Blue State Blues: The World's Toughest Jew Outside of Israel

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has defied the odds and the world’s expectations by holding out for a week against the might of the Russian military, after President Vladimir Putin launched a four-pronged attack without provocation.

Many observers expected Ukraine to fall within 48 hours. The Biden Administration, lacking confidence in Zelensky, apparently tried to encourage him to leave the country. He is said to have responded: “I need ammunition, not a ride.”

After months of dithering and diplomatic maneuvering, in which NATO wrung its hands over the question of whether, and how far, to defend Ukraine, the difference was ultimately made by the Ukrainian people themselves, and their leader.

Zelensky was something of a protest vote when he was elected  in 2019. The comedian and entertainer, known more for winning the local version of Dancing with the Stars, was, ironically, also known for impersonating Ukraine’s president.

Voters chose him in a rebuke to the country’s corrupt governing class, which had helped itself to the country’s wealth as Russia threatened Ukraine’s political independence and territorial integrity, taking the Crimea virtually unchallenged in 2014.

Zelensky thus became one of the few Jews ever to lead a country other than Israel — a particularly striking achievement given Ukraine’s history during the Second World War, during which the Nazis murdered 1.5 million Ukrainian Jews.

Putin referred to that history when claiming he was trying to achieve the “de-Nazification” of Ukraine. The country does, indeed, have a history of Nazi collaborators, as did other Eastern European countries previously occupied by the Soviets.

Stalin had starved millions of Ukrainians in the 1930s during what is known as the Holomodor. Thus, some Ukrainians greeted the invading Nazis as liberators. Some former communists also switched sides and joined the persecution of Jews.

Yet Putin omitted the many decades between the end of the war and today, and ignored the continued brutality of Soviet rule, and the reality of post-communist Ukraine, in which the local Jewish community has been able to grow and to thrive.

Jews have helped lead the Ukrainian resistance to Russia for years. In 2014, the Jewish Forward reported that a Ukrainian Jewish oligarch, Igor Kolomoisky, was helping to fund the efforts of militias to keep eastern regions out of Russian hands.

Zelensky is continuing in that tradition of defiance, providing an example of patriotism and courage that should forever dispel notions of “dual loyalty” that antisemites have often used against Jews throughout the world, including the U.S.

He has also navigated the difficult terrain of relations with the United States. In 2019, he found himself caught up in the impeachment drama, when then-President Donald Trump’s phone calls with Zelensky were targeted by Democrats.

When Democrats, who pretended to care about Ukraine for political purposes, took the White House, Zelensky struggled to earn a meeting with President Joe Biden, who prioritized Putin, holding a special summit with him in Geneva in 2021.

The Washington establishment scorned him. When Zelensky encouraged his people to be brave, Alexander Vindman, the Ukrainian-born U.S. Army officer at the heart of the impeachment drama, mocked Zelensky as presenting “false confidence.”

Now, to the Ukrainians confronting Russian troops on the outskirts of the country’s cities, and making homemade Molotov cocktails in bomb shelters, Zelensky is a hero, an indispensable leader at the moment of the country’s greatest peril.

His response to the Russian invading forces on Thursday was defiant: “Wherever they enter, they will be destroyed everywhere, they will not have peace, they will not have food, they will not have a single quiet moment.

“We will restore every house, every street, every city and we say to Russia: learn the word of reparations and contributions. You will reimburse us for everything you did against our state, against every Ukrainian in full.”

These words are not mere bluster: they are an inspiration to the millions of Ukrainians who are prepared to defend their country. Unlike past leaders who thought only of themselves, Zelensky has made it clear he is prepared to die with his countrymen in Ukraine’s defense.

That is the kind of commitment that inspires heroism sacrifice. Zelensky’s determination ensures that win or lose the war, Ukraine will never be erased, or absorbed into Russia somehow. And he, a Jew, will be remembered as Ukraine’s national savior.

We are used to hearing such stories of courage from Israel, where Jews have built a thriving state and defended it for decades against invasion and terrorism. Jews in the Diaspora are often seen, and see themselves, as lacking the same fortitude.

But Zelensky is proving otherwise. The strength of Israel’s example has inspired Jews worldwide, whatever their nationality, to fight for what is right against superior forces, even — and especially — when the rest of the world refuses to help.

Joel B. Pollak is Senior Editor-at-Large at Breitbart News and the host of Breitbart News Sunday on Sirius XM Patriot on Sunday evenings from 7 p.m. to 10 p.m. ET (4 p.m. to 7 p.m. PT). He is the author of the recent e-book, Neither Free nor Fair: The 2020 U.S. Presidential Election. His recent book, RED NOVEMBER, tells the story of the 2020 Democratic presidential primary from a conservative perspective. He is a winner of the 2018 Robert Novak Journalism Alumni Fellowship. Follow him on Twitter at @joelpollak.