Vandals damaged the vault of a Jewish righteous

On the night of June 4, in a village of Hnativka, near Kyiv vandals damaged the tomb of the Jewish righteous Mordechai of Chernobyl.

This was reported by the website of the Jewish community in Kyiv.

Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine Moshe Reuven Azman said the incident in Hnativka was yet another one “in a series of attacks and desecrations of Jewish graves, religious buildings, and monuments to the victims of the Holocaust in Ukraine.”

He urged the government and police to protect Jewish sites.

“Unfortunately, this upsetting trend has especially intensified in recent months, causing alarm among Ukrainian Jews. I call on the Government and law enforcement agencies of Ukraine to take additional measures to ensure the security of Jewish sites,” the statement says.

Mordecai of Tver (Chernobyl) is a son of the famous Rabbi Menahem Nahum, who is considered a great saint. The Jews saw a “fiery crown of holiness” over the rabbi’s head. He was buried in 1837 in the midst of the field east of Kyiv. In 2015, at the tomb of Mordechai of Chernobyl a village was erected to shelter Jewish refugees from Eastern Ukraine, which was called Hnativka. In fact, it is located within the village of Hnativka.