Israel’s Ambassador in Moscow Alexander Ben-Tzvi held a meeting last week with Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Bogdanov on the issue of Jews gathering in Uman for Rosh Hashanah.
Ben-Tzvi informed Bogdanov that although Israel issued travel warnings to Ukraine and Ukrainian officials warned Israeli not to come, there are already several thousand Israelis in Uman.
Israel’s Channel 12 News reported that Bogdanov told Ben-Tzvi that Russia won’t guarantee the welfare of the Jews in Uman.
“This is a real danger,” Bogdanov said. “Russia cannot guarantee the Israelis’ safety.”
Nevertheless, Bogdanov asked for further information about the Israeli presence in Uman so that he could pass it on to the relevant authorities in the Russian army.
Meanwhile, in light of the many thousands of Jews already in Uman, volunteers of the United Hatzalah branch in Uman are busy with a dramatic increase in the number of calls for their services.
Mattis Shapiro, head of Hatzalah Uman, said: “Hatzalah volunteers, in cooperation with medics and paramedics from Israel and the US, will work in shifts around the clock to provide an immediate response to cases that are received at the lcoal emergency hotline 063-800-1221. It should be noted that as part of the streamlining of the security operation, Hatzalah volunteers hung up dozens of regional number signs in 15 areas near the kever in Uman – facilitating the rapid arrival of emergency and rescue forces.”
Aharon Ben Harosh, deputy head of Hatzalah Uman, said: “We equipped all the Uman ambulances with the necessary medical equipment in order to provide a quick response to the volunteers in Uman and in Ukraine for any emergency and medical assistance.”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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12 Responses
And the world remains quiet!
And Russia remains one of the 5 main super powers that have veto power at the UN. So much for the sanctity and validity of the UN.
Just as some Rabbonim condemned musical selichos this year, I would hope that some would also condemn people’s not only putting their own lives in danger here, but also putting into danger the Israeli police and health workers who now have to be there to help protect the Uman pilgrims.
Or perhaps there’s a difference between the dangers of “going against our messorah” (musical selichos) vs getting other yidden killed (Uman).
Stupid. Of course they can’t guarantee anything. There’s a war on. First, they can’t guarantee what the Ukranians will do. Second, if they promised not to attack Uman between now and Tzom Gedalia, the Ukranians could take advantage of that. So even with all the good will in the world, it would be stupid to expect a guarantee from them
Why didn’t you wanna report that Russia also denied that they want to target Uman like you said last week ??
Stop getting everyone nervous for no reason let’s just Daven that these holy breslover get there and bring a yeshua for the whole klal yisroel
Moderators Response: YWN did publish that last week.
I don’t think it’s fair to their families. Their families will be worrying about them.
I hope the Gedolim condemn this. As for the Breslovers, they are thrilled. In their religion putting yourself in harm’s way is a Mitzvah. They go to Kever Yosef even though people have been killed by Arabs there. This is proof that this group is totally disconnected from Yiddishkeit. The Torah says not to put yourself in danger and they do the opposite. They are actively recruiting people to go. Now they will make a Chillul Hashem for the whole world Ch’v.
Even without their dangerous antics they don’t practice Judaism. Here is what it says on their website “Rebbe Nachman is truly the secret of Redemption and that only he can extract our generation from the depths to which we’ve sunk.” Does that sound Jewish?
Moderator, in reply to Jason: Yes, you did publish that last week. Jason6 said so. His question, and it is a good one, is since that is so why did you not see fit to mention it in this article? Failing to give it that context, of which you were aware precisely because you reported it last week, amounts to lying by omission. This article creates an impression that you knew to be false.
they are literally escaping INTO a war zone then if C’V anyone is killed there will be appeals made on behalf of their almanos and yesomim this is recklessness of the highest order when the actual Ukrainians are running away.
I could see the anti-Semitic Ukrainians shelling Uman on Rosh Hashanah and blaming the Russians. They very happily killed Jews in past generations.
this is wrong on so many levels. it is NOT a mitzvah to pray at the grave of a tzaddik, it’s avodah zarah. and to deliberately go to a war zone, is a violation of the mitzvah of bal te’saken. to encourage others to go with you, is even worse.
they’d rather stay home and daven instead of defending eretz yisrael, but then they go to ukraine and try to get themselves killed. crazy.
Did the Americans guarantee the safety of tourists visiting German and Japanese cities during the first few years of the 1940s?
What part of “there is a war on” don’t people understand? This is a nice tit-for-tat terrorist game that doesn’t mess up the economy (unless you happen to be near the terrorists in question, but its only your economy that’s messed up). This is a real war.