Small towns like Stavische, where my father was born in 1904, are at risk of invasion or bombardment during the tragic current war in Ukraine. A while ago, I was privileged to re-dedicate the old Jewish cemetery as an emissary to Stavische under then-President Barak Obama. I receive weekly reports about the well-being of the town and the cemetery, shown in a picture above taken about two weeks ago. 

 

The small town is emblematic of the fate of Jews in Europe, both before and during the Shoah. My Dad and his mother fled in 1905. Most of the extended family got out, too, prior to the Shoah. During the Nazi invasion of Ukraine in WWII, Jews suffered enormously, both at the hands of the SS and of many Ukrainian sympathizers. We must not forget that, at Babi Yar in Kiev itself, thousands of Jewish men, women, and children were executed while most Ukrainians looked on and some actively participated.  

 

Ukraine is complicated. It is inspiring to see a fledgling democracy now, led by a courageous Jewish man. It is horrifying to see Putin's Russia, the successor to the Soviet regime that was an ally of the U.S. in defeating Hitler, going so far as to attack Babi Yar and laying waste to many Ukrainian towns. Yet we must not forget the welcome many Ukrainians gave to the Nazi invaders in the early 1940s, either.  

 

The roots of anti-Semitism in Ukraine, which left my Dad's small-town ultimately devoid of what had been a poor but culturally thriving Jewish population, need always to be studied and further understood. Meanwhile, courageous non-Jewish Ukrainians are keeping an eye on Stavische and towns like it during the current war. 

 

We are in their debt.