Jewish man killed in Russia's largest aerial attack on Ukraine

A Jew from Kharkiv was killed during Russia's biggest air attack of the war on Ukraine on Friday, according to sources in the Jewish community of Ukraine. The attack resulted in the killing of 31 civilians, wounding more than 160 others, and hitting cities and infrastructure across the country, Ukrainian officials said.

"There is deep mourning in the Jewish community in Kharkiv, upon learning of the death of Artyom Reznik, a thirty-year-old Jewish resident of the city,” The city's rabbi and Chabad emissary, Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz, told The Jerusalem Post on Sunday.

According to a statement by the Jewish Relief Network Ukraine (JNRU), "The news reached the Jewish community rabbi and Chabad emissary Moskovitz and his wife Miriam on Sunday evening, and they updated the community members, asking local Jews to attend his funeral."

"Artyom's mother regularly participates in the lessons taught by my wife," Moskovitz recounted, "She is very active in the community and very well-known. This is a very painful tragedy, we are all mourning the disaster."

Funeral plans for the fallen

Moskovitz said that the funeral will be held on Monday, in Kharkiv. The funeral will proceed from the synagogue to the cemetery.

"Next Thursday," the rabbi continued, "we will conduct three circumcisions for Jews of different ages - a 15-year-old, a 40-year-old, and a 75-year-old.”

A representative of JNRU said in a statement on Sunday “Ukraine is trying to recover from the heaviest attack with a heavy barrage of 122 missiles and 36 kamikaze drones. "Chabad rabbis and emissaries have been continuously managing the communities in an emergency format for almost two years now, simply preserving the Jewish communities. One cannot describe their dedication."

In Zaporizhzhia, Rabbi Nachum Ehrentreu, a Chabad emissary, reported, "There were bombings in our city. By the grace of God, our community is okay. It was the most significant attack. Missiles hit a factory, causing fatalities and injuries, and there was an attempt to damage electrical infrastructure." He recounted the harrowing experience: "Many missiles flew across Ukraine through our city. We heard the sounds of rocket explosions for hours. Of course, we hurried to shelters where we stayed until the fury passed."

The situation in Kherson has been consistently challenging. Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolf, the Chabad emissary in the city, which has seen upheavals in the last two years, remarked, "We haven't had a single day of calm in our city for the past two years. The unique aspect here is the absence of sirens. The only alarm is the whistle of the missiles.”

In Odessa, Rabbi Avraham Wolf and over a hundred children from the Mishpacha orphanage faced a difficult day. "What we are going through here is simply madness," he stated. "Thank God we are healthy, whole, and smiling."

From Kyiv, Rabbi Mordechai Levenharz, a Chabad emissary, reported a strong missile attack. "The prayer services were held as usual. The Jews here have learned to manage routine life amidst the ongoing emergency. In the previous attack, some Jewish homes were damaged, and our large Jewish network, JRNU, immediately mobilized to help and fund their repairs, which is very necessary in these cold winter days."