While hundreds of Jews are leaving Kyiv amid Russian attacks, many more, led by the President of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelensky, who is of Jewish origin, are staying on to defend the country.
Jews have always been part of the long history of Kyiv, which has been ruled for a thousand years by Slavic princes, Normans, Tatars, Lithuanians, Poles, Russians, the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany and Ukrainians. A popular song from 1977 stated that without the Jewish district of Podil, Kyiv would be like St. Vladimir without his cross. Jews comprised 26% of the city’s inhabitants before World War II. Before the current Russian invasion of Ukraine, about 18,000 Jews lived in Kyiv, less than 1% of the total population.
Jews first arrived in Kyiv from the medieval Khazarian State, which was located between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea, in the 10th century and settled in the Kyivan Rus’ State. While Jews built and developed Kyiv, the city also shaped and developed the identity of Kyivan Jews. Jewish businessmen provided funds for construction of universities, schools, hospitals, markets, research institutes, city public transportation and movie theaters. Kyiv would be quite a different city without Jewish businesses and Jewish humor, Jewish medical doctors and lawyers, who had reputations as among the best in the city.
