Dovid Margolin on Jewish Life in War-torn Ukraine

The Tikvah Podcast

Tikvah

Judaism, Politics, Religion & Spirituality, News

4.6 • 620 Ratings

🗓️ 4 March 2022

⏱️ 44 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began, most of the news coverage has understandably focused on the war’s military, political, and economic dimensions. But there’s another dimension of the war: the religious dimension. How does being in the midst of a war change prayer, or, for Ukraine’s Jews, the operations of a synagogue? What does a rabbi do when his congregation is under attack?

Dovid Margolin, a senior editor at Chabad.org, joins the podcast this week to help answer those questions. In conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, Margolin talks about the history of the Jews in Ukraine and how Jewish leaders there have helped their fellow Ukrainians during the war, from sheltering those with nowhere to go to moving entire orphanages out of the country.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Dovid Margolin, a senior editor at Chabad.org., joins the podcast this week to discuss this in the context of Ukraine. In conversation with Mosaic editor Jonathan Silver, Margolin talks about the history of the Jews in Ukraine and how Jewish leaders there have helped their fellow Ukrainians during the war, from sheltering those with nowhere to go to moving entire orphanages out of the country.

Musical selections in this podcast are drawn from the Quintet for Clarinet and Strings, op. 31a, composed by Paul Ben-Haim and performed by the ARC Ensemble.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	On February 24th, forces from Russia invaded Ukraine, and all of the sudden it seemed as if the world has changed.
0:15.0	Understandably, most of the news coverage has been focusing on the military operations and counter operations, on the bombs and tanks,
0:22.7	and those who stay and those who flee, on the material contingencies and necessities
0:27.7	that together amount to a military campaign. Then there's been coverage of the war's political
0:33.1	and diplomatic and economic dimensions. All of this is vital. Last week on the podcast,
0:39.8	I was joined by the analyst Vance Surchuk, who provided some necessary context to understand
0:46.2	that dimension of this crisis. This week, we focus on the Jewish community of Ukraine,
0:51.1	its history and its leadership, and through them, we look at another dimension
0:55.6	of war. That is, what happens to Jewish communities in wartime? How does being besieged change
1:01.5	prayer, or the operations of a synagogue? What does a rabbi do when his congregation is under
1:06.7	attack? Welcome to the Tikva podcast. I'm your host, Jonathan Silver. My guest this week is
1:11.4	Duvad Margolin, a senior editor at Khabad.org. Over the last week, David has been writing
1:16.8	journalism of an invaluable kind, bringing his readers inside the Kharkiv Coral Synagogue,
1:23.3	the largest synagogue in the country, and of course a synagogue located in a city, being bombarded by Russian forces.
1:30.3	The religious leaders of the community are the Rabbi Moshe Moshy Moskowitz, and his wife, Miriam Moskowitz.
1:36.3	They coordinated the safe removal of children from the Jewish orphanage that Khabad runs there,
1:41.3	and then they could use the available mattresses and blankets from
1:44.9	that location and from the yeshiva and the preschool, and with sandbags lining the basement
1:50.3	walls, they have some hundred Jews sheltering in the synagogue now. Throughout the week,
1:54.6	Khabad's kitchen was feeding everyone who came into the building, Jews and non-Jews alike,
2:00.0	and distributed thousands of care packages, all the while, Jews and non-Jews alike, and distributed thousands of care
2:01.8	packages, all the while, bombs falling, congregants fleeing, missing, anxiety all around them,
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from Tikvah, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of Tikvah and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.