Comments on: Oy Veh https://www.jwire.com.au/oy-veh/ Australia, NZ and worldwide Jewish news that matters Sat, 02 Jul 2022 05:39:37 +0000 hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.9.4 By: Liat Kirby https://www.jwire.com.au/oy-veh/#comment-621426 Sat, 02 Jul 2022 05:39:37 +0000 https://www.jwire.com.au/?p=138378#comment-621426 While what you say about the terrible history of Ukraine where Jews are concerned is absolutely true, perhaps we can forgive Zelensky to an extent using as he did the three esteemed Jews concerned in his speech to the Hebrew University? He had to extract something as an ‘identifying point’ to feature in that speech and he is one man with one brain, one heart and one soul, doing his best under extraordinary pressure. It would hardly have served his purpose to use past history. And currently he must focus on serving his purpose in a desperate effort to survive.

Nobody has forgotten, or wiped under the table, the atrocities that made up the lives of so many Jews for so many years in that part of the world. (They live in my heart and head and imagination all the time.) What is happening now is also an obscene affair. It may well cloud the judgement of many to remember the past and try to consider the present – I know I am both horrified at what is happening now while simultaneously remembering what happened before. It’s a conundrum. But I can’t not care about what I see Russia inflicting on civilians in the Ukraine and I admire the courage and strength Zelensky is showing in dealing with it. Your criticism of him in this way denies the complexity of the issue.

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