OP head joins Passover celebration with Kyiv Jewish community
Budanov with Rabbi Markovych. Photo: JCC BEIT Menachem
On April 7, 2026, Kyiv’s Jewish community, JCC BEIT Menachem, celebrated Passover. Joining the festivities were Head of the Presidential Office Kyrylo Budanov, his deputy Iryna Mudra, and Sports Minister Matvii Bidnyi.
The Jewish community described the senior officials as “honored guests.” The statement said that Passover serves as a reminder that “freedom always triumphs.”
The overwhelming majority of comments under the community’s Facebook post were sharply negative.
“This is not a Ukrainian holiday. There is no need to impose it on us – let the Jews celebrate it,” wrote Nataliia Babenko.
“I wonder, do they celebrate Ukrainian holidays in Israel? Of course not! So why are they imposing something foreign on us? I do not accept it!” Nadyn Sloboda said.
“Ukraine was and will remain Ukrainian. Do not impose Jewish holidays on us. We are Ukrainians, not Jews,” wrote Liubov Viktorovna.
Earlier, the UOJ reported that, in honor of Passover, Zelensky received rabbis from across Ukraine at the Presidential Office.
Read also
Ukrainian Baptists publish list of forcibly mobilized fellow believers
The International Council of Evangelical Christian Baptist Churches has published the names of 54 congregation members affected by forced mobilization, including several who have died.
Man arrested in Germany for cutting down LGBT flag outside Catholic church
Police in Mannheim detained a 58-year-old man who allegedly sawed down a flagpole displaying a rainbow flag outside St. Sebastian’s Church.
Metropolitan Victor leads patronal feast at persecuted parish
The UOC parish in Khmelnytskyi, which lost its church after it was seized, celebrated its patronal feast in a repurposed building.
Patriarch of Constantinople receives head of Jerusalem Church at Phanar
Patriarchs Theophilos and Bartholomew in Istanbul discussed inter-Orthodox and other pressing issues in Istanbul.
Archbishop John of Albania: Distorting Church teaching alters spiritual life
The primate of the Albanian Orthodox Church stressed that preserving Orthodox doctrine is inseparably connected with a person’s spiritual life and salvation.
Woman stabbed during Mass at Catholic church in Ireland
An unidentified man attacked a 50-year-old Catholic woman with a knife during Sunday worship in a town in County Waterford.