Section: Jewish Telegraphic Agency (USA)
Company to drop Chabad reference following inquiry over stakeholder
(JTA) — A company partly owned by a Ukrainian-Jewish businessman being sued said it will remove “World Chabad” from the name of an affiliated entity. Attorneys for Alfa Bank, alleging in a lawsuit that Alexander Granovsky defaulted on a loan, wrote to Chabad headquarters in New York last month asking the movement to clarify whether it was...
Ukrainian Jewish billionaire resigns as governor amid dispute with president
(JTA) — The Ukrainian Jewish billionaire Igor Kolomoisky resigned as governor of the Dnepropetrovsk region amid a dispute with President Petro Poroshenko over control of two state-owned firms. Kolomoisky, who has poured millions of his own wealth into preparing Ukraine’s army to fight against Russia, sent Poroshenko his resignation letter...
Dodging bombs, Ukrainian Jewish war refugee flees hometown
Masha Shumatskaya fled Donetsk, Ukraine, in June 2014. (Uriel Heilman) (JTA) — Masha Shumatskaya never imagined she would be a war refugee, even after that first night last spring when she dragged the mattress off her bed and into her windowless hallway to protect herself from flying glass in the event a bomb shattered her windows. But after...
Jewish refugees safe from war, but facing economic crisis in Kiev
Ilya and Luba Tolkachov and their 22-month-old son in the tiny one-room Kiev apartment they share with with Ilya’s mother. (Ben Sales) KIEV (JTA) — In a crowded room of the Tolkachov family’s tiny apartment here, a couch and twin bed sit kitty-corner from each other, sandwiching a small crib. In another corner, a wooden table is...
Jewish-Christian charity bringing Ukrainians to Israel — and aiming to keep them there
A Ukrainian couple at a pre-flight briefing for immigrants to Israel in Kiev, March 23, 2015. (Ben Sales) KIEV (JTA) — Tatyana Orul would have moved to Israel years ago if not for her job as a television journalist in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk, which interested her too much to give up. But when bombs started falling next to her house...
Ukrainian Jewish surgeon claims attackers shouted anti-Semitic epithets
(JTA) — A Jewish physician from Ukraine was severely beaten in what he said was an assault with anti-Semitic overtones. Oleksanr Dukhovskoi, a chief pediatric neurosurgeon in the east Ukrainian city of Kahrkiv, told the television station 9 TV that he believed the assault Sunday was ordered by competitors. He did not name a suspect. “I was beaten...
In eastern Ukraine, a unique matzah factory puts food on Jewish tables
Workers at the Tiferet Matzot factory roll dough in Dnepropetrovsk on Dec. 8, 2014. (Cnaan Liphshiz/JTA) DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (JTA) — With one eye on a digital countdown timer, Binyamin Vestrikov jumps up and down while slamming a heavy rolling pin into a piece of dough. Aware of his comical appearance to the journalist watching, he...
Finnish Christians celebrate 25 years of helping Russian aliyah
(JTA) — Christian Zionists in Finland celebrated the 25th anniversary since their community began helping Russian-speaking Jews immigrate to Israel, or make aliyah. The commemoration took place earlier this month, with the arrival to Helsinki of the second bus this year of Russian-speaking Jews who came from St. Petersburg to make aliyah through...
Ex-leader of Russian Jews says Ukrainian oligarch should be hung
(JTA) — A former leader of Russian Jews said he would like to hang prominent Ukrainian Jews “until they stop breathing.” Yevgeny Satanovsky, who served as a president of the Russian Jewish Congress in the years 2004 and 2005, made the assertion on March 9 about Joseph Zissels, leader of the Vaad Association of Jewish Communities and Organizations...
Op-Ed: For Ukraine Jews, Purim holiday merely a respite
A heavily damaged hotel near the airport in Donetsk, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2015. Jews still living in the embattled city have become enormously dependent on foreign assistance, according to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images) NEW YORK (JTA) — Jewish perseverance, and more than a bit of chutzpah, lies at the...
