Moments before we started the interview, Trump – as he so often did during his previous tenure in the White House – conducted diplomacy via his social media.
“Think of it, a modestly successful comedian, Volodymyr Zelensky, talked the United States of America into spending $350 Billion Dollars, to go into a War that couldn't be won, that never had to start, but a War that he, without the U.S. and ‘TRUMP,’ will never be able to settle”, he posted to his Truth Social account, days after talks after holding talks with Russia about the future of Ukraine.
Although he wouldn't be drawn to criticise Donald Trump directly, the 58-year-old Chief Rabbi has a starkly different view of how the war started.
Trump has accused Ukraine’s Jewish president Volodymyr Zelensky of being a “dictator”, to which the Ukrainian President, who is Jewish, hit back and said that Trump was living in a Russian “disinformation space”.
By contrast, Azman described Zelensky as a “hero of the Ukrainian people”.
“It doesn’t matter if he’s Jewish or not Jewish, he didn’t run away at the beginning of the aggression”, he added, noting that both Republicans and Democrats applauded the Ukrainian president when he visited the US.
Chief Rabbi Of Ukraine Moshe Azman (right) with former New York Mayor and Trump ally Rudy Giuliani (Image: X).[Missing Credit]
“I respect Donald Trump too”, Azman said via Zoom, “I believe that he is a wise, knowledgeable and experienced man. I pray that the Almighty will give him the strength and wisdom to make real peace in Ukraine. Real peace so that people in Ukraine can live in safety.”
Azman had recently been to the US to meet members of his administration.
Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Azman (right) with General Keith Kellogg, US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia (Image: X)[Missing Credit]
One of those was General Keith Kellogg, US Special Envoy for Ukraine and Russia, who visited Ukraine the day of our interview. “I met him in the Washington, DC and I had the privilege to bless him”, Azman said, hoping for peace in “the right way”.
Despite the very public spats between Ukrainian and American leaders, the Chief Rabbi tries to strike an optimistic tone: “Yesterday, I put on my social media that people will be okay … I believe it will be good. We'll see.”
If he had the opportunity for a one-on-one chat with Trump, Azman said he would thank him for his support for Israel and explain to him that “Ukraine is on the same side as Israel, we have the same enemies”.
“Iran, the state that says clearly that it wants to destroy the Jewish state, to kill Jewish people, and Russia gave them nuclear technology. Russia buys big Shahed drones from them. They are close friends, everybody knows this.”
These drones are being used to attack Ukrainian infrastructure. As a result, several Ukrainian cities have been left with no heating in sub-zero temperatures, “It’s a war crime”, Azman added.
He went on: “Russia received a Hamas delegation a few weeks after October 7, they didn't call Hamas or Hezbollah a terrorist organisation.”
“That’s why I would like to explain the truth to him”, he said, adding that he has been in Ukraine since the start of the war: “I didn't run away. And I was here, and I saw the terrible, terrible war. And I was personally, under the strong explosions” as a result of the Russian attacks.
“I saw it by myself, my eyes. And I see it every day, every night”, he added, suggesting that Trump might be “misunderstanding”, the reality.
“That's why I would like to give an interview to the big channels, Tucker Carlson, for example”. The former Fox News anchor famously interviewed Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been critical of US support for Ukraine.
Recently, he was accused by President Zelensky of “working” for the Kremlin.
“I have only truth to bring. I’m not a politician. That's why it's my agenda is to save people”.
The portrayal of Ukrainians as enthusiastic for war couldn’t be further from the truth, “they had to resist aggression, to defend their homes, their families, their motherland.”
Chief Rabbi Of Ukraine Moshe Azman lighting candles with Ukrainian soldiers (Image: X).[Missing Credit]
The toll that nearly three years of conflict have taken on Ukraine is something the Chief Rabbi tragically knows only too well.
Last year, Azman’s adopted son Anton Samborskyi (known also by his Hebrew name, Matityahu or Moty), was killed while fighting on the frontline, having been drafted into the army a week after his own baby was born.
“That's why it's terrible. They didn't want a war. They didn't come to Russia and didn't start this war.”
He continued: “So many people, Jewish and non-Jewish Ukrainians, know someone who has been killed. Why have they been killed? Because Russia wants to come here and kill. That’s why it is so terrible.”
“I will continue to explain to the world what happened here, that’s why I give interviews to whoever calls me – not because I love interviews, I didn’t before the war and don’t want to be famous – but from the beginning of the war I took as an obligation to bring the truth to the world about what happened here. Tucker Carlson, please call me. Everyone who wants to hear the truth, I’ll tell him the truth”.
Ukraine has the fourth largest Jewish community in Europe and the impact of the conflict on communal life has been devastating, in some areas occupied by Russia “there's no Jewish communities there.”
“Mariupol was destroyed totally. There were two synagogues that were destroyed too”, adding that the Rabbi of the city has left Ukraine.
“The Rabbi of Donetsk and Rabbi of Luhansk are now in Kyiv with their communities”, he added, saying that although some Jews remain in the territories invaded by Russia in 2014, most have largely left Russian-occupied eastern Ukraine.
Earlier this month, a Russian missile struck the Bristol Hotel in the historically Jewish city of Odessa, somewhere where members of the community there occasionally congregate for Shabbat. “It was a miracle that this Shabbat they were in another place”, Azman said.
The Chief Rabbi displays a “Keep Calm and Carry On” attitude, determined to be able to continue life despite the ongoing daily hostilities.
Chief Rabbi Of Ukraine Moshe Azman (right) lighting Chanukah candlies in Kyiv with Mayor and former heavyweight boxing champion Vitali Klitschko (second right), (Image: X).[Missing Credit]
“In the beginning of the war, every attack, every airstrike was ‘wow!’, something new. Now it has become regular.”
Despite this, he’s proud that the community has been able to maintain their traditions: “We hear explosions every day, but we do Shabbat, we keep Kosher and are now preparing for Purim. The third Purim during the war.”
Azman is thankful for the support he’s received from Britain and the British Jewish community and appeals to them to “continue to help Ukraine as you help Israel, because Ukraine, as Israel, is now the front line against evil.”
One of the causes he supports is the village of Anatevka – named after the Shtetl from Fiddler on the Roof. The village, established in 2014 in response to Russia’s invasion of Crimea, has since supported Jewish communal life and displaced people – including Holocaust survivors.
He is supporting the construction of a building within the village – to be named after his son Moty – that will support “Jewish refugees and the fathers of soldiers … I would like in a few months to finish it and open it for the people that need it.”
