What Putin's "Denazification" of Ukraine Really Looks Like
Fleeing Russias onslaught, a rabbi leads children from Odessas Jewish community through the Carpathian Mountains
I once thought that I was a freak, says Rabbi Refael Kruskal, the vice president of the Jewish community in Odessa, a port city in Ukraine. While many others in the country doubted the prospect of a Russian invasion, Kruskalthe son of a Holocaust survivortook his cues not from the headlines but from Jewish history. I had supplies on trucks. I had generators prepared. I said theres gonna be a rush on gas stations, so I had gas prepared for the buses on the way.
He ended up needing every gallon.
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly claimed to be denazifying Ukraine, a disingenuous pretext echoed by an online army of apologists. But this exodus of innocents is the true face of his campaign. I walked past one girlher mother is in Kharkiv with her grandmother, and the citys being shelledand shes crying on the side, said Kruskal. Its just unbelievable what one man can do.
Despite the chaos and devastation, Kruskal has no intention of giving up. In his emotional farewell video from the Odessa synagogue, he opened with the words recited by religious Jews when they finish a tractate of the Talmud: hadran alach, ve-hadrach alanwe will return to you, and you will be returned to us.
https://newsletters.theatlantic.com/deep-shtetl/621eb2869277230021afbdc5/what-putin-denazification-of-ukraine-really-looks-like-odessa/