Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has never made the biggest deal about his Jewish identity. That might be the most Jewish thing about him.
When he started his term in 2019, he had no political experience. Yet as the leader of Ukraine, the 48-year-old has pursued an impressive political agenda, pushing the country to join the EU, fighting corruption, and seeing the country through a nearly five-year invasion.
Since Russian President Vladimir Putin’s February 2022 invasion, an estimated 55,000 Ukrainian soldiers have died, at least 16,874 Ukrainian civilians have been killed, and Ukraine has lost control of about 20% of its territory.
He has shepherded Ukraine through its most challenging era in contemporary history. Though his army does not have the same resources as the Russian military, it has shown the world how innovation and ingenuity can change the face of modern warfare with its breakthroughs in drone technology.
Putin has repeatedly framed Zelensky as a disgrace to Jewish people and has called his government a “Nazi regime.” These attacks blatantly disregard the fact that Zelensky’s grandfather defended Ukraine from the Third Reich during World War II, and that many members of Zelensky’s family were killed in the Holocaust.
Zelensky's paternal grandfather was the only member of his immediate family who survived the Holocaust.
Zelensky has said in multiple interviews that his paternal grandfather was the only member of his six-person immediate family who survived the Holocaust.
“When Russians [talk] about neo-Nazis and point to me, I just reply that I have lost my entire family in the war, because all of them were exterminated during World War II,” he said. Like many Soviet Jews, Zelensky did not grow up living a very religious lifestyle.
“The fact that I am a Jew is about the 20th question among my characteristics,” he said in an interview in 2019.
This is part of what makes him remarkable: Zelensky is not a good leader simply because, or in spite of his Jewish identity. He is a good leader, and just so happens to be Jewish.
Zelensky has shown the world what it means to lead with courage, vision, and true leadership in the face of a full-frontal attack. In the face of antisemitism and inane Kremlin accusations of being a neo-Nazi, what better antidote is there than to let your leadership do the talking?