Synagogue in Ukraine hit by missile; rabbi reportedly left moments earlier to affix mezuzah

A synagogue in Kherson, Ukraine, was hit Thursday by a Russian missile, causing significant damage to the building but no injuries, according to a social media account affiliated with the Chabad-Lubavitch Hasidic movement.

The posts said the rabbi of the synagogue, Yosef Yitzchak Wolff, missed the strike by minutes because he had left the building to affix a mezuzah to the doorpost of a local home.

A post on X by Chabad.org shared photos of the damage, including a large hole in the building’s ceiling and debris on the sanctuary floor. According to a report on the strike in another Chabad-focused publication, Wolff’s office was also damaged.

Kherson, in southern Ukraine, has been the site of heavy fighting between Ukraine and invading Russian forces.

Wolff was quoted in multiple outlets, calling the incident “a clear moment of hashgacha pratis,” or divine providence.

“The walls shook, and the sanctuary, the heart of the community, was completely destroyed,” he was quoted as saying. “But our spirit will not be broken. We will strengthen the community and rebuild the synagogue so that prayers can continue to be heard there, God willing.”

A missile directly struck the main synagogue in Kherson, Ukraine, causing severe damage to the synagogue and the office of Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolff. He narrowly escaped, having left minutes earlier to affix a mezuzah at a community member’s home. pic.twitter.com/9vHr84gvwL

— Chabad.org (@Chabad) October 23, 2025

The incident was not the first time Wolff had narrowly avoided a strike in the three-and-a-half-year war. In July, according to Chabad.org, a Russian suicide drone hit the family’s car, crumpling the front of the vehicle.

Wolff, his wife, and their 19-year-old daughter were not injured in that incident, saying at the time it was a “miracle” they survived.

The missile strike in Kherson marked the latest attack on Ukrainian Jewish community spaces and happened the night after a synagogue in the capital of Kyiv was damaged by a Russian drone, and over two months after a drone significantly damaged a historic synagogue in Odessa.

Many of Ukraine’s Jews have fled either to Europe or Israel during the war, but the Institute for Jewish Policy Research estimates that there is a core Jewish population of 32,000 still living in Ukraine, where Chabad rabbis make up the majority of Jewish clergy. While some helped their families leave early in the war, all have returned, in keeping with the philosophy of their movement, whose emissaries typically commit to the cities where they are stationed and stay there through thick and thin.