Dan Cohn-Sherbok father’s father emigrated from Ukraine to the United States at the end of the nineteenth century: “The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shocked us all, but I feel a personal connection to the carnage.”

My father’s father emigrated from Ukraine to the United States at the end of the nineteenth century. The Russian invasion of Ukraine has shocked us all, but I feel a personal connection to the carnage, writes Dan Cohn-Sherbok

Russian troops are closing in on the major cities. Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians are struggling to escape. And, most terrifyingly, Russia has attacked nuclear power plants and is threatening to use nuclear weapons. Other than agreeing to temporary ceasefires to allow civilians to be evacuated from doomed cities, the Russians are unlikely to end the hostilities.

President Vladimir Putin contends that Ukraine is a non-state governed by neo-Nazis and that Russian forces are liberating the population from oppression and genocide. Yet the president of Ukraine, Volodymyr Zelenskiy, is Jewish. It makes no sense to label his administration neo-Nazi.

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