting number ‘the number of war dead’ is tempting, but methodologically not quite accurate: the categories are formed by different departments and according to different legal rules.

58 billion shekels — just for reservists

Another cost of the war usually remains outside the photos from the front.

Over three years, Bituach Leumi paid more than 58 billion shekels in compensation for service in the miluim — the Israeli army reserve. Due to prolonged mobilizations, the state had to switch to paying reservists monthly, rather than waiting for the end of the entire service period.

To understand the scale: in 2024 alone, payments to reservists amounted to about 26 billion shekels, in 2025 — about 21 billion. The Bank of Israel directly links the mass mobilization of reservists not only to budget expenditures but also to limiting the supply of labor in the economy. בנק ישראל

Miluim is not an army that exists separately from the civilian economy. It is a small business owner, an engineer, a doctor, a high-tech employee, a builder, a father or mother of a family, who are taken from ordinary life for weeks and months.

Therefore, the state simultaneously pays a person for service and loses part of their civilian productivity.

Another 9 billion — to victims, families, and hostages

According to the current estimate of Bituach Leumi, over three years more than 9 billion shekels were directed to victims of hostile actions, families of the deceased, hostages, and their relatives.

The distribution shows how this account grew: more than 800 million shekels in the last months of 2023, about 2 billion in 2024, 3.5 billion in 2025, and at least 3 billion in 2026.

Separately, more than 750 million shekels have already been directed to rehabilitation: professional and higher education, payments during training, transportation, housing rent, auxiliary services, and ensuring accessibility.

Special assistance grants to victims of October 7 amounted to about 662 million shekels for 83,563 people. More than 526 million were received by 74,802 people who lived or were in settlements near the Gaza Strip.

This is no longer the emergency aid of the first weeks. Over three years, a huge permanent system of expenses has formed.

Evacuees, those who lost their jobs, and a few more billion

After October 7, the state evacuated entire settlements in the south, and then in the north of Israel.

More than 5 billion shekels were paid to approximately 190,000 residents who evacuated and organized housing themselves instead of being placed by the state in hotels. Another about 1.4 billion went to approximately 110,000 people in the form of grants for returning home. Almost 74,000 workers received about 1.2 billion shekels in incentive payments for returning to their previous jobs.

There is also the Israeli concept of חל״ת — HALAT, unpaid leave. The employer temporarily stops paying wages, but employment relations are not necessarily formally severed, and under special military schemes, a person can receive an allowance from the state.

The cost of such programs in three major military periods reached approximately 4.2 billion shekels: about 2.5 billion after the start of the war on October 7, about half a billion during Operation ‘Am ke-Lavi’ — the war with Iran in June 2025 — and about 1.7 billion during Operation ‘Shaagat ha-Ari’ in 2026.

That is, the war is paid for not only by the Ministry of Defense. It appears in the social security budget, unemployment benefits, housing, psychiatric care, rehabilitation, business compensation, and interest on the national debt.

352 billion — but this is not ‘the bill Israel has already paid’

This is where the confusion with the loudest number begins.

The Bank of Israel estimated additional government expenses caused by the war for 2023–2026 at 352 billion shekels. This is an estimate of the budgetary impact of the war, not a bag of money already entirely taken out of the state treasury by this morning.

In the annual report of the Bank of Israel, it is stated: 249 billion in additional defense expenses, 33 billion in compensation for direct and indirect damage through the property tax fund, 57 billion in other civilian expenses, and 13 billion in additional interest payments on the national debt. בנק ישראל

But in the March presentation by the head of the Bank of Israel, Amir Yaron, the same total of 352 billion is broken down differently: 243 billion in defense expenses and 19 billion in interest, with unchanged 33 and 57 billion for the other two items.

And this is precisely an official document of the Bank of Israel, not a journalistic error.

Therefore, I would not try to portray one of these breakdowns as the only existing one. It is more correct to say: The Bank of Israel gives a total of 352 billion shekels, but in two official materials, the internal classification of 6 billion shekels between defense and interest expenses differs.

The main clarification is written by the Bank of Israel itself: the calculation was made at the end of 2025 and did not include subsequent decisions made after the start of Operation ‘Shaagat ha-Ari’ in 2026.

In March, the government decided to increase the defense budget by another 32 billion shekels and create a reserve of about 13 billion for additional military and civilian needs in case of continued hostilities.

Mechanically adding 32 and 13 to 352 and declaring that ‘the war has already cost 397 billion’ would be incorrect. Part of the amount is a budget reserve, not already incurred expenses; moreover, subsequent forecasts of the Bank of Israel changed along with the situation on the fronts. In the July forecast, for example, an increase in the defense budget by 15 billion shekels was assumed, mainly due to the already provided reserve.

Therefore, the formulation ‘the budgetary scale of the war approached 400 billion shekels’ is possible only with these reservations. The formulation ‘Israel has already spent 400 billion’ is not.

And there are 175 billion more that cannot be added to 352 at all

There is another number that is especially easy to misuse.

The Bank of Israel estimated that over nine quarters, the war led to approximately 175 billion shekels of accumulated GDP lag from the pre-war trend. This is equivalent to about 8.5–8.6% of annual GDP.

But this is not additional budgetary expenses.

352 billion — money and obligations of the state budget related to the war.

175 billion — an estimate of how much economic activity Israel missed compared to the trajectory the economy could have followed without the war.

Adding them up and getting ‘527 billion as the cost of the war’ is not allowed. It’s like adding the repair bill of a closed store to the revenue that store didn’t earn during the closure and presenting the result as the same category of expenses.

NANews previously separately compared the economic cost of wars for Israel and Ukraine. The same principle applies there: beautiful sums are easy to put side by side, but without understanding the methodology, the comparison begins to mislead the reader. The cost of war: Israel and Ukraine — why the sums cannot be compared directly

What these numbers mean three years later

If you remove the billion-dollar sums, a rather unpleasant picture remains.

Israel managed to continue the economy’s work, return reservists, restore production, and even demonstrate periods of rapid growth after sharp declines. NANews recently analyzed why huge quarterly GDP recovery figures cannot be read as proof that the war ‘passed for the economy almost for free’. 14.9% GDP growth in Israel: why the huge figure appeared after the military decline

The economy indeed withstood.

But ‘withstood’ and ‘nothing happened’ are completely different statements.

The national debt has grown. Interest expenses have increased. Security expenses have become structurally higher. Tens of thousands of people received official disability status. Thousands of families entered state systems of long-term assistance. Billions continue to go to reservists, evacuees, victims, and those who could not work due to another round of war.

And 34,878 citizens with recognized psychological disabilities mean something else: a significant part of the bill for October 7 will be paid when October 7 itself is long gone from daily headlines.

That is why the third anniversary is no longer just a conversation about how much Israel lost in one terrible day.

It’s a question of what that day continues to cost the country every subsequent year.

sTDe | NAnews — Israel’s event listing: a new guide to events, cities, and tickets

In Israel, concerts, performances, stand-up evenings, festivals, exhibitions, lectures, family programs, city celebrations, and chamber meetings take place almost every day. But for someone who wants to choose an event, a single announcement is often not enough. They need to understand where the event is taking place, when it starts, how much tickets cost, whether the event is suitable for children, if there is a convenient venue, which city is best to choose a date, and whether it is worth planning a trip in advance.

This is exactly why sTDe | NAnews is being developed — a new event listing in Israel, where events will be organized into a clear system: by genres, cities, dates, venues, tickets, and thematic selections. The project is available at https://stde.co.il/ and is being created as a convenient navigator for the cultural, urban, and event life of the country.

Not just a list of events, but a clear listing of Israel

The main task of sTDe | NAnews — is to help a person quickly answer a simple but important question: where to go today, tomorrow, on the weekend, or in the coming month. In reality, this question almost always breaks down into a chain of clarifications: concert or theater, Tel Aviv or Haifa, family program or evening event, open seating or reserved tickets, large hall or chamber venue, all-day festival or short performance.

A regular list of events often does not address these questions. Therefore, sTDe | NAnews is built not as a dry catalog, but as an event guide. In it, not only the date and name are important, but also the context: who the event is suitable for, what makes it special, where it takes place, how to check details in advance, and why this particular event might be interesting.

For NAnews — News of Israel launching such a project is logical: alongside the news and analytical agenda, a practical urban layer appears — a listing that shows the lively side of Israel through concerts, theater, festivals, exhibitions, lectures, and events for the whole family.

What categories will be important on sTDe | NAnews

The event platform should be convenient not only for finding one specific concert. It should cater to different behavior scenarios: someone is looking for tickets to a famous artist, someone is choosing a play, someone is planning a family weekend, someone wants to see what’s happening in the city near their home.

This approach helps cover not just one search query, but the entire topic. The user can start with “events in Israel,” then move to “concerts in Tel Aviv,” then specify “where to go with children in Haifa” or “festivals in Israel on the weekend.” A good listing should accompany them at every step.

Geography: Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, and the entire country

For Israel, geography is especially important. Events take place not only in the center of the country. The listing should show Tel Aviv, Haifa, Jerusalem, Ashdod, Netanya, Bat Yam, Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva, Holon, Be’er Sheva, cities of the north, center, and south of Israel.

A person often chooses not only an event but also a route. They need to understand if it’s convenient to get there, if it’s worth going to another city, if there’s parking nearby, how late the program ends, and if the venue is suitable for family visits. Therefore, city selections on Event Listing sTDe | NAnews can become a separate strong direction: “where to go in Tel Aviv,” “events in Haifa,” “Jerusalem listing,” “events in Ashdod,” “weekends in central Israel,” “festivals in the north.”

What should be in a good announcement

A good event announcement should save the reader’s time. It should immediately answer the main questions: what is happening, where, when, who is performing, how long the event lasts, who it is suitable for, how much tickets cost, if there are restrictions, how to check seat availability, and what to know before attending.

Main event data

In a card or article about the event, it is important to specify:

• date and time;
• city and venue;
• address or area;
• genre and format;
• cost or price range;
• link to tickets;
• age restrictions;
• duration;
• organizer or venue;
• important attendance conditions.

But that’s not enough. For a lively listing, it’s necessary to explain what makes the event different from others. For example, a concert may be part of a tour, a play — a rare production, a festival — a family city event, an exhibition — a temporary exposition, and a stand-up — an evening with a limited number of seats.

Tickets: how to move from interest to action

The user has two states. The first — they are just looking at what’s happening. The second — they are ready to buy a ticket. The listing should work for both scenarios.

If a person is still choosing, they need selections, city comparisons, format descriptions, and clear navigation. If they have already decided to go, they need a quick transition to tickets, exact date, venue, price, and purchase conditions. Therefore, on sTDe | NAnews, the ticket office block and external pages where you can check seat availability, cost, and current conditions are important.

This is where the project can be useful not only as a listing but also as a landing page for action: read, understood, chose, moved to the ticket.

Why this is important for NAnews readers

The audience of NAnews — News of Israel is used to receiving not only the fact but also an explanation: what happened, why it is important, how it is connected to Israel, cities, society, culture, and everyday life. sTDe | NAnews continues this logic, but in an event format.

News shows what the country lives by at the level of politics, security, society, and international agenda. The listing shows another side of the same country: concerts, performances, city festivals, exhibitions, family events, lectures, and meetings. Together, this gives a more complete picture of Israel — not only through the events of the day but also through cultural and city life.

Frequently asked questions about sTDe | NAnews

Can events be searched by cities? Yes, city navigation should become one of the foundations of the project.

Will there be weekend selections? This format is especially important because many people look for events just before Friday and Saturday.

Are separate pages needed for concerts, theater, and festivals? Yes, because each category has its own user path and questions.

Can the site be used as a ticket office? The project can combine announcements, selections, and transitions to tickets, helping the user move from choice to purchase.

How is sTDe | NAnews different from a regular catalog? By presenting the event with context: city, format, audience, attendance details, and practical benefits.

Conclusion

sTDe | NAnews — is an event listing of Israel that can become not just a list of events, but a full-fledged guide to the cultural and city life of the country. The project combines concerts, theater, stand-up, festivals, exhibitions, lectures, family programs, cities, venues, tickets, and thematic selections.

For the reader, this means a convenient path from the first question “where to go?” to a specific decision: choose a date, city, event, venue, and ticket. For the media ecosystem of NAnews, this is a new practical format that complements news, analytics, and public agenda with a live map of events in Israel.

A person can live in Israel but work with clients in the USA, UK, Germany, France, Poland, Canada, or another country. An international number on the website is not always convenient for local clients, and purchasing and maintaining several physical SIM cards becomes a separate problem.

In such a situation, you can connect a virtual number of the desired country. Clients will call a regular local number, and the owner will be able to receive calls over the internet on a smartphone, computer, IP phone, or using call forwarding.

Physically being in the country whose number is connected is usually not required. However, the rules depend on the specific state: sometimes, to register a number, it is necessary to confirm identity, address, or provide company documents.

The editorial team of NANews uses the Zadarma service, so we decided to explain in detail and without complex technical terms how virtual telephony works, who it can really be useful for, and what restrictions need to be checked before paying for a number.

What is a virtual phone number

A virtual number is a full-fledged phone number not tied to a physical SIM card or a specific device.

It can have the code of the selected country and city. For example:

• +972 — Israel;
• +1 — USA or Canada;
• +44 — UK;
• +49 — Germany;
• +33 — France;
• +34 — Spain;
• +39 — Italy;
• +48 — Poland;
• +380 — Ukraine;
• +995 — Georgia.

The client dials a familiar number, and the call is transmitted over the internet to the number owner. To receive calls, you can use an app, a program on a computer, an IP phone, a cloud PBX, or forwarding to a regular mobile.

Zadarma offers more than 30,000 virtual numbers in 110 countries. Depending on the country, local, national, mobile, and toll-free numbers for the caller are available.

A virtual number should not be confused with temporary free numbers published on open sites for receiving a single message. This is a permanent number that a person or company can use as long as its service is paid for and the operator’s conditions are met.

How a number works without a SIM card

The principle of operation is quite simple.

The user registers with the service, selects a country and an available number, undergoes the necessary verification, and sets up the method of receiving calls. After that, calls are received over the internet.

Usually, the process looks like this:

1. A person selects a country.
2. Determines the appropriate type of number.
3. Checks the cost and document requirements.
4. Connects the number.
5. Installs an app on a smartphone or computer.
6. Sets up incoming and outgoing calls.
7. If necessary, connects forwarding or a cloud PBX.

For the app to work, a stable Wi-Fi or mobile internet is required. If the internet is unavailable or unstable, calls can be directed to a regular phone number. Zadarma officially supports receiving calls through apps and IP phones, forwarding, its own cloud PBX, and third-party server PBXs.

It turns out that one smartphone can be used simultaneously for a personal SIM card and one or several virtual work numbers.

Which countries’ numbers can be connected

Zadarma provides numbers in 110 countries. This does not mean that the same conditions are available in all states: somewhere you can choose a local number of a specific region, somewhere a national or mobile number is offered, and in some countries, 800 format numbers are available.

Among popular destinations:

• Israel;
• USA;
• Canada;
• UK;
• Germany;
• France;
• Spain;
• Italy;
• Poland;
• Czech Republic;
• Austria;
• Belgium;
• Netherlands;
• Switzerland;
• Sweden;
• Norway;
• Finland;
• Romania;
• Bulgaria;
• Greece;
• Cyprus;
• Georgia;
• Moldova;
• Ukraine;
• Kazakhstan;
• Turkey;
• United Arab Emirates;
• India;
• Japan;
• South Korea;
• Singapore;
• Australia;
• New Zealand;
• Mexico;
• Brazil;
• Argentina;
• Chile;
• South Africa.

Before connecting, you need to open the page of a specific country and check what type of number is offered, whether it can be registered by a non-resident, what documents are required, and whether the number supports SMS.

What types of virtual numbers exist

The choice depends on what the phone is needed for.

Local number

Such a number contains the code of a specific city or region. For example, a company can connect a number in Tel Aviv, London, New York, or another city, even if employees work remotely.

A local number is suitable for websites, consulting services, repair companies, real estate agencies, clinics, online stores, and small offices.

National number

A national number is not always tied to a specific city. It can be used by a company that works with clients throughout the country.

In Israel, for example, there are virtual national numbers with the code +972 77. Connection conditions and costs need to be checked directly before ordering.

Mobile number

In some countries, Zadarma offers virtual mobile numbers. They can support not only voice calls but also receiving SMS.

For example, the Israeli virtual mobile number +972 55 allows receiving calls and SMS through an app, forwarding, PBX, or CRM while being outside Israel. At the same time, a specific number may be issued automatically, without the possibility of choosing a beautiful combination of digits.

Number 800

This is a number where the call is usually paid for by the owner, not the client. Such numbers are used by support services, sales departments, and large companies.

Rates for incoming calls and the availability of 800 numbers vary depending on the country.

Why a number from another country is needed

A virtual number solves not one, but several tasks at once.

Working with foreign clients

An Israeli company can connect a number in the USA, UK, Germany, France, or another country. The client will call a familiar local number, and the employee will receive the call in Israel.

For a foreign client, such a call is usually more understandable than a call to an unfamiliar international number.

However, a foreign phone number itself does not mean that the company is registered or has a physical office in the corresponding country. The website must honestly indicate the actual location and legal details of the business.

Moving to another country

After moving, a person can continue working with their former clients. For example, a specialist lives in Israel but receives calls from Germany, Poland, the UK, Ukraine, Canada, or the USA.

Clients do not need to be informed of a new foreign mobile number: they continue to call the familiar number of their country.

Separate room for work

Many entrepreneurs publish their personal mobile number on the website, on social networks, and in advertisements. As a result, work calls mix with personal ones, and the number ends up in numerous databases.

A virtual number allows you to separate communication:

• personal calls go to a regular SIM card;
• work calls go to a separate application;
• a voicemail message is activated during non-working hours;
• missed calls are saved in statistics;
• calls can be recorded if necessary.

Work during trips

A virtual number is not tied to one SIM card and one country. If a person temporarily leaves Israel, they can continue to receive work calls via the internet.

The main condition is a stable network connection.

Work of several employees

One number can be connected not only to one person. With the help of a cloud PBX, calls are distributed among employees, departments, or branches.

For example, the call first goes to a manager, then to a second employee, and if no one answers, it is directed to voicemail.

Virtual number of Israel

For readers of NANews, several scenarios are particularly relevant:

• an Israeli number for a company whose employees are abroad;
• a second number for business without a second SIM card;
• a separate number for the website or advertising;
• a +972 number for receiving calls from Israel;
• a Tel Aviv or other region number;
• a mobile number with the ability to receive SMS;
• a common number for several employees.

Zadarma offers city, national, mobile, and toll-free numbers for Israel. Incoming calls can be received through smartphone and computer applications, forwarding, cloud PBX, or CRM.

To connect an Israeli number, a passport or ID, current address, or company registration documents may be required. The exact list depends on the type of number chosen.

Therefore, it cannot be promised in advance that any +972 number is connected instantly and without verification.

Numbers of the USA, Canada, and European countries

American, Canadian, and European numbers are especially in demand for business.

USA number

An American number can be useful for a company working with clients in the USA, an internet project, a consultant, or a remote specialist.

Depending on the offer, you can connect a city, mobile, or toll-free number. Zadarma’s American mobile numbers allow you to receive calls and SMS through the application, forwarding, PBX, and CRM. Activation is carried out after verifying the provided data.

UK number

A British number +44 can be connected to a computer, smartphone, IP phone, office PBX, or another device with SIP support. Calls can also be forwarded to a regular number.

Numbers of Germany, France, Poland, Spain, and Italy

European numbers are suitable for companies that:

• sell services in several countries;
• consult foreign clients;
• accept orders through the website;
• have organized a remote support service;
• want to use separate numbers for different markets;
• analyze advertising effectiveness by region.

It is necessary to consider that European countries may set different rules for registering numbers. For some city numbers, it is required to confirm the address or connection with the corresponding region.

One phone — several work numbers

To use a virtual number, it is not necessary to buy a second smartphone.

On one device, you can simultaneously have:

• a personal SIM card;
• a virtual Israeli number;
• a USA number;
• a European number;
• a common company number.

This is convenient for lawyers, realtors, consultants, marketers, online store owners, repair companies, travel agencies, and other specialists.

When an incoming call is received, the application shows which virtual number the client called. The employee understands which market or project the call relates to.

Number separation also allows for different greetings, work schedules, and forwarding rules.

How NANews editorial uses Zadarma

The NANews editorial uses the Zadarma service for virtual telephony. That is why we consider it not as an abstract advertising platform, but as a practical tool for people and companies working between several countries.

The service can be useful when it is necessary to:

• receive calls via the internet;
• separate the work number from the personal one;
• maintain availability during trips;
• connect a number from another country;
• direct calls to several employees;
• record and analyze work conversations;
• integrate calls with CRM.

At the same time, virtual telephony requires initial setup, and call quality depends on the internet connection. Before connecting, it is also important to check the cost of calls, documents, and SMS support for the selected number.

How to connect a Zadarma number

First, you need to register an account and choose a country. Then you should open the page of the desired type of number and carefully study the conditions.

You can register and view available directions via the NANews partner link:

https://zadarma.com/en/?ref=23b32c008f2740949f1ac024ef29097f

After registration, the usual order of actions is as follows:

1. Choose a country.
2. Choose a city, national, mobile, or toll-free number.
3. Check the connection fee and monthly service charge.
4. Clarify the cost of incoming and outgoing calls.
5. Check the possibility of receiving SMS.
6. Upload documents if necessary.
7. Connect the number.
8. Install the application.
9. Set up call reception.
10. If necessary, connect a cloud PBX and forwarding.

Do not choose a number solely based on a low price. Sometimes a cheaper option does not support SMS, requires confirmation of a local address, or has usage restrictions.

How to receive calls on a smartphone and computer

Zadarma allows you to receive calls in several ways.

Smartphone application

The application can be installed on Android or iPhone. After authorization, the virtual number works via Wi-Fi or mobile internet.

This is the simplest option for one user.

Computer program

Calls can be received on a computer with a headset. This option is suitable for consultants, support operators, and employees who spend most of their workday at the computer.

IP phone

In the office, you can install a familiar desktop device that connects not to a regular phone line, but to the internet.

Forwarding

If a person does not want to use the application or is temporarily without internet, calls can be forwarded to a regular mobile or landline number.

It is necessary to remember that forwarding itself may be charged as an outgoing call from the virtual number to the destination number.

Cloud PBX

For a team, it is better to use a cloud PBX. It allows you to distribute calls among employees and add business functions that are not available on a regular SIM card.

What is a cloud PBX

A cloud PBX is a virtual telephone system for a company. You do not need to buy and install a physical office station for it.

With a PBX, you can:

• connect several employees;
• assign internal numbers;
• set up a voice greeting;
• create a menu “press 1 to contact the sales department”;
• distribute calls in a queue;
• transfer the call to another employee;
• set working hours;
• enable voicemail;
• record conversations;
• view statistics;
• connect CRM.

Zadarma Cloud PBX supports call forwarding, call recording, call queue, call hold, and phone activity analysis.

This is especially useful for companies whose employees work from home, are in different cities, or even in different countries.

Call recording and statistics

Call recording helps restore agreements, control the quality of consultations, and resolve disputes.

In Zadarma, recordings can be listened to through the cloud PBX statistics section. They are stored in the cloud, and important conversations can be saved separately.

Before enabling recording, it is necessary to check the legislation of the country where the participants of the conversation are located. In some jurisdictions, the interlocutor must be notified in advance about the recording.

For this, you can add an automatic voice message before connecting to an employee.

Statistics allow you to see:

• the number of incoming and outgoing calls;
• missed calls;
• duration of conversations;
• waiting time;
• the employee who answered the call;
• the source of the inquiry when using call tracking.

Telephony integration with CRM

When integrated with CRM, an employee can see the client’s card during an incoming call, make calls with one click, and save the communication history.

Depending on the system used, the following are available:

• automatic opening of the client’s card;
• saving the date and duration of the call;
• attaching the call recording;
• creating a new contact;
• distributing clients among managers;
• employee performance statistics.

Zadarma offers integrations with various CRMs and services. For example, integration with Bitrix24 supports one-click calls, client card opening, call recordings, and full call statistics.

Is it possible to receive SMS

The ability to receive SMS depends on the country and the specific type of number.

Not all landline, national, and mobile numbers support SMS. In some cases, the function needs to be activated separately, identity confirmed, and the number paid for immediately for the established minimum period.

Zadarma’s official conditions provide for receiving messages through:

• Android app;
• iOS app;
• Windows program;
• email;
• personal account;
• some messengers;
• CRM and integrated services.

The tariff page separately states that SMS reception is available only for mobile numbers of certain countries. Activation may require connecting the number for at least three months and uploading identity documents. At the same time, the service does not guarantee receiving messages from foreign senders.

Therefore, before payment, it is necessary to open the conditions of the specific number and ensure that it indeed supports the required type of messages.

Is a virtual number suitable for WhatsApp and Telegram

This is one of the most common questions, but it is impossible to give a universal guarantee.

Some virtual numbers accept registration codes for WhatsApp, WhatsApp Business, Telegram, and other platforms. However, the platforms themselves may restrict the use of VoIP numbers, change verification rules, or refuse to send codes to certain ranges.

Even having the SMS function does not mean that a message from a bank, government service, or messenger will necessarily arrive at the number.

Therefore, a virtual number is best chosen primarily for calls and business communication. The possibility of registration in a specific application should be considered as a separate function that needs to be checked before purchase.

Zadarma publishes instructions on using virtual numbers for WhatsApp Business but also indicates the need to choose a suitable number and provide the requested documents.

It cannot be promised to the reader that any Zadarma number will be guaranteed suitable for WhatsApp, Telegram, bank account, or two-factor authentication.

What documents may be required

A virtual number cannot be considered a completely anonymous tool.

Requirements are set by operators and the legislation of the country. Depending on the direction, they may request:

• passport;
• identity card;
• photo of the owner;
• proof of home address;
• company registration documents;
• office address;
• proof of connection with the chosen city or region;
• description of the intended use of the number.

For some numbers, it is enough to undergo a standard identity check. Others are available only to residents, companies, or people with an address in the corresponding country.

Before payment, it is important to carefully read the connection conditions. If the required document is missing, the number may not be activated.

How much does a virtual number cost

There is no single price. The cost depends on:

• country;
• city;
• type of number;
• mobile or landline range;
• SMS reception capability;
• payment term;
• chosen tariff plan;
• number of employees;
• additional functions.

Expenses may include:

• one-time connection fee;
• monthly or annual subscription fee;
• outgoing calls;
• call forwarding;
• incoming calls to 800 numbers;
• record storage;
• additional workstations;
• additional numbers.

On Zadarma’s official pages, prices are displayed separately for each country and type of number. Some numbers are connected without a one-time fee, but this does not mean that their further use will be completely free.

Before ordering, it is necessary to calculate not only the cost of the number itself but also the estimated number of calls.

Advantages of a virtual number

The main advantages include:

• no physical SIM card required;
• can connect a number from another country;
• calls are received from anywhere with the internet;
• one smartphone can service multiple numbers;
• personal and work communication are separated;
• the number does not depend on one device;
• multiple employees can be connected;
• call forwarding and voice menu are available;
• calls can be recorded and analyzed;
• integration with CRM is possible;
• the number is convenient to use during trips;
• the company can create a local communication channel for foreign clients.

Disadvantages and limitations

Virtual telephony is not suitable for everyone. The following should be considered:

• call quality depends on the internet;
• initial setup may seem unfamiliar;
• not all numbers support SMS;
• receiving bank and messenger codes is not guaranteed;
• additional documents are required for some countries;
• call forwarding may be charged separately;
• rates vary by destination;
• 800 numbers may have paid incoming calls;
• a virtual number does not replace regular mobile communication in emergency situations;
• a foreign number does not create a legal presence for the company;
• violation of service rules or legislation may lead to number disconnection.

Who is Zadarma suitable for

The service can be useful for:

• entrepreneurs;
• freelancers;
• lawyers;
• realtors;
• consultants;
• online store owners;
• repair and service companies;
• travel agencies;
• international projects;
• remote teams;
• support services;
• people living between several countries;
• companies that need separate numbers for different markets.

Zadarma may be excessive for a person who only needs one verification code or a temporary number for a few minutes. Permanent virtual telephony is usually not intended for such tasks.

What to check before connecting

Before paying for a number, you should answer a few questions:

1. Is a number needed for calls or also for SMS?
2. What country and city code is required?
3. Can a non-resident register the number?
4. What documents are required?
5. How much does the connection cost?
6. What is the monthly fee?
7. Are incoming calls charged?
8. How much do outgoing calls cost?
9. Is call forwarding charged?
10. Can multiple employees be connected?
11. Is call recording needed?
12. Is the used CRM supported?
13. Are there any restrictions for WhatsApp or Telegram?
14. What happens to the number if payment is late?

This approach will help avoid a situation where an inexpensive number turns out to be unsuitable for a specific task.

A virtual number is a tool, not a magic solution

A virtual number allows you to live in one country, work with clients in other countries, and receive calls over the internet without multiple physical SIM cards.

It can become a separate work number, a phone line for an international project, or the basis of a full-fledged cloud PBX with multiple employees, call recording, and CRM.

However, before connecting, it is necessary to carefully check the conditions of the chosen country, SMS support, document requirements, call forwarding costs, and the rules of third-party services.

The editorial team of NANovosti uses Zadarma and considers virtual telephony a convenient practical tool for international communication. However, the choice of a specific number should depend not on advertising, but on the user’s tasks.

You can view available countries, numbers, and connection conditions via the NANovosti partner link:

https://zadarma.com/en/?ref=23b32c008f2740949f1ac024ef29097f

This is a partner link. If the reader registers and starts using the service, the NANovosti editorial team may receive a reward. Clicking the link does not change the rates published on the Zadarma website for the user.

Between the forests of the Chernobyl disaster zone, closed to visitors, and Bucha — the site of genocide perpetrated by the Russian army in the suburbs of Kyiv, lies the Ukrainian village of Sidorovychi, where the classic of Hebrew literature Haim Azaz and Nehemia Rabichev — the father of Yitzhak were born.

Original and full version of the article – (Eng) Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.

At the end of the 19th century, both the village and the entire region were often part of the “Pale of Settlement.”

In 1886, Nehem Rabichev was born in Sidorovychi. At the age of 18, he emigrated to the USA (1904) and there changed his surname to Rabin. After moving to the Land of Israel, he had his firstborn son – the future Prime Minister of the State of Israel Yitzhak Rabin (1922-1995).

Nehemia Rabichev was a member of the Tel Aviv City Council for many years, one of the first employees of the Israel Electric Corporation, and a member of the Executive Committee of the trade unions.

Twelve years after Nehemia Rabichev’s birth, the famous future Hebrew writer Haim Azaz (1898 — 1973), the first laureate of the Israel Prize for Literature (1953) and a member of the Academy of the Hebrew Language, was born in the same village.

His father managed a sawmill, so the future writer’s childhood was spent in a small house in the middle of a dense forest.

This forest near the Ukrainian village became the setting for a dramatic plot and one of the natural characters in Azaz’s first novel “In the Forest” (1930, Tel Aviv). Descriptions of nature and forest life from this novel later became classics of Hebrew literature.

Return to the Roots

The connection between Israel and Sidorovychi was renewed in 2011, when, on the initiative of the head of the educational project “Limmud” Haim Chesler, a memorial plaque was installed in the village in honor of Nehemia Rabichev and his children.

A memorial plaque in honor of Nehemia Rabichev and his children

Nehemia’s grandson and Yitzhak’s son Yuval Rabin participated in the opening ceremony.

“My father, like me, was born in Israel. But echoes of the place where my grandfather was born resonated in our family. For example, my father loved Ukrainian borscht and dumplings. It is very touching for me to visit my grandfather’s homeland — I have returned to the roots,” Yuval Rabin told the press at the time.

Next to the memorial sign, the flag of Israel was installed, and books about Israel and works of Jewish literature were donated to the village library in the local House of Culture.

“It was very scary”

The House of Culture planned to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Yitzhak Rabin’s birth on March 1, 2022. But it was not meant to be. Five days before this date, on February 24, 2022, Russian troops invaded Ukraine.

The village found itself in the path of the invaders on the way to Kyiv — the capital of Ukraine. Passing through the Chernobyl zone, Russian soldiers entered Sidorovychi on February 25. Thus began 35 days of brutal occupation.

“It was very scary. We were bombed and looted. Seven houses were completely destroyed, and 52 houses were partially damaged. The House of Culture, where many children went, was severely damaged. During the Russian occupation, all the windows were completely broken, and the roof and doors were smashed. The library was also severely damaged, and many books were lost,” says the director of the House of Culture in Sidorovychi, Tatyana Nikolaevna Mukhoid.

“Russian soldiers went from house to house looting. If they weren’t opened, they blew up doors and windows, stealing everything they could — household appliances and food. People lived in fear. Those who could, left the village. There was a shortage of food and even bread. Neighbors shared what they could. We lived without electricity and water,” Tatyana continues.

The memorial plaque in honor of the Rabin family was moved by local residents to the library, which became a shelter for that single commemorative sign symbolizing the international connections of this village.

A characteristic moment: Russian soldiers, before retreating from the village, stole not only washing machines from the homes of peaceful residents.

Putin’s soldiers stole the flag of Israel from the library, which was gifted to the village during the opening of the memorial plaque.

Let’s think about the symbolism of this action: Russian soldiers take the flag of Israel as a trophy from a Ukrainian village.

When the story of the village of Sidorovychi became known to the Israeli ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, his reaction was immediate. On the ambassador’s orders, a flag of Israel was delivered to the village — to replace the flag stolen by the Russian occupiers; medicine was also delivered.

In the liberated Ukrainian village, which gave Israel such outstanding figures, there is now once again an Israeli flag.

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The tour will take place from October 10 to 18, 2026, covering several cities in Israel: Nof HaGalil, Ashdod, Netanya, Ashkelon, Rishon LeZion, Petah Tikva, Be’er Sheva, and Haifa. All concerts are scheduled for 20:00, and tickets, according to the organizers Showman, range from 174 to 265 shekels in different cities.

Tickets are already available on the Showman website. 

This is not just a tour of a Ukrainian duo.

For many Israelis, especially those whose family histories are connected with Kyiv, Podolia, Odessa, Chernivtsi, Zhytomyr, Berdychiv, or Uman, this concert may be a meeting with that cultural world that cannot always be explained in words. It lives in songs, intonations, old records, family recipes, Yiddish words, grandmother’s memories, and that special music where joy and sadness almost never exist separately.

Who are The Alibi Sisters

Anna and Angelina Zavalsky have been known to the Ukrainian public since the early 2000s as the group “Алібі”. The project appeared on April 6, 2001, and since 2021, the sisters have been performing as The Alibi Sisters. The group’s profile lists pop and klezmer genres, and among the languages of performance are Ukrainian, Russian, and Yiddish.

There is an important detail in the duo’s biography: the sisters were soloists of the folk ensemble “Strumochok” from the age of five, graduated from music school in 1997 with a focus on violin, and later moved on to the professional stage, television, albums, and a large Ukrainian audience. In 2012, “Алібі” ceased artistic activity, but in 2021 the project returned in a new form — with a different musical perspective, sound, and a deeper appeal to Ukrainian-Jewish heritage.

It is this transition that makes the current Israeli tour particularly interesting.

The Alibi Sisters are no longer just nostalgia for the Ukrainian pop scene of the 2000s. It is an attempt to hear anew that cultural layer where Ukrainian folk songs, Yiddish, klezmer, Jewish hits, theatricality, family memory, and the retro image of the 1950s–1960s merge into a cohesive stage form.

Why this concert is important specifically for Israel

In an interview with Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, published on May 15, 2025, Anna Zavalsky explained in detail that the Ukrainian-Jewish theme for the sisters is not a random stylization. She said that even on a household level in Ukraine, many people partially remain carriers of Jewish culture — through songs, dish names, words, family habits, and memory, which was not always openly passed on but often very deeply.

In the same interview, Anna recalled challah, stuffed fish, Yiddish words in family speech, and the song “Vi iz dos gesele,” which their grandmother sang to them in childhood. Such details are important because they show: for The Alibi Sisters, Yiddish and Jewish musical tradition are not museum exhibits but part of living memory that returns through voice, stage, and personal history.

For Israel, this resonates particularly accurately.

Here live people for whom Yiddish is the language of childhood, the language of parents or grandparents, the language of old songs, jokes, prayers, family conversations, and the Eastern European Jewish world. And even if someone no longer speaks Yiddish, music is often recognized faster than words.

Tour organizers describe the program as a concert with a live band, retro aesthetics, dance drive, klezmer spirit, and songs where Jewish hits, Ukrainian folk songs, well-known Ukrainian pop compositions, and world hits sound together. Among the announced Jewish songs are Bublitchki, Main Yiddishe Mamme, Papirossen, Ich Hob Dich Zifeel Lieb, and others.

You can listen on https://www.youtube.com/@TheAlibiSisters

NAnews — Israel News and sTDe | NAnews — event listings in Israel note: in this format, the concert becomes not only a musical event but also a cultural meeting. Here, not only the stage is important, but also who sits in the audience, what family associations arise for the viewers, and why the Ukrainian-Jewish theme sounds so attentively today.

The Berry Sisters, Kyiv, and a return to the Yiddish world

The Showman poster states that Anna and Angelina Zavalsky are inspired by the work of the legendary Berry Sisters. Organizers emphasize the retro atmosphere, live band, and the sense of a time when Yiddish was heard in apartments and on the streets, and Ukrainian and Jewish melodies could alternate at weddings and family celebrations.

In an interview with UJE, Anna Zavalsky also spoke about the connection with the Berry Sisters but clarified an important point: The Alibi Sisters do not try to be a copy of the legendary duo. They use the power of “sisterly thirds,” retro aesthetics, and recognizable vocal kinship while remaining an independent Ukrainian project.

This distinction is fundamental.

When Ukrainian artists sing in Yiddish in Israel, they do not just reproduce old melodies. They reconnect Kyiv, Podolia, the Ukrainian stage, Jewish musical memory, and the modern experience of war, emigration, loss, and return to roots.

In the same interview, Anna Zavalsky said that returning to the Yiddish world is impossible physically, but possible as memory, respect, and a form of cultural return. In her view, it is important to remember not only the tragedy but also life: laughter, food, conversations, love, Sholem Aleichem’s books, and the human warmth of a vanished world.

That is why the Israeli tour of The Alibi Sisters does not look like an ordinary poster for a week in October.

This is a concert for those who want to hear Ukraine not only through war news but through music, culture, voices, and those connections that have existed for centuries between Ukrainians and Jews.

Where and when The Alibi Sisters concerts will take place in Israel

According to Showman, The Alibi Sisters concert tour has been rescheduled to new dates and will take place in Israel from October 10 to 18, 2026.

Nof HaGalil — October 10, 2026

The concert in Nof HaGalil will take place on October 10, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: Berkovich Cultural Center.

Address: Derech HaChativot 4.

Ticket prices: 175–235 ₪.

Ashdod — October 11, 2026

In Ashdod, The Alibi Sisters will perform on October 11, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: Matnas Duna-Yud.

Address: Keren Kayemet LeIsrael St. 90.

Ticket prices: 195–255 ₪.

Netanya — October 12, 2026

The concert in Netanya will take place on October 12, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: Arik Einstein Auditorium.

Address: Beni Berman St. 6.

Ticket prices: 225–255 ₪.

Ashkelon — October 13, 2026

In Ashkelon, the concert is scheduled for October 13, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: Matnas “Woldenberg”.

Address: Gruper St. 15.

Ticket prices: 174–225 ₪.

Rishon LeZion — October 14, 2026

In Rishon LeZion, The Alibi Sisters will perform on October 14, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: “Mofet” Hall.

Address: Rothschild St. 60.

Ticket prices: 195–255 ₪.

Petah Tikva — October 15, 2026

The concert in Petah Tikva will take place on October 15, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: “Sharet” Hall.

Address: HaAliya HaShniya St. 1.

Ticket prices: 195–255 ₪.

Be’er Sheva — October 17, 2026

In Be’er Sheva, the concert will take place on October 17, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: Tamuz — House of Music.

Address: Herzl St. 12.

Ticket prices: 235–265 ₪.

Haifa — October 18, 2026

The final concert of the Israeli tour is announced in Haifa on October 18, 2026, at 20:00.

Venue: “Rappaport” Hall.

Address: HaNasi Ave. 138.

Ticket prices: 195–255 ₪.

Tickets are already available on the Showman website. 

What will be featured in the program

A program with a live band is expected, where Jewish hits in Yiddish, Ukrainian folk songs, well-known Ukrainian compositions, and world retro classics will sound not as separate numbers but as one musical route. The organizers’ description highlights the klezmer spirit, dance energy, nostalgia, and stage theatricality.

For the Israeli audience, this may be particularly relatable: here, Ukrainian motifs do not conflict with Jewish ones but become part of a shared memory. And perhaps that is why The Alibi Sisters in Israel are perceived not as foreign performers but as artists who bring a familiar code — only in a new, bright, and stage-assembled form.

NAnews — Israel News will follow cultural events that connect Israel, Ukraine, and Jewish communities through music, history, and living human memory.

Tickets and tour schedule:

Tickets are already available on the Showman website. 

Jews from Ukraine, including from Galicia, played a significant role in the formation of modern Israel.

One of the iconic stories was the founding in 1920 of the first Zionist commune, Beitaniya Illit, associated with the Shomer HaTzair youth movement. This was not just an experiment, but a whole philosophy that formed the basis of many future kibbutzim.

Young Jews from Galicia, inspired by the ideas of returning to the Land of Israel, came here to build a new life. They were united by belonging to the Shomer HaTzair movement, based on the principles of collectivism, equality and labor.

The commune collapsed after 8 months of difficult trials, but gave birth to dozens of kibbutzim and leaders of Israel.

Commune Beitaniya Illit was located in the Lower Galilee, not far from the Kinneret, at the intersection of roads to Kibbutz Alumot.

In 1964, a memorial dedicated to the Shomer HaTzair movement and the 73 kibbutzim founded by members of this movement was opened here. that's where it is on the map.

The tent-like monument was designed by architect Yechiel Arad. From the top of the memorial there is a panoramic view of the Jordan Valley, Kinneret, Golan Heights and Hermon.

It was here, in 1921, that an experiment that became a legend in the history of Zionism was completed.

He told me about him in detail Shimon Briman for the website (Ukrainian) “Ukrainian-Jewish Zustricha”.

How it all began: the idealism of young Galicians

In the spring of 1921, the experiment, which went down in history as the “Galician project,” was completed.

In the summer of 1920, the “Galician landing” of 131 people arrived in Galilee. These were young men and women, many of whom left Lvov and other cities of Western Ukraine. Their main goal was to create a new type of Jewish society.

Problems and challenges of the commune

The youth faced many difficulties. Life in Betaniya was full of challenges:

• Harsh living conditions: tents and temporary shelters did not protect from strong winds and winter cold.
• Lack of food: food was meager, and physical labor was exhausting.
• Conflicts in the group: participants discussed each other's personal qualities, which often led to quarrels and tension.

Constant lack of resources, disease and internal conflicts eventually led to the collapse of the commune in the spring of 1921. However, its members became the founders of many kibbutzim in Israel.

Leaders of the “Galician wave” and their contribution

How it all ended

Beitaniya, the first commune of the world's first Zionist youth movement, Shomer HaTza'ir, disintegrated after eight months of difficult trials, but gave birth to dozens of kibbutzim and leaders in Israel. Almost all the leaders and participants in this experiment were Jews from the cities and towns of Galicia.

It was from this region of modern Ukraine that at the end of July 1920, an organized “landing party” arrived in the Land of Israel – 131 people, familiar from the meeting in the Shomer Ha-Tzair groups, all 18-20 years old. Most are boys, the rest are girls.

They left their parents and abundance to return from the diaspora to their land. They left the comfort of the city for hard work. They were inspired by the idea of ​​​​creating a New Man – a free Jew in their ancient homeland.

After the collapse of Beitaniya Illit, its members descended into the valleys of Galilee and became the founders of many kibbutzim. Despite the difficulties, the experiment was not in vain – it laid the foundation for future Zionist settlements.

The kibbutzim created by these idealists became not only economic, but also cultural centers of young Israel. Their ideas of collectivism and work inspired new generations of Zionists.

Historical heritage

Betaniya-Illit remains a symbol of courage, self-sacrifice and faith in ideals. Today, when we talk about the relationship between Ukraine and Israel, it is important to remember how Jews from Galicia contributed to the building of the modern Jewish state.

Our website NANews – Israel News emphasizes that the story of Betaniya is an example of how courage and the desire for freedom can change the future of an entire people.

More in the section “Jews from Ukraine”.

…

Read on WhatsApp – channel NAnews ↓ — Israel News

Read on Telegram – channel NAnews ↓ — Israel News

Author of NANews – Israel News: Pavel Shveyko

On August 23, 2026, on the eve of Ukraine’s Independence Day, the CEO of JNF-KKL Eurasia, Igal Yasinov, recorded an address to Ukrainians from the ‘Ukraine’ forest in the Negev. At first glance, it’s a few minutes of festive video. But the place chosen for the recording changes the meaning of the address: Yasinov stands among the trees of a project he was involved in more than ten years ago. The official website of JNF-KKL Eurasia still lists his position as the organization’s CEO.

“Look around, trees grow slowly, but they withstand storms.

This is exactly how Israel is. This is exactly how Ukraine is. This is exactly how people are, who continue to build the future even under shelling.

Today I congratulate the worthy Kharkiv, I congratulate Ukraine on Independence Day. I greet everyone who believes in freedom more strongly than the enemies believe in their weapons.

Eternal memory to those who gave their lives for freedom. Glory to the heroes defending Ukraine today. Glory to the heroes defending Israel today. Glory to Ukraine and glory to Israel.

Peace to our countries. And may the day come when our children know the sound of the wind in the trees better than the sound of sirens.

Friends, we are united. Victory to us!”

JNF-KKL is the Jewish National Fund, in Hebrew קרן קיימת לישראל, Keren Kayemet Le-Israel. The organization has existed since 1901; today its areas include forests and the environment, water, land development, education, tourism, and research projects. Therefore, the word ‘forest’ in this story is not a conditional name for a monument: it is indeed about a KKL project within the Dorot forest massif in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council. KKL itself has called it both יער אוקראינה-דורות — ‘Ukraine-Dorot Forest’ and ‘Ukraine Grove’ within the Dorot forest at different times.

I was born and raised in Ukraine, and Israel became my new home.

Therefore, for NANews — Israel News, I decided not to limit myself to retelling the congratulation. I compared the transcript of the current video with KKL materials from 2015, 2017, and 2018, the ‘Ukrainians in Israel’ page about the planting on April 6, 2016, publications of the World Odessa Club about the events of 2014, and reports from Israeli media about the fires in the Dorot forest.

The biography of Yasinov himself also turned out to be part of this story: Kharkiv in his address is not a Ukrainian city chosen by an editor, but the place of his birth.

It is in such a comparison that details are discovered that are not in the short congratulation. For example, in December 2015, KKL planned to transfer the presidential olive tree to the Ukrainian forest for the upcoming Tu BiShvat, but the documented planting took place only on April 6, 2016. And the official KKL material from 2018 again tells about the transfer of one of the olives to Dorot. This is no longer a smooth anniversary chronicle, but a story where documents from different years have to be read side by side.

Why August 23 turned out to be no less important for a native of Kharkiv than the 24th

Yasinov’s address does not start with Kyiv or even Independence Day. He talks about Kharkiv: the city where he was born, where liberation from Nazi occupation was once celebrated, and which during the current war lives again under sirens and explosions. In the video transcript, it sounds: ‘August 23 for Kharkiv is not just a date.’ After this, Yasinov talks about the ability of Kharkiv residents to withstand ‘then’ and ‘now’.

The Israeli reader needs context here. August 23 in Kharkiv traditionally marks City Day and the day of liberation from Nazi occupation in 1943. Ukrainian official regional sources continue to associate this date with both events. At the same time, there is a separate historical discussion around the wording ‘liberation on August 23’: the fighting around the city did not end in one moment, so today Ukrainian historians discuss how accurately the Soviet calendar formula describes what happened on the ground. For Yasinov’s speech, something else is more important: for a person of his generation, this date has been part of Kharkiv’s memory for decades.

And on August 24, 1991, the Verkhovna Rada of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Act of Declaration of Independence of Ukraine. This is not analogous to Israel’s Yom Ha’atzmaut in calendar logic—the two countries have completely different historical trajectories—but for an Israeli, the function of the holiday is clear: it is the main state day of modern Ukraine. In 2026, it marks 35 years since the adoption of the Act.

Therefore, the sequence in the address is not accidental: on August 23, Yasinov remembers his city, and then talks about the state. ‘And the next day Ukraine will celebrate Independence Day,’ he continues. In his speech, the holiday is immediately associated not with a parade or official protocol, but with the price of freedom during the war.

Former Knesset member from Kharkiv: who is Igal Yasinov

Igal Yasinov was born on April 27, 1966, in Kharkiv, then part of the Ukrainian SSR, and repatriated to Israel in 1993 from independent Ukraine. He is now 60 years old. In the current video, he says he has lived in Israel, ‘in Holy Jerusalem,’ for more than 33 years, and draws a personal conclusion from this: Kharkiv and Jerusalem are closer to each other today than they seem on the map.

Before his current work at KKL, Yasinov went through Israeli parliamentary politics. In the elections on January 28, 2003, the secular party ‘Shinui’ received 15 mandates; Yasinov was fifteenth on its list and entered the 16th Knesset. For a reader who does not remember the political map of Israel in the early 2000s: ‘Shinui’ was a secular middle-class party that advocated, among other things, for limiting religious pressure on civil life. Yasinov himself spoke about ecology, student rights, reservists, and workers’ rights in interviews before the elections.

In the Knesset, he also dealt with aliyah issues. Here the word aliyah means the repatriation of Jews to Israel based on the Law of Return. On the current official KKL page, among Yasinov’s previous positions, chairmanship in the structure supporting scientist-repatriates is indicated; he was also part of the leadership of the organization of teacher-repatriates. Therefore, working with immigrants from the former USSR appeared in his biography long before his current position at JNF-KKL Eurasia.

His political career ended quite unusually. On February 1, 2006, Yasinov left ‘Shinui’ and created the ‘Ha-Olim’ faction—the name can be translated as ‘Repatriates’. During the same period, it merged into the ‘National Unity — Our Home Israel’ bloc, after which ‘Our Home Israel’ separated into an independent parliamentary faction. The official Knesset database maintains this sequence by dates.

After parliamentary politics, his work became increasingly connected with KKL. Over the years, he held leadership positions in the fund, and today the official structure of JNF-KKL Eurasia calls him the CEO. Therefore, the phrase from the current video ‘I had the honor of leading its creation’ about the ‘Ukraine’ forest, I decided to verify not as a beautiful memory of a former politician, but by the documents of the time itself.

From the Odessa Grove to 1200 dunams: how the Ukrainian forest appeared in the Negev

The first trace leads to April 2014, and this is important: the official ‘Ukraine Forest’ project took shape later, but Ukrainian trees appeared in this place earlier. On April 23, during the international OdessAviv festival, the creation of the Odessa Grove began in the north of the Negev, designed for about a thousand trees. Publications of the World Odessa Club and ‘Evening Odessa’ of that time directly call it the beginning of the future Ukrainian forest.

It is here that a direct connection with Yasinov appears.

The World Odessa Club wrote that the decision to lay the Ukraine forest was made at the initiative of the former Kharkiv resident Igal Yasinov, who headed the relevant direction of the fund, and the Odessa Grove became the first stage. The head of the Israeli branch of the club, documentary filmmaker Boris Sobolev, insisted on the grove project and, according to the club itself and the Odessa press, paid for the planting of a thousand trees. This allows us to draw an important line: Sobolev’s funding of the Odessa Grove is documented, but I found no basis to attribute to him the funding of the entire future ‘Ukraine Forest’.

The first olive tree was planted in honor of Mikhail Zhvanetsky. The ceremony was attended by Yasinov, Sobolev, and a representative of the World Odessa Club, Arkady Kreimer; there also appeared a tree on behalf of Odessa and a tree in memory of Boris Litvak, an Odessa philanthropist, creator of the famous Children’s Rehabilitation Center ‘House with an Angel’. In one of the reports of that time, an almost everyday detail was preserved: when Yasinov was asked what connection he himself had to Odessa, he replied that his grandmother Sofia Mostovaya was an opera singer there.

Why Odessa became the first city within the Ukrainian project is explained not only by the activity of the modern Odessa community. In today’s video, Yasinov also mentions two other people. In Odessa, Yona Krementsky was born, elected as the first head of KKL after the fund’s creation in 1901; KKL writes that he led it until 1907 and was one of the people who turned the idea of a national fund into a practical organization.

There, too, was born Ze’ev Jabotinsky, one of the most influential Zionist leaders of the 20th century, founder of Revisionist Zionism and the BETAR movement. For the Israeli reader, Jabotinsky is well known from the streets, parks, and political history of the country; the connection of the first head of KKL with Odessa is much less known.

But it is important not to confuse causes and later explanations. Sources from 2014 show the direct role of the World Odessa Club and Sobolev in the appearance of the grove. The historical link with Krementsky and Jabotinsky is real, but I did not find a 2014 document in which it is named as the reason for the choice of name. In the current address, Yasinov adds this historical layer twelve years later.

In December 2015, the scale becomes different.

The official JNF-KKL already writes about the ‘Ukraine Forest’ with an area of 1200 dunams in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council. For an Israeli, a dunam is a familiar unit of area; 1200 dunams correspond to about 120 hectares, and it was the figure of 120 hectares that Ukrainian reports on the project cited. In publications from the Ukrainian side of those years, it was called the first forest in Israel dedicated to another state.

On December 22, 2015, the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko planted an olive tree during an official visit in the Grove of Nations of the Jerusalem Forest. This is another object, in Jerusalem, and should not be confused with Dorot. At the same time, Poroshenko planted an additional seedling in a special vessel; the official KKL reported that later the Ukrainian ambassador Gennady Nadolenko was to plant it in the יער אוקראינה-דורות, the ‘Ukraine-Dorot’ forest in Sha’ar HaNegev.

Here begins the first small mystery of chronology.

KKL in December 2015 wrote that Nadolenko would plant this seedling on the nearest Tu BiShvat—the Jewish New Year of Trees, when plantings are traditionally held in Israel. However, the source ‘Ukrainians in Israel‘ records the ceremony only on April 6, 2016. Tu BiShvat had already passed by that time. This means the original calendar changed, although the reasons for the postponement are not explained in the available publications.

On April 6, Nadolenko transplanted the presidential olive into the ground, and the staff of the Ukrainian embassy planted the first seedlings nearby, which became part of the ‘Ukraine Forest’. Yasinov then reported that by Ukraine’s Independence Day, it was planned to install a board with the forest’s name. A small post already stood at the presidential tree, which they planned to mark on Google Maps so that, as Yasinov said, anyone could find ‘a piece of Ukraine on Israeli soil’.

It turns out to be a rare opportunity to see the project not in hindsight. In 2014, participants only talked about the future Ukrainian forest. In December 2015, KKL already names the area and official location. In April 2016, embassy staff indeed stand there with seedlings, and Yasinov promises to put the name on the map. In August 2026, he is again among these trees—only now they do not need to be imagined as a plan.

Poroshenko’s olive, the Ukrainian language, and the fire in Dorot: the story after the first planting

The Ukrainian line of KKL continued beyond Dorot. On May 15, 2017, Ukrainian Prime Minister Volodymyr Groysman planted an olive tree in the Grove of Nations in Jerusalem. Yasinov led the ceremony and separately explained why it was held in Ukrainian: KKL wanted to show respect for the Ukrainian state and remind of the first head of the fund, Yona Krementsky, born in Odessa. This is an important detail—the Ukrainian language was used by KKL in an official ceremony long before the current congratulation.

The next documented date of the forest itself is October 29, 2018. The official JNF-KKL reported a ceremony in southern Israel in the Dorot forest and for the first time clearly formulated the project’s structure: ‘part of the Dorot forest massif is a specially planted grove bearing the name of Ukraine’. Therefore, arguing whether this is a ‘forest’ or a ‘grove’ is essentially pointless. The name ‘Ukraine Forest’ became attached to the project, and territorially the Ukrainian memorial part is located within the larger Dorot forest.

On that day, a memorial stele was unveiled at the site of the established olive tree associated with Poroshenko’s visit. Ambassador Gennady Nadolenko, staff of the Ukrainian embassy, representatives of KKL, the public, and the media were present. And here appears the second discrepancy between archival texts, which I would not cover up for the sake of a beautiful chronology.

The 2016 source directly states that Nadolenko already transplanted Poroshenko’s olive into the ground on April 6, 2016. KKL in the 2018 material formulates the story differently: it was decided to transplant one of the two olive trees planted by the president in Jerusalem in 2015 into the Ukrainian grove, after which it talks about the stele at the site where the tree took root. From the available texts, it is unclear whether it was about a second relocation of the tree within the project, about the other of the two olives, or just an inaccurate retrospective formulation by KKL. Therefore, the two dates—2016 and 2018—are better left as two documented stages, rather than inventing a missing explanation between them.

Another phrase from the current address also had to be checked separately. Yasinov says: ‘This forest also came under fire, but it withstood and continues to grow’. I did not find reliable confirmation of a direct rocket hit specifically in the Ukrainian grove after October 7, 2023, so such a conclusion cannot be made on behalf of the editorial office.

But the Dorot forest did indeed burn as a result of attacks from the Gaza Strip. In July 2018, Israeli media reported fires caused by incendiary balloons and kites; on July 30-31, a fire broke out in the Dorot Forest in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council. The fires were extinguished by firefighters, KKL staff, and aviation. Thus, a forest massif affected by attacks, of which the Ukrainian grove is a part, is documented; a separate hit directly on the Ukrainian stele or presidential olive is not documented.

For NANews — Israel News, this distinction is fundamental. The speaker’s phrase remains part of his address, while the fact we verified has narrower boundaries. As soon as these two things are mixed, the symbolic story begins to replace the documentary one.

Where the ‘Ukraine’ forest is located and how to find the Ukrainian grove yourself

The most practical part of this story has been preserved thanks to publications from April 2016. When Yasinov said that Poroshenko’s tree would appear on Google Maps, the Ukrainian embassy indeed provided a link to a point near the Ukrainian section. The old ZN UA publication preserved the message about the link itself; the coordinates of the historical point are 31.5215, 34.6711.

Here it is on Google Maps – https://maps.app.goo.gl/cTrRY59ii1andyEQ7

You should orient yourself to Dorot Forest — יער דורות, in the Sha’ar HaNegev Regional Council — מועצה אזורית שער הנגב, near Kibbutz Dorot. A regional council is an Israeli form of local government that unites several small settlements, mainly kibbutzim and moshavim; it is not a separate city. The area is located in the western part of the northern Negev, near Sderot and the Gaza Strip.

If the navigator does not understand ‘Ukraine forest in Israel’, it does not mean the object has disappeared. We tried searching for יער אוקראינה-דורות, then יער דורות, and for the memorial point itself, we entered the coordinates 31.5215, 34.6711. The last option is more reliable than the old name because small groves and memorial sites of KKL are not always displayed the same way in Google Maps and Waze.

That is why queries like ‘where is the Ukraine forest in Israel’, ‘Ukraine Dorot forest’, ‘how to get to the Ukraine forest in the Negev’, and the Hebrew יער אוקראינה-דורות can lead to materials that at first glance contradict each other. On the KKL 2015 page, the name ‘Ukraine-Dorot Forest’ appears, in 2016 Ukrainian sources simply talk about the ‘Ukraine Forest’, and in 2018 KKL itself clarifies that it is a Ukrainian grove within the Dorot forest massif. This is one location with historically formed name variants, not three different Ukrainian forests.

For a car trip, it is more reasonable to first build a route to Dorot / יער דורות, and the last kilometers — already to the historical point of the Ukrainian section. The area is connected to the regional road 334, passing near Dorot. We would not promise that an ordinary passenger car can always drive right up to the stele: we did not find a separate modern KKL tourist page describing the approach specifically to the Ukrainian grove.

We also checked the current KKL page with warnings for travelers on August 23, 2026. It lists a number of closures and restrictions in the southern forests, but there is no separate notification of the Dorot forest closure at the time of verification. This should still not be perceived as an indefinite guarantee: Sha’ar HaNegev is located near the Gaza Strip, so before the trip, it is necessary to recheck KKL messages and current Home Front Command instructions.

‘Kharkiv and Jerusalem are closer than they appear on the map’: what remained behind the festive congratulation

The most political part of the three-minute video begins after the personal story. Yasinov says that Ukrainians and Israelis know what an air raid alert is, waiting for news from loved ones on the front, night explosions, and the need to lead children to shelter. For an Israeli, this experience does not need to be translated into the language of abstractions: it is about the same minutes when the family goes to the mamad—a protected room in the apartment—or to a public shelter.

Then he says: ‘The same Iranian and Russian weapons in the hands of terrorists bring death’. After it, Yasinov puts Kharkiv, Jerusalem, Kyiv, Be’er Sheva, Sumy, and Tel Aviv in one row.

But the connection itself did not come out of nowhere. Russia and Iran have become military partners over the years of wars, and since 2022, Ukraine regularly faces Iranian-origin strike drones used by Russian forces. Israel, for its part, directly encounters Iranian weapons, technologies, and Tehran-supported armed structures. That Yasinov connects these two realities in one address is already the political content of the congratulation, which is lost if only the phrase ‘congratulated Ukrainians on the holiday’ is left from the video.

Equally important is where these words are spoken from.

Yasinov did not just come to a Ukrainian KKL event. In 2014, his name appears near the Odessa Grove and the idea of the future Ukrainian forest. In 2015, he participates in Poroshenko’s ceremony. In 2016, he explains how to find the new section on Google. In 2017, he conducts a ceremony with Prime Minister Groysman in Ukrainian. In 2026, he returns to this same plot already as the CEO of JNF-KKL Eurasia. This is a sequence that cannot be seen in the shortest video.

At the end of the address, Yasinov talks about trees: they grow slowly, withstand storms, and continue to grow. Then he wishes that children someday know the sound of the wind in the trees better than the sound of sirens.

After checking the archives, this phrase is perceived not as an independent metaphor. The first trees of the Odessa Grove were planted in April 2014; the official history of the large Ukrainian project continued in 2015-2016; in 2018, a stele appeared near the olive, and the Dorot forest in the same period indeed burned after incendiary attacks from Gaza. Therefore, the address on August 23, 2026, can be dated to one day, but the history of the place from which it was recorded is already more than twelve years.

Here is the ‘Ukraine’ forest on Google Maps – https://maps.app.goo.gl/cTrRY59ii1andyEQ7

In November 2026, performances of the play “Odessa Alarm or How One Mishpucha Gathered in a Shelter” will take place in Israel with the participation of People’s Artists of Ukraine Oleg Filimonov and Diana Malaya. This is a tour across six cities — Haifa, Ashdod, Rishon LeZion, Be’er Sheva, Petah Tikva, and Netanya.

Formally — a comedy in Russian with an Odessa “pronunciation”.
In essence — a stage conversation about life during the war.

The play begins with a phrase that has long ceased to be a theatrical convention: “The event will continue if the alarm lasts no more than an hour…” This line sets the tone for the entire action. The audience immediately understands that it is not about a fictional alarm, but about the everyday reality of recent years.

Duration — 1 hour 40 minutes. Age restriction — 12+. Price range depending on the city — approximately 186–256 shekels.

Tour geography: cities, dates, audience

The performances are spread across the country — from north to south.

Netanya — Thursday, 05.11.2026, 19:00
Arik Einstein Auditorium, Netanya

Haifa — Friday, 06.11.2026, 19:00
Krieger Center for the Performing Arts, Haifa

Be’er Sheva — Saturday, 07.11.2026, 20:00
Tamuz Beit Ha-Musika

Rishon LeZion — Monday, 09.11.2026, 19:00
Mofet, Rishon LeZion

Haifa — Wednesday, 11.11.2026, 19:00
Beit-Nagler, Haifa

Petah Tikva — Friday, 13.11.2026, 19:00
Sharet, Petah Tikva

Ashdod — Saturday, 14.11.2026, 19:00
Matnas Duna-Yud, Ashdod

Tickets are already available –

https://nikk.kassa.co.il/announce/85289

Cast:

Husband – Oleg Filimonov, Ukrainian theater and film actor, People’s Artist of Ukraine, member of the KVN team “Odessa Gentlemen”, host of the TV show “Gentlemen Show”, “Filimonov and Company”, “Camera of Laughter” and others.
Wife – Diana Malaya, Ukrainian theater and film actress, People’s Artist of Ukraine, serves in the Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater named after V. Vasylko, starred in films “Deja Vu”, “Liquidation”, “Island of Unwanted People” and others.

The organizers emphasize: the production was conceived as a gesture of solidarity with the Israeli reality, where sirens and shelters are part of everyday life. That is why the tour in Israel is perceived not as a standard tour, but as an accurate hit in the context.

For the Russian-speaking audience of Israel, it is also a return to the Odessa cultural code — humor, intonation, family “mishpucha”, where in the cramped space of the shelter, characters suddenly reveal themselves.

Production team:

Scriptwriters: Alexander Tarasul, Viktor Yavnik, Evgeny Khait
Director: Igor Slavinsky
Assistant Director: Ekaterina Lebedeva
Set Designer: Emzari Kiknavelidze
Music Editor: Sergey Dmitriev
Choreography: Pavel Ivlyushkin
Vocals: Margarita Chernik
Lighting: Vladimir Dubovenko
Photo: Artem Pelevan
Producers: Alexander Tarasul, Viktor Yavnik, Evgeny Khait

What the play is about and why it emerged after 2022

War as a domestic backdrop

After February 24, 2022, Odessa found itself in the zone of regular missile attacks. Air alarms, infrastructure destruction, damage to the historic center — this is not an abstraction, but the backdrop in which artists continue to live and work.

Oleg Filimonov in a 2023 interview directly stated: comedy during war is not frivolity, but a way of psychological protection. According to him, if people are not given the opportunity to laugh, “one can go insane.” This position became the dramatic basis of the new production.

Diana Malaya during the same period continued to serve in the Odessa Academic Ukrainian Music and Drama Theater named after V. Vasylko. In 2022, the theater relaunched its work in the format of “theater in a shelter” — rehearsals and performances took place in protected premises. This was a forced but principled step: cultural life does not stop.

“Odessa Alarm” as a stage response

The play is not about the front and not about politics. It’s about an hour in a shelter.

About a family forced to wait out the siren together.
About irritation, fear, domestic conflicts.
And about laughter that arises where it seemingly has no place.

In 2024, the play was shown in Odessa on February 24 — on the anniversary of the full-scale invasion. In 2025, it was already openly called “a comedy about life in wartime conditions.” This is not an advertising formula, but an accurate definition of the genre.

This is the material the artists are now bringing to Israel.

Helping Ukraine after 2022: the stage as a form of resilience

Public position and personal experience

Filimonov did not hide that his family experienced missile attacks in Odessa. In 2025, there were reports in the media that he installed a concrete shelter on his property — a measure of personal safety that shows the degree of reality of the threat.

This is not a declaration, but everyday life.

Theater work during the war

The Odessa Ukrainian Theater, where Diana Malaya serves, did not cease its activities after the invasion began. It switched to working in a shelter format, continued to release premieres and maintain its repertoire.

Maintaining the stage in a city under attack is also a contribution.
Not in the form of collections, but in the form of resilience of the cultural environment.

International tours as a continuation of the conversation

When a play about alarm and shelter takes the Israeli stage, it ceases to be a local story of Odessa. It becomes a shared experience.

In the middle of the material, NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers this tour not only as a poster but as a cultural bridge between Ukraine and Israel — two societies for which the siren and shelter have become part of reality.

The tours perform several functions at once:
support Ukrainian cultural visibility abroad,
create emotional contact with the diaspora,
transfer the conversation about the war from the plane of news to the plane of human experience.

Why this tour is important right now

The Israeli audience understands the dramaturgy of alarm without explanations.
The Ukrainian audience lives it every day.

“Odessa Alarm” does not try to explain the war. It captures its domestic layer — an hour in a shelter, where people remain themselves.

In conditions where news about the war becomes the backdrop, it is precisely such plays that remind us: culture does not fade into the shadows even under sirens.

And perhaps this is the main contribution of the artists after 2022 — to continue playing when it would have been easier to remain silent.

How to buy tickets

The performances are spread across the country — from north to south.

Netanya — Thursday, 05.11.2026, 19:00
Arik Einstein Auditorium, Netanya

Haifa — Friday, 06.11.2026, 19:00
Krieger Center for the Performing Arts, Haifa

Be’er Sheva — Saturday, 07.11.2026, 20:00
Tamuz Beit Ha-Musika

Rishon LeZion — Monday, 09.11.2026, 19:00
Mofet, Rishon LeZion

Haifa — Wednesday, 11.11.2026, 19:00
Beit-Nagler, Haifa

Petah Tikva — Friday, 13.11.2026, 19:00
Sharet, Petah Tikva

Ashdod — Saturday, 14.11.2026, 19:00
Matnas Duna-Yud, Ashdod

Tickets are already available –

https://nikk.kassa.co.il/announce/85289

At the center of his argument is the idea of “reverse colonialism”: a model in which the colonizer historically appeared less developed in institutional and cultural terms than the colonized territories.

“Reverse colonialism”: Ukraine as a mirror of the colonizer

Not a periphery, but a source of modernity

In Lakomov’s text, Ukraine (like the Baltic countries, Poland, Finland) is described not as a cultural periphery of the empire, but as a space with higher practices of self-governance, economy, and education compared to “deep” Russia.

This asymmetry, according to the author, makes Eastern European colonialism “inverted”: the center gains control but does not bring modernization — it borrows it, displacing and appropriating.

The formula sounds harsh.

But it is precisely on such formulations that the author builds the explanation of why the conflict around Ukraine is not only a struggle for territory but a dispute over the right to be an alternative to the imperial center.

Horde as the original “statehood of control”

Lakomov traces the genealogy of this model to the Golden Horde, describing it not just as a military force, but as a system of governance that relied on three things:

tribute and resource extraction,

subjugation of local elites through dependence and internal conflicts,

sacralization of the ruler’s power “beyond the law”.

In such logic, the state functions as an army and tax mechanism, not as a development project.

This perspective is needed by the author to further discuss Russia as an heir not of “European” imperial practices, but of the Horde matrix.

Horde matrix in the Russian political model

Centralization as a cult, verticality as a habit

The column draws a line from the Horde to Muscovy, then to the Russian Empire and the USSR — and further to modern Russia. Not as a direct historical “copy,” but as a reproducible scheme: the ruler is declared the source of law and morality, and the state exists as a vertical of subordination.

For Lakomov, this is not just journalism about “authoritarianism.”

It is an attempt to explain the resilience of the system through historical habit: power is not limited by institutions, it stands above them.

Army and “tribute” as tools of governance

The second link is exploitation and militarization.

The author describes a model where the army is needed not only for external expansion but also for internal control. And regions and dependent territories are perceived as a source of resources: people, money, raw materials, loyalty.

This motif in the text is deliberately brought from the past to the present — as an explanation of why imperial policy is repeated “geography by geography,” regardless of the era.

At this point, the editorial NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency notes an important nuance for the reader in Israel: such historical frameworks in the Ukrainian discussion are often used not for academic purposes, but as a language of mobilization — to explain why compromise with the imperial project is perceived in Kyiv as a dangerous pause, not as peace.

Isolation and ideology of the “special path”

Another element that Lakomov associates with the Horde legacy is civilizational isolation: opposition to the West, distrust of law and freedoms, prioritization of “force” over rules.

In his description, the ideology of the “Russian world” acts as a hybrid — sacralization of power plus centralism plus rejection of modern individualism. Not by chance, but as a repeatable construction.

The column does not argue with opponents and does not try to be “soft.”

It states: empires do not disappear — they change language and packaging.

Ukraine, Israel, and the Global South: where a common plot arises

Why this is read more broadly than a “European war”

One of the strong lines of the text is the attempt to “translate” the Ukrainian experience into a language understandable to the countries of Africa and Asia: Ukraine is formally European, but its historical experience, according to the author, is colonial.

Not Britain and not France, but an empire that grew out of the Horde type of control.

In this framework, the idea of solidarity appears: between those who experienced colonialism as modernization and those who experienced it as degradation — destruction of institutions, resource extraction, suppression of subjectivity.

For Israel, there is a separate interest here: the country lives in a region where “imperial” models of behavior constantly return in a new form — through proxies, ideologies, military chains of influence. And therefore, any understandable explanatory schemes quickly become part of the public conversation, even if they are controversial.

Memory as an element of political resistance

Lakomov’s final thought revolves around memory.

Not as a museum theme, but as a practical tool: if an empire knows how to transform, then resistance begins with recognizing familiar mechanisms — verticality, sacralization, “right of force,” colonial language.

In this construction, Ukraine is shown not only as an object of pressure but as a “mirror” in which the colonizer sees its own model — and therefore tries to destroy the alternative.

The text leaves an open question, which is probably the main one: if the Horde matrix is indeed reproduced for centuries, then where is the boundary between reforming the imperial project and its next disguise — and who in the world is ready to name this boundary aloud.

Author: Pavel Shveiko

The competition itself started much earlier: Ukrainian Jewish Encounter announced it back on April 14, 2026, in September the project was separately presented to schoolchildren and teachers in Lviv, and the organizers plan to announce the results of the current competition in January 2027.

Behind the brief announcement lies a rather detailed provision. It specifies not only who can participate and how much the winners will receive, but also what the drawing should be like, where to send the original, and what will happen to the rights to the work after participation.

Not just ‘friendship of peoples’

The organizer of the competition is the public organization ‘Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter’ under the patronage of the Canadian non-governmental organization Ukrainian Jewish Encounter, or UJE.

For the Israeli reader, it is useful to immediately explain the context here. UJE is engaged in studying and popularizing the history of Ukrainian-Jewish relations, supports educational, research, and cultural projects, and works not only in Ukraine but also with representatives of Israel and the diaspora.

And the task of the current competition is formulated much more broadly than the proposal to draw a conditional menorah next to an embroidered shirt.

Schoolchildren are invited to delve into the centuries-old Ukrainian-Jewish relations — in their diversity and complexity, common historical experience, and how this history can be perceived today. Among the goals of the competition, the organizers also mention a more conscious attitude of youth towards interethnic relations.

Thus, the plot does not necessarily have to be a ceremonial picture of friendship. It can be a specific person, an old synagogue building, literature, family history, the Holocaust, religious tradition, or the history of one’s own city.

That is why the competition unexpectedly intersects with what NAnews reported literally the day before. In the Ukrainian part of Wiki Loves Monuments, a separate nomination ‘Jewish Heritage’ has been held for the ninth year in a row. Its list already includes more than 1,400 synagogues, cemeteries, public buildings, memorial sites, and other objects of Jewish and Karaite heritage in Ukraine.

For a schoolchild, one of these objects may well be not somewhere in a textbook, but on the next street.

Who can participate

The competition is aimed at students in grades 8–11 of general and specialized schools, gymnasiums, and lyceums. The condition is formulated so that children who study or studied in the relevant classes during 2026 can participate.

Works will be divided into two age categories — grades 8–9 and 10–11. In each, an international professional jury will determine the first, second, and third places.

But sending a picture by email will not work.

The organizers need a physical original of the drawing in A3 format. A frame is not required and, according to the provision, it should not be used. Pencils, oil, watercolor, acrylic, gouache, and other artistic techniques are allowed.

On the back, the author’s name and surname must be written. Along with the work, a completed paper questionnaire with personal data and a brief description of the drawing idea — in Ukrainian in printed letters — is enclosed in the package.

The drawing will have to be sent to Kyiv

The participant sends the original by courier delivery at their own expense to Kyiv — to Khreshchatyk, 29, office 50, to the organization ‘Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter’. The contact person in the official provision is Svetlana Grinevich.

There is one more requirement that is better checked in advance. The work must be new: it should not have participated in other competitions, been exhibited, or publicly demonstrated before.

After the competition ends, the drawings are not returned to the authors.

At first glance, these are technical details, but it is precisely on them that unpleasant surprises usually arise. If a child has already shown the work at a school exhibition or the family expects to get the original back later, the provision should be carefully read before sending the package.

Parents should pay attention to the rights to the work

There is also a more serious point in the document. By submitting a drawing to the competition, the participant accepts the conditions for processing personal data and the conditions regarding the rights to the competition work itself.

The wording of the provision provides for the transfer to the organizer of the material object and exclusive property rights to the competition work. For a minor author, it is especially reasonable to read this section together with parents before participating.

There is no need to turn a regular school competition into a legal thriller. But hiding such a condition behind the phrase ‘details on the organizer’s website’ would also be strange.

NAnews — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency usually pays attention to such details: sometimes a few lines of the official provision are more important to the participant than all the promotional text around the competition.

From 2000 to 12,000 hryvnias

In the junior group — students in grades 8–9 — the winner will receive 6000 UAH (about ₪412). The second place is awarded 4000 UAH (about ₪275), and the third — 2000 UAH (about ₪137).

For students in grades 10–11, the amounts are twice as high. First place — 12,000 UAH (about ₪824), second — 8000 UAH (about ₪549), third — 4000 UAH (about ₪275).

The conversion to shekels here is approximate, to make it easier for the Israeli reader to understand the size of the prize: the hryvnia exchange rate changes. In addition to money, winners are promised diplomas and thematic literature, and other participants — participant diplomas and books.

The last day for submitting works is December 1, 2026. Works sent after the deadline will not be accepted, and the organizers plan to announce the winners’ names in January 2027.

What last year’s winners drew

Last year’s results show that there is indeed no single correct interpretation of the theme for the jury.

In the category of grades 8–9, first place went to Yulia Oliynyk from Cherkasy with the drawing ‘Dialogue of Two Worlds: Sholem Aleichem and Ivan Franko’. For the Israeli reader, Ivan Franko may be a less familiar name: he is one of the greatest Ukrainian writers and public figures of the late 19th — early 20th century.

And Sholem Aleichem, born in the territory of present-day Ukraine, became one of the classics of Yiddish literature. His stories about Tevye the Dairyman later formed the basis of the famous ‘Fiddler on the Roof’.

Second place among the younger participants went to Anastasia Klopotovska from Zhytomyr with ‘Tree of Friendship’, and third to Oleksandra Kovtunovych from Zhytomyr with the work ‘Auschwitz — We Will Never Forget’.

Among the older schoolchildren, first place went to Oleksandra Radko from Poltava region with the drawing ‘Two Stories — One Language of Light’. The next were works ‘Love Unites Nations’ and ‘Friendship Forever’.

Thus, in one competition, Franko, Sholem Aleichem, Auschwitz, and an almost abstract conversation about the relations of two peoples were side by side. For a school project, the range is quite wide.

In Israel, this story may turn out to be a family one

Formally, the competition remains Ukrainian. There is no separate Israeli category in the provision, and it concerns students of Ukrainian schools.

But the historical geography of the competition does not end at the border of Ukraine.

For many families in Israel, Kyiv, Odesa, Berdychiv, Uman, Chernivtsi, Medzhybizh, Mukachevo, Belz, or hundreds of significantly smaller Ukrainian towns and villages are the cities of parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents. There were Jewish communities, schools, and synagogues, cemeteries, and sometimes houses still stand that are connected to the family history of today’s Israelis.

And not all of this heritage has been well preserved.

NAnews has already published a list compiled by the United Jewish Community of Ukraine of Jewish objects destroyed or damaged during the Russian aggression. It includes synagogues, schools, community buildings, cemeteries, and memorial sites — about 40 objects in different regions of the country.

Due to the war, the question ‘what will remain after us’ for Ukrainian Jewish heritage has ceased to be exclusively historical. An old photograph of a building now sometimes has to be used as evidence of what it was like before the Russian strike.

Sometimes it all starts with one street

The most interesting thing about such a competition may happen even before the drawing appears.

A child decides to depict an old building and begins to find out why it has such large windows. Learns that a hundred years ago there was a synagogue there. Then it turns out that a Jewish cemetery existed nearby, and in an old photograph of the central square, half of the signs are written in a language that almost no one hears in this city today.

Matzevah — a Jewish tombstone — is a fairly familiar word for the Israeli reader, while a Ukrainian schoolchild may learn it for the first time precisely in the process of such work. And vice versa: Ukrainian names, historical events, or local geography, obvious to a child in Ukraine, may require explanation to their peer in Israel.

In this sense, the common historical plot works both ways.

Babi Yar shows why one version of history is not enough

There is a topic where this conversation is especially visible. Babi Yar in Israel is primarily associated with the mass murder of Kyiv Jews by the Nazis in September 1941 and is one of the symbols of the Holocaust.

But in Ukraine, it is simultaneously the history of Kyiv itself, the people who lived nearby, the Soviet silencing of the Jewish component of the tragedy, and the long return of memory.

In September, NAnews reported how a new Ukrainian edition of Anatoly Kuznetsov’s documentary novel ‘Babi Yar’ was published in Kyiv. Kuznetsov experienced the occupation of Kyiv as a child, began recording what he saw and heard, and when the book first appeared in the USSR in 1966, the text underwent serious censorship interference.

Later, the writer managed to take the full version of the manuscript out of the Soviet Union.

This is perhaps a good example of why the formula ‘our stories are incomplete without each other’ is needed at all. Sometimes the problem is not the absence of facts, but that different societies have seen only separate pieces of the same past for decades.

From April 2026 to January 2027

The current competition Ukrainian Jewish Encounter officially announced on April 14, 2026. In September, it was separately presented in Lviv during the XXXIII BookForum, in the fall the organizers continued accepting works, and the deadline is set for December 1.

In January 2027, the names of six winners — three in each age group — should appear.

But the cash prize may not be the most interesting thing here.

To draw Sholem Aleichem, an old synagogue, the Holocaust, or the history of the Jews of their city, a schoolchild will first have to understand what exactly they are drawing. Find an old photograph, ask parents or a teacher, open a map, learn the name of a person who once lived in the neighboring house.

And somewhere in Israel, a person may see the name of this very city and remember that it was from there that their family once came.

Then the phrase ‘Our stories are incomplete without each other’ ceases to be the name of a school competition and begins to sound completely different.

Author: Alexander Khmelnitsky

The course is taught by Professor Anna Shternshis from the University of Toronto, one of the researchers of Soviet Jewry and Yiddish culture.

Participation is free, registration is required.

Register for Anna Shternshis’s open course

Organizers also promise a certificate to those who complete the test assignments.

And for the Israeli reader, there is one not-so-small detail. Despite the fact that the program is conducted by Ukrainian academic and Jewish institutions, the lectures will be delivered in Russian — this is explicitly stated in the official registration form. It turns out to be a course that a fairly large part of Russian-speaking Israel can join without a language barrier.

Not only the Holocaust: how Jews lived between 1917 and 1991

Soviet-Jewish history has a perception problem. For many, it breaks down into several familiar points: revolution, Holocaust, Stalin’s anti-Semitism, refuseniks, aliyah. Between these points, almost three generations of ordinary life remain — school, theater, profession, family, songs, books, childhood memories, attempts to preserve one’s culture or, conversely, to dissolve into the Soviet environment.

This is precisely the period that Shternshis’s program targets. In the course description, organizers specifically emphasize that history will be examined not only through state decisions and political campaigns but also through literature, memoirs, folklore, cinema, personal stories, and music. The question is posed quite simply: not only what the Soviet state did to the Jews, but also how the Jews themselves lived within this state.

This is already noticeable in the schedule:

• October 1 — revolution: Isaac Babel, S. An-sky, Peretz Markish, David Bergelson;
• October 8 — creation of a new Jewish culture and the ‘Kultur-Lige’;
• October 15 — ‘Jewish in form, Soviet in content’: ‘Red Haggadah’, banquet on Yom Kippur, and everyday life;
• October 27 — Jewish schools and childhood;
• October 29 — Jewish theater, Kyiv GOSET, and amateur theaters;
• November 12 — family, profession, and ordinary life;
• November 23 — Holocaust in Ukraine and Yiddish music in Transnistria;
• December 7 — Jews in evacuation in Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, and Kazakhstan;
• December 10 — late Stalinism, arrests of Yiddish writers, struggle against ‘cosmopolitanism’ and the ‘Doctors’ Plot’;
• December 17 — Jewish and non-Jewish experience in Ukraine in the 1960s–1980s: what was common and what remained different.