Daniel von Rüdiger

🇺🇦 A Journey Through Ukraine – Part 3

We’ve now driven far into the east of Ukraine. The sound of air raid sirens has become a daily background noise — a new kind of normal.

We stopped in Dnipro, where Viki worked as a dentist before fleeing the country.
On January 14, 2023, one of the deadliest Russian airstrikes against civilians in Ukraine hit an apartment block at Siegesdamm 118 in Dnipro. A Russian X-22 missile struck at 3:30 p.m., killing 35 people instantly in their homes. Of more than 70 injured, 11 later succumbed to their wounds — among them, many children. 72 apartments were completely destroyed.
This place was especially emotional for us — on that same day, January 14, 2023, we were celebrating my 40th birthday safely in Germany, surrounded by joy and laughter. It reminded us how life-saving the chance to flee to a safe country might become.

Across from the destroyed building, at a nearby bus stop, families created a makeshift memorial. Stuffed animals — some bloodstained — from the destroyed flats were placed there. Like flowers or candles, they serve as symbols of grief and memory. And despite this looming threat, life continues. Children walk past the ruins as if they had always been there. The destruction has become part of everyday life.

The final image in this post is from a special exhibition on the current war at the Museum of Jewish History and the Holocaust in Ukraine, located inside the Menorah Center in Dnipro. I visited it with Viki and her former colleagues. Opened in 2012, the Menorah Center is one of the largest Jewish complexes in the world — with synagogues, hotels, restaurants, a cinema, shops, and more. It is also home to the central office of the Jewish community of Ukraine.
For Ukraine’s Jewish population, the trauma of war is nothing new — but the absurdity of Russia’s claims to be “protecting Jews” becomes painfully clear in these rooms.
It’s visited by people who are still living through it. It seemed to me the visitors’ faces reflect this contradiction: that they are witnessing a history being written in real time never knowing when the horror will end.

🇺🇦 A Journey Through Ukraine – Part 2
 
On the way to Zaporizhzhia, as mentioned, we passed through the city of the central Ukraine -  Uman.
Every year in September, Hasidic Jews from all over the world celebrate the Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, there. In 2023, despite the war, more than 35,000 Jewish pilgrims from all over the world came to the city to visit the grave of Rabbi Nachman.

Shortly before the war began in their own country, numerous pilgrims from Israel accepted the dangers of war in Ukraine in order to pay their respects to the founder of the ultra-Orthodox movement. Their faith promises them a happy year if they celebrate the New Year at his grave.

Protected by thousands of security forces, they came despite warnings from Israeli and Ukrainian authorities. In Ukraine, they are exposed to the same danger of air strikes as the local civilian population. The fact that this danger comes from the neighbour state that is dropping these bombs „to liberate“ the Ukraine from supposed N***s is also absurd to the Jewish pilgrims. Zelensky is the first Jewish president of Ukraine and, with Volodymyr Hroisman as prime minister, Ukraine is the first country besides Israel to have a Jewish head of state and government at the same time.

Ukraine has a long Jewish history and around 40,000 core Jews still live in the country today. Since 2010, it has been possible to travel between Ukraine and Israel without a visa. This has increased exchanges and pilgrimages between the countries.

The journey still feels almost like a tourist trip. But especially when people realize that I come from Germany, they are very surprised that we want to travel further east.