Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine, spoke to Kol Chai Radio Sunday morning about the situation of the Jewish community of Ukraine as Ukrainian and Russian military forces do battle on the outskirts of the city.
"I left Ukraine in the middle of the week and arrived in the United States," Rabbi Bleich said.
"Inside Kyiv there are something like 8-9 Jewish communities, from our community which was the largest I took out who I could until Thursday. On Thursday I took people out one last time - a bus and something like twenty cars, about 100 people, that's in addition to 150 people a week before and they went to a camp we had prepared outside of Kyiv. It is a hundred kilometers west of Kyiv," he said.
He said: "Those from my community who did not want to [leave] stayed in Kyiv, and there are other communities left as well. On Friday afternoon, just before Shabbat, another 40-50 people from the communities of Chabad next to us who were not ready to evacuate came to my community in Kyiv."
He added: "On Shabbat afternoon the rabbi came there by bus and took them out and they went to Zhytomyr. Those from my community stayed there because a curfew began on Saturday at five in the afternoon until Monday morning at eight. It is because of the massive attack by the Russians."
Rabbi Bleich said that the Ukrainian president called him and asked that the Jewish people pray for his success. "President Zelensky called me a few hours ago, while waging war, and asked the entire Jewish people to pray for the soldiers of Ukraine: 'The Russians have more soldiers than us, but our soldiers have more determination than the Russians. We need your prayers for us to succeed,' the Ukrainian president said."
11 comments:
Yes, Bleich has a limited amount of followers, but so do the multiple competing Lubavitchers and Staliners in Kyiv and Ukraine (similar elsewhere in FSU, Russia, Belarus e.g.). From their PR a person might think that they are giant kehillos. But look at the photos and videos and see how many people are with them. Small groups, not giant crowds.
Ukrainian Jews are not fools, they don't jump to follow Hasidic cults, whether that of the false messiah of Chabad Lubavitch, or the Staliner (Bleich broke up with the Staliner some time ago). And all the years of anti-religious indoctrination under communism are not easy to undo either.
Where is the Chasidic Red Cross now? Just a few months ago, the new Hasidic Red Cross, people like Moshe Margaretten of Tzedek Association, Alexander Rappaport of Masbia, the Lubavitcher Aleph Institute, and others, were busy evacuating Afghan Muslims as Afghanistan went back to Taliban control.
Where are they now? Haven't heard a peep from them.
Why would this surprise us, after all there where scores of so called Rebbes and Tzadikim during World War Two who escaped and left their flock to their tragic fate.
Like the Satmar rebbe , the Belzer Rebbe, the Gerrer Rebbe etc, etc,
There where a few Tzadikim who had the opportunity to leave, but refused to abandon their flock, like Rav Menachem Ziemba z”l the Piacesna Rebbe,z”l Harav Elchanan Wasserman z”l etc,
https://nypost.com/2022/02/28/man-smears-poop-on-woman-in-nyc-subway-station/
someone spreading the message for fake Stoliner Bleich
The man has been there since 1988 when there was nothing. Still before Chabad or anyone. He built schools, camps, nursing homes and the dealt with all the inter-marriage issues in that kehilla as he sent hundreds to Israel where he built a school for all of the new immigrant's children (which Stolin Rebbe took full control of and all the funds). HE flew into Ukraine a week before the bombing started and got out just in the nick of time.
So what have you accomplished in your life... what will be said about you when you croak? Will they say that you gave more than you took?
echte stoliner is real vile...
so what makes one "echt'?
why is it bad to have a brain and make your own decisions instead of askign your rebbe to direct your every move.
10:30
You say there was nothing there in 1988? Because there were hardly any Jews there!
The Stoliners want nothing to do with him, I wonder why?
According to many of my readers some of whom are his neighbors, he is never in Ukraine and is in his multi-million dollar home in Monsey.
Last night many Ukrainians came to Beit Shemesh and when I asked sincerely about Rabbi Bleich, they answered me in Yiddish that they don't know who he is.
He did not fly in a week before the bombing according to Rabbi Bleich himself who said in an Ami Magazine interview a week before the bombing that he is in Monsey, and when the reporter of the radio station interviewed him last Sunday again he said that he was in Monsey. But then he put a Ukrainian flag as a background to his reports to deceive people into thinking that he is in the Ukraine!
all his reports are straight out of the mouths of Chabad rabbis who never left and are on the ground!
So far I haven't met anyone including Ukrainian Chabad Sheluchim who know him.
All his reports are from an ad that he is running himself, no one is asking him what is going on, because we have Chabad rabbis on the ground giving the Jewish media all they need to know!
He is not a genuine guy!
BTW when I get collaboration of what Rabbi Bleich accomplished in Ukraine I will more than happy to post it and be proven wrong. But so far NADA!
11:05
Your comment that Bleich "flew into Ukraine a week before the bombing started and got out just in the nick of time."
Is disingenuous because he told Ami Magazine that he did not believe Putin would actually invade, in fact in a rambling statement he said that Putin is just playing and wouldn't do it, that's why he flew into Ukraine but flew out as soon as he was proven wrong.
You are correct that I wouldn't stay there and would have left as well, that's in fact true, but then again I am not the "chief Rabbi" of Ukraine!
Your statement:
"So what have you accomplished in your life... what will be said about you when you croak? Will they say that you gave more than you took?"
you don't know me and you don't know what I accomplished, but after 120 the people will not say that I ran like a coward from a country that I was the "chief Rabbi" in, and left my flock. They will also not say that I was a Chief Rabbi of a country while living in the comforts of a multi-million dollar home 8,000 miles away.
The reason why I am after him has nothing to do with his running away like a mouse that was being chased by a cat, it is because of his lies about Israel to Ami Magazine.
I will attack anyone that defames the Jewish State, so maybe after 120 years they will say that about me, that I didn't allow a two-bit liar get away with it!
Oh please, he does not live in a "multi"-million dollar home. Check the deed and I am sure you will see. He has a very large family with kids in school and shidduchim -- as R' Moshe Feinstein once said in raising his own sons, "Guests are nice, but family comes first." He needs to address his children's needs, religious needs, which cannot be filled in Kiev, thus the need to have a home in NY for them. His oldest was sent away while the parents were tending to the Kiev Jewish community. Children often suffer when their parents are committed to building Jewish communities. It is not reasonable to ignore the needs of the children of any rabbi. But you keep mentioning a multi-million dollar home and it sounds like that is what is irking you.
Where does it say that being a leader of a community means you have to stay and die in a war when there are options to leave? Complaints against the Belzer Rebbe fleeing during WW2 are because he told his community to stay put, he told the Hungarian community to stay put when they had a chance to flee and he had already seen firsthand what the Germans were doing in Poland. But then he ran off in middle of the night to save his own hind. Bleich was on the ground in the days prior to Putin's invasion. Do you know what he told his community while there, and if he urged them to leave along with him?
7:18
You scribble:
"Do you know what he told his community while there, and if he urged them to leave along with him?"
Yes I do know...he told Yitz Frankfurter from Ami, that he advised the Jews to remain! Not my words...his words!
You scribble:
"Oh please, he does not live in a "multi"-million dollar home. Check the deed and I am sure you will see. "
I actually did check it out on Zillow! To look at his deed means nothing, Ve'hameiven Yavavin.I "fargin" him with my whole heart
But he signed up for this job and he is not there for them!
You continue to scribble:
"He needs to address his children's needs, religious needs, which cannot be filled in Kiev, thus the need to have a home in NY for them. His oldest was sent away while the parents were tending to the Kiev Jewish community. Children often suffer when their parents are committed to building Jewish communities. It is not reasonable to ignore the needs of the children of any rabbi."
He should quit and "punch a clock" in the USA if he cannot live in the place he has a job in!
As I told someone before, if I was in Ukraine I would have outrun him to get away, but I am not the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine. What he did was like being a bus driver, driving a bus downhill, and jumping out!
You didn't get tired scribbling:
"Complaints against the Belzer Rebbe fleeing during WW2 are because he told his community to stay put, he told the Hungarian community to stay put when they had a chance to flee and he had already seen firsthand what the Germans were doing in Poland. But then he ran off in middle of the night to save his own hind. Bleich was on the ground in the days prior to Putin's invasion."
He did what the belzer Rebbe z"l did, Bleich advised his people to remain and he told them that while he was in Monsey.
I'm not the one who said he was in Monsey, I am only reporting what he himself told Ami and the radio station!
Owner of this blog who is responding to my comments: There is no need to try to belittle me, my thoughts and comments, but it obviously says more about you. Kindly look into your own soul and what demons are there that compel you to step on, and knock others.
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