The World Organization of Orthodox Synagogues and Communities urged Russia's Chief Rabbi Berel Lazar to help preserve synagogues and holy Jewish cites in Ukraine.
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David Ben-Na'eh, who heads the organization, sent a letter to Lazar โ who is thought to be close to Putin โ requesting he ask the president not to harm such structures in the besieged country.
Earlier in the day, a Russian rocket hit the Chabad yeshiva in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. The explosion caused damage to the structure but no injuries were reported. Last week, the windows of the city's Great Synagogue shattered after a bomb exploded in a shopping mall nearby.
"We were informed that the Russian army's bomb hit a synagogue during the war in the city of Kharkiv in Ukraine," Ben-Na'eh wrote in the letter.
We turn to you, whose door to Putin is open, and ask for your personal help in preserving the synagogues of Ukraine. We ask you to work vis-ร -vis the Russian president to order his soldiers to avoid targeting synagogues and holy Jewish places in Ukraine, the letter said.
Ben-Na'eh stressed the importance of synagogues to Jews throughout the generations.
"The preservation of holy cites is a value shared by all religions, and we hope that the president will respond to the request so that at the end of the fighting, Jews will be able to pray in synagogues again," he said.
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