Ukraine’s chief rabbi has released a rousing song to celebrate his country’s national independence day.
In the video, published online on Thursday, Rabbi Moshe Azman can be seen walking through a field of sunflowers and standing on a balcony overlooking Kyiv as he sings.
"A ray of the sun wakes up,” he begins. Rabbi Azman goes on to say: “Wake up, people. Take a step into a new life. Light of Ukraine, it blossomed like a star.
“It illuminates the future. Ukraine, native land. You deserve your fate. Go victoriously.”
In what is seemingly a reference to Chanukah, the Russia-born Chabad emissary adds: “Don't let the candles go out.”
As the song, titled Ray of the Sun, swells to its conclusion, a chorus of young men wearing Ukraine’s traditional vyshyvanka embroidered shirts appear.
"Ukraine, an unquenchable star,” they sing in unison.
“You are rich, brave and beautiful. A song flows freely over the fields. We are proud of you, Ukraine!"
Screenshot 2023-08-25 at 16.08.31
Rabbi Azman sings to mark Ukraine's independence day (Photo: Twitter/X)
Speaking to the JC, Rabbi Azman said that from the beginning of the war “my soul began wanting to sing”.
Ray of the Sun, he said, was recorded at a professional studio in Anatevka - a village on the outskirts of Kyiv at which the rabbi hosts Jewish refugees from eastern Ukraine.
“I didn’t write the song,” he said. “I have a composer… he writes the songs.”
Rabbi Azman added: “I tried to do it from all my heart.”
Since the start of the war, the bearded Chabad emissary has grown in fame in Ukraine after conducting aid missions across the country and issuing daily video messages.
My gift for Ukraine's Independence Day, the song "Ray of the Sun" pic.twitter.com/kCHPlt54IO
— Chief Rabbi Of Ukraine Moshe Azman (@RabbiUkraine) August 24, 2023
Born in Saint Petersburg, then Leningrad, Rabbi Azman moved to Kyiv in 1991, when he began working to aid children affected by Chenobyl before helping to restore the historic Brodsky Synagogue.
Last December, he visited London, where he met Chief Rabbi Ephraim Mirvis and Boris Johnson, and lobbied for more aid.
“At the beginning of the war we had normal life in Ukraine,” he said during his trip.
rabbi moshe azman
'A song flows freely over the fields': Rabbi Azman's backing singers hail their native land (Photo: Twitter/X)
“We had beautiful communities. The war, Russia, they destroyed the communities. People had to run away without anything to become refugees. Jewish people, non-Jewish people.”
Ukraine's independence day is celebrated on August 24, the date it formally split from the Soviet Union in 1991.
The country, led by Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky, is currently engaged in a brutal counteroffensive to recapture land taken by Russia since Vladimir Putin launched an invasion last year.
