The recent elections in Ukraine have prompted some political commentators to note with a degree of surprise, even astonishment, that alongside Israel, Ukraine is the only country in the world that has a president and a prime minister, both of whom are Jewish. Why the surprise and astonishment? Because Ukraine historically has a reputation of being rife with anti-Semitism. Whether or not such a reputation is justified, the anti-Semitic stereotype of Ukraine exists to this day, in particular among diasporan Jews and their sympathizers in various parts of the Western world.
I will return to present-day Ukraine and the significance of the recent elections. But before doing so, it might be useful to say something about the context of Ukraine and how Jews came to live there.