At historic Kyiv synagogue, congregants scoff at talk of war

KYIV — As furious diplomatic activity continued in Europe to avert potential war, and Ukraine’s defense ministry came under cyberattack, Jews at Kyiv’s historic Brodsky synagogue insisted on Tuesday that they are going about their business as usual.

“Up to today, there is nothing,” Yaakov, a Romania-born businessman in his 60s, said in English. “We don’t know nothing,  not bad, not good.”

“It is all this day like it was before, without any change. You can do what you want in Ukraine.”

The synagogue, which today is home to a Chabad congregation and restaurant, was built in 1898 by sugar magnate Lazar Brodsky. After being shut down by the Soviets, badly damaged by the Nazis, and used as a theater, it reverted to its original use in 2000.

Despite Western leaders’ warnings of war, the conversation before the maariv evening prayer service went pretty much as it does at synagogues everywhere. The prayergoers tried to convince each other to step up to the bimah to lead the service, each one politely but firmly declining until a young Chabad man wearing a black hat and untucked white shirt tired of the wait and started the prayers.

Afterward, a group gathered around this reporter.

“Till today, there is nothing,” said a younger man named Lazar (yes, we bonded), before returning his prayer book and heading off into the winter night.

“You came for the war?’ another asked me in Hebrew. “But there is no war!”

“Listen, I think in England, if you read what is happening in Ukraine, and you come here, this is day and night,” said Yaakov.

The men all agreed they had absolutely no plans to leave the city.

“If something God forbid happens, we can just travel to Lviv,” said Yaakov, switching to Hebrew. “But for now, we don’t feel anything. There’s a lot of talk. But we don’t see that people are called to the army.”

There is one member of the community serving in Ukraine’s armed forces, they said.

“But he doesn’t come to services every day,” one added helpfully.

Yaakov, who made aliyah as a young man and worked for the Teva pharmaceutical company, said his years in Israel gave him a sense of what impending conflict feels like.

“In Israel, when they God forbid feel there is about to be a war, everyone is rushing around. We see soldiers, we see tanks. Here, there’s nothing.”

But if the Russians do end up invading, the congregants insisted they’ll be ready to fight.

“If Putin comes,” said Yaakov, pointing at a young man waiting by the door, “we have a schochet.”