Ukraine a country of possibility

OPINION:

Despite Ukraine’s dark history of antisemitism, going back centuries to Cossack pogroms and the collaboration of some anti-Soviet nationalists with Nazis during World War II, after President Zelenskyy’s election in 2019 the country became the only one outside Israel to have both a president and a prime minister who are Jewish. Mr. Zelenskyy’s grandfather fought in the Soviet Army against the Nazis, while other family members died in the Holocaust.

The world must save these innocent Ukrainians from Russia’s Putin. He is another Hitler and is now threatening to use nuclear weapons.

I have gotten only a few hours of sleep these past few days, and I am having horrible nightmares of the Ukraine invasion. But I will continue to try to raise money and help people connect with their families in Ukraine.

Mr. Zelenskyy has used his own history to demonstrate that his is a country of possibility, not the hate-filled polity of Mr. Putin’s imagination.

BRIAN GOLDENFELD

Oak Park, California