Month: June 2026

Ukrainian-Jewish relations are rich in shared pages of history and outstanding individuals who played a significant role in the establishment and development of the State of Israel.

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.

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When we talk about Jewish music, we most often recall touching violin melodies, klezmer ensembles, the sound of the clarinet, and Hasidic chants that can both cry and rejoice simultaneously. But behind this tradition lies a vast cultural layer closely connected with the history of Ukraine. It is here that unique musical expressions were formed, ancient chants were preserved, and many elements of Jewish music intertwined with Ukrainian folk culture, creating a completely unique sound landscape.

On the website of the “Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter” in November 2025, a large conversation with Michal Stamova was published — a researcher of Jewish culture, a specialist in the history of Hebrew prayer, and a consultant on Jewish education projects. Her answers help to look at Jewish music differently: as a living organism that developed on Ukrainian lands alongside local traditions, experienced wars, migrations, cultural explosive moments, and today is regaining popularity.

Below is a comprehensive overview of this topic specifically for NANews – news of Israel.

Music as Part of Judaism

In Judaism, music was never something forbidden or suspicious. On the contrary — it was initially a way to glorify the Almighty. Even in the Jerusalem Temple, there were musical instruments, psalms were sung, and King David combined the roles of ruler, warrior, and poet-musician.

Michal Stamova emphasizes: in the Tanakh, there are many musical fragments — songs, ballads, prayer texts, which, unfortunately, have reached us without notes but have become the basis for modern composers. Both Jewish and non-Jewish. In this sense, music is not just art but a sacred connection between tradition and the creator.

A person, created “in the image and likeness,” expresses their inner state through sound. And in Jewish tradition, this has always been a natural, permissible, and even necessary way of spiritual practice.

What is Considered Jewish Folk Music

In Jewish culture, strict copyright existed long before modern legislation. If a melody was recorded in a synagogue of a certain tradition, it was signed. If the author was known, their name was passed down orally and in writing. But when the origin was lost, the melody became “folk.”

According to Stamova, the peculiarity of the Jewish musical tradition is that it was recorded not only with texts but also with a system of signs describing melodic movement. Sometimes in such records, you can find comments on where the melody was taken from or indications of which Hasidic group it belonged to.

An important detail: Hasidic music is one of the aspects of the Jewish musical tradition closest to Ukrainians. After all, Hasidism originated here, on the territory of Ukraine, and many of its chants were formed in the towns of Volhynia, Podolia, Galicia.

Klezmer as a Phenomenon: Why Ukraine is at the Center of the Picture

When they say “Jewish music,” they most often mean klezmer — instrumental ensembles that played at weddings, fairs, folk festivals. And here, Ukraine’s influence is enormous.

Main facts:

• klezmer is a phenomenon of Eastern European Jewry, and Ukraine plays a key role in it
• ensembles were formed from musicians of different nationalities: Ukrainians, Moldovans, Rusyns, Belarusians
• the repertoire was adaptive: Jewish weddings, Ukrainian, Moldovan — the ensemble played everywhere
• it was on Ukrainian lands that the most important musical styles of klezmer were formed

Stamova emphasizes: klezmer was as much a part of Ukrainian cities and villages as troisty music. The only difference is that Jewish ensembles more often conveyed melodies through special spiritual intonations.

Instrumentalists learned from vocalists. Hence the main phenomenal feature of klezmer: the instrument “sings.”

What Makes Jewish Music Recognizable

For those who listen to music non-professionally, a Jewish melody is recognized instantly. Why?

Here are the key features:

• krekht — an intonational “sigh,” “moan” made on the clarinet, violin, and even on wind instruments
• double harmonic minor — often called the “Jewish scale”
• vocal origin of instrumental technique

The clarinet in Jewish music literally talks, sighs, cries. The violin is an extension of the human voice. Therefore, the image of the “Jew with a violin” arises not by chance.

And here we return again to Ukraine: it is on Ukrainian soil that this style of instrumental emotionality was formed into a stable tradition.

Nigun: The Voice of the Soul Without Words

Besides klezmer, there is another important branch of Jewish music — nigun. This is a spiritual chant, a prayer without words. A nigun can be slow, weeping, or, on the contrary, dance-like. Its meaning is to create an internal dialogue with the Almighty.

Stamova emphasizes: nigun is an invention of Hasidism, which was born on Ukrainian soil. And therefore, Ukraine is one of the key places of birth of modern spiritual Jewish music.

Niguns are performed both as vocal meditations and as instrumental improvisations. Modern songs are written based on them, adding words from the Torah, sayings of the Rebbe, and philosophical texts.

Ukraine as the Center of Klezmer Memory

If not for the researcher Moisei Beregovsky, a huge part of Jewish music could have disappeared forever. In the 20th century, especially after the Holocaust, musical traditions were destroyed along with communities. Beregovsky, risking his life, traveled through ghettos and towns, recorded old melodies, collected folklore, and systematized archives.

Thanks to his work:

• we know Podolian klezmer
• melodies of the Kyiv province have been preserved
• ancient Hasidic chants have been recorded
• the structure of Jewish wedding melodies has been restored

Ukraine became not only the cradle of klezmer but also the place of its salvation.

Jewish Music Today: A New Renaissance

Despite war and migrations, Jewish music is experiencing a resurgence. According to Stamova, young Ukrainian musicians are actively returning to their roots.

Who is worth listening to:

• Hennadiy Fomin — Ukrainian musician and fighter of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, creator of modern Jewish compositions
• Natalia Kasyanchik — domra player, raised on Ukrainian klezmer traditions
• Feldman Band from Chernivtsi
• techno-klezmer by Sacha Baron Cohen and his brother
• Barcelona Gipsy Balkan Orchestra, who take roots in the Balkans but use Eastern European motifs

Festivals, summer schools, and international programs continue to develop, attracting musicians from all over the world.

The Image of the Jew with a Violin: Stereotype or Philosophy

This image is not an accident or a cliché. It grew out of Jewish humor and simultaneously from tragic experience. Sholem Aleichem called the life of a Jew “a fiddler on the roof” — a balance where a person stays above the abyss but continues to play.

The violin is an instrument that can cry, moan, laugh. It conveys the emotions embedded in the history of the Jewish people: exiles, joys, anticipation of change, faith in the best.

Therefore, this image became a cultural code, not a caricature.

Why Jewish Music is Impossible Without Ukraine

Ukraine is:

• the territory where klezmer was born
• the place where Hasidic chants were formed
• a space where different cultures lived side by side
• a source of musical themes that went to Broadway and into global pop culture
• the cradle of musicians who created the foundation of modern Jewish music

Hence the global influence of Ukrainian land on the world Jewish tradition.

Conclusions

Jewish music is not a museum exhibit. It is the living breath of the community, its memory, and energy. It absorbed Ukrainian multiculturalism, local rhythm, the melancholy of Podolian melodies, the temperament of Moldovan weddings, the lyricism of Hutsul chants.

And today, when culture once again becomes an important tool of dialogue between peoples, Jewish music reminds us: Ukraine and the Jewish people have a common history — complex, multi-layered, but surprisingly harmonious.

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Ukraine legally changed the status of the Russian language within the framework of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This is not a ban on the language in everyday life, but a refusal to provide the language of the aggressor state with special protection mechanisms created for indigenous peoples and national communities.

Ukraine excluded the Russian language from European protection: what law No. 4699-IX actually changed

On June 12, 2026, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky signed law No. 4699-IX, which excluded the Russian language from the list of languages to which Ukraine applies the provisions of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. This was reported by the Speaker of the Verkhovna Rada, Ruslan Stefanchuk. Formally, it is a legal norm, but politically it is one of Ukraine’s most notable steps in the decolonization process following the start of full-scale Russian aggression.

It is important to immediately separate fact from manipulation. The law does not prohibit people from speaking Russian, does not make the Russian language ‘illegal,’ and does not regulate the private speech of citizens. The essence of the law is different: Ukraine no longer considers the Russian language as one that should receive special European protection as a minority or regional language. This is a fundamental difference, without which the entire discussion quickly turns into a Russian propaganda scheme.

What exactly did Zelensky sign

The signed document is law No. 4699-IX. Its goal is to bring Ukrainian legislation in line with the updated official translation of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages, which the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine prepared in January 2024. After this, the list of languages covered by the Charter’s provisions was updated in Ukrainian legislation. The Russian language was excluded from this list.

Ruslan Stefanchuk explained the decision very directly:

“The Russian language is excluded from the list of languages to which Ukraine applies the provisions of the Charter. This is a fair and logical decision. The language of the aggressor state cannot use protection tools created to support the languages of indigenous peoples and national communities.”

Another important formulation by Stefanchuk:

“This decision is about dignity, justice, and linguistic security of Ukraine.”

For Ukraine, this is not just a linguistic amendment. It is part of the response to the long-standing practice where Russia used the topic of ‘protecting Russian speakers’ as a tool of pressure, interference, and justification of aggression.

Chronology: how Ukraine came to this decision

The history of the law did not begin on June 12, 2026. This is the final date when the president signed the already adopted document.

November 5, 1992 in Strasbourg, the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages was opened for signature. In the documents of the Council of Europe, it is referred to as ETS No. 148.

March 1, 1998 the Charter came into force. Its task is to protect and support regional or minority languages that need special guarantees in the fields of education, culture, public life, media, and administrative use.

January 2024 — The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine prepared an updated official translation of the Charter. This became the legal basis for subsequent changes in Ukrainian legislation.

December 3, 2025 The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted bill No. 14120. It was voted for by 264 people’s deputies. The document provided for bringing a number of Ukrainian laws in line with the updated translation of the Charter and revising the list of languages to which Ukraine applies its provisions.

June 12, 2026 law No. 4699-IX was returned with the signature of President Volodymyr Zelensky. That is, almost six months after the vote in parliament, the document finally entered the political and legal phase of implementation.

What is the European Charter and why is it important

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is a document of the Council of Europe. It was created not to protect the languages of empires, but to support languages that are historically in a vulnerable position. It concerns languages that may be disappearing from education, culture, public life, local governance, and media.

That is why the Ukrainian decision has its internal logic. The Russian language in Ukraine has historically not been a weak, disappearing, or marginalized language. On the contrary, it has dominated the urban environment, media, culture, business, part of education, and public space for decades. Therefore, presenting the Russian language as an ‘oppressed minority language’ is not only a political manipulation but also a distortion of Ukrainian history.

Ukraine says: protection is needed for the languages of indigenous peoples and national communities, not the language of a state that is waging war against Ukraine.

Which languages remain under protection

An important point: Ukraine does not refuse to protect linguistic diversity. On the contrary, after the changes, the provisions of the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages continue to apply to the languages of national communities and indigenous peoples of Ukraine.

According to the Verkhovna Rada’s message, in Ukraine, the Charter’s provisions, the updated list covers 18 languages: Belarusian, Bulgarian, Gagauz, Crimean Tatar, Modern Greek, German, Polish, Romanian, Slovak, Hungarian, Czech, Hebrew, Urum, Rumeic, Romani, Krymchak, Karaim, and Yiddish.

This means that Ukraine retains the European mechanism for protecting the languages of national communities but removes the Russian language as the language of the aggressor state from it. Separately, the so-called ‘Moldovan’ language is also removed from the list, as the updated logic of the legislation retains Romanian. At the same time, the list was not just shortened: it was also expanded with a number of languages, including Czech, Crimean Tatar, Krymchak, Karaim, Yiddish, and Hebrew.

What the law does not do

The most important part for the reader is to understand what this law does not mean.

It does not prohibit people from speaking Russian at home, on the street, or in private communication.

It does not cancel the existence of Russian-speaking citizens of Ukraine.

It does not introduce criminal or administrative liability for the mere fact of using the Russian language in everyday life.

It does not make the Russian language illegal.

It does something else: the Russian language no longer receives a special status within the European mechanism for protecting regional or minority languages. That is, the state is no longer obliged to support it as a language that needs special protection from extinction.

This is fundamental. The rights of people and the privileges of the language of the aggressor state are not the same.

Why the Russian language became a security issue

Since 2014, after the annexation of Crimea and the start of the war in Donbas, Russian propaganda has constantly used the topic of ‘protecting Russian speakers’ as a justification for interference in Ukraine’s affairs. After February 24, 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion, this argument finally ceased to be cultural and became part of military and political aggression.

The Russian language in the Russian version of the world is not just a means of communication. It is a marker of influence. Through it, a network of cultural dependence, media presence, political myths, and the notion that Ukraine is allegedly not an independent state but belongs to the ‘Russian world’ has been built for decades.

That is why law No. 4699-IX should be considered not in isolation but in the overall process of Ukraine’s exit from the post-imperial space. This is not a fight against people who speak Russian. It is the dismantling of the privileged position of a language that Russia has turned into a political weapon.

Why this is important for Israel

For Israel, this topic is much more understandable than it might seem at first glance. Israel is a multilingual country. Here they speak Hebrew, Arabic, Russian, English, French, Ukrainian, Amharic, and dozens of other languages. But at the same time, the state perfectly understands that language is not just a household tool. It is memory, identity, education, security, and political influence.

Hebrew has become not just the official language of Israel but a symbol of the people’s return to their own statehood. Therefore, it is easier for the Israeli reader to understand the Ukrainian logic: when a state is fighting for its existence, it has the right to protect its own linguistic space.

NANews — Israel News views this decision not as a household conflict between languages but as part of Ukraine’s war for political subjectivity. Ukraine does not tell people what language to think in at home. Ukraine says that the language of the aggressor state should not have European privileges on Ukrainian territory.

European context: Ukraine does not deviate from the rules but clarifies them

Russian propaganda will surely present this law as a ‘violation of European standards.’ But in reality, Ukraine’s position is based on something else: the Charter allows states to independently determine which languages they apply the chosen protection measures to. The document of the Council of Europe is related to regional or minority languages, not to the automatic protection of any language present in the country.

Ukraine does not refuse the Charter. Ukraine clarifies that the Russian language is not the language that should use its mechanisms. This is especially important against the backdrop of Russian aggression, when the language of the aggressor state is used as a tool of ideological pressure.

In essence, Kyiv tells Europe: we maintain protection for the languages of indigenous peoples and national communities but will not turn the European mechanism for protecting minorities into a tool for preserving Russian imperial influence.

The main political formula of the law

This law can be formulated in one phrase:

Ukraine separates the rights of citizens from the privileges of the language of the aggressor state.

This is a very important distinction. A citizen can speak Russian. But the Russian language as a political and historical tool of Russian influence should no longer receive special protection from the Ukrainian state.

In this sense, law No. 4699-IX continues a broader process: Ukraine’s transition from post-Soviet logic to its own national policy. The war only accelerated this process but did not create it from scratch. Ukrainian society has long understood that the language issue is not just about grammar, school, or signs. It is a matter of power, memory, and the future.

Why this decision will cause disputes

Of course, the law will be discussed. It will be criticized by those who believe that any step against the special status of the Russian language automatically infringes on Russian speakers. It will be used by Russian media to once again talk about ‘discrimination.’ Perhaps some European observers will also closely watch how Ukraine explains and applies this norm.

But Kyiv’s key argument is simple: the Russian language in Ukraine does not need protection as a disappearing or weak language. But the Ukrainian state needs protection from Russian influence, which has been covered by the language topic for decades.

And here it is important not to substitute concepts. The protection of minority languages is a European value. But the protection of the language of a state that is waging an aggressive war and uses this language as a political tool is a completely different story.

Conclusion

On June 12, 2026, Ukraine marked an important legal and symbolic milestone. Law No. 4699-IX does not ban the Russian language, does not cancel private speech, and does not erase Russian-speaking citizens from Ukrainian society. It does something else: it deprives the Russian language of special European protection, which was created for the languages of indigenous peoples and national communities.

For Ukraine, this is a matter of dignity, security, and decolonization. For Europe, it is a test of the ability to distinguish between the protection of minorities and the preservation of imperial privileges. For Israel, it is an understandable example of how language can be part of national security, especially when a state lives in conditions of war.

NANews — Israel News sees this decision not as a ban on the language but as a political statement: Ukraine is no longer ready to serve the myth of the ‘Russian world’ at the expense of its own laws, European mechanisms, and the right to an independent future.

What is the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages

The European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is an international document of the Council of Europe, created to protect languages that are historically used on the territory of European states but are in a weaker position compared to the state language.

The Charter was opened for signature on November 5, 1992 in Strasbourg and came into force on March 1, 1998. In the system of the Council of Europe, it is referred to as treaty ETS No. 148. Its task is not to replace state languages and not to create a parallel language system, but to preserve the cultural and linguistic heritage of Europe where individual languages may gradually disappear from education, culture, media, local governance, and public life.

Simply put, the Charter protects not ‘any language that someone speaks,’ but specifically regional or minority languages that need support. These can be the languages of indigenous peoples, historical national communities, or small language groups that have long lived on the territory of a specific country.

An important detail: each state independently determines which languages it applies the Charter’s provisions to. That is, the Charter itself does not impose on Ukraine an automatic obligation to protect a particular language. Ukraine, like other countries, specifies the list of languages to which the chosen support measures apply.

These measures can concern different areas: education, culture, judiciary, administrative communication, media, public events, preservation of archives, publishing books, and developing the language environment.

Therefore, in the Ukrainian context, the decision to exclude the Russian language from the list of protected languages does not mean a refusal of European standards. Ukraine continues to apply the Charter’s mechanisms to the languages of indigenous peoples and national communities — for example, Crimean Tatar, Karaim, Krymchak, Yiddish, Hebrew, Gagauz, Romanian, Polish, Hungarian, Czech, and other languages from the updated list.

The main difference here is this: the rights of people to private use of the language are preserved, but the special protection regime for the Russian language within the framework of the European Charter is no longer applied.

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Haifa knows and honors a modest heroine — a native of Zolochiv (Lviv region, Ukraine). On February 12, 2025, she turned 90 years old.

In the Righteous Among the Nations Garden in Haifa, where 20 memorial stones bear the names of those who saved Jews and once lived in the city, Yaroslava Levytska remains the only one honored with a memorial plaque during her lifetime.

At the Latin Cemetery in Haifa, 11 Righteous Among the Nations are buried. In their honor, the Haifa municipality created a unique memorial garden in the Ramat Alon district.

On May 18, 2008, a solemn opening ceremony was held in Haifa’s Ramat Alon neighborhood for the “Haifa Residents’ Garden of the Righteous Among the Nations” (גן חסידי אומות העולם).

The garden features several paths with stone plaques engraved with names and brief descriptions of their heroic deeds. At the time of its opening, 19 Righteous Among the Nations were known to have lived in Haifa: 9 from Poland, 6 from Ukraine, and one each from Hungary, the Czech Republic, Romania, and Sweden. Later, a 20th plaque was added.

Only five of them were still alive at the time of the park’s opening.

Four were honored for their acts of bravery committed as children.

Yaroslava Levytska is the youngest person ever awarded this title for rescuing Jews.

At the park’s entrance, on an uneven stone, three symbols are engraved: the emblem of the Righteous, the Yad Vashem logo, and the emblem of the City of Haifa. Below them is a quote from the Talmud: “Whoever saves one Jewish life is as if they have saved the entire world.”

Memorial Stones of the Righteous Among the Nations in Haifa

The Righteous Garden in Haifa features plaques honoring those who saved Jews during the Holocaust. Here are brief summaries of their stories:

• Halina Lugovska (Poland): Hid a Jewish woman in her home for 32 weeks and later helped her find refuge with her family.
• Anna Hornung-Tomachak (Ukraine): Pretended to be the mother of a Jewish family to save them in the Ternopil region.
• Victoria Tsukrovych-Aichberger (Poland): Together with her sister, hid a Jew who was fleeing the Nazis.
• Pelagia Guchak-Springer (Poland): Saved 20 Jewish women and the family of a Jewish workshop owner.
• Yaroslava Levytska (Ukraine): As a teenager, brought food to the ghetto and hid Jewish children with her family.
• Jerzy Shelaga (Poland): Delivered food and letters to the Warsaw Ghetto, risking his life.
• Julia Kaldi-Ralbovska (Czechoslovakia): Hid a Jew and buried his mother to keep the hiding place secret.
• Elisabeta Nikopoi-Strul (Romania): Warned of a pogrom, sheltered and fed more than 15 Jews despite arrest and beatings.
• Tamara Maksymeniuk-Bromberg (Ukraine): Delivered food to the ghetto with her mother, rescued families, and organized shelters.
• Bela (Valya) Lipper (Ukraine): Hid her Jewish husband and six others for 19 months.
• Victor Melnyk (Ukraine): Hid Jews with his family, provided forged documents, and helped them escape.
• Zofia-Marta Avni (Poland): Hid six Jews in an attic in Warsaw with her family for a year and a half.
• Irena Yakira-Ziental (Poland): Hid 13 Jews with her mother in a specially prepared hiding place.
• Raoul Wallenberg (Sweden): Diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in Hungary; disappeared after being arrested by Soviet forces in 1945.
• Anna Dobrucka-Ezerska (Poland): Saved a family during the liquidation of the Tarnow Ghetto and later married one of those she rescued.
• Franya Dedek-Belska (Ukraine): Born in Nadvirna, rescued two Jewish boys and survived a displaced persons camp, the “Exodus” ship attempt, and eventually immigrated to Israel, where she converted to Judaism and became Fruma Belska.

Each name is a reminder of courage, humanity, and sacrifice. The Haifa memorial preserves the memory of those who risked everything to save others.

On February 12, 2025, students from the Bosmat School visited the “Beit Gil Zahav” nursing home in Kiryat Eliahu to congratulate Yaroslava Levytska on her 90th birthday and express their gratitude for her heroism. The event was part of the activities of Haifa’s Municipal Institute for Holocaust Studies, which works to preserve the memory of the Righteous Among the Nations and pass on Holocaust remembrance to future generations.

According to Yad Vashem, as reported by journalist Shimon Briman, Ukrainian native Yaroslava Levytska is the only Righteous Among the Nations currently living in Israel. She has lived in Haifa since the early 1990s and receives full support from the State of Israel.

Biography of Yaroslava Levytska: The Journey of a Righteous Among the Nations from Zolochiv to Haifa

Yaroslava Levytska, according to journalist Shimon Briman, was born in 1935 in the town of Zolochiv, which was then part of Poland and today is in Lviv Oblast, Ukraine. In July 1941, the German army occupied the region and began the systematic extermination of the Jewish population. A ghetto was established in Zolochiv, and Jews were stripped of their rights, food, and any chance of survival. It was during this time that the Levytsky family’s courageous acts became part of history.

The Heroism of the Levytsky Family: 29 Lives Saved

Yaroslava’s grandfather, Oleksandr Levytsky, began supplying food and medicine to his Jewish friends from the start of the occupation. In December 1942, when the Zolochiv Ghetto was officially created, he started sending supplies through his seven-year-old granddaughter Yaroslava. She walked two kilometers from their home to the ghetto each week for ten months. The risk was immense — German guards could have executed them. But Yaroslava carried out her task calmly and bravely.

Thanks to her actions, many Jewish families and children survived.

Yorek Shenker and Richards Feiring: Stories of the Rescued

One of the children saved was Yorek Shenker, only six years old, now known as Yoram Miron. To avoid suspicion, Yaroslava would play with him outside while he was in hiding. The family also sheltered Richards Feiring. Both boys survived the Holocaust thanks to the courage of Yaroslava and her family.

Additionally, for ten months, the Levytsky family provided food to a group of 25 Jews hiding in the basement of a destroyed building. Despite fear and fatigue, Yaroslava kept delivering food. This entire group survived until the Red Army liberated the area in July 1944.

Life After the War

After liberation, Yaroslava graduated from School No. 2 in Zolochiv in 1952 and went on to attend medical college. She worked as a feldsher and later as head of the infectious disease prevention department. She lived modestly and never sought any personal gain for her family’s heroism. Her father Petro Levytsky also played a key role in rescuing Jews but was not officially recognized by Yad Vashem — a fact that remains painful to this day.

Recognition and Immigration to Israel

On August 20, 1989, two of the people she rescued — Avraham Shapiro and Israel Fenster — submitted a petition to Yad Vashem to recognize Oleksandr, Kateryna, and Yaroslava Levytska as Righteous Among the Nations. On September 21, 1989, Yad Vashem officially awarded them the title. Yaroslava herself planted a tree in honor of her family in the Garden of the Righteous in Jerusalem.

In 1995, she permanently moved to Israel, where she was granted citizenship, a government pension, and an apartment. Later, she settled in the Beit Gil Zahav senior care facility in Haifa.

90 Years of Heroism and Humanity

On her 90th birthday, Yaroslava Levytska was honored by the Haifa Holocaust Education Municipal Institute, the Moriah-Haifa Rotary Club, and students of the “Basmat” school. She shared:

“I am happy to live here, in Israel. At 90, I want for nothing. This is a special country.”

Words of Gratitude from Israel

“Israel and the Jewish people will never forget the vital role played by the Righteous Among the Nations during World War II, when they took great risks to save the lives of thousands of Jews.”

Some of these heroes, like Yaroslava, chose Israel as their new home — and became part of its living history.

NAnews – Israel News continues to tell these stories to ensure the memory of Jewish-Ukrainian solidarity lives on and inspires future generations.

The Lessons of History and the Power of Memory

Today, Yaroslava Levytska’s name is engraved on a memorial stone in Haifa’s Righteous Garden — while she is still alive, a unique distinction. She is recognized, respected, and cared for.

Her story is a profound example of selfless humanity in the face of ultimate evil. It reminds us that children, adults, and the elderly alike can act with courage and conscience.

NAnews – Israel News believes that telling these stories is essential to preserving the bond between the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples. In an age of war and terrorism, when hatred rises again, these stories help us to see the human being in one another.

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In the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine“ in Dnipro, an international exhibition “Some Were Neighbors: Choice, Human Behavior, and the Holocaust” has opened. The exhibition was created by the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington, and this fact alone makes the event significant not only for Ukraine but also for the broader Jewish and international context.

This is not just another museum initiative, but an attempt to once again pose one of the most difficult questions of the 20th century: what did ordinary people do next to the crime, how did they react to the persecution of Jews, and why did some choose indifference, others cooperation, and a few found the courage to help.

The exhibition is based on the idea expressed by Esther Bem: it is important for generations born after the Holocaust to know that people had a choice.

This thought becomes central to the entire exhibition because it shifts the conversation from an impersonal historical scheme to personal responsibility in the face of evil.

The exhibition is open at the Museum “Memory of the Jewish People and the Holocaust in Ukraine” in the city of Dnipro.

The exhibition runs from April 19, 2026, to June 7, 2026.

The exhibition can be visited on Wednesdays and Sundays from 10:00 to 19:00.

It is important to note that entry to the museum is only open until 18:00.

What the exhibition says

The exhibition is dedicated to the role of so-called ordinary neighbors in the events of the Holocaust. It shows that the tragedy unfolded not only at the level of regimes, armies, and orders but also at the level of the everyday behavior of those around. Some became accomplices, some preferred to notice nothing, while others, risking themselves, helped the persecuted.

That is why the exhibition raises not only a historical but also a moral question. It invites the visitor to think about where the line lies between fear, indifference, submission, and personal responsibility. This is its particular strength: it does not limit itself to telling about the past but translates the conversation into the realm of today’s moral choice.

Why this is important for Ukraine, Israel, and Jewish memory

The ceremonial opening was conducted by the museum director, Dr. Irina Radchenko. She told the guests about the concept and idea of the project and emphasized its significance for the museum and cultural space of Ukraine. Such an emphasis seems especially important now when the memory of the Holocaust in Eastern Europe remains not only part of history but also part of the public conversation about dignity, evil, responsibility, and the price of human silence.

A special moment of the ceremony was a video message from the director of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, Sara J. Bloomfield. She noted that the exhibition explores the role and responsibility of ordinary people across Europe during the Holocaust, as well as the choices they made and the motives behind these decisions.

According to her, most people watched from the sidelines, tried to survive, followed orders, or collaborated, and only a few resisted. But it is the actions of these few, she emphasized, that prove: choice always existed. For the Israeli reader, this is one of the most fundamental conclusions of the entire exhibition because the memory of the Catastrophe in Israel is built not only around the scale of the crime but also around understanding how society, neighborhood, and everyday environment can become part of either salvation or destruction.

In this context, NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency views the exhibition in Dnipro as an important example of how the Ukrainian Jewish space continues to speak about the Holocaust seriously, modernly, and without simplifications. This is not a formal memorial gesture but a substantive conversation about the mechanisms of human behavior at the moment of historical collapse.

Not only history but also a warning for the future

The meaning of such projects is that they do not allow the tragedy to be hidden behind familiar formulas. When the visitor is shown not abstract evil but specific models of behavior of neighbors, witnesses, and participants, they involuntarily transfer this question to themselves: how would they act if they were next to persecution, humiliation, and dehumanization of another.

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Mexico City has launched a tournament the likes of which football has never seen

The 2026 FIFA World Cup began on June 11 in Mexico City—not just as another World Cup, but as the largest football project in FIFA history. For the first time, the tournament is hosted not by one country, or even two, but by three: Mexico, the USA, and Canada. For the first time, 48 teams are playing in the final part. For the first time, the schedule is stretched over 104 matches, and the tournament’s geography covers 16 cities in North America.

This is no longer a World Cup in the old sense, where a few weeks of football fit into one country and one atmosphere. The 2026 World Cup is more like a traveling sports empire: Mexico City, Toronto, Los Angeles, New York, Miami, Dallas, Seattle, Vancouver, Monterrey, Guadalajara—different cities, different time zones, different stadiums, different political backgrounds.

And it all started where football was already becoming history.

At the Azteca Stadium in Mexico City, which is officially called Mexico City Stadium for the duration of the tournament, the first opening ceremony took place. This arena has seen the World Cups of 1970 and 1986, has seen Pele, Maradona, great finals, and great myths. Now it has become the first stadium to host matches of three different World Cups.

Before the match, there was a show. Shakira, J Balvin, Burna Boy, Andrea Bocelli, EJAE, David Guetta, Megan Thee Stallion—FIFA clearly wanted to show that the new World Cup would be not only a sporting event but also a musical, television, and commercial event of planetary scale.

Beautiful? Yes.

Expensive? Very.

And far from accessible to everyone.

First match: Mexico vs. South Africa and an evening the capital will remember

The opening match Mexico vs. South Africa started around 1:00 PM local time, which is late evening for Kyiv and Israel. For Mexicans, it was not just the start of the tournament but a national holiday. The authorities of Mexico City declared June 11 a holiday and advised the residents of the capital to work from home where possible.

The stadium was filled with anticipation. Not only football—historical.

Mexico defeated South Africa 2-0. For the hosts, this is almost an ideal scenario: home arena, opening match, festive atmosphere, and a victory that immediately gives the tournament an emotional boost. In such games, the score is not the only thing that matters. It is important for the country to feel: the World Cup started right here, right with us, right now.

But behind the festive picture, sharp edges are already visible.

Before the start of the tournament, protests took place in Mexico City. Thousands of people blocked the avenue leading to the stadium, and organizers were criticized for the huge prices for tickets, accommodation, transport, and related services. The World Cup has become a holiday, but a very expensive one. And this is one of the main themes of the 2026 World Cup: football is becoming more global, richer, brighter—but it is increasingly difficult for the ordinary fan to be inside this holiday, rather than just watching it on TV.

The biggest World Cup: 48 teams, 16 cities, and a final near New York

The format of the 2026 World Cup has changed the very architecture of the tournament. Now in the final part, there are 48 teams divided into 12 groups of four teams each. The two best teams from each group and the eight best third-placed teams advance to the playoffs. Therefore, a new stage has appeared—the round of 16. The champion now needs to go through a longer path, and the tournament has become denser and more unpredictable.

This is good for countries that previously had almost no chance of getting to the World Cup. In 2026, several debutants are in the final part, including Uzbekistan, Jordan, Cape Verde, and Curaçao. For them, just reaching the World Cup is already a national story that will be retold for decades.

But the expansion of the tournament also has another side.

More teams—more matches. More matches—more money. More money—more politics around football. FIFA receives a huge product for television, sponsors, tickets, and digital platforms. Host countries receive a flow of tourists, a burden on cities, security issues, and dissatisfaction from those who do not understand why football should become a luxury.

The final will take place on July 19 at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, New Jersey, near New York. This is also symbolic: the main match of the biggest World Cup will take place not in the football capital of the old world, but in an American metropolis where sports have long become an industry of shows, advertising, and big money.

Tournament cities: from Mexico City to Vancouver

The geography of the 2026 World Cup looks like a map of new football power.

In Mexico, matches are played in Mexico City, Guadalajara, and Monterrey. In Canada—in Toronto and Vancouver. In the USA—in Los Angeles, New York/New Jersey, Miami, Dallas, Houston, Atlanta, Kansas City, Philadelphia, Boston, Seattle, and the San Francisco area.

For fans, this is a dream and a challenge at the same time. Today a match in Mexico, then a flight to the USA, then Canada, then back to the south. Beautiful on the map, difficult on the wallet.

For Israeli viewers, there is another point: the timing of the matches. Some games will take place at night or late in the evening in Israel. This means the usual football life will become nocturnal again: cafes, home viewings, phones next to the bed, short sleep before work, and morning conversations—who scored, who failed, who already looks like a favorite.

This is how the World Cup lives.

Not only in stadiums.

Israel and Ukraine watch from the sidelines again

For the Israeli audience, the 2026 World Cup began with familiar pain: the Israeli national team is not at the tournament. Since 1970, when Israel played in the World Cup in Mexico for the only time, the country has not returned to the final part. And now, when the World Cup has started again in Mexico, this historical loop is especially noticeable.

Israel went through the European qualifiers in Group I along with Norway, Italy, Estonia, and Moldova. The group was tough but not impossible. In the end, Norway took first place and received a direct ticket, Italy came second and went to the playoffs, and Israel finished third—12 points, goal difference minus 1.

This is not a catastrophe of a complete failure. But it is not a breakthrough either.

Israel had good stretches, victories, hopes. The victory over Estonia 3-1 in June 2025 even lifted the team to second place in the group at that moment and gave fans the feeling that there was a chance.

Then everything returned to the reality of European qualifiers. There you cannot live by individual successful matches. You need to maintain the pace throughout the cycle, take points not only where it is convenient, and withstand the pressure against teams with higher speed, deeper squads, and tougher schools.

Why Israel once again fell short

Israeli football has long lived between two states: “almost there” and “fell short again.” There are talented players, bright evenings, good youth generations, clubs that can surprise in Europe. But the national team still cannot bring all this together into a stable adult system.

The problem is not only in the coach and not only in a specific generation.

The problem is deeper: the intensity of the league, physics, defensive discipline, speed of decision-making, mentality in matches against top opponents. In World Cup qualifiers, small things are not forgiven. One defensive failure, one lost half, one match without concentration—and the whole campaign becomes a story of how it almost worked out again.

That is why the 2026 World Cup for Israel is not just a tournament without its national team. It is a reminder that the dream of returning to the World Cup should not be a slogan but a project. With children’s schools, normal infrastructure, coaching education, a strong league, and patience.

NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency in this context, it is important to talk not only about the beautiful start in Mexico City but also about how Israeli football once again remained outside the door of the big tournament. Fans watch the celebration, but inside there remains the question: why has a country that loves football so much been unable to return to the main stage for more than half a century?

Ukraine: war, playoffs, and a lost ticket

Ukraine will also not play in the 2026 World Cup. And this is a separate pain.

The Ukrainian national team is not just a football team. After the full-scale Russian invasion in 2022, it became a symbol of a country that continues to live, play, sing the anthem, take the field, and remind the world: Ukraine exists. Even when cities are under attack. Even when footballers think not only about the tournament table but also about families, the front, the fallen, volunteers, soldiers, air raids.

In March 2026, Ukraine lost to Sweden 1-3 in the semifinals of the European playoff qualifiers. The match took place on March 26, and the statistics looked paradoxical: Ukraine had more possession—68.3% against 31.7%, but the score remained in favor of the Swedes.

Such football is especially cruel. You can control the ball, build attacks, have territory, but lose decisive episodes.

For Ukraine, this was a blow not only to sporting ambitions. The expanded format of the tournament gave hope: more teams, more places, more chances. But the European qualifiers still remained a meat grinder. There are no easy passes here, especially when the path goes through the playoffs.

Ukraine has been to the World Cup only once—in 2006 in Germany, where it reached the quarterfinals. Since then, each new cycle turns into an expectation of return. In 2026, it fell through again.

And yet Ukrainian football does not disappear. It exists despite the war. This is its strength.

Football without politics is impossible: Iran, Russia, Belarus, and scandals around the tournament

FIFA loves to repeat that football unites the world. Partially this is true. But the 2026 World Cup from the first days shows: football does not live in a vacuum. It reflects wars, sanctions, migration conflicts, diplomatic breaks, fears, and money.

The tournament features the Iranian national team. For Israel, this is not just a line in the list of participants. Iran is a state that threatens Israel, supports terrorist structures, and has long turned sports into part of its international showcase. The Iranian team is based in Mexico, although its group stage matches take place in the USA. Against the backdrop of Washington-Tehran relations, this looks like another example of how sports and politics constantly go hand in hand, even if FIFA pretends there is a wall between them.

Russia and Belarus did not participate in the qualifiers. They were suspended after the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. And this is a fair part of sports isolation: an aggressor country cannot simultaneously destroy Ukrainian cities and calmly play in the world football celebration.

There is another scandal—with Somali referee Omar Artan. He was supposed to become the first referee from Somalia at the final stage of the World Cup, but the US authorities denied him entry. Artan spoke of hours-long interrogation and return via Istanbul. FIFA called the situation unpleasant but effectively acknowledged that it does not control immigration decisions of states.

This is what the modern World Cup looks like.

On stage—Shakira.

On the field—Mexico and South Africa.

Behind the scenes—visas, protests, sanctions, wars, prices, and diplomacy.

The most expensive celebration that shows the real world

The 2026 World Cup started beautifully. Mexico City got an evening that will be remembered. Mexico won the opening match. FIFA got a large-scale picture. Television—an ideal product. Sponsors—a global showcase.

But if you look closer, this tournament is not only about football.

It is about a new world where sports have become part of big politics and big business. Where the fan wants a celebration but faces prices. Where countries host matches but receive protests. Where some teams play, others are suspended, others did not qualify, and others turn their participation into a diplomatic signal.

For Israel, the 2026 World Cup is a celebration without its national team and a reason to honestly ask why the country once again remained on the sidelines. For Ukraine, it is the pain of an unfulfilled return and a reminder that even during war, the sports dream continues to live. For Russia, it is isolation, which it received not for football but for aggression. For Iran, it is participation against the backdrop of threats, conflicts, and distrust.

And for the whole world, this is a championship that from the very first day showed: football can no longer be just a game.

It is too big.

Too expensive.

Too political.

And that is why not only fans will watch it. Governments, TV channels, advertisers, diplomats, diasporas, armies of fans, and those countries that can only dream of returning to this level will follow it.

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In the section “Jews from Ukraine” — the story of Ephraim Moses Lilien, an artist from Drohobych, who is called the first Zionist artist. His journey took him through Galicia, Krakow, Munich, Berlin, Basel, and Jerusalem, and his graphics helped the Jewish national movement find its own visual language.

A Jew from Drohobych who became an artist of national revival

Ephraim Moses Lilien was born on May 23, 1874, in Drohobych — a city in Galicia, which was then part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. Today it is the Lviv region of Ukraine. At birth, his name is also indicated as Maurycy Lilien. He died on July 18, 1925, in Badenweiler, Germany, but between these two dates, he managed to travel a path that connected Ukrainian Galicia, European modernism, Jewish culture, Zionism, and the future Israel.

For the section “Jews from Ukraine” Lilien is an almost ideal hero. His biography shows that Jewish history on Ukrainian lands is not only about shtetls, synagogues, pogroms, wars, and tragedies of the 20th century. It is also a powerful contribution to world art, European graphics, the culture of the Jewish national movement, and the visual language without which early Zionism would look different.

He was not born in Jerusalem, Berlin, or Vienna. His first point on the map was Drohobych.

It was from this city that the man later called “the first Zionist artist” emerged. This definition does not mean that there were no artists among Jews before him. It means something else: Lilien was one of the first to turn the idea of Jewish national revival into recognizable images — prophets, exiles, heroes, farmers, people who look not only back to the past but also forward to the future.

Drohobych was not an accidental backdrop. Galicia at the end of the 19th century was a complex space where Ukrainian, Jewish, Polish, German-speaking, and Austrian cultural environments coexisted. Here, a talented person could hear different languages, see different religious traditions, and early understand that identity is not a flat scheme but a whole world.

Later, Drohobych will be associated with Bruno Schulz, the Gottlieb brothers, and other names important for European and Jewish memory. Lilien occupies a special place in this row: he became not only an artist of his city or his time but also one of those who helped the Jewish people see themselves in a new historical image.

From a sign maker to European modernism and Zionism

Ukrainian period: Drohobych, Lviv, Krakow, and Lilien’s first steps

Ephraim Moses Lilien was born on May 23, 1874, in Drohobych — then it was Galicia as part of the Austro-Hungarian Empire, today the Lviv region of Ukraine. In the Ukrainian context, this is fundamental: his first cultural environment was precisely Galician, Drohobych, multinational.

He grew up in a poor Jewish family.

According to Ukrainian sources, Lilien’s father was a craftsman, a carver, or a turner. The family did not have money for a full gymnasium, so the future artist received primary education in a Jewish real school. It was already clear then that he had artistic abilities.

His first practical skills were not acquired in an academy but in a craft.

Young Lilien worked as an apprentice to a master who dealt with signs and shields. This is an important detail: his path to art began not with salons but with applied urban graphics — letters, lines, decorative forms, signs, the visual language of the street. Later, the sense of line and poster expressiveness would become one of the strong sides of his style.

In 1889, at about 15 years old, Lilien went to study at the Krakow School / Academy of Arts. There he studied painting and graphic techniques until 1893, including under Jan Matejko, one of the greatest artists of the Polish historical school. This stage is still connected with the Galician cultural space: Krakow was then an important artistic center for youth from Galicia.

Due to a lack of money, studies were not calm and continuous. Encyclopedic materials note that financial difficulties forced Lilien to return home and earn as a sign artist.

According to the “Encyclopedia of Modern Ukraine,” in 1892–1894, he worked in Drohobych, and later he repeatedly visited and worked in Lviv — in 1894, 1899–1905, 1911, 1914, and 1923.

Thus, Lilien’s Ukrainian period is not only a fact of birth in Drohobych.

It is childhood in Jewish Galicia, early craft school, first earnings, studies in the Krakow artistic environment, and constant returns to the Lviv-Drohobych region. Only later will there be Munich, Berlin, Basel, Herzl, “Bezalel,” and Jerusalem. But the basis of his view — the urban line, Jewish memory, Galician multilingualism, and the sense of cultural borderland — was formed precisely here.

This biography is similar to the path of many talented people from Galicia: first a provincial town, then a craft, then an art school, then major European centers. But Lilien did not dissolve in the European environment. On the contrary, it was there that he turned the Jewish theme into a modern artistic language.

He worked in the aesthetics of Art Nouveau, or Jugendstil — European modernism at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries. It was a style of decorative line, symbols, elongated figures, ornaments, strong black-and-white contrast, and almost musical rhythm of composition. But for Lilien, modernism was not just a beautiful form. Through it, he spoke of Jewish memory, exile, biblical past, national dignity, and hope for return.

His graphics were distinguished by a special tension. There was little accidental in them. The line could be soft and decorative, but the meaning often remained heavy: slavery, longing, expectation, spiritual resilience, the movement of people through history.

Lilien became known primarily as a book graphic artist, illustrator, and master of print graphics. His works existed not only in exhibition space. They appeared in books, magazines, albums, postcards, public projects — that is, they became part of mass visual memory. That is why his influence turned out to be broader than that of an artist working only for galleries.

How Lilien came to Zionism: Berlin, 1900, and the people around him

Lilien came to Zionism not through a party career but through the artistic and Jewish intellectual environment.

After studying in Krakow, Vienna, and Munich, he moved to Berlin in 1894. By the late 1890s, Lilien was already known in Berlin’s artistic and bohemian circles as a master of ex-libris, book, and magazine illustrator. At the same time, interest in the idea of “Jewish renaissance” — cultural renewal, which went alongside political Zionism, was growing in the German-speaking Jewish environment.

A key turning point was 1900 when the book “Juda” was published. The texts for it were written by the German poet Börries von Münchhausen, and the illustrations were created by Lilien. This book made him a notable figure among cultural Zionists: in it, Jewish antiquity was shown not as a museum past but as a source of strength, dignity, and national future.

It was after “Juda” that Lilien began to be actively perceived as an artist who could give the Jewish national movement its own visual language. His works were highly appreciated by representatives of cultural Zionism, including the circle of Martin Buber. Buber and cultural Zionists close to him saw in Lilien an artist capable of combining European modernism with the Jewish national idea.

An important figure next to Lilien was also Berthold Feiwel — a publicist, editor, one of the active figures of the Zionist movement. He was connected with circles where not only Herzl’s politics were discussed but also the need for new Jewish culture, literature, and art. Through such an environment, Lilien found himself not on the periphery but at the very center of cultural Zionism.

The next important date is 1901. Lilien participated in the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel and joined the democratic-Zionist faction. It was there that he created the famous image of Theodor Herzl on the balcony of the Les Trois Rois hotel. This portrait became one of the visual icons of political Zionism.

Thus, Lilien’s connection with Zionism became obvious. He was not a politician like Herzl and was not an organizer of the movement in the usual sense. His role was different: he made Zionism visible. Herzl gave the movement a program and a political dream, and Lilien gave this dream a face, a line, a symbol, and emotional strength.

In 1903, another important publication was released — “Lieder des Ghetto” / “Songs of the Ghetto” by Morris Rosenfeld with illustrations by Lilien. These images of poverty, exile, pain, and hope were also used in Zionist visual culture. Through them, Lilien showed the old Jewish world but at the same time hinted at the need to escape humiliation and return to dignity.

A logical continuation was the work with Boris Schatz. In 1904, Lilien, together with him, engaged in the idea of creating a Jewish art school in Jerusalem. In 1905, a society related to the future “Bezalel” project was created in Berlin, and in 1906, Lilien, together with Schatz, came to Jerusalem, helped open the school, taught the first class, and participated in forming its visual direction.

Therefore, Lilien’s path to Zionism can be shown as follows:

1894 — Berlin: entry into Jewish artistic and intellectual circles.

1900 — “Juda”: the first major work after which he began to be perceived as an artist of Jewish national revival.

1901 — Basel: Fifth Zionist Congress, democratic-Zionist faction, famous image of Herzl.

1903 — “Songs of the Ghetto”: visual language of Jewish pain, exile, and hope.

1904–1906 — Boris Schatz and “Bezalel”: transition from European Zionist graphics to an attempt to create Jewish art in Jerusalem.

Thus, it becomes clear that Lilien did not “accidentally find himself next to Zionism.” He entered it through Berlin, through the circles of cultural Zionism, through Martin Buber, Berthold Feiwel, Boris Schatz, through the book “Juda,” the Basel Congress, and the image of Herzl. His contribution was not political but visual: he helped Zionism see itself.

Why Lilien is called the first Zionist artist

At the end of the 19th — beginning of the 20th century, Zionism was not only a political movement. It needed a language. Not only the language of speeches, programs, and congresses but also the language of images. What does Jewish return look like? How to present Zion to a person who has never seen Eretz-Israel? How to show not only the suffering of exile but also the dignity of a people who want to become the subject of their own history again?

Lilien gave this movement a strong visual form.

The National Library of Israel directly calls him “the first Zionist artist.” Materials about him emphasize that his turn to Zionist art is associated with the Fifth Zionist Congress.

It is important to understand: he did not “create Zionism.” Zionism as a political movement had its leaders, ideologists, organizers, congresses, and institutions. But Lilien helped make Zionism visible. He gave it faces, lines, symbols, poses, biblical depth, and modern artistic energy.

In his works, the Jew was no longer just an image of an exile or a victim. He could be a prophet, a warrior, a farmer, a thinker, a builder of the future. This was fundamentally important for an era when the Jewish national movement was trying to create a new image of itself.

In this sense, Lilien worked not just as an illustrator. He worked as an artist of national imagination.

Herzl in Basel: a portrait that became almost an icon

The most famous visual episode in Lilien’s biography is associated with Theodor Herzl.

In 1901, during the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Lilien made the famous image of Herzl on the balcony of the Les Trois Rois hotel. Herzl stands by the railing and looks into the distance, at the Rhine. This photograph became one of the most recognizable images of political Zionism. The Jewish Museum of Switzerland describes it as a postcard with a reproduction of Ephraim Moses Lilien’s photograph “Theodor Herzl in Basel, 1901“.

The strength of this portrait is not only that it depicts Herzl. The strength is in the composition. He looks not like an ordinary congress participant but like a person looking into the future. In this image, there is loneliness, a prophetic pose, anxiety, and confidence at the same time.

And here it is important to remember: one of the main visual symbols of the Zionist movement is associated with an artist from Drohobych.

Lilien did not just press the camera button. He knew how to see the symbol. He understood how to create an image of an era from a real person. That is why Herzl on the balcony became more than a portrait. It became a visual formula for the dream of a Jewish future.

There is another important detail. Lilien often used Herzl’s features as a model for the image of the “new Jew.” In Herzl, he saw not only a politician but also a type of face that could be turned into an artistic sign of national revival.

Main works of Lilien: from “Juda” to “Songs of the Ghetto”

Lilien is known not for one work. His legacy includes book graphics, biblical illustrations, Zionist symbols, photographs, portraits, and projects related to Jewish culture at the beginning of the 20th century.

“Juda”: ancient history as an image of the future

One of Lilien’s key works was the 1900 edition of Juda — a book of ballads on Old Testament themes by the German poet Börries von Münchhausen with illustrations by Lilien. Encyclopedic sources note that it was this project that helped turn him into one of the main artists of the Zionist theme; the Israel Museum writes that the illustrations for this book almost immediately made Lilien an outstanding Zionist artist.

Why is this important?

Because in Juda, the ancient history of Israel was presented not as a dead past. It looked like a source of strength. Biblical characters in Lilien’s work were not museum figures. They were strong, monumental, almost modern. In them, a reader at the beginning of the 20th century could see not only a religious plot but also a national idea.

This was an important step: Jewish antiquity became the language of the future.

“Lieder des Ghetto”: the pain of exile and the dignity of the people

Another important project is Lieder des Ghetto, or “Songs of the Ghetto,” illustrations for the German translation of poems by Morris Rosenfeld. This cycle became one of the most famous in Lilien’s legacy. It features themes of poverty, labor, exile, suffering, social pain, and hope.

For the Ukrainian context, there is an additional bridge here. Morris Rosenfeld was a Jewish poet writing in Yiddish, and Ivan Franko translated his texts into Ukrainian. Therefore, around “Songs of the Ghetto,” an amazing cultural connection arises: Jewish poetry, a world-class Ukrainian translator, and an artist from Drohobych who creates strong visual images for these motifs.

This does not mean that Franko and Lilien worked together on one project. But it shows how close intellectual and artistic intersections could be in the Eastern European Jewish-Ukrainian space.

Biblical illustrations: the past as the energy of return

Lilien worked a lot with biblical plots. He was interested in prophets, patriarchs, exodus, land, exile, struggle, spiritual mission. In such works, he did not just illustrate the text. He created an image of Jewish history as a continuous line leading from antiquity to modern national awakening.

Researchers note that in Lilien’s biblical graphics, the past is often presented as majestic and alive, resonating with the ideas of spiritual and artistic revival.

In his work, a biblical hero could look like a person already belonging to the modern world. This was Lilien’s special strength: he did not leave Jewish history in the past. He translated it into the language of his time.

Images worth remembering

Among the well-known works and motifs of Lilien, “The Queen of Sabbath,” “The Silent Song,” “Zion,” images of the victims of the Kishinev pogrom, biblical scenes with Abraham, Joshua, Balaam, and other characters are often mentioned. In these works, it is visible how the artist combined the decorativeness of modernism with heavy historical memory.

His art was beautiful but not easy.

Lilien and “Bezalel”: from Drohobych to Jerusalem

Another important chapter is Lilien’s connection with Jerusalem and the “Bezalel” art school.

In 1906, he, together with Boris Schatz, was involved in the creation of the “Bezalel” Academy of Arts and Design in Jerusalem. The National Library of Israel notes Lilien’s participation in the trip to Eretz-Israel with Schatz and associates him with the school’s emblem.

Yes, his stay in Jerusalem was not long. But even short participation had symbolic significance. Lilien found himself next to one of the first institutional projects of Jewish art education in Eretz-Israel.

This was a path that beautifully fits into one line: Drohobych gave him a start, Krakow and Munich — a school, Berlin — an artistic scene, Basel — a Zionist symbol, Jerusalem — a connection with future Israeli art.

For the Israeli audience, this line is especially important. Lilien was not just a “Jewish artist from Europe.” He was one of those who helped form the visual ground on which the art of Eretz-Israel and Israel later developed.

Ukrainian trace: why Lilien is important not only to Israel

In the Ukrainian perspective, Lilien is important as part of the multinational heritage of Galicia.

He was born on the territory of modern Ukraine. His early environment — Drohobych, Galicia, the Jewish community, the Austro-Hungarian cultural world. His path shows that Ukrainian land gave the world people who influenced not only local history but also world culture.

Such biographies are especially important today when Ukraine is rethinking its own complex memory. Russian propaganda has been trying for decades to simplify Ukrainian history, presenting it as flat, secondary, or artificial. But stories like Lilien’s biography show the opposite: Ukraine was and remains a space of many cultural lines.

Here lived and created Ukrainians, Jews, Poles, Armenians, Greeks, Germans, Crimean Tatars, and other peoples. Their heritage does not cancel Ukrainian identity. On the contrary, it shows its depth.

Lilien is not a “foreign” figure for Ukrainian memory. He is a Jewish artist from Drohobych, a son of Galicia, a person whose biography connects a Ukrainian city with Berlin, Basel, and Jerusalem.

For NANovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, such stories are especially important because they help see Ukrainian-Israeli connections not only through diplomacy, war, and politics but also through a deeper layer — memory, culture, art, family roots, and the shared history of the Jewish people in Ukraine.

Lilien, Franko, Lesya Ukrainka: invisible cultural threads

In recent years, Lilien’s name in Ukraine is increasingly spoken of not only as a Zionist artist but also as a figure that can be placed alongside Ukrainian intellectual pursuits at the turn of the 19th–20th centuries.

Here an interesting connection arises: Lilien, Ivan Franko, Lesya Ukrainka.

At first glance, these are different worlds. Franko — a Ukrainian writer, thinker, translator, and public figure. Lesya Ukrainka — one of the key figures of Ukrainian literature, author of dramatic and poetic texts about freedom, strength of spirit, captivity, dignity, and resistance. Lilien — a Jewish graphic artist associated with modernism and Zionism.

But if you look deeper, there are indeed “invisible threads” between them.

All three lived in an era when the peoples of Eastern Europe were searching for the language of their own dignity. All three worked differently with themes of freedom, national awakening, historical memory, spiritual strength, and resistance to humiliation. For Franko, it was word and thought. For Lesya Ukrainka — dramatic energy and inner freedom. For Lilien — line, image, symbol, the face of a new person.

It is especially interesting that Lilien and Franko meet through the theme of Morris Rosenfeld. Lilien illustrated “Songs of the Ghetto,” and Franko translated Rosenfeld into Ukrainian. This is one of those cultural bridges that are rarely visible in school textbooks but are important for understanding the true depth of the Ukrainian-Jewish space.

What image of a Jew did Lilien create

Before the era of Zionism, European art often depicted Jews through an outsider’s view. These could be stereotypes, religious caricatures, images of poverty, alienation, or exoticism. Lilien offered a different image.

In his work, the Jew is not an object of someone else’s observation but a subject of his own history.

He can suffer but does not disappear. He can be an exile but does not lose dignity. He can remember destruction but look forward. He is connected with the Bible but does not get stuck in the past. He is modern, strong, beautiful, tragic, and aimed at return.

This is the essence of his Zionist graphics.

Lilien did an important thing: he visually restored the dignity of the Jewish body, the Jewish face, the Jewish memory. His heroes often look monumental. They possess a strength that was so lacking in European stereotypes of the ‘weak’ or ‘landless’ Jew.

Therefore, his works were important not only as art. They participated in the creation of a new self-perception.

Why Lilien is important for Israel today

For Israel, Ephraim Moshe Lilien is part of the early cultural history of Zionism. He lived before the creation of the State of Israel but worked with images that helped make this future imaginable, visible, and emotionally convincing.

Herzl gave Zionism a political language. Congress organizers gave it structure. Settlers and builders gave it practical form on the ground. And artists like Lilien gave it a face.

Without images, a national movement remains a program. With images, it becomes part of memory.

That is why Lilien is important not only to art historians. He is important to everyone who wants to understand how the Jewish idea of return became not only a text but also a picture, a symbol, a postcard, an emblem, an illustration, a portrait.

He is also important because his biography reminds us: part of Israel’s cultural roots pass through the cities of modern Ukraine — through Drohobych, Lviv, Odessa, Chernivtsi, Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Uman, Berdychiv, and many other places.

Why Lilien is important for Ukraine today

For Ukraine, Lilien is part of a reclaimed memory.

For a long time, many Jewish names associated with Ukrainian cities were perceived separately: as the history of ‘Jews of Eastern Europe,’ but not as part of the Ukrainian cultural landscape. Today, such an approach no longer works. If a person was born in Drohobych, studied, formed in the Galician environment, absorbed its multilingualism, and then influenced world art, it is impossible to erase him from the Ukrainian cultural map.

Lilien helps Ukraine speak about itself more honestly and deeply.

Not as a monotonous territory where there was only one line of history, but as a complex European space where different peoples created a common cultural fabric. This is especially important during the war when Ukraine defends not only its territory but also its right to its own memory.

Russia tries to destroy Ukrainian cities, erase archives, kill people, destroy cultural symbols, and impose an imperial version of the past. In response, Ukraine reclaims names, places, languages, and destinies that prove: its history is much richer than any imperial schemes.

Ephraim Moshe Lilien is one of those names.

Finale: an artist from Ukraine who helped the Jewish people see themselves

Ephraim Moshe Lilien lived only 51 years. But his path turned out to be surprisingly rich. He was born in Drohobych, went through European art schools, became a master of modernism, joined the circle of Jewish intellectuals and Zionists, created iconic illustrations, photographed Herzl in Basel, and was connected with the artistic beginnings of Jerusalem.

He was called the first Zionist artist not because he was the only one. But because he was one of the first to give the Jewish national revival a coherent artistic image.

Lilien helped the Jewish people see themselves not only through the pain of exile but also through dignity, beauty, strength, memory, and hope.

And in this, there is a special Ukrainian note. One of the artists who created the face of early Zionism was born in Ukrainian Drohobych. His line went from Galicia to Basel and Jerusalem. Therefore, his name rightfully belongs to several stories at once — Jewish, Ukrainian, European, and Israeli.

For the section ‘Jews from Ukraine‘, Ephraim Moshe Lilien is not just the biography of an outstanding artist. It is proof that Ukrainian land gave the Jewish world people who changed not only the culture of their time but also how an entire people envisioned their own future.

Man-bridge: Drohobych — Berlin — Basel — Jerusalem — Braunschweig

The biography of Ephraim Moshe Lilien is most accurately described not by a straight line ‘Drohobych — Jerusalem,’ but by a route through several cultural centers: Drohobych, Berlin, Basel, Jerusalem, and Braunschweig.

Lilien was born on May 23, 1874, in Drohobych — then it was Galicia within Austria-Hungary, today the Lviv region of Ukraine. It was there that the path of the artist began, who would later become one of the main visual authors of early Zionism.

After his first steps in the craft and studies in Krakow, his road went through Vienna, Munich, and Berlin. In 1894, Lilien moved to Berlin, where he became known as a book graphic artist, illustrator, photographer, and master of modernism.

A key date is 1901. During the Fifth Zionist Congress in Basel, Lilien created the famous image of Theodor Herzl on the balcony of the hotel Les Trois Rois. This portrait became one of the visual icons of political Zionism.

In 1906, Lilien found himself in Jerusalem and was associated with the early history of the Bezalel School of Arts, created by Boris Schatz. He did not just ‘visit’ Eretz Israel: Lilien participated in launching a new Jewish art school, taught the first class, helped set its visual direction, and, according to the National Library of Israel, created the design of the Bezalel emblem.

His task was not only pedagogical. Lilien helped connect biblical plots, the Zionist idea of return, and the language of European modernism. Through him, early Bezalel received not just a curriculum but an artistic idea: Jewish art should speak of the past but look to the future.

In Eretz Israel, he also worked as a photographer. In 1906, Lilien photographed Jerusalem, the country’s inhabitants, types, and scenes around the new school: among the known subjects are a Yemenite Jew, Samaritan high priest Amram ben Yitzhak, an Arab figure in an abaya, as well as the Bezalel drawing class. This is important: Lilien looked at the country not only as a Zionist artist but also as a visual witness of the era.

However, Jerusalem did not become his permanent home. Already in 1907, Lilien returned to Berlin but continued to visit Palestine. Sources usually indicate that between 1906 and 1918 he was there four times. One of the subsequent trips was related to World War I: Lilien served in the Austrian military press corps as a war photographer.

In the same 1906, he married Helene Magnus from a Jewish family in Braunschweig. Therefore, after his death on July 18, 1925, in Badenweiler, Lilien was buried not in Jerusalem but in the Jewish cemetery in Braunschweig.

Thus, his map looks briefly: Drohobych, 1874 — Berlin, 1894 — Basel, 1901 — Jerusalem, 1906 — Palestine, trips until 1918 — Braunschweig, 1925.

Drohobych gave him roots, Europe — an artistic language, Basel — a place next to Herzl, Jerusalem — a connection with Bezalel, and Braunschweig became the last point of his earthly journey.

Ephraim Moshe Lilien is buried in the New Jewish Cemetery in Braunschweig, Germany, next to his wife Helene. His tombstone is made based on his own illustration ‘Cemetery’ / ‘Friedhof’ for Morris Rosenfeld’s book ‘Lieder des Ghetto.’ In this illustration, Lilien depicted a tombstone with his name in advance — and after his death, this artistic image was brought to reality.

Read more – in the section ‘Jews from Ukraine‘.

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The story of Maya Rybnikova: from occupied Lugansk to Haifa.

A significant event for the Ukrainian diaspora took place in Haifa, in the heart of Israel.

The Embassy of Ukraine handed over the state award on December 19, 2024 “Honored Teacher of Ukraine” Maya Rybnikova is a math teacher from Russian-occupied Severodonetsk.

This award is recognition of her many years of work and resilience in the face of war and forced migration.

Maya Rybnikova left her native Lugansk in August 2014, when the Russian occupation made further residence there impossible, writes “Severodonetsk online“.

“I am a mathematics teacher with 28 years of experience. I lived in Lugansk and had no intention of leaving there until they came to release me in 2014. For a long time we hoped that Lugansk would be fired. Therefore, we left the city in August, when there were few options left to leave..”

Since then, Severodonetsk became her home for eight long years.

In 2022, with the start of a full-scale invasion, Maya was forced to flee again.

This time she ended up in Israel, in the city of Haifa, where she continues to teach mathematics online to her students from Ukraine.

Maya Rybnikova is a symbol of dedication to her work and faith in the future. Through her lessons, she inspires high school students even from afar, showing that education is a power that transcends boundaries.

Teaching at a Distance: Challenges and Achievements

Maya Rybnikova, with 28 years of experience, believes that distance learning is not a temporary solution, but a way to preserve the educational process in war conditions.

Her key achievements:

• Every year, Maya’s students take the NMT (National Multi-Subject Test) with 200 marks.
• She organized full-fledged online courses for high school students preparing for final exams.
• Maya actively supports the initiative to maintain distance learning for schools in the temporarily occupied territories.

“Education is something that cannot be taken away. It will always stay with you,” says Maya.

“Honored Teacher of Ukraine”: what does this award mean?

For Maya Rybnikova, the title “Honored Teacher of Ukraine” is not just an honorary recognition, but an incentive to continue working and helping students, despite the distance.

» Not exactly the point. There is still some way to go. I don’t want to have defeats, I want to be in shape. For example, I was upset, although I expected it, that the 200-point results this year are much lower than last year. And it’s as if you understand that it’s not your fault, but you’re always haunted by the thought that you could have done better.

This title was never my goal. This is definitely not a piece of paper that I will wave around everywhere. And it has nothing to do with the quality of my work. I worked without a title, and I still work with it. But honestly, it’s nice!“,” Maya shares.

Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv: a bridge between Israel and Ukraine

The award ceremony took place in Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Avivwhich became an important link between Ukrainian and Jewish cultures.

“There are a lot of pleasant, solemn moments in the work of a diplomat. One of them is in these photos. Yesterday in Haifa I had the honor to present the state award “Honored Teacher of Ukraine” to Maya Rybnikova,” wrote Zoryan Kis, coordinator Ukrainian Cultural Center in Tel Aviv

The Center actively supports Ukrainians forced to leave their homeland, providing a platform for dialogue, cultural exchange and preservation of national identity.

“At the request of the Lugansk Regional State Administration, the Embassy of Ukraine in the State of Israel had the honor to present the state award “Honored Teacher of Ukraine” to Mrs. Maya Rybnikova, a teacher at the Severodonetsk Multidisciplinary Lyceum in the Lugansk Region of Ukraine.” – noted a representative of the center.

“Ukraine and Israel share the values ​​of freedom and education. The story of Maya Rybnikova is an example of how two cultures can inspire each other,” we will add, NAnews.

Why is this story important to Israelis?

The Ukrainian community in Israel is one of the most active. The story of Maya Rybnikova resonates with Israelis, because it reflects values ​​that are close to both nations:

1. Family and home. Like the Jewish people, Ukrainians know what it means to lose a home.
2. Education. Teachers in both cultures are revered as guardians of knowledge.
3. Dream of return. Just as Jews dreamed of returning to Israel, Maya dreams of seeing a free Severodonetsk.

Prospects and hopes

Maya Rybnikova believes in the future of her homeland and dreams of returning to the Ukrainian Severodonetsk.

“I am sure that one day we will open the doors of our lyceum again. This will be a victory day for all of Ukraine,” she says.

Support for Ukrainians in Israel

Website NAnews – Israel News has repeatedly covered the initiatives of the Ukrainian community in Israel, emphasizing their contribution to strengthening relations between our peoples.

The story of Maya Rybnikova is a reminder that strength of spirit and the desire to teach can overcome any boundaries.

“We believe that Ukraine and Israel will inspire each other to new achievements. Together we are stronger,” notes the editors of NAnovosti.

This story shows how personal example can become a symbol of the unity of two peoples.

Ukraine and Israel, teacher and student, dream and reality – all this is united in the fate of one strong woman.

………………..

Leave a comment on WhatsApp – channel NAnews ↓ — Israel News

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…
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Credit, debt write-off, or bankruptcy? GBT Global now accepts clients in Haifa and helps residents of northern Israel, the Haifa district, and the region from Haifa to Netanya deal with debts, BDI, bank rejections, and finding real financial solutions. The main condition for the client is simple: no prepayment — payment only after the deal is closed.

The new GBT Global office operates in Haifa, on Hatib Street, 3309154, in the Paris Square area. Office hours are from Sunday to Friday, from 8:00 to 16:00. However, the contact form is available 24/7: clients can leave a request at any convenient time, even if the office is already closed.

Submit a request and view the main areas of support

can be done on the GBT Global website.

Credit, debt write-off, or bankruptcy: why it’s important not to make a mistake with the first step

A financial problem rarely starts in one day. First, there is one loan, then a second payment, then a delay, a bank rejection, worsening BDI, calls from creditors, pressure, attempts to take a new loan to close the old one. At some point, a person no longer understands what they really need: a regular loan, debt consolidation, restructuring, debt write-off, or bankruptcy procedure.

In such situations, professional verification is more important than the advertisement ‘money for everyone’. GBT Global does not issue loans independently and does not promise the impossible. The company accompanies the client in the process of preparation, situation analysis, document verification, and finding a real financial solution.

For residents of Haifa and northern Israel, this is especially relevant. Many Russian-speaking, Hebrew-speaking, and English-speaking clients face the fact that banking documents, lending conditions, BDI, and legal formulations are difficult to understand without a specialist. An error in the application or chaotic submission of documents to different banks can only worsen the situation.

When a loan can still help

Credit can be a reasonable solution if the client has a stable income, understandable debt load, and the ability to service a new payment without a new financial failure. In this case, the specialist’s task is not just to ‘submit an application’, but to assess what conditions are possible, what documents are needed, what risks the bank sees, and how to correctly present the financial picture.

But if a person is already in constant arrears, takes one loan to close another, and does not control monthly payments, a new loan may not be a solution but an acceleration of the crisis. Therefore, before submitting an application, it is important to understand: does the loan really solve the problem or just postpone it for a few months ahead.

When to talk about debt write-off

Debt write-off is not a magic button and not a universal way to get rid of obligations. It is a serious process that depends on the size of the debts, income, property, payment history, legal status of obligations, and the position of creditors.

It is important to understand: debt write-off depends on the specific situation and cannot be guaranteed in advance. First, documents, income, obligations, payment history, possible legal restrictions, and the client’s overall financial picture are checked.

For the client, the main question is simple: is there a legal and real way to reduce the debt burden, negotiate with creditors, or get out of the situation without complete financial destruction. This question can only be answered after checking the documents and the overall picture.

That is why GBT Global emphasizes the initial analysis. It is important for a person not to hear a beautiful promise, but to understand what options they really have.

When bankruptcy becomes an option

Bankruptcy is an extreme but legal path if the debt situation has become critical and other options no longer work. For many people, the word ‘bankruptcy’ sounds frightening, but sometimes it is the legal procedure that allows stopping the chaos, moving to a clear process, and starting the restoration of financial life.

However, bankruptcy cannot be chosen blindly. Before such a step, it is necessary to check if there is an alternative: restructuring, debt consolidation, negotiations, partial obligation write-off, or another route. A mistake at this stage can cost a person time, money, and additional restrictions.

GBT Global office in Haifa: who is it convenient for

The new office in Haifa is designed not only for the residents of the city itself. It is convenient for clients from Kiryat (Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Ata), Nesher, Tirat Carmel, Akko, Nahariya, Afula, Hadera, Zichron Yaakov, Caesarea, Or Akiva, Netanya, and others. In fact, we are talking about a wide region: northern Israel and the central coast from Haifa to Netanya.

For many clients, a personal office matters. When it comes to credit, debts, BDI, or bankruptcy, a person often needs not just to send a form, but to explain the situation, show documents, ask clarifying questions, and understand who is handling their case.

Office address: Hatib Street, Haifa, 3309154, Paris Square area.

Working hours: Sunday — Friday, 8:00 — 16:00.

Contact form: 24/7.

Submit a request and view the main areas of support

can be done on the GBT Global website.

For readers of NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency, this topic is also important because financial difficulties in Israel are often related not only to income but also to language barriers, misunderstanding of banking rules, and fear of legal procedures. When there is an office nearby where you can explain the situation in a language you understand, a person is more likely to take the first step in time, rather than when debts have already become critical.

Why the ability to contact 24/7 is important

Financial problems do not always wait for a working day. A person may receive a bank rejection in the evening, see an account restriction, realize they cannot cope with payments, or simply finally decide to describe their situation. Therefore, the ability to leave a request through the form at any time is an important part of the service.

The client does not need to wait for the office to open to take the first step. It is enough to leave a request, indicate the problem, and the preferred language of communication. After that, a specialist can return to the request during working hours.

For residents of Haifa, northern Israel, and the region up to Netanya, the contact form is available 24/7 on the website: https://gbt.nikk.co.il/

Service in Hebrew, Russian, and English

GBT Global serves clients in three languages: Hebrew, Russian, and English. At the first contact, it is recommended to immediately indicate which language is more convenient to speak, so the company can invite the appropriate specialist.

This is especially important in Israel, where financial decisions are often related to banking documents in Hebrew, personal explanations in Russian or English, and the need to accurately understand the conditions. In matters of credit, debt write-off, and bankruptcy, there are no small details: a misunderstood word can change the client’s decision.

NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency emphasizes: for the Israeli audience, especially for residents of Haifa and the north of the country, local access to financial consultation can be more important than it seems. When the office is nearby, and service is possible in a language you understand, it is easier for a person not to postpone the problem until the last moment.

What is included in the first stage of the request

The first stage usually begins with a description of the situation. The client reports what exactly is bothering them: a loan is needed, there are debts, BDI has worsened, the bank refused, payments have accumulated, debt write-off or bankruptcy is being considered.

After that, it is important for the specialist to understand several things: is there a stable income, what obligations already exist, were there any delays, which banks or credit companies have already refused, are there any legal or enforcement processes, what documents are available, and how urgent the solution is needed.

This approach helps not to shoot blindly. In the financial sphere, this is critical: an extra application, an unprepared document package, or the wrong strategy can close options for the client that were still available.

No prepayment — why this is important

One of the main principles of GBT Global is no prepayment. Payment is made only after the deal is closed. For a person who is already under financial stress, this is an important signal: they are not required to pay money upfront for promises.

The financial market is full of loud phrases, but the client needs results and an honest understanding of the prospects. Therefore, the formula ‘no prepayment — payment only after the deal is closed’ well addresses the main fear of people with debts: not to lose the last money on consultations that lead nowhere.

What questions to ask before contacting

Before applying for a loan, debt write-off, or bankruptcy support, it is useful to honestly answer a few questions. How many monthly payments do you have? Are there any delays? When was the last bank refusal? Have you checked your BDI? Is there a stable income? Do you understand what amount you can realistically pay each month?

It is also important to prepare basic documents: identification, income data, bank statements, information about loans, debts, payments, and letters from financial organizations. The more accurate the picture, the faster the specialist can understand what options are even possible.

An equally important question is the purpose of the request. One person needs a new loan. Another needs to reduce the monthly load. A third needs to stop debt pressure. A fourth needs to check the possibility of debt write-off or bankruptcy. These situations look similar on the surface but require different solutions.

FAQ: frequently asked questions about credit, debt write-off, and bankruptcy in Haifa

Can I apply if the bank has already refused?

Yes, but it is important not to continue submitting applications chaotically. First, you need to understand the reason for the refusal: BDI, income, debt load, documents, delays, or other factors.

Can I get help with a bad BDI?

Yes, but a bad BDI is not corrected by promises. It needs to be checked, the reasons understood, and an assessment made of what financial solutions are available in the current situation.

Which is better: credit or debt write-off?

It depends on the client’s condition. If the income allows servicing payments, credit or consolidation may be an option. If the debt load is critical, debt write-off or other legal solutions need to be considered.

Is bankruptcy always the last option?

Most often, yes. Before bankruptcy, it is worth checking alternatives: negotiations, restructuring, debt consolidation, partial obligation write-off, or another path.

What documents to prepare before contacting?

It is advisable to prepare identification, income data, bank statements, information about current loans, debts, delays, letters from banks, credit companies, or enforcement bodies. If the documents are not yet at hand, you can still leave a request and describe the situation.

Can I apply from Netanya, Hadera, Kiryat, or other cities?

Yes. The office is located in Haifa, but the request is relevant for residents of northern Israel and the region from Haifa to Netanya: Kiryat (Kiryat Motzkin, Kiryat Yam, Kiryat Bialik, Kiryat Ata), Nesher, Tirat Carmel, Akko, Nahariya, Afula, Hadera, Zichron Yaakov, Caesarea, Or Akiva, and other localities.

Does GBT Global issue loans independently?

No. GBT Global is not a bank and does not issue loans independently. The company accompanies the client: analyzes the situation, helps prepare documents, deals with BDI, debts, possible credit options, debt write-off, or bankruptcy.

Do I need to come to the office in person?

Not always. The first request can be left through the contact form 24/7. But the office in Haifa is convenient for those who want to come in person and discuss the situation with a specialist.

In what languages can service be received?

GBT Global serves clients in Hebrew, Russian, and English. At the first contact, it is better to immediately indicate the required language.

Is there a prepayment?

No. An important condition of GBT Global: no prepayment — payment only after the deal is closed.

GBT Global in Haifa: the first step to a financial solution

Credit, debt write-off, or bankruptcy — these are not just three different services. These are three different scenarios for a person who is faced with a financial choice. A mistake can exacerbate the problem, while the right check can open the way to a solution.

The GBT Global office in Haifa gives residents of the city, northern Israel, and the region from Haifa to Netanya the opportunity to receive support closer to home. Here you can start with an initial application, describe the situation, choose the language of communication, and understand what steps to take next.

GBT Global in Haifa
Hatib Street, Haifa, 3309154
Paris Square area
Sun-Fri: 8:00 — 16:00
Contact form — 24/7
Service: Hebrew, Russian, English

Submit a request and view the main areas of support

can be done on the GBT Global website.

…

…
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The UN reports a decline, but the crisis is not over

For the first time in the last decade, the number of people forced to leave their homes due to wars, persecution, disasters, and the destruction of normal life has decreased worldwide. This is stated in a new report by the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees published on June 11, 2026.

At first glance, the figure looks like a rare positive signal: in 2025, the total number of forcibly displaced people decreased by 5.4 million, or about 4%.

But behind this statistic, there is no sense of victory. Even after the decline, it is about 117.8 million people who live not where they used to, not as they used to, and often do not know if they will ever return to normal life.

For the Israeli audience, this topic does not seem distant. Israel understands well what it means to live near war, evacuation, families without homes, anxious children, and people who cannot return to their cities for months. Therefore, the UN report is not just international statistics, but a mirror of an entire era where wars change demographics faster than diplomacy can respond.

According to UNHCR, in 2025, the number of refugees was 35.6 million, and internally displaced persons were 68.6 million. The latter remain within their country but effectively lose their home, job, familiar environment, and security.

Why the numbers have decreased

The main reason for the decrease is the mass return of people to their countries and regions of origin. In 2025, the number of such returns increased by 50% compared to the previous year and exceeded 14.7 million people.

This is one of the largest figures in the entire 60-year history of UNHCR observations.

4.4 million refugees and 10.3 million internally displaced persons returned to their permanent places of residence. A particularly noticeable increase in returns was recorded in Afghanistan, Sudan, and Syria.

However, the report contains an important caveat: not everyone returned voluntarily and safely. In many cases, people left host countries not because it became peaceful at home, but because life in exile became too difficult.

Rising prices, poverty, lack of work, pressure on aid systems, fatigue of host societies, and the reduction of humanitarian programs pushed people back — sometimes to devastated areas, sometimes to unstable conditions, sometimes to places where the threat has not disappeared.

That is why the reduction in the overall figure cannot be read as the end of the crisis. It shows not only movement towards a solution but also pressure on those who have been living between a past life and an impossible future for years.

Millions of people remain trapped in exile

The UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Barham Salih, presenting the annual report on global trends, emphasized that the scale of forced displacement remains unacceptably high.

According to UNHCR, about 70% of refugees continue to live in conditions of prolonged exile. This means years without clear status, without sustainable income, without normal future planning for children and family.

Almost as many — 68% — are in countries with low and middle income levels. This means that the main burden is borne not by the richest countries in the world, but by countries that themselves often face economic, social, and political problems.

For readers of NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency, the humanitarian and political conclusion is important: the global asylum system relies on overloaded states, not on beautiful declarations. When crises drag on, refugees become part of the internal politics of host countries, and the topic of migration turns into a tool of pressure, elections, and international bargaining.

Barham Salih put it harshly: for too many refugees, displacement saves lives but becomes a sentence.

And this is perhaps the key phrase of the entire report. A person is saved from war but then depends on humanitarian aid for years, lives in poverty, and has no real way out — neither full integration, nor safe return, nor resettlement in a third country.

UNHCR’s goal by 2035

The UN agency aims to more than halve the number of refugees living in prolonged displacement and dependent on humanitarian aid by 2035.

To achieve this, several directions are proposed: voluntary return, resettlement in third countries, humanitarian visas, family reunification, educational programs, access to work, and financial independence.

A separate emphasis is placed on including refugees in national education, healthcare, financial services, and labor markets. The logic is clear: if a person can work, study, pay taxes, and support a family, they are less dependent on humanitarian organizations and contribute more to the economy of the host country.

But this requires investment, political will, and the readiness of states to see refugees not only as a problem but as people with professions, skills, families, and potential.

UNHCR also calls for creating conditions where refugees’ earnings allow them to live above the official poverty line in host countries. Without this, talks about independence remain a beautiful formula, not a real policy.

Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, and the Middle East: where the crisis is most severe

More than 70% of refugees and other people in need of international protection come from just six countries: Afghanistan, Venezuela, Syria, Sudan, Ukraine, and South Sudan.

This list shows that the global map of displacement is not made up of random spikes but of protracted crises. Some last for decades, others sharply escalated after full-scale wars, and others resulted from state collapse, poverty, and violence.

Ukraine remains among the main sources of forced displacement due to Russian aggression. Millions of Ukrainians were forced to go abroad or leave their homes within the country. For Israel, the Ukrainian direction is of particular importance: a large Russian-speaking and Ukrainian-speaking community lives here, many have relatives in Ukraine, and the war directly affects public connections, memory politics, and attitudes towards security.

The largest host countries in 2025 were Colombia — 2.8 million people, Germany — 2.7 million, Turkey — 2.4 million, Uganda — 1.9 million, Iran — 1.7 million, Chad — 1.5 million, and Pakistan — 1.3 million.

This geography is important. It shows that refugees most often stay near the crisis region, not travel to the other end of the world. Therefore, neighboring states take the first and hardest hit.

Internal displacement and new waves of crisis

By the end of 2025, there were 68.6 million internally displaced persons worldwide. This is 7% less than the previous year, but it still remains a colossal figure.

The largest crisis situation remained Sudan, where 9.1 million people were displaced within the country. The Sudanese crisis has long ceased to be regional news: it affects Chad, Egypt, humanitarian routes, food security, and the entire aid system in Africa.

The report also notes that the war in the Middle East, which began in February 2026, led to the displacement of about 1 million people in Lebanon and 3.2 million people in Iran.

For Israel, such data sounds particularly alarming. When millions of people are displaced in neighboring or nearby regions, it almost always means instability, increased pressure on borders, humanitarian risks, strengthening of radical structures, and new security challenges.

NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency views such reports not as dry UN statistics but as part of the overall picture: modern war rarely stays within one country. It changes neighboring societies, migration routes, political alliances, labor markets, security, and the information agenda.

Stateless and unprotected

A separate part of the report is devoted to stateless persons. By the end of 2025, there were about 4.5 million such people worldwide, which is 3% more than the previous year.

Without citizenship, a person often cannot properly process documents, access education, healthcare, work, property, and basic legal protection. This is not just a bureaucratic status but a factual exclusion from the system.

At the same time, almost 46,000 people in 24 countries in 2025 were able to obtain documents and get rid of statelessness status. Against the backdrop of millions, this is little, but for each specific family, such a document means the opportunity to start life anew.

The main conclusion of the UN report sounds cautious: the world has seen a decrease in the number of forcibly displaced people for the first time in a decade, but this decrease cannot be considered a solution to the problem.

As long as wars continue in Ukraine, Sudan, Syria, the Middle East, and other regions, millions of people will live between the fear of returning and the inability to settle in a new place. This means that the refugee issue remains not only humanitarian but also strategic — for Europe, the Middle East, Israel, and the entire international security system.

…
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The Pyramids of Giza: A Mystery That Has Survived 4500 Years

For over 4500 years, the Pyramids of Giza have remained one of the main symbols of human civilization. They have survived empires, wars, changes in religions, natural disasters, and thousands of attempts to explain how the people of Ancient Egypt managed to build such structures without modern technology.

Around the pyramids, a whole market of theories has long grown: from aliens and lost technologies to secret energy installations. But the further archaeology advances, the clearer the main point becomes: the true story of the construction of the pyramids is no less impressive than the boldest fantasies.

It simply does not require aliens.

Modern research shows that the pyramids were the result of a giant state organization, engineering calculation, seasonal mobilization of labor, and precise understanding of materials. For Israel, where archaeology, ancient history, and the Middle East are always close to living politics and culture, this topic is especially interesting: it is not only about Egypt but about how ancient societies were able to create projects of a scale that still amazes engineers.

The pyramids were not built by slaves

One of the most persistent myths says that the pyramids were built by thousands of slaves under the lash. This is exactly how it has been shown for decades in films, novels, and mass culture.

But archaeological finds at the Giza plateau tell a different story.

Researchers have discovered an entire settlement of builders near the pyramids: residential quarters, bakeries, warehouses, workshops, and utility areas. There lived people who participated in the construction, received food, medical care, and worked within a well-organized state system.

The found remains of bread, beef, and lamb show that the workers ate better than a significant part of the population at that time. This poorly matches the image of oppressed slaves who were simply driven to death.

A more likely version looks different: the main part of the workforce consisted of Egyptian peasants, craftsmen, and specialists who were attracted to construction during the Nile flood season. At this time, agricultural work was temporarily halted, and the state could direct people to large projects.

How they could move millions of stone blocks

The Great Pyramid of Pharaoh Khufu consists of approximately 2.3 million stone blocks. Most of them weighed from 2.5 to 15 tons, and some granite elements were even heavier.

It is the transportation and lifting of these blocks that remain one of the most complex questions in the history of ancient construction.

The classical theory suggests that the Egyptians used external ramps. Blocks could be pulled up them using ropes, wooden sleds, and a large group of workers. This version seems logical, but it has a weak point: such a ramp would have to be almost as grand as the pyramid itself.

And traces of a huge external structure that would fully explain the construction process have not yet been found.

New theory: hidden internal ramps

In 2026, researcher Vicente Luis Rosell Roig presented a mathematical model that offers a different explanation. According to this version, the builders could have used a system of spiral internal ramps running inside the pyramid itself.

The essence of the theory is that the blocks were gradually lifted not by a giant external embankment but by special passages inside the structure. After the work was completed, these sections were closed with external cladding, making them difficult to detect from the outside today.

If this model is correct, it explains several long-standing questions at once.

First, it becomes clearer how workers could lift stone blocks to great heights without building a monstrous external ramp. Second, the theory helps understand why archaeologists do not find remnants of such a ramp on the expected scale. Third, the internal system could allow maintaining the precise geometry of the pyramid during construction.

Calculations show that to complete the pyramid in about 27 years, builders needed to install one stone block every few minutes. At first glance, this sounds almost incredible, but with strict labor organization, task division, and a constant flow of materials, such a pace no longer seems like fantasy.

For readers of NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency, the broader conclusion is important: the ancient Middle East was not a space of primitive guesses but a region of complex engineering, administrative, and religious systems. The Egyptian pyramids are not only a monument to the pharaohs but also proof of how a state could manage thousands of people, resources, logistics, and time.

Why the pyramids were built and what mysteries remain

Most Egyptologists agree that the pyramids were royal tombs. For the ancient Egyptians, death did not mean the end of existence but was perceived as a transition to another world.

Therefore, burial complexes were built to be as strong, durable, and symbolically accurate as possible. The pyramid was not just a stone tomb but part of a large ritual system connected with the pharaoh’s power, religion, the afterlife, and the concept of world order.

Around the pyramids were temples, procession roads, utility buildings, and other elements of the complex. All this worked as a single space where architecture, cult, and state ideology were combined into one project.

Popular versions that the pyramids were power plants, space beacons, or alien structures have no convincing archaeological evidence. They sell well on the internet but do not hold up well to factual scrutiny.

What is still not fully explained

Despite decades of research, the Pyramids of Giza continue to hold questions that have no definitive answers.

The first question is accuracy. The sides of the Great Pyramid are almost perfectly oriented to the cardinal points, with an error of only a few centimeters over hundreds of meters in length. For ancient construction, this is an indicator of an incredible level of observation, calculation, and control.

The second question is hidden spaces. Modern scanning using cosmic muons has already revealed large voids inside the Pyramid of Khufu. Their purpose remains unclear, and such discoveries continue to fuel interest in Giza.

The third question is the complete set of construction technologies. It is likely that the Egyptians used not one universal method but several solutions simultaneously: sleds, canals, ramps, levers, internal passages, seasonal logistics, and precise organization of work groups.

That is why the new theory of internal ramps does not necessarily completely cancel out the old versions. It may be part of a more complex picture where different methods were applied at different stages of construction.

The main conclusion: not a myth, but an engineering civilization

The Pyramids of Giza become even more interesting when they are freed from cheap myths. They were built not by disenfranchised slaves and not by mysterious aliens, but by thousands of organized people working within the powerful administrative system of Ancient Egypt.

These were workers, craftsmen, engineers of their time, suppliers, overseers, scribes, and managers. They did not have cranes, computers, and modern technology, but they had a plan, discipline, mathematics, experience working with stone, and a state capable of supporting one giant project for decades.

For the modern reader in Israel, this story is also important because it returns the Middle East to its true depth. Here, not only wars and empires were created, but also engineering solutions that continue to amaze the world thousands of years later.

NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency notes: the new theory does not close the discussion about the construction of the pyramids but makes it more serious. Instead of fantasies about aliens, the real power of ancient civilization comes to the forefront — organization, knowledge, and labor.

The Pyramids of Giza remain a mystery, but not in the sense often portrayed by popular myths. The main secret is not who “helped” the Egyptians from outside, but how the Egyptians themselves managed to create a system that allowed them to build one of the greatest structures in human history.

FAQ

Who really built the Egyptian pyramids?

Modern archaeological data shows that the pyramids were built not by slaves but by organized workers, craftsmen, and seasonal workers from different regions of Egypt. They lived in special settlements near the Giza plateau, received food, assistance, and worked within the state system.

How did the Egyptians lift stone blocks without modern technology?

It is most likely that the blocks were transported on wooden sleds, and different types of ramps were used for lifting. A new theory suggests that there might have been a system of hidden spiral passages inside the pyramid through which stones were lifted to the upper levels.

Why were the pyramids built?

The main scientific version states that the pyramids were royal tombs and part of a large ritual complex. They reflected the ancient Egyptians’ ideas about the pharaoh’s power, death, the afterlife, and eternal order.

Why is the theory about slaves considered outdated?

Because archaeologists found a settlement of builders with residential areas, bakeries, warehouses, and traces of good nutrition. Such a picture corresponds more to an organized labor system than to mass slave construction.

Is there evidence for the alien theory?

No. Popular versions about aliens, energy stations, or space beacons have no serious archaeological basis. Scientific data points to the engineering and organizational capabilities of the ancient Egyptians themselves.

…
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Ukraine finished the group without points, but the main match is still ahead

The Ukrainian women’s national football team completed the first stage of the 2027 World Cup qualification with a defeat to England — 0:3.

Formally, the picture is grim: last place in Group A3, 0 points, ahead is not a long distance, but a playoff where a mistake can cost the entire tournament. Spain and England scored 15 points each, Iceland — 6, Ukraine remained fourth.

But the main intrigue for the Israeli audience is not this.

Now Ukraine moves to Path 2 of the qualification playoffs, and among its potential opponents in the first round is Israel. So, after the draw on June 18, a pair may appear that will be of interest not only to sports journalists but also to thousands of people between Ukraine and Israel.

It could be a match with a strong emotional background: the Ukrainian team trying to return to the fight after a failed group stage, and Israel, which could become the first obstacle on Ukraine’s path to the World Cup in Brazil.

Why Israel in this story is not just a point on the list

Potential opponents of Ukraine in the first round of the playoffs: Finland, Belgium, Turkey, Czech Republic, Albania, Northern Ireland, Slovakia, and Israel.

The presence of Israel changes the angle of the news for our audience.

For Ukrainians in Israel, repatriates, Russian-speaking fans, and everyone following the connection between the two countries, a possible Ukraine-Israel match will not just be a football poster. It will be a game where the sports table intersects with personal stories, families, war, emigration, and the feeling that both countries have long been in the same nervous field.

What the playoffs mean for Ukraine

Ukraine enters the first round as a seeded team because it played in Division A. This gives it a more favorable position at the start of the playoffs but does not guarantee an easy road.

After the first round, the winners of Path 2 pairs will play against the winners of Path 1 pairs. At this stage, the Ukrainian team will no longer be seeded.

Simply put, to reach the 2027 World Cup, Ukraine needs to pass two opponents in a row. The first could be Israel.

And this is where the real story begins.

After 0 points in the group, the Ukrainian team needs not just to win the next match. It needs to prove that the group with Spain and England was a painful but not final verdict. The playoffs give a second chance but do not allow time for long explanations.

Calendar: when it will become clear

The draw for both rounds of the qualification playoffs will take place on June 18.

The first round matches will be held from October 7–13. The second round is scheduled for the period from November 26 to December 5.

The Women’s World Cup 2027 will be held in Brazil from June 24 to July 25.

For NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency, the key moment is the draw: if Ukraine gets Israel, in the fall we will have a match that will matter far beyond the football field.

Ukraine vs. Israel — a possible poster with a big context

The Ukrainian team approaches the playoffs after a tough stage. England defeated Ukraine 3:0, and the entire group tournament showed the difference between the teams of the European elite and the team that continues to fight in difficult conditions.

But the playoffs are arranged differently.

There, the winner is not always the one who passed the group more beautifully. Often, one quick goal, one defender’s mistake, one set piece, one successful substitution, one minute of concentration at the end of the match decide.

If the opponent becomes Israel, the game will gain special interest in Israel. It will be a match that will be followed not only as a sport but also as an event in the relations of two societies, where the Ukrainian theme after 2022 has become part of everyday reality.

What is important for Ukraine before the draw

Ukraine needs to quickly reboot after a group without points.

The team needs to strengthen its defense because in the playoffs a conceded goal can change the entire scenario. A bolder game forward is also needed: it is impossible to pass two rounds without goals.

Ukraine’s advantage is the status of a seeded team in the first round.

The risk is psychological pressure after an unsuccessful group stage and the understanding that each game can become the last in this qualification.

Israel in the list of possible opponents makes the anticipation of the draw especially important for the local audience. While this is only an option, it is such options that often turn a dry qualification calendar into a real sports intrigue.

FAQ

Why is the topic related to Israel?

Because Israel is on the list of potential opponents for Ukraine in the first round of the 2027 World Cup qualification playoffs.

Has Ukraine already been eliminated from the qualification?

No. Ukraine finished last in Group A3 without points but will continue to fight in Path 2 of the playoffs.

When can Ukraine find out if it will play against Israel?

The draw will take place on June 18. It is then that it will be known who Ukraine’s opponent will be in the first round.

When will the first round of the playoffs take place?

The first round matches will be held from October 7–13.

Where will the 2027 Women’s World Cup be held?

The tournament will be held in Brazil from June 24 to July 25, 2027.

…
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The UN report on Hamas crimes in the Gaza Strip was a rare moment when an international body directly described not only Israel’s war with the terrorist organization but also the internal terror against the enclave’s own residents.

On June 9, 2026, the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the situation in the Palestinian territory, including East Jerusalem, and in Israel presented a report where the actions of Hamas militants and their controlled police structures are classified as war crimes.

The essence of the document is harsh: in the Gaza Strip, people were not only intimidated but also beaten, maimed, publicly executed, accused of collaborating with Israel, looting, stealing humanitarian aid, drug crimes, or ties with rival Palestinian groups.

For the Israeli audience, the importance of this report lies not only in the legal formulation. The fact itself is important: the international commission recorded that Hamas used fear as a system of governance within Gaza.

What exactly did the UN commission record

According to the report, from August 2024 to January 2026, 249 incidents of extrajudicial punishment were documented in the Gaza Strip. These episodes resulted in the deaths of 108 people.

In almost a quarter of the cases, the commission established the direct involvement of police or militants associated with Hamas. At the same time, investigators separately note: it was not only about Hamas but also about other local armed formations that operated in the war-torn territory.

The methods were demonstratively brutal.

People were shot.

They were shot in the knees.

Bones were crushed with iron pipes and concrete blocks.

The beaten were displayed publicly, and video recordings were spread further so that fear worked not only at the place of execution but also afterward — in phones, chats, conversations, rumors.

It did not look like chaos of separate gangs. The report describes a practice of intimidation through which Hamas’s security structures and associated groups tried to regain control over the population, suppress criticism, and show who decides who lives and who will be declared a ‘traitor’.

Who was punished and for what

Not only those suspected of collaborating with Israel were targeted. The list of accusations includes looting, theft of humanitarian goods, ordinary thefts, drugs, tobacco trade, connection with rival Palestinian factions, and participation in local clans that did not obey Hamas.

A separate part of the report concerns minors. According to the commission, children and teenagers were also subjected to humiliation, beatings, and public disgrace, accused of petty theft, smuggling, or illegal trade.

This is an important detail because it breaks the usual propaganda picture. For years, Hamas tried to present itself as the ‘protector of Palestinians’, but the UN report shows another side: when the group’s power was threatened, it acted against the residents of Gaza as a punitive machine.

‘Shifa’, Khan Yunis, and public executions

The report provides verified video recordings and eyewitness testimonies. One of the episodes occurred in September 2025 near the ‘Shifa’ hospital in Gaza City. In front of a crowd, masked people shot three bound men with blindfolds.

A month later, in October 2025, a similar execution took place in the center of Gaza City. Eight people were publicly executed in the square. They were declared traitors and agents of Israel.

Such scenes were not hidden. On the contrary, they were shown.

And this is the main meaning of terror: the execution was supposed to be a message for everyone else. Do not argue. Do not criticize. Do not ask questions about humanitarian aid. Do not seek alternative power. Do not support local clans that could weaken Hamas’s control.

Witnesses also reported punitive actions on the territory of medical institutions, including the ‘Nasser’ complex in Khan Yunis. International experts separately noted: Hamas’s internal crimes on hospital grounds do not in themselves remove the protected status of medical facilities under international humanitarian law.

For Israel, this formulation is controversial and painful because the Israeli side has claimed for years: Hamas systematically uses hospitals, schools, mosques, and humanitarian infrastructure as cover for military activity. But even within the cautious language of the UN, the report highlights the main point: Hamas indeed operated within civilian spaces where healing should have taken place, not executions.

Why this is important for Israel

Israelis understand well what Hamas is after October 7, 2023. It is not an abstract ‘armed group’ from diplomatic documents but a terrorist organization that carried out a massacre in southern Israel, kidnapped hostages, used tunnels, civilian infrastructure, and human shields.

But the new report is also important because it shows: Hamas is dangerous not only for Israel.

It is also dangerous for the Palestinians it uses as cover.

When international platforms discuss the Gaza Strip, too often the whole picture is reduced to one question: what is Israel doing. The report from June 9, 2026, expands the frame. It shows that within Gaza, there is its own system of violence, where Hamas and its associated structures decide people’s fates without trial, lawyer, evidence, and the right to defense.

That is why NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers this report not as a dry UN document but as an important testimony about the real structure of Hamas’s power. For Israel, for Israelis, for immigrants from Ukraine and the former USSR, everything here is too familiar: dictatorship always starts with ‘enemies’, then expands the list, and then fear becomes the main law.

The UN called it war crimes

The commission concluded that the recorded killings and extrajudicial executions fall under the definition of war crimes. It also concerns gross violations of international humanitarian law and basic human rights — the right to life, personal integrity, freedom, and a fair trial.

The report separately emphasizes: after the truce in October 2025, which ended the two-year war with Israel, Hamas began to restore administrative and security control over territories where its influence had weakened. It was during this period, according to the commission, that reprisals against those the group considered a threat to its power intensified.

Commission Chairman Srinivasan Muralidhar stated that the violations occurred in conditions created by war and the destruction of governance infrastructure. But even this attempt to explain the context does not change the essence: punishments were carried out by Hamas’s police and military wing bypassing judicial procedures.

That is, it is not about justice.

It is about power through fear.

What this report changes

Politically, the report is inconvenient for many. For Hamas — because it breaks the image of ‘resistance’ and shows the terrorist organization as a structure that kills and maims its own population. For some international activists — because it disrupts the simple scheme where only Israel is to blame, and Palestinian armed groups seem to disappear from the frame.

For Israel, the document is also important, but not as a reason to relax. On the contrary, it shows how complex the war has become after October 7: Israel is fighting not with a regular army but with an organization that simultaneously conducts military operations, controls humanitarian flows, keeps the population in fear, and uses civilian space as part of its survival system.

In this sense, the UN report from June 9, 2026, records what has long been said in Israel: Hamas is not only a threat at the border, not only rockets, tunnels, and hostages. It is a regime of internal terror that turns the Gaza Strip into a territory where a person can be publicly beaten, maimed, or shot without trial because someone in a mask called them a ‘traitor’.

And if the international community truly wants to talk about Gaza’s future, it cannot ignore this issue.

You cannot build peace on the power of those who turn hospitals, squares, and streets into places of execution.

…
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“Conscious systematic actions aimed at inciting interethnic and interstate discord between Israel and Ukraine”, – quote.

After the reburial in Ukraine of Andriy Melnyk and his wife Sofia Fedak-Melnyk with state honors, the debate around historical memory went far beyond a single ceremony.

Initially, “Yad Vashem” and the Israeli Foreign Ministry reacted sharply to the very fact of state honoring of the OUN leader. The Israeli side pointed to the painful topic for Jewish memory of “cooperation of the Ukrainian nationalist movement with Nazi Germany” during World War II and the context of “persecution and murder of Jews”.

Then came a response that made the situation even more complicated.

On the “Myrotvorets” website, a card appeared for Dani Dayan (known on May 28, 2026) — the chairman of the Israeli state national memorial complex of Holocaust history “Yad Vashem”. He was accused of actions “aimed against Ukraine”, in “humanitarian aggression”, spreading “Russian-fascist propaganda” and “informational provocations”.

here it is – https://myrotvorets.center/criminal/daian-dany/

Thus, the dispute over Melnyk turned into a new crisis in the Ukrainian-Israeli conversation about memory.

And here it is important not to fall into a simple scheme: “some are right, others are guilty”. It doesn’t work.

“Yad Vashem” had grounds to speak about the Holocaust and painful pages of history for the Jewish people. It is its mission. But the Ukrainian side also had grounds to painfully perceive the tone of the statement, especially at a time of war, when Russia daily uses the theme of “Nazism” as a weapon against Ukraine.

The problem is that both sides spoke from their own trauma — and almost did not hear the context of the other.

Ukraine defended the right to its own historical memory.

Israel defended the memory of the Holocaust.

And as a result, a conflict arose, which Russian propaganda immediately took advantage of.

What happened after the reburial of Andriy Melnyk

Andriy Melnyk is one of the complex figures of Ukrainian history of the 20th century.

In the Ukrainian context, he is often viewed through the theme of the OUN, the anti-Soviet movement, political emigration, the struggle for statehood, and the return of the national pantheon. For Ukraine, which is fighting against Russia today, such reburials become part of a broader memory policy: to return names, to tear them out of Soviet-Russian schemes, to show the historical continuity of the Ukrainian state.

For Israel and the Jewish world, the same figure is read through a different historical lens.

There, the focus is not on Soviet propaganda or the Ukrainian national pantheon. The focus is on the Holocaust, the fate of the Jews of Eastern Europe, Nazi Germany, anti-Semitism, and the question of which movements, leaders, and structures were associated with the tragedy of the Jewish people during World War II.

These are two different memories.

They do not have to fully coincide.

But if Ukraine and Israel want to maintain a serious dialogue, these memories must at least try to hear each other.

After the reburial of Melnyk, “Yad Vashem” stated that the state honoring of a leader of a movement that, according to the Israeli position, “supported and collaborated with Nazi Germany” during the “persecution and murder of millions of Jews”, undermines the moral foundation of Holocaust memory. The Israeli Foreign Ministry also expressed regret over the decision to hold a state ceremony for the OUN leader.

For the Israeli audience, such a reaction is understandable. “Yad Vashem” cannot remain silent when it comes to a figure it associates with the heavy historical context of World War II and the fate of the Jews.

But for the Ukrainian audience, it sounded different.

In Ukraine, such a statement is perceived not only as a memorial assessment but also as external criticism of Ukrainian memory policy. Especially now, when Russia every day tries to present Ukrainian statehood as a “Nazi project”, and any attempt to talk about the national movement of the 20th century as “rehabilitation of fascism”.

This is where the main failure began.

Mistake of “Yad Vashem”: the right topic, but not precise enough language

“Yad Vashem” has every right to speak about the Holocaust. Moreover, it is obliged to do so.

For Israel and the Jewish people, the memory of the Holocaust is not an ordinary historical topic, not a diplomatic tool, and not a reason for political play. It is a central trauma around which a significant part of national memory is built.

Therefore, the reaction to state honors for a controversial figure from World War II was predictable.

But the right to speak does not cancel the responsibility for the tone.

It’s one thing to say: the figure of Andriy Melnyk remains painful for Jewish memory, requires an accurate historical conversation, and cannot be separated from the context of the OUN, Nazi Germany, and the fate of the Jews of Eastern Europe.

It’s another thing to formulate a position in such a way that in Ukraine it sounds like a public condemnation of its internal state decision.

This is where “Yad Vashem” could have acted more cautiously.

It could have emphasized: Israel does not interfere with Ukraine’s right to form a national pantheon but considers it necessary to remind of the painful pages associated with Holocaust memory. It could have offered not political condemnation but a professional historical dialogue between Ukrainian and Israeli researchers.

Such language would have been tough but respectful.

It would have maintained the position of “Yad Vashem” but would not have created the impression that Israel is telling Ukraine how exactly to build its own historical memory.

This is especially important because Ukraine is at war with Russia. In this war, history has long become a weapon. Any statement about “Nazism”, “collaborationism” or “honors to the OUN leader” is almost automatically picked up by Russian media and used against Kyiv.

This does not mean that Israel should remain silent.

But it means that in such a situation, every word must be surgically precise.

Ukraine’s mistake in response: instead of explanation, an accusatory label appeared

The response of “Myrotvorets” did not correct the situation.

It made it heavier.

“Myrotvorets” is not an official state registry of Ukraine. It is a non-governmental website that describes itself as a center for researching signs of crimes against the national security of Ukraine, peace, the security of humanity, and international law and order. The site states that it provides information for law enforcement agencies and special services about pro-Russian terrorists, separatists, mercenaries, war criminals, and murderers.

The site’s header also uses English-language formulations about collecting information for law enforcement and special services about “pro-Russian terrorists, separatists, mercenaries, war criminals, and murderers”. Locations listed are Langley, VA, USA, and Warszawa, Polska.

Formally, it is not a state structure.

But the external audience rarely delves into such nuances.

For an Israeli, American, or European reader, the phrase “head of Yad Vashem ended up in the Ukrainian database” does not sound like a technical detail about a non-governmental project. It sounds like a political signal.

And this signal turned out to be extremely unfortunate for Ukraine.

On Dayan’s page, according to the published text, he is attributed with “conscious systematic actions aimed at inciting interethnic and interstate discord between Israel and Ukraine”, “participation in acts of humanitarian aggression against Ukraine”, “spreading narratives of Russian-fascist propaganda” and “informational provocations against Ukraine”.

The card also states that, “under the guise of actions commemorating the victims of fascist invaders and occupiers”, Dayan allegedly engages in spreading “falsified information about historical figures of Ukraine”.

This is very harsh language.

And it poorly serves the Ukrainian position.

If the goal was to explain to Israel why Ukrainian memory of Melnyk is not reduced to a Soviet-Russian scheme, then facts, documents, context, the work of historians, and respectful debate are needed for this. But accusations of “humanitarian aggression” against the head of the main Israeli Holocaust memorial close the conversation before it even begins.

Ukraine could have objected to “Yad Vashem” more strongly.

It could have explained why the reburial of Melnyk is perceived in Ukraine as part of the return of historical figures to the national pantheon. It could have shown how Soviet and Russian propaganda for decades turned the Ukrainian struggle for statehood into an accusatory myth. It could have pointed out that Ukrainian history of the 20th century does not fit into one phrase and requires a complex conversation.

But the language of “Myrotvorets” worked differently.

It did not explain the Ukrainian position.

It gave the external audience a picture: a Ukrainian resource accuses the head of “Yad Vashem” almost as a hostile figure to Ukraine.

For Israel, this looks not like the defense of Ukrainian memory but as an attack on the symbol of memory of the Shoah.

Important detail: how “Myrotvorets” describes Melnyk

On the “Myrotvorets” page, it is separately stated that Andriy Melnyk during World War II “protected Jews from fascists and pogroms”.

This phrase is important.

It shows that the dispute is not only about today’s reburial ceremony but also about the very historical interpretation of Melnyk’s figure.

For the authors of the card, Melnyk is presented as a Ukrainian figure unjustly demonized through the Russian-Soviet lens. In such logic, the criticism of “Yad Vashem” is perceived by them not as the defense of Holocaust memory but as a repetition of a foreign, hostile to Ukraine historical scheme.

But for “Yad Vashem”, the central question remains different: the connection of the OUN with Nazi Germany, the political context of World War II, and the fate of the Jews during the Holocaust.

This is where two historical logics clash directly.

The Ukrainian logic says: you cannot give your memory to Soviet and Russian propaganda.

The Israeli logic says: you cannot exclude the Holocaust and the responsibility of movements that operated during the Nazi Germany era.

Both logics have their grounds.

The problem begins where one side demands that the other fully accept its framework.

Another detail: appeal to law enforcement agencies

At the end of the “Myrotvorets” card, it asks law enforcement agencies to consider the publication as a statement about the commission of conscious acts against the national security of Ukraine, peace, the security of humanity, and international law and order, as well as other offenses.

This makes the publication not just an emotional comment.

It takes the form of an appeal to legal and power structures.

That is why the effect becomes harsher.

When it comes to the head of “Yad Vashem”, such wording is perceived outside Ukraine not as an ordinary dispute over Melnyk, but as an attempt to present the head of the main Israeli Holocaust memorial as a person committing actions against the security of Ukraine.

For the Ukrainian-Israeli dialogue, this is a serious blow.

For Russian propaganda — almost ready material.

Who is Dani Dayan and why the topic of “Russian narratives” looks controversial

Dani Dayan is not a random commentator from social networks.

He was born on November 29, 1955, in Buenos Aires, then repatriated to Israel. He was an entrepreneur associated with the IT sector, headed Elad Software Systems, and later became a prominent figure in the Israeli right-wing camp.

A separate political stroke: Dayan was the chairman of the YESHA Council — the Council of Settlements of Judea and Samaria. This makes him a person from the right, settlement, and diplomatic context of Israel.

He also had a connection with Benjamin Netanyahu.

In 2015, Netanyahu promoted Dayan for the post of Israeli ambassador to Brazil. Brazil did not approve the appointment due to his settlement past. After that, Dayan became the Consul General of Israel in New York and held this position from 2016 to 2020.

Since 2021, he has headed “Yad Vashem”.

So Dayan’s connection with Netanyahu is a real political-diplomatic fact. But it is a connection with Israeli right-wing politics, not proof of a connection with Russia.

That is why the accusation of “Russian narratives” looks weak.

If a person from the Israeli right-wing camp, a former diplomat, and the head of the main Holocaust memorial speaks about the painful topic of cooperation with Nazi Germany, it is not necessarily a Russian narrative. Most often, it is an Israeli historical perspective.

It may be unpleasant for Ukraine.

It may be incomplete.

It may not sufficiently take into account Ukrainian anti-Soviet memory, political emigration, the struggle for statehood, and the current war against Russia.

But it does not automatically become Kremlin-like just because Moscow also tries to use the OUN topic against Ukraine.

Coincidence of the topic does not equal coincidence of motive.

This difference is almost invisible in the reaction of “Myrotvorets”.

Where both sides went wrong

The main mistake of “Yad Vashem” is not that it spoke about the Holocaust.

It had to speak.

The mistake was that the Ukrainian context sounded too weak. At a time when Ukraine is at war with Russia and trying to free its own history from the Soviet-Russian framework, any external statements about its national pantheon require especially cautious language.

The main mistake of ‘Peacemaker’ is not that it disagreed with ‘Yad Vashem’.

It is possible and necessary to argue.

The mistake was that the response was constructed not as a historical argument, but as an accusatory label. In relation to the head of ‘Yad Vashem’, such language is almost inevitably perceived in Israel as an attack against the institution of Holocaust memory.

It resulted in a conflict of two traumas.

Ukraine speaks from the trauma of war, destroyed cities, Russian occupation, missile strikes, mass crimes, and Moscow’s long-standing attempt to portray Ukrainian statehood as a ‘Nazi project’.

Israel speaks from the trauma of the Holocaust, the memory of millions of murdered Jews, destroyed communities of Eastern Europe, and sensitivity to any state honors for figures associated with the era of Nazi Germany.

Both traumas are real.

But when one pain speaks as if the other does not exist, the conversation turns into a conflict.

This is exactly what happened here.

‘Yad Vashem’ spoke in such a way that Ukrainian historical subjectivity was not sufficiently heard.

‘Peacemaker’ responded in such a way that Israeli memory of the Holocaust was almost reduced to ‘Russian narratives’.

Both positions in this form are dangerous.

They do not open a dialogue.

They explode it.

In the middle of this story, it is especially important to maintain balance. News — Israel News | Nikk.Agency views this episode not as a conflict ‘Ukraine versus Israel’ and not as a dispute about whose memory is more important. Both sides have the right to memory. The question is different: can Ukraine and Israel talk about the painful pages of the past in such a way as not to allow Russia to turn someone else’s pain into a weapon of today’s war.

How Russia uses it

Here is the main outcome of this story.

‘Yad Vashem’ gave Russian propaganda the first part of the picture: Israel condemns Ukraine for the state honoring of Andriy Melnyk.

‘Peacemaker’ gave the second part of the picture: the Ukrainian resource enters the head of ‘Yad Vashem’ into the database as a figure acting against Ukraine.

For Moscow, this is the perfect combination.

It can tell the external audience: look, Israel accuses Ukraine of honoring a Nazi collaborator, and Ukraine responds with an attack on the Holocaust memorial.

Further nuances are no longer needed.

The history of the OUN is not needed.

The context of Soviet repressions is not needed.

The war of Russia against Ukraine is not needed.

The difference between the state of Ukraine and the non-state website ‘Peacemaker’ is not needed.

The complex biography of Melnyk is not needed.

Israeli internal politics is not needed.

The picture is ready.

And that is why this episode is so dangerous. It not only spoils the tone of the Ukrainian-Israeli conversation. It gives the Kremlin material that can be quickly spread without explanations, without context, and without an honest history.

There is another weakness.

On the ‘Peacemaker’ page, judging by the provided text, among the sources are Russian media: ‘Vzglyad’, ‘Gazeta’, KP, URA, and other platforms.

It turns out to be an unfortunate construction: Dayan is accused of spreading Russian narratives, but the evidentiary block partially relies on Russian retellings of the same scandal.

This does not strengthen the Ukrainian position.

It makes it vulnerable.

How Ukraine could respond stronger

Ukraine does not need to remain silent.

And it does not need to abandon its history just because Russian propaganda has been trying for decades to steal its right to its own memory.

But responding to ‘Yad Vashem’ could have been different.

Ukraine could have said: we do not accept the Soviet and Russian scheme of evaluating the Ukrainian national movement.

It could have explained that the reburial of Melnyk is considered part of a broader policy of returning historical figures to the national pantheon.

It could have emphasized that Ukrainian memory of the 20th century is not reduced to Soviet labels.

It could have simultaneously acknowledged that for Israel and the Jewish world, the Holocaust remains a central trauma, and therefore any figure from the Second World War era requires especially precise language.

The best option would have been an expert conversation: Ukrainian historians, Israeli historians, archives, documents, different perspectives, without slogans and without mutual accusations.

This would have been a strong move.

Because an adult position is not afraid of difficult questions.

It does not break into labels.

It explains.

How Israel could speak more accurately

Israel could also choose a different language.

It could have said: we do not interfere with Ukraine’s right to form a national pantheon, but we consider it important to remind about the painful pages associated with the memory of the Holocaust.

It could have acknowledged: Ukrainian history of the 20th century is not reduced to Soviet-Russian schemes.

It could have emphasized: today’s Ukraine is waging a defensive war against Russia, and this context cannot be ignored.

It could have offered not political condemnation, but historical dialogue.

This would not mean weakness.

On the contrary, it would look stronger.

Because ‘Yad Vashem’ as the main Holocaust memorial is obliged to maintain moral accuracy. But moral accuracy is not only the right to speak about the pain of the Jewish people. It is also the ability not to turn someone else’s national memory into an object of external instruction.

Ukraine should not dictate to Israel how to remember the Holocaust.

But Israel should not speak to Ukraine as if Ukrainian memory exists only within the limits of Israeli historical assessment.

Why both sides should see each other’s context

It is important for Israel not to fall into the Soviet-Russian trap.

Ukrainian history of the 20th century does not fit into a simple scheme of ‘hero or criminal’. There were empires, wars, occupations, the Holodomor, mass repressions, Soviet terror, Nazi occupation, anti-Semitic crimes, national movements, collaboration, resistance, emigration, and long decades of struggle for the right to speak on one’s own behalf.

Ukraine is now fighting against Russia not for the symbols of the past, but for the right to exist as a state.

This cannot be erased.

But Ukraine cannot demand from Israel that the memory of the Holocaust be put in brackets for the sake of Ukrainian political logic of today.

For Israel, the Holocaust is not a foreign policy position.

It is the foundation of national memory.

When it comes to state honors for figures associated with nationalist movements of the Second World War period, the Israeli reaction will almost inevitably be painful. And this needs to be understood in advance, not after the scandal.

Ukraine has the right to explain that Melnyk is not reduced to a Russian caricature.

But Israel has the right to ask how such a figure relates to the memory of Jews killed during the Nazi occupation.

These questions are unpleasant.

But they do not disappear because one side calls them interference and the other Russian narratives.

The main framework: not the victory of one side, but the failure of the language of memory

The story with Dani Dayan does not show the victory of one side over the other.

It is the failure of the language of memory.

‘Yad Vashem’ had grounds to remind about the painful side of the history of the OUN and Andriy Melnyk for the Jewish people. Ukraine had grounds to react painfully to formulations that, at the time of war, easily fit into the Russian propaganda scheme.

But then both sides took steps that did not bring the conversation closer, but turned it into a public conflict.

Ukraine is not obliged to abandon its own historical pantheon due to external criticism.

Israel is not obliged to remain silent when it comes to the memory of the Holocaust.

But if these two positions sound without respect for each other’s context, the dispute about the past turns not into a historical dialogue, but into a political crisis, which Russia immediately uses.

What remains after this scandal

‘Peacemaker’ is not official Ukraine. This needs to be repeated directly so as not to distort the picture.

But the external reputational cost still falls on Ukraine.

Especially in Israel.

Especially when it comes to ‘Yad Vashem’.

Especially when Russian media are already ready to spread any story that helps portray Kyiv as a country in conflict with the memory of the Holocaust.

But ‘Yad Vashem’ cannot consider that its words exist outside of politics. When the main Holocaust memorial in Israel speaks about a Ukrainian state decision, it is not only a historical comment. It is also a diplomatic signal.

And a diplomatic signal in wartime conditions can have consequences.

Ukraine has the right to its pantheon.

Israel has the right to its painful historical reaction.

But if this dispute proceeds in the language of mutual moral judgments, it will cease to be a historical dispute. It will become a gift to those who want to quarrel Ukraine and Israel.

And this is a completely different story.

Not only about Melnyk.

Not only about Dayan.

And not even only about ‘Peacemaker’.

This is a story about whether Ukraine and Israel can talk about the most difficult things in such a way as not to let Russia turn memory into another weapon of war.

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The material is prepared based on the interview with “Hromadske Radio” (published on January 15, 2026 (Ukr.)). Interviewees: journalist Yelyzaveta Tsaregradska and the president of the Ukrainian Association of Judaic Studies, senior research fellow of the Judaic Foundation of the Vernadsky National Library of Ukraine, Vitaliy Chernoivanenko.

Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls are one of those topics where a successful name immediately sets both geography and intrigue. On one hand, it is a real point on the map near the Dead Sea in the Judean Desert, not far from Jerusalem. On the other hand, it is a huge corpus of texts found in caves and surroundings that changes the understanding of the religious and intellectual life of Judea at the turn of our era. That is why the question “what is Qumran” almost always leads to the next: “who wrote these scrolls and why did they end up in the caves.”

Why they are called “Dead Sea Scrolls”

In the interview, Chernoivanenko begins with a mundane but illustrative story: when he defended his dissertation on this topic (2012), one of the council members was surprised by the very phrase “manuscripts of the sea” — like, “how can there be manuscripts of some sea.” But the name “Dead Sea Scrolls” (as well as “Qumran Scrolls”) is an established term in different languages, including Ukrainian, English, French, and Hebrew.

The term is also important because it fixes the difference between “Dead Sea Scrolls” in a broad sense and “Qumran Scrolls” in a narrow sense. The Dead Sea Scrolls are finds from various locations near the Dead Sea, while “Qumran” refers to those found specifically in the Qumran area. At the same time, the largest array of finds is indeed associated with Qumran, so in the public consciousness, everything often “collapses” into one point.

Where is Qumran and what is this place

Qumran is not a city in the usual sense. Chernoivanenko emphasizes: debates about what exactly Qumran was (a settlement, the center of some group, an economic object, something else) continue to this day. But as a geographical location, it is described quite clearly.

We are talking about a territory that today belongs to the State of Israel. In ancient times, these lands were called differently in different eras: the Kingdom of Israel, the Kingdom of Judah, and in Roman times — Palestine (at the same time, the term “Palestine,” as the expert reminds, was not the original name of these lands but was fixed later and “stretched” to modern political lexicon).

Geographically, Qumran is located on the northwest of the Dead Sea, in the Judean Desert, near Jerusalem. In literature, the names Khirbet Qumran and Wadi Qumran are encountered. “Wadi” is an Arabic word for a dry riverbed of a seasonal desert river: in the region, rains occur mainly in winter, water appears, but then quickly disappears, the land dries up and cracks. “Khirbet” means “ruins” — that is, the name itself refers to something destroyed, to the remnants of a former structure.

What dates are associated with the scrolls and why is it important

If we “reduce” the finds to a historical range, Chernoivanenko names the period from the 2nd century BCE to the 1st century CE. At the same time, according to him, there are relatively few finds from the 2nd century BCE, the main array relates to the 1st century BCE and the 1st century CE.

This is a key point for explaining why the Dead Sea Scrolls became a global scientific “magnet.” We are talking about a time when different religious and political movements existed in Judea, complex internal processes were taking place, and in a broader context, an environment was forming from which early Christianity later emerged. The scrolls become an additional source, not reducible only to the texts of the New Testament or later retellings.

What languages are the scrolls written in

According to Chernoivanenko, three languages are recorded among the finds: ancient Hebrew, Aramaic, and a little ancient Greek. The appearance of Greek is associated with the post-Hellenistic era when Greek culture spread to the Middle East and became part of the regional reality.

This is not just a “detail for reference.” Multilingualism helps explain how heterogeneous the intellectual environment was and how different audiences could be involved in the production, reading, and copying of texts.

How and when were the scrolls discovered

The first discovery of the scrolls Chernoivanenko dates to 1947. He mentions the “legendary” story of a Bedouin who supposedly stumbled upon jars and found the first scrolls. Further interest in the finds grew: in the 1950s-60s, archaeologists and researchers became active, excavations and research continued then with interruptions, not only in Qumran but also in other points around the Dead Sea — finds “accumulated” over time.

Another important point: access to the scrolls was long restricted — almost until the 1990s. At the same time, the volume of scientific reaction was colossal. The expert says that in the first decade of Qumran studies, research on this topic in scale was second only to biblical studies (Bible research): it was about thousands of works, and he provides a benchmark — about six thousand studies in the first decade.

How many scrolls exist and in what form have they survived

Speaking of manuscript material, not everything has survived intact. Many texts have been preserved in fragments, sometimes very small. But in general, according to Chernoivanenko, more than a thousand “manuscript units” have been found.

This immediately affects how a researcher’s work looks: reconstruction, comparison of handwriting, materials, text variants, attempts to understand which fragments relate to what, and what exactly was in the hands of people two thousand years ago.

What’s inside: it’s not a “chronicle,” but a motley library

One of the most common mistakes is to expect that the Dead Sea Scrolls will be something like a coherent chronicle of events, a “diary of the era,” or systematic annals. Chernoivanenko speaks directly: there are no chronicles in this corpus. Yes, in the biblical tradition there are chronicle books or books of kings, where reigns and events are described, but there is almost none of this in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

But there is something else: extraordinary genre diversity and multilayeredness. The expert emphasizes that the corpus is heterogeneous not only in languages. There are many different handwritings — that is, a significant number of people were involved in the creation/copying of texts. There are also texts of an eschatological, apocalyptic, messianic nature, which, in his assessment, shows how society of that time lived with expectations of “end times.” This, in particular, helps to better understand the context in which early Christianity emerged: initially, it looked like one of the movements within Judaism of that era, and the scrolls demonstrate the diversity of such movements.

In addition, among the scrolls, there are very different types of documents: from actual biblical books (for example, prophetic) to texts that can be called non-canonical, as well as commentaries on biblical books (exegesis). Chernoivanenko mentions unexpected genres — for example, horoscopes. And another important feature: many texts work through allusions, so researchers sometimes tried to “read” historical events and characters of the era indirectly, through hints and images.

What editions are available and why translations are a separate problem

Chernoivanenko notes that today there are several editions of the entire corpus of the Dead Sea Scrolls. There are practically no Ukrainian translations (he says he translated a small volume in an appendix to his own book). In Russian, there were separate attempts back in Soviet times and later — in the post-Soviet period, publications with the most famous texts were released, but not the entire corpus.

The full corpus is published, according to him, in English and Hebrew, there are also bilingual versions, where the original and translation are side by side. He separately mentions the digital format: when high-quality scans of the scrolls are available, and the user can hover over a word and see a hint with reading, meaning, and translation. Importantly, this changes the accessibility of the material compared to the era when the scrolls were “closed” to most researchers.

Main debates: who are the authors and what is Qumran

The interview outlines the basic framework of the discussion, with which, according to Chernoivanenko, almost any serious conversation about the scrolls begins: there are two big questions.

The first is what Qumran was as a place.

The second is who wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls (and, in particular, the Qumran Scrolls).

Chernoivanenko explains that he systematically analyzed these questions in his book “Qumran and the Dead Sea Scrolls: Authorship, Identification, Historiography,” where he collected and analyzed different theories and hypotheses.

The most famous version: the “Qumran-Essene” theory and its logic

The first, most popular in mass perception version arose very early — almost immediately after the 1947 finds. A group of researchers formed, and then an international team, where not everyone was admitted. Chernoivanenko separately emphasizes a characteristic detail: among this team, there was not a single Jew; key roles were played by Christians, including Catholic monks. The central figure of this early wave was the priest and researcher Roland de Vaux.

Their picture looked like this: Qumran was presented as something like an “ancient monastery” with a scriptorium — a place where scribes sat and copied/wrote scrolls. The image is clear: an ascetic group, discipline, text production, storage.

At the same time, Qumran as an archaeological point was known since the 19th century — Chernoivanenko mentions the French archaeologist Clermont-Ganneau, who paid attention to the place long before the discovery of the scrolls. And the “attachment” to a specific group early researchers tried to support with ancient authors: Josephus Flavius, Philo of Alexandria, and Pliny the Elder. In their texts, a group of Essenes is described — mysterious, marginal, ascetic, living in anticipation of the end times.

And then a logical “glue” occurs: ancient sources talk about Essenes in the area of the northwest Dead Sea; in this area, there is Qumran; therefore, Qumran is the place of the Essenes; therefore, they could be the authors/keepers of the scrolls.

Chernoivanenko, however, shows why this version raises questions. One of the sharp points: in ancient descriptions, it is said that the Essenes did not marry, which for Judaism looks marginal against the backdrop of the biblical commandment “be fruitful and multiply.” It can be assumed that a small ascetic group existed — but it can also be argued how accurate and “non-mythological” this image is.

Alternative: “Jerusalem theory” and arguments against the idea of a “small community of scribes”

Then Chernoivanenko moves to a position he considers an important alternative and without which the conversation would be incomplete. He associates it with the works of his scientific mentor — University of Chicago professor Norman Golb. Golb published a key article in 1980, and then developed ideas in subsequent works and in the book “Who Wrote the Dead Sea Scrolls?” in the 1990s.

The essence of the “Jerusalem theory” is that many features of the corpus point not to a small isolated community in Qumran, but to a large urban center — Jerusalem.

The arguments in the interview are presented step by step.

First, different content and different genre: within the corpus, there are texts that are sometimes simply incompatible with each other in spirit and ideas. This poorly fits the image of a “single community” with a single charter and uniform practice.

Second, the number of different handwritings and the scale of manuscript work. Chernoivanenko explains in detail who a professional scribe is in the Jewish tradition. This is not “a person who sat down and copied.” This is a trained specialist, a calligrapher, a profession with discipline and training. In Judaism, this practice has been preserved for centuries, and the profession of sofer — a scribe of sacred texts — still exists. He provides understandable examples from modern life: Torah scrolls in a synagogue, mezuzahs on doors, where inside lies a handwritten text — all this must be written professionally and according to the rules.

From here, the conclusion: it is hard to imagine a small community where there would be “incredibly many” qualified scribes — this would look like a statistically and socially unrealistic model. But in Jerusalem, the capital of Judea at that time, the existence of many groups, schools, traditions, and scribes looks much more plausible.

Then the next question arises: if “all roads lead to Jerusalem,” how did the scrolls end up in the caves near the Dead Sea, including the Qumran area?

The answer in the interview is tied to the historical context of the Jewish War of 66–73 CE. In 70, the Romans took Jerusalem. In Golb’s logic, this triggers a scenario of saving values: people flee the city, take out what they consider important, including scrolls. Chernoivanenko mentions that Josephus Flavius describes the directions of the movement of refugees from Jerusalem, and one of the directions was the area of the Dead Sea.

Then a simple human mechanism comes into play: life is more important than things. If a person understands that they may not escape pursuit, they may hide valuable things “for better times.” The caves near the Dead Sea could become such hiding places. In this model, the scrolls lay for almost two thousand years and “returned” in the 20th century as an archaeological sensation.

Why the topic is important today, including the Ukrainian context

Chernoivanenko emphasizes several times that the Dead Sea Scrolls are not “exotic for narrow specialists,” but a source that expands knowledge about what Jewish society of that time was like, what ideas circulated, what expectations and disputes looked like within the religious environment. This corpus provides material “from the side” of the New Testament and allows us to see that era differently, when messianic and apocalyptic motifs were part of everyday intellectual life.

A separate line in the original source states that the project (within which the conversation took place) was prepared with the support of the Canadian non-governmental organization “Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter” (UJE). This emphasizes that the conversation about Qumran and the scrolls is not only an “Israeli” topic: it exists in both the academic and cultural agenda of Ukraine, where Judaic studies are developing as an independent direction, connected with libraries, universities, translations, and scientific discussions.

In a practical sense, the main outcome of the interview is this: Qumran is geography, and the Dead Sea Scrolls are a corpus that is too diverse to be “closed” forever with one convenient version. The more texts, technologies, and parallel studies are opened, the more noticeable it becomes that the answers here will be refined for a long time. That is why Qumran studies remain a living discipline — not museum-like, but working, arguing, and reassembling details anew.

And for the Israeli audience, it is also a reminder: the Judean Desert, Jerusalem, and the Dead Sea are not only tourist spots but also places where texts literally lay that defined the language of conversations about the Bible, Judaism, and early Christianity for two thousand years ahead — and these texts continue to influence how the world reads the region today. NAnovosti — News of Israel | Nikk.Agency

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A Jewish Physicist Who Changed Science

In Odesa, 4th Suvorovska Street was officially renamed. It now bears the name of Yosyp (Joseph) Fisher — a prominent theoretical physicist of Jewish origin, whose scientific works remain a foundation for many modern studies. He was born in Minsk in 1919, but spent most of his professional life in Odesa.

This recognition is especially meaningful today, as Jewish and Ukrainian communities seek new points of connection in their shared historical and cultural memory. NAnews — News from Israel explains why the name of Yosyp Fisher deserves to be known by anyone interested in the relationship between Ukraine, Israel, and global science.

A Legacy That Spans a Lifetime

Yosyp Zalmanovych Fisher was a professor at Odesa National University named after I.I. Mechnikov. A theoretical physicist, he devoted over 20 years to advancing science in Odesa. From 1963 to 1983, he headed the Department of Theoretical Physics and created one of the most influential scientific schools in the Soviet Union.

• 150+ PhD candidates — his students
• 15 Doctors of Science — successors of his academic school
• Graduates work on every continent and at most universities in Odesa

What Made Him Famous in Science?

Fisher’s work covered a wide range of fields in the physics of liquid matter. His research explained why water has unusual properties and how fluids behave under critical conditions. He also studied gravitational effects and developed theories that shaped modern understanding of molecular and thermal interactions.

Summary of His Research Areas:

Fisher and Odesa — A Connection That Became Destiny

Although born in Belarus, Odesa became Fisher’s true home. At ONU, he built not just an academic base, but a true intellectual center. A memorial plaque was installed on the university’s main building, and in 2025 — 30 years after his death — the street where he lived and worked was named in his honor.

Ukraine’s scientific community has long highlighted his contributions to global physics, and only now has the city officially acknowledged his legacy.

Why This Matters for Jewish and Ukrainian Identity

NAnews — News from Israel consistently covers topics that help the Jewish diaspora in Israel better understand their roots and feel connected to Ukraine. The story of Yosyp Fisher is one such example. His life is a testament to how a person of Jewish descent became a symbol of Odesa’s scientific greatness.

It is also a response to Russian propaganda claiming that Ukraine disrespects Jews. Renaming the street is not just a tribute to one scientist — it is an act of cultural and historical justice.

Memory as a Foundation for the Future

Commemorating Yosyp Fisher’s name contributes to a shared historical memory. His works are still relevant, his students work across the globe, and now his name will live on in Odesa’s toponymy.

For the Jewish community of Israel, this is a source of pride: one of us became part of Ukraine’s scientific and urban history.

NAnews — News from Israel will continue to share stories about people who serve as bridges between Ukraine and Israel, between the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples.

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The last trains with nuclear warheads were sent to the Russian Federation between May 31 and June 1, 1996, and from June 2, 1996, Ukraine officially became nuclear-free.

According to experts, after gaining independence, Ukraine inherited one of the largest nuclear arsenals in the world. There were about 1,900 strategic nuclear warheads and between 2,650 and 4,200 tactical nuclear warheads on its territory. In addition, Ukraine had 176 intercontinental missile systems — 130 SS-19 (UR-100N) missiles and 46 RT-23 (SS-24), as well as about 44 strategic bombers.

Despite the placement of the nuclear arsenal on Ukrainian territory, control over most of the warheads and launch systems remained in the hands of centralized Soviet, and later Russian, command. Ukraine inherited the weapons themselves and the necessary personnel for their maintenance, but did not have access to the mechanisms for their use. This factor became one of the key points during the negotiations on the withdrawal of nuclear weapons from Ukrainian territory.

On November 16, 1994, Ukraine joined the 1968 Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons. As a result of these agreements, it was established that Ukraine renounces the nuclear legacy of the USSR and takes a course towards the complete elimination of its nuclear arsenal, using atomic energy exclusively for peaceful purposes. In return, the leading nuclear powers were to provide Ukraine with security guarantees and assure the absence of threats to its sovereignty or territorial integrity.

The third nuclear potential in the world: what Ukraine received after the collapse of the USSR

In June 1996, Ukraine completed the transfer of its nuclear arsenal to Russia. Formally, this appeared as a step by a young independent country towards a nuclear-free status, international responsibility, and a new security system. But 30 years later, this story is read differently: as a story about the price of trust, the weakness of paper guarantees, and political decisions whose consequences catch up with generations.

Yuriy Kostenko, a people’s deputy of five convocations and Minister of Ecology and Nuclear Safety of Ukraine from 1992 to 1998, writes in lb.ua on June 8, 2026, saw this process from the inside. He was the first head of the Ukrainian government delegation in negotiations with Russia on nuclear disarmament in 1992–1993 and later wrote the book “The History of Ukraine’s Nuclear Disarmament.”

According to him, at the time of the USSR’s collapse, Ukraine received the third-largest nuclear potential in the world — after the USA and Russia. It was not about a symbolic legacy, but about thousands of warheads, strategic missiles, aviation carriers, and enormous material value.

Numbers that today sound like a verdict

On the territory of Ukraine in 1991, there were, according to various estimates, from 3,500 to 4,200 tactical nuclear warheads. These were not only missiles but also aviation bombs, torpedoes, nuclear mines, as well as air defense systems with nuclear charges.

Strategic nuclear weapons were estimated at about two thousand units.

About 1,240 warheads were on strategic missiles, the rest on cruise nuclear missiles.

The economic aspect was especially important, not just the military one. Kostenko claims that the cost of enriched uranium, plutonium, and other material values transferred along with the warheads to Russia could exceed 100 billion dollars.

For Israel, this story is not abstract. The Israeli society understands well that security does not rest solely on diplomatic formulations. In a region where Iran, Hezbollah, Hamas, missiles, drones, and the threat of a major war remain part of reality, the question “who can be trusted” sounds not academic but almost daily.

How a nuclear-free status turned into the transfer of weapons to Russia

In 1990, Ukraine, still as the Ukrainian SSR, adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty. It recorded the intention to become a neutral state and adhere to three non-nuclear principles: not to accept, not to produce, and not to acquire nuclear weapons.

But it’s one thing to make a political declaration against the backdrop of post-Chernobyl sentiments. And quite another to actually transfer a huge nuclear arsenal to a state that was already trying to maintain control over the post-Soviet space.

Kostenko emphasizes: in 1992, Ukraine was moving in the right direction. The Verkhovna Rada did not demand the immediate transfer of weapons to Russia. On the contrary, the parliament set conditions: destruction under international control, a clear disposal mechanism, process financing, compensation, and legally effective security guarantees.

START-1, the Lisbon Protocol, and Ukrainian interest

The START-1 Treaty was signed in 1991 by Mikhail Gorbachev and George H.W. Bush.

The 1992 Lisbon Protocol expanded the circle of participants: the USA, Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, and Kazakhstan.

These documents provided for the reduction of strategic offensive arms. But, according to Kostenko, they did not mean that Ukraine had to quickly and unconditionally transfer its entire arsenal to Moscow.

The problem began when the executive branch began to act faster and more harshly than the decisions of the parliament allowed.

On December 21, 1991, an agreement on joint measures regarding nuclear weapons was signed in Alma-Ata. In April 1992, a Ukrainian-Russian agreement appeared on the transfer of nuclear munitions from Ukrainian territory to Russian bases for dismantling and destruction.

On paper, it was about destruction. In practice, the weapons went to Russia.

Why this is called a political mistake

Kostenko directly states: the removal of tactical nuclear weapons in 1992 was not sanctioned by the Verkhovna Rada and contradicted its resolutions. According to his version, the Ministry of Defense acted on unofficial instructions from President Leonid Kravchuk.

In 1993, Kostenko was removed from the negotiation process. His place was taken by Valery Shmarov, who initialed agreements on the transfer of Ukrainian nuclear weapons to Russia.

On September 3, 1993, in Massandra, in the presence of the presidents of Ukraine and Russia, the prime ministers signed documents that, according to Kostenko, were a blow to Ukrainian national interests.

This was the moment when Ukraine could negotiate as the owner of a strategic resource but behaved as a party rushing to get rid of its own leverage.

America, Russia, the Budapest Memorandum, and a lesson for the future

In the early 1990s, the USA, according to Kostenko, offered Ukraine not only pressure but also cooperation options. It was about technological assistance, blocking missile launches, processing nuclear warheads into fuel for Ukrainian nuclear power plants, and creating an international disarmament fund.

The American company General Atomics, as Kostenko claims, offered to process Ukrainian warheads into fuel. Other structures offered technologies for deactivating liquid-fueled missiles without the need to transfer everything to Moscow.

This could have given Ukraine both security and energy, and money.

But in the summer of 1993, the situation changed. Russia was included in a big international game, and Ukraine, according to Kostenko, had already practically agreed to transfer the warheads to Moscow behind the back of the American side. At a meeting in London, Russian Ambassador Yuri Dubinin laid the Massandra agreements project before the Americans and made it clear: there was nothing more to discuss.

For the USA, this was a signal that Kyiv itself was turning to Moscow.

Kazakhstan secured conditions for itself. Ukraine — almost nothing

Kostenko separately compares Ukraine with Kazakhstan. Nursultan Nazarbayev did not immediately sign the transfer of nuclear weapons to Russia. Kazakhstan first dealt with its legacy, built relations with the USA, received large investments in the Tengiz oil field, and sold 600 kilograms of highly enriched uranium.

Ukraine, having a significantly larger nuclear potential, could have achieved a much stronger position.

But it did not.

As a result, Russia received weapons, uranium, access to the nuclear fuel market, and strategic advantages. Ukraine received promises, limited compensation, and a document that later turned out to be weaker than many wanted to believe.

It is in this context that it is important today to talk not only about Ukrainian history but also about Israeli experience. NAnews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers such stories not as an archive of diplomacy but as a living lesson for countries forced to defend themselves in a world where treaties work only when backed by force.

The Budapest Memorandum: a document that did not become a shield

On December 5, 1994, a memorandum was signed in Budapest between Ukraine, the USA, the United Kingdom, and Russia. Ukraine renounced nuclear weapons, and the signatories confirmed respect for its independence, sovereignty, and existing borders.

But the main question is what these guarantees were.

Kostenko believes: these were not real legally binding security guarantees. The memorandum was not ratified as a full-fledged international treaty with specific protection mechanisms. It rather recorded political promises than created an automatic system of assistance in case of aggression.

After 2014, when Russia seized Crimea and started a war against Ukraine, it became clear: paper did not stop the aggressor.

After February 24, 2022, this became not a theoretical dispute but a tragedy of European scale.

The harshest thought of Kostenko

Yuriy Kostenko speaks directly: if Ukraine had retained nuclear weapons at least in storage, a major war might not have started.

This statement can be discussed, argued with, clarified with technical details, talked about control over codes, the state of systems, international pressure, and Ukraine’s real ability to manage the arsenal. But the political meaning of this phrase is clear: a country that gives up the main deterrent without a reliable replacement risks being left alone with someone who signs treaties only as long as they are beneficial.

Today, Ukraine builds its security not around nuclear heritage but around the army, drones, air defense, Western aid, a European coalition, and its own military production.

And here comes the main conclusion, which is important for Israel as well: security cannot be rented from someone else’s goodwill.

Alliances are important. Treaties are needed. Partner support can be decisive. But no country has the right to build its survival solely on the promise of another capital.

Ukraine paid a terrible price for this lesson.

Israel understands this lesson in its own way — through October 7, the war with Hamas, the Hezbollah threat, the Iranian factor, rocket attacks, and the constant need to keep the army, intelligence, air defense, and society in a state of readiness.

What remains after this story

The history of Ukraine’s nuclear disarmament is not only a story about Kravchuk, Kuchma, Yeltsin, Clinton, Massandra, and Budapest. It is a story about how a young country could bargain from a position of strength but too quickly believed that the new era would be more honest than the old one.

It did not.

Russia took the Ukrainian arsenal, later violated treaties, started a war, occupied territories, and turned nuclear blackmail into a tool of foreign policy.

Ukraine, over three decades, went from a state with the third nuclear potential in the world to a country forced to daily request air defense missiles, ammunition, aviation, and guarantees to protect its cities.

The most painful conclusion sounds simple: if a state gives up power, it must receive another power in return. Not beautiful formulations. Not a memorandum without a mechanism. Not a diplomatic smile at a summit.

But a real system of protection that cannot be ignored.

Israel and nuclear weapons: a power not spoken of aloud

Israel has its own special history in this topic. Unlike Ukraine in the early 1990s, Israel never built its security on a beautiful belief in international promises. Its strategic culture grew from a different logic: a small country, a hostile region, the memory of the Holocaust, the wars of 1948, 1956, 1967, 1973, the constant threat of annihilation, and the understanding that in a critical moment, ally help may come late — or not in the needed volume.

Officially, Israel adheres to a policy of nuclear ambiguity: it neither confirms nor denies the presence of nuclear weapons. The classic formula sounds like this: Israel “will not be the first to introduce nuclear weapons to the Middle East.” This phrase has left room for deterrence for decades but does not turn the topic into a public demonstration of power.

This is what distinguishes the Israeli model from many others. Israel does not hold nuclear parades, does not make this topic a daily propaganda tool, and does not build policy on loud threats. But the ambiguity itself works as a signal: the enemy should not be sure where the last red line is.

Why Israel chose silence over declaration

Israeli nuclear policy is not only a matter of weapons. It is a matter of survival, diplomacy, and regional balance.

On one hand, public recognition could increase pressure on Israel through the UN, IAEA, and international campaigns for a nuclear-free Middle East. Israel has not signed the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons, and its status differs from official nuclear powers like the USA, Russia, the UK, France, and China.

On the other hand, complete denial is also unnecessary. Israeli deterrence is not about an official sign on the door but about the enemy’s understanding: an attempt to destroy the state of Israel could lead to consequences that cannot be calculated in advance.

This is the meaning of strategic ambiguity. It is not for an internal show. It is for those in Tehran, Damascus, Beirut, or elsewhere who may one day decide that Israel can be pushed to the brink of existence.

Ukraine and Israel: two different lessons of one era

After 1991, Ukraine received the third nuclear potential in the world but gave it up in exchange for promises, compensations, and political documents. Israel, on the contrary, has built its security for decades on the principle: first own strength, then treaties.

This does not mean that Israel does not need allies. It does. Military, technological, and diplomatic ties with the USA remain one of the main elements of Israeli security.

But the Israeli experience shows: an ally is an amplifier of strength, not its replacement.

After October 7, this thought became even harsher. Israel saw that even with US support, even with international contacts, even with negotiations and resolutions, at the moment of attack, the country is protected by the IDF, intelligence, air defense, mobilization of society, and readiness to make quick decisions.

Ukraine in the 1990s believed that giving up its nuclear arsenal would open the door to a safe world. Israel never lived in such an illusion.

That is why the topic of Ukrainian disarmament is so important for the Israeli audience. It shows that security cannot be built only on memorandums, the goodwill of partners, and the hope that the aggressor will be embarrassed to break a signature.

The aggressor is not embarrassed.

He tests not the text of the treaty but the ability of the state to respond.

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On September 1, 1939, Hitler sent troops into Poland. This date is considered the beginning of World War II.

Everyone knows the first strike. But they try to keep silent about the second

But almost no one talks about September 17, when the Red Army entered from the east. Poland found itself in a vise: the Reich pressed from the west, the USSR from the east. The two dictators had agreed in advance.

Secret protocol and division of the world

Two weeks before the war, Moscow and Berlin signed the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact. A secret appendix divided Eastern Europe into spheres of influence.

Germany took Western Poland. The USSR received Eastern Poland, the Baltics, and the right to claim part of Romania. For the Poles, this meant the end of the state and the beginning of chaos.

Repressions, deportations, and Katyn

The USSR called it a “liberation campaign.” In reality, it was mass arrests and forced relocations.

Thousands of families were taken to Siberia and Kazakhstan. The fate of officers and the intelligentsia was even more terrible. In the spring of 1940, the NKVD carried out the Katyn massacre: more than 20,000 people were shot in the back of the head.

What the President of Poland said in 2025

On September 1, 2025, Karol Nawrocki once again demanded reparations from Germany. For the destruction, for the blood, for the crimes of World War II.

But he did not say a word about Moscow. Not about Katyn, not about the deportations, not about the fact that millions of Poles suffered precisely at the hands of the USSR.

Today, Germany is Poland’s ally in the EU. Russia, however, continues the line of the USSR: war against Ukraine, threats to neighbors, imperial ambitions. And Warsaw’s silence in this context sounds duplicitous.

Consequences for Europe

The Soviet invasion showed that Stalin and Hitler acted as allies.

England and France declared war only on Germany. Stalin was given carte blanche. He occupied Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia, attacked Finland, and seized part of Romania.

Thus, the map of Eastern Europe emerged, which largely remained until 1991.

A wake-up call for the whole world

The division of Poland became a chain reaction. Germany gained a rear for a strike on France. The USSR expanded its army and resources. The USA saw that it was not a local conflict, but a new world war.

International law turned out to be a fiction. The League of Nations was powerless. The lesson: when an aggressor is not stopped in time, he goes further.

Jewish tragedy

For the Jews of Poland, it was a nightmare from both sides.

The Nazis began the Holocaust: ghettos, deportations to camps, mass killings. And the Soviet authorities deported tens of thousands of families to Siberia. Jewish intelligentsia were arrested as “unreliable.”

One part of the people perished in the ovens of Auschwitz, another in the snows of Siberia. These are two different catastrophes, but both destroyed communities that had lived in Poland for centuries.

Forgotten dictator and dangerous parallels

The world remembers Hitler. His name has become a symbol of evil.

But many still call Stalin a “victor.” His portraits are carried at parades in Russia, and his crimes are justified. Yet he was the one who opened the road to war, destroyed millions of Ukrainians, Poles, Jews, and Balts.

Today, Russia continues the same policy. It justifies aggression with “historical territories,” invades Ukraine, and threatens Poland. This is a direct legacy of 1939.

Conclusions worth remembering

September 17, 1939, is a date that changed the map of Europe.

Poland became a victim of two dictators at once.

The Jewish people found themselves between the Holocaust and Soviet exile.

Europe then turned a blind eye to Moscow’s crimes. The price of silence was tens of millions of lives.

And today, the reminder of Stalin is as important as the memory of Hitler. Because forgotten evil always returns.

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And today in our section “Jews from Ukraine,” we will talk about Leo Motzkin — an outstanding public figure from Brovary, whose name is associated with the history of Israel and Ukrainian Jews.

Leo Motzkin (Aryeh Leib) was born in 1867 in Brovary, Kyiv province of the Russian Empire. In this small town, near Kyiv, he received a traditional Jewish education. In the late 19th century, Brovary had a large Jewish community.

Jewish Community of Brovary: History and Tragic Events

Brovary, a small town near Kyiv, has deep historical roots and significant Jewish heritage. Before World War II, it had one of the largest Jewish communities in the region. Jews began settling in Brovary in the second half of the 19th century, gradually migrating from the west after the partition of Poland. According to 1891 data, Jews made up 23.3% of the town’s population (888 people). Most were engaged in trade and crafts, actively participating in the town’s life. Brovary had a synagogue, Jewish schools, and public organizations.

The period from 1917 to 1921 was tragic for the Jewish community. During the revolution and civil war, Jews were subjected to brutal pogroms organized by various military formations: Denikin’s troops, Skoropadsky’s haidamaks, the Red Army. Many perished, and some residents left the town, emigrating to Kyiv or other safer places.

The Jewish population gradually decreased. If in 1923 there were 646 Jews living in Brovary, by 1939 their number had decreased to 458 people. World War II played a tragic role in the community’s history. From 1941 to 1943, almost all the town’s Jews perished on the fronts or were killed during the Nazi occupation. As a result of these events, the Jewish community of Brovary practically disappeared.

In the post-war years, a small part of the Jews returned to the town. In 1989, about 360 Jews lived there, but by 1999 only 110 people remained. The main reasons for the decrease were emigration to Israel and other countries, as well as the lack of conditions for community development.

Today, there are almost no direct traces left of the once numerous Jewish community in Brovary. However, its history lives on in the memory of descendants and those interested in the heritage of the Jewish people. Preserving this memory is important for future generations so that the rich culture and traditions of Brovary’s Jews are not forgotten.

To Berlin for Knowledge: A New Stage of Life

After completing his primary education, Leo Motzkin went to Berlin, where he studied mathematics and philosophy. It was in Berlin that his active public activity began. He became one of the founders of a scientific society that united students supporting the Hovevei Zion (Lovers of Zion) movement.

With the emergence of Theodor Herzl and the beginning of the Zionist movement, Motzkin became an active participant. He was a delegate to the First Zionist Congress in 1897 and advocated for a clear formulation of the movement’s goal — the creation of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel.

First Trip to Eretz-Israel

On behalf of Theodor Herzl, Motzkin went to Eretz-Israel to assess the state of Jewish settlements. In his report, he criticized the settlement methods used by Baron Rothschild and the Hovevei Zion movement and insisted on the need for political negotiations with the Ottoman Empire.

This trip became a turning point in his activities. He realized that without political support, the creation of a Jewish state would be extremely difficult.

Important Steps on the International Stage

During World War I, Leo Motzkin headed the Copenhagen branch of the Zionist Organization. After the war, he became one of the founders of the Committee of Jewish Delegations at the Paris Peace Conference, where he defended the interests of world Jewry.

With the rise of the Nazis to power in Germany, he was the first to raise the issue of discrimination against German Jews at the League of Nations level. When this issue was removed from the agenda, Motzkin refused to cooperate with the organization but continued to provide political and financial support to the Jewish population of Germany.

Table: Key Stages of Leo Motzkin’s Life

Memory of Leo Motzkin

Leo Motzkin died in 1933 in Paris. His remains were reburied on the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem in 1934. In memory of the outstanding figure, the Israeli city of Kiryat Motzkin was founded in 1934, named in his honor.

In 1933, it was decided in Haifa to create a new residential area for middle-class families. It was to be located outside the city but close enough for residents to commute to work daily. A plot of land in the Zevulun Valley was chosen for this purpose.

The new area was named after Aryeh Leo Motzkin — a well-known Jewish public figure and one of the founders of the World Zionist Congress. Thus, Kiryat Motzkin was founded in 1934 by Polish Jews. The first residents of the area were merchants and independent craftsmen.

The territory where the new settlement was located turned out to be sandy and swampy. The lands were undeveloped and dangerous due to the risk of malaria. Settlers were offered 400 plots of land on installment. The first residents had to work hard to turn the undeveloped area into a comfortable place to live. Thanks to their efforts, the area earned the nickname “Green Island”.

By 1940, the population of Kiryat Motzkin had already reached 2,000 people, and on June 11, 1940, a local council was established. Over the years, the area continued to develop. In 1976, when the population exceeded 25,000 people, Kiryat Motzkin officially received city status.

Kiryat Motzkin became a symbol of the memory of a man who dedicated his life to the struggle for Jewish equality, the promotion of Hebrew, and the creation of a Jewish state.

Conclusion

The story of Leo Motzkin is a story of the struggle for the rights of the Jewish people, the promotion of Hebrew, and the creation of a Jewish state. His contribution to the development of world Jewry is hard to overestimate.

Now, as you walk the streets of Kiryat Motzkin, remember that his name is associated with a person whose ideas and efforts laid the foundation for many of modern Israel’s achievements.

We, the team at NANews – News of Israel, are proud to share such important stories that unite the Jewish and Ukrainian peoples.

Read more stories about outstanding Jews connected with Ukraine and Israel in our section “Jews from Ukraine“ on the NANews website – #євреїзукраїни

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The Sholem Aleichem Museum in Kyiv is the only state museum in Ukraine where the history of Yiddish and the Jewish shtetl comes alive within the very home of the literary classic. Exhibitions, lectures, and rotating displays make it a point of attraction for Jews in Israel and the Ukrainian diaspora, and NAnews provides a detailed overview.

Memory That Greets You with “Shalom Aleichem”

On March 2, 2009, at 5 Velyka Vasylkivska Street in Kyiv, the Sholem Aleichem Museum opened — the first state-run space in modern Ukraine dedicated to the life, work, and era of Sholem Aleichem.

The house where the classic author lived from 1896 to 1903 became not just a memorial space, but a meeting point of cultures for Jews from both Ukraine and Israel.

“Kyiv is my city… The fact that I cannot be in Kyiv brings me sorrow,” — Sholem Aleichem replied in 1908 to a congratulatory telegram marking the 25th anniversary of his literary career.

Kyiv and Ukraine in the Writer’s Biography

Kyiv played a crucial role in shaping Sholem Rabinovich, later known as Sholem Aleichem (“Shalom Aleichem” — “Peace be upon you,” a traditional greeting). It was here that he wrote his iconic works: “Menachem-Mendl”, “In the Small World of Small People”, the “Tevye the Milkman” stories, and “All of Berdichev”.

These writings helped embed Yiddish culture into global literature and made the author a chronicler of shtetl life.

Permanent Exhibition: From Manuscripts to Matzevot

The Kyiv Sholem Aleichem Museum’s permanent exhibition tells the story of the writer’s life and work, while also offering visitors a chance to explore the spiritual and material culture of Eastern European Jews. During guided tours, visitors can see Jewish ritual items and objects from traditional Jewish households.

Monitors in the exhibition hall display film and theater excerpts based on Sholem Aleichem’s works, Jewish architecture, and the unique craftsmanship of Jewish stonemasons — including Jewish gravestones (matzevot), rare books, manuscripts, and calligraphy samples. The exhibition also features an installation about the Beilis Trial, a legal case that captured public attention across Russia and Europe in the early 20th century.

The museum’s main hall offers a deep dive into the spiritual and everyday life of Jews in Eastern Europe, including:

• Ritual and household items
• Ancient books, manuscripts, and calligraphy samples
• Fragments of plays and films based on Sholem Aleichem’s works
• Authentic Jewish gravestones (matzevot)
• Installations about the Beilis Trial — an event that shook early 20th-century Europe

This permanent exhibition makes the museum a place where the past doesn’t gather dust in archives but speaks directly to visitors in the language of image and memory.

In addition to the main hall, the museum includes a gallery for temporary exhibitions — new showcases are launched almost every month, many focused on Jewish themes in art.

Temporary Exhibitions and “The History of Jewish Clothing”

The museum’s second exhibition space hosts monthly special projects. Currently, it features “The History of Jewish Clothing” — a display exploring the symbolism and function of traditional Jewish garments. Through shawls, caftans, and tallitot, visitors learn how clothing reflected religious identity, gender, social status, and communal belonging.

Past exhibits included “The Shtetl Through the Eyes of AI” and the moving art series “Return Alive!”.

The Museum as a Cultural and Research Center

Under the leadership of director Iryna Klymova, the memorial home has become a dynamic hub, offering:

• Lectures on Ukrainian and world history — online and in-person
• The “Pages of Jewish History and Culture” program for Kyiv schoolchildren
• “Draw Together” art workshops led by Iryna Klymova
• Conferences, seminars, cultural meetings, and concerts

The museum serves as a guardian of memory, a research institution, and a cultural bridge.

Connection with Israel: Why It Matters Today

For Jews in Israel, especially those of Ukrainian descent, the museum has become a place of memory and renewal. It holds the history they carried with them, and here their culture continues to resonate.

This is why NAnews — Israel News regularly reports on the museum’s projects, highlighting its importance in the Ukrainian-Israeli cultural dialogue.

Practical Information

Address: Kyiv, 5 Velyka Vasylkivska St. (Metro “Lva Tolstoho”)

Opening hours: Tuesday – Sunday, 11:00–17:00 (ticket office closes 45 min before)

Phone: +380 (44) 235-17-34

Website: sholomaleichemmuseum.com

The museum is part of the Kyiv City History Museum Network, which includes nine branches — each dedicated to a different page of local and national memory.

In Conclusion

Sholem Aleichem once said: “I am the chronicler of the Jewish people.”

Today, the museum that bears his name continues that chronicle — adding new chapters about resilience, culture, and the bond between Israel and Ukraine.

NAnews — Israel News will continue to cover cultural events shaping the shared future of our nations.

…
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