DESS head: Revival of Judaism in Ukraine is a true miracle
Viktor Yelensky opened a school for Jewish boys in Anativka.
Viktor Yelensky, head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience (DESS), participated in the ceremonial opening of the yeshiva (higher religious school in Judaism) "Beit Binyamin" in Anativka, reports the official DESS Facebook page.
"Beit Binyamin" became the first yeshiva building erected in Ukraine since the proclamation of independence in 1991. The chief rabbis of Ukrainian cities, along with spiritual leaders from Israel, Moldova, Slovakia, Italy, and the US, arrived for the opening.
Yelensky called the opening "a true miracle." He also emphasized that another miracle is the restoration of Jewish religious and cultural life in Ukraine after decades of its eradication. Yelensky noted that in the late 1980s, sociologists recorded among Jews the lowest level of awareness about their own history, culture, and religion among all national minorities of Ukraine. "Jewish civilization in Ukraine remains. And the yeshiva in Anativka is yet another living and magnificent symbol of it," emphasized the DESS head.
The new yeshiva is a spiritual educational center for boys and is intended to become a center for training future rabbis, teachers, and spiritual leaders.
As the UOJ reported, the Jewish community protested against the appearance of Shukhevych Avenue in Kyiv.
