In the course of a Rosh Hashanah sermon this year, one of our cantors characterized American support for Ukraine as a just, moral, and necessary cause. In a ham-fisted attempt to make the point more relevant to the Jewish gathering, he called the president of Ukraine a “Jewish hero.” This was also Gal Beckerman’s term of choice earlier this year in The Atlantic.
Volodymyr Zelensky is a lot of things — including, to be sure, a “hero” to many. But to anyone who takes Jewish identity, Jewish tradition, and, especially, Jewish survival at least somewhat seriously, he certainly should not be considered
