Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy celebrated the holiday of Passover on Friday, but unlike the rest of world Jewry, he was forced to do so in a bunker.
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In a video address posted ahead of the holiday, Zelenskyy said, "The Jewish community is about to celebrate Passover on Shabbat. It is a holiday of freedom, a holiday of life, and I wish to all those who celebrate, in Ukraine and worldwide, peace and inevitable victory over the evil that threatens freedom and life on Earth. I am grateful to all the men and women who protect us."
The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine provided Zelenskyy with a seder kit and matzah, as well as Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko, whose grandmother was a Holocaust survivor, and Jewish soldiers in the Ukrainian military.
With most Ukrainian Jewry unable to attend community seders, the federation also distributed 50,000 additional Passover food packages to Jewish households across the country.
Jewish refugees who fled to neighboring countries celebrated Passover too.
In Moldova, five community seders were held, two of which were organized for refugees.
"Of the 2,000 refugees from Ukraine who passed through the refugee camps established by Chabad in Moldova, several hundred remained," Director of Chabad of Moldova Rabbi Zusha Abelsky said. "We did our utmost so that on seder night, they should truly feel like a free people, despite everything."
Hundreds of refugees also made their way to Berlin, Germany, where they celebrated Passover with five massive community seders.
The local Chabad also distributed food packages ahead of the holiday, a project in which even the refugees participated.
"Ukrainian Jews who came here were happy to take an active part in the distribution of Pesach packages," Chabad rabbi in Berlin, Yehuda Teichtal, said, expressing hope that the seder would be a true experience of freedom following the difficult weeks of the war.
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