Last week, Ukraine’s parliament passed a law criminalizing antisemitism as defined by the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA).

IHRA defines antisemitism, in part, as “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews,” and “denying the Jewish people their right to self-determination” by “claiming that the existence of a State of Israel is a racist endeavor.”

This definition has been adopted by 35 countries, at least a dozen American states, the European Union Parliament and more than 1,000 organizations and universities worldwide. It was formally endorsed by the government of Israel in 2017.

In Ukraine, the offense of antisemitism is now punishable by a fine or a prison sentence of up to five years.

Despite this, antisemitism is not a thing of the past in Ukraine.

The country has been historically reluctant to reckon with its role in the Holocaust, during which more than one million Jews were killed by the Nazis and local Ukrainian collaborators.


Lwow, Ukraine, ghetto in the spring of 1942. (Source: Wikimedia Commons)
The Jews of Ukraine account for a great proportion of the Soviet victims of the Holocaust with the worst massacre taking place at Babyn Yar outside Kyiv. During 1941–43 more than 100,000 Jews were killed in Babyn Yar.

For some in Ukraine’s Jewish community, the current events have stirred up memories of past horrors, reported the New York Times.

“Though antisemitic violence is relatively rare in Odessa, some Jews are fearful that it could be unleashed by the chaos of war,” the article explained.