(Jewish Group) In Ukraine, young Jews are torn between fighting for their country -- or leaving

[Behind the Aegis]

In Ukraine, young Jews are torn between fighting for their country — and leaving for another

As world powers work to defuse the military buildup between Ukraine and Russia, Vlodymyr Zeev Vaksman, a Jewish father in Odessa, is focusing on a personal arms race.

“I put off making any big purchases. I want to buy weapons,” Vaksman, the 40-year-old chair of Odessa’s Tiferet Masorti community, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency Monday.

Vaksman, who works as a tour guide, is typical of many young Ukrainian Jews: Attached to their country, they’re hesitant to abandon it when it’s threatened. But, mindful of how quickly it can descend into violence, sometimes along sectarian lines, they also are unwilling to leave their family’s safety to the authorities and chance.

“Everyone is worried,” Vaksman told JTA about his circle of Jewish friends. “Some want to resist and join the defense units. Some want to leave.”

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[RussellCattle]

1. Does Rabbi Ya'akov Djan give any consideration to loyalty to one's Ukrainian citizenship?

[TheRealNorth]

2. Some of the hard core Ukrainian Nationalists are also antisemetic

Maybe that is the concern.

[Behind the Aegis]

3. Answer to your question was right there in the article.

“It would be good” for anyone who so desires to leave Uman for “a vacation until it is safe,” Rabbi Ya’akov Djan, who is also an Israeli, wrote to Jews in the city where a predominantly Israeli Jewish population has grown up around the burial place of Nachman of Bratslav, an 18th-century Hasidic rabbi. But he added that anyone who does not wish to leave should not feel pressured to do so.

As for the city he is referencing:

Jewish community
A large Jewish community lived in Uman in the 18th and 19th centuries. During the Second World War, in 1941, the Battle of Uman took place in the vicinity of the town, where the German army encircled Soviet positions. The Germans deported the entire Jewish community, murdering some 17,000 Jews,[10] and completely destroyed the Jewish cemetery, burial place of the victims of the 1768 uprising as well as Rebbe Nachman of Breslov. After the war, a Breslov Hasid managed to locate the Rebbe's grave and preserved it when the Soviets turned the entire area into a housing project.[10]

Since the 1990s there has been a small, but growing, Jewish population in Uman, concentrated around Rebbe Nachman of Breslov tomb on Pushkina street. The local Jews are mostly involved in pilgrimage of Jewish tourists that arrive to the town. In 2018 the community saw large growth with about 10–20 families coming from Israel, accompanied by a small movement of young American couples. Newcomers to the city are concentrating around Skhidna St, with some toward Nova Uman area. In conjunction with this growth in the community, a new school of Yiddish was established.
Uman

This is the JEWISH group...tread carefully.