Volodymyr Zelensky: A modern Jewish hero forged in the tradition of the Maccabees

“When he threw his support behind the memorial, many people criticised him. And he just said: ‘I’m not doing this for my approval ratings, but because it’s the right thing to do’. Of course, what he’s doing now is much bigger. He’s not just doing the right thing for Ukraine now, but the world.”

Opened last year, the memorial was destroyed by a Russian missile on Tuesday, prompting Zelensky to issue a clarion call to “all the Jews of the world”, urging: “Shout about killing of civilians. Shout about the murder of Ukrainians.”

Last Shabbat morning, Ukraine’s Chief Rabbi, Yaakov Bleich, was in America, trying to coordinate the rescue of Jews from cities under attack. He told the JC: “Suddenly, I got a call from an unfamiliar number. The voice at the other end said, ‘The president would like to speak to you’. Two minutes later, he was on the line.

“His voice sounded very strong. “He told me, ‘Rabbi Bleich, this is Zelensky speaking. I need you to pray for the success of our soldiers. We are outnumbered, but they cannot match our determination and will to win’.”

Zelensky has said: “Of course I believe in God. But I speak with him only in those moments which are personal to me.”

As to whether Zelensky is any way religious, that is a “private” matter, Rabbi Bleich told the JC. When asked whether the president’s wife, the architect-turned-writer Olena Kiyashko, is Jewish, he replied: “Not yet.”

But regardless of religious practice, Judaism is essential to Zelensky’s makeup. As president, he got Ukraine to adopt the International Holocaust Remembrance Association definition of antisemitism. The significance of this step cannot be overstated. This was a country where thousands joined the Nazi Waffen SS during the war, and where neo-Nazis remain, albeit recently commanding a tiny share of the vote.

Moreover, there is Zelensky’s own family history. On a visit to Israel in 2020 for a ceremony marking the 75th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, he told “a tale of four brothers”. He said: “Three of them, their parents and their families became victims of the Holocaust. All of them were shot by German occupiers who invaded Ukraine. The fourth brother survived.

“Two years after the war, he had a son, and in 31 years, he had a grandson. In 40 more years, that grandson became president, and he is standing before you today.”

Mr Kavatsiuk said: “It has always meant a lot that Volodymyr is from a Holocaust survivor family.”

It is just a few days since the war began, but already Zelensky has been likened to the leaders of the Maccabees, the Judaean fighters who defeated the Seleucid empire against enormous odds and re-dedicated the Temple in the second century BCE.

But though he stands as a potent figure of Jewish pride, as he evades Putin’s assassination squads and regularly posts his defiant video messages, Zelensky has the support of almost all Ukrainians.

One survey puts his approval rating at 96 per cent.

Extolling Zelensky’s leadership, Rabbi Bleich said: “He understands that 40 million sets of eyes are on him, and that if he falters, 40 million people will falter behind him.

“That is somehow giving him the energy to keep going, almost without sleep, day after day.

“The Talmud says that when a shepherd is angry with his flock, he puts a blind sheep in front to lead it. And the corollary of that is that when the shepherd is favourably disposed, he gives it a sheep to lead it that can see. That is Zelensky.”