Anatevka
Gated Jewish compound near Kyiv, built from 2015 by Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman for Jews displaced by the war in eastern Ukraine; drawn into the Giuliani–Parnas–Fruman affair through American Friends of Anatevka
| Anatevka (Anatevka Jewish Refugee Community)
| |
|---|---|
| Type | Gated residential compound and community for displaced Jews |
| Founded | 2015 (groundbreaking reported in August 2015; first residents in autumn 2015) |
| Founder(s) | Moshe Reuven Azman |
| Headquarters | Next to the village of Hnativka (Gnativka), south-west of Kyiv, Ukraine |
| Services | Housing, synagogue, schools, vocational workshops for Jews displaced from Donbas and Crimea |
| Key people | Moshe Reuven Azman (founder and head); Chaim Klimovitsky (project manager, 2015) |
| Remarks | US fundraising arm: American Friends of Anatevka, a 501(c)(3) set up in October 2017 |
Anatevka, also called the Anatevka Jewish Refugee Community, is a gated Jewish compound outside Kyiv in Ukraine. It was built from 2015 by Rabbi Moshe Reuven Azman of Kyiv's Brodsky Synagogue to house Jews displaced by the war in Donbas, which began in 2014. It is named after the fictional shtetl in Fiddler on the Roof.[1][2] Its population has been disputed: Azman has claimed about 150 residents, while residents quoted by Bloomberg put the number at about 65.[3] In 2019 it was drawn into the Trump impeachment story. Its US fundraising arm, American Friends of Anatevka, had been set up by Azman with Igor Fruman, and Rudy Giuliani was due to give a paid speech to it in Ukraine.[2][4] In March 2022, after the Russian invasion, it briefly sheltered Jews fleeing the fighting before they were evacuated.[5][6]
Founding
A JTA report of August 2015 described the groundbreaking "near the village of Gnativka, which is located 15 miles from the country's capital", attended by Israel's ambassador, Eliav Belotserkovsky. It reported that "100 new residents are expected to settle next month". "Azman launched the plan to build the Anatevka Jewish Refugee Community in summer. The first phase of the $6 million project was paid for with money raised locally and abroad." The name was "selected for its resemblance to the adjacent village Gnativka, the project's manager Chaim Klimovitsky said."[7] Simona Weinglass of The Times of Israel later wrote that the land Azman bought "is next to an extant 16th-century village called Hnativka, which some scholars say is the inspiration for the town of 'Anatevka'" in Sholem Aleichem's stories.[2]
In March 2016 Cnaan Liphshiz of JTA described "a small village that sprang into existence six months ago near the capital, where 20 families are now building a future". "Spread on a plot the size of three football fields, Anatevka features a wooden synagogue with two mikvahs (ritual baths)". There was also a dormitory-style residence of 20 apartments and a new school with 25 classrooms. The synagogue opened on 29 February 2016. The majority of the school's 150 pupils were children of Azman's Kyiv community, not refugees.[1] Liphshiz also noted that the site was "Noisy, dirty, inaccessible and devoid of even basic amenities such as a grocery shop and postal services", and that some of the refugees involved in the project thought it unsuitable for their needs.[1]
Azman's own account, on his office's website, is that "Following the war in Donbas, Rabbi Azman founded the village of Anatevka, outside of Kyiv, which became a place of refuge for displaced families."[8] (Chabad-side; self-published.)
Azman and Chabad
Moshe Reuven Azman is a Chabad rabbi, but he works outside the movement's official structures in Ukraine. Liphshiz called him "A maverick rabbi who remained influential here even when he broke with the official institutions of the Chabad movement over a contractual dispute".[1] In 2020 his son Yossi Azman told Weinglass that his father "is the chief rabbi of Kyiv, although not an official representative of the Chabad movement".[2] Azman's claim to be chief rabbi of Ukraine is contested. Sam Sokol called him "one of several self-declared Ukrainian 'chief rabbis'", and Ynet described him in 2022 as "Chief Rabbi of Ukraine".[3][5] See Chabad and Ukraine.
Residents and facilities
How many people live in Anatevka, and how many of them are refugees, has been disputed.
- Azman's figure. Sokol reported in 2020 that "Azman has publicly claimed that Anatevka ... is home to some 150 people".[3]
- Bloomberg's sources. According to a 2019 Bloomberg report quoted by Sokol, "residents who asked not to be named for fear of retribution" said that the compound housed only about 20 internally displaced people, and that only around 65 people in total lived there, most of them from Kyiv.[3]
- Other Jewish leaders. Rabbi Shalom Gopin of Luhansk told Sokol there were "maybe 15-20" people from his city there. Members of the Donetsk community in Kyiv knew of none of their own.[3]
- Times of Israel summary. Weinglass summed up: "The hamlet's population is said to range from 65 to 150 people, depending on the report." She described it as "a gated compound that it would be a stretch to call a village".[2]
Weinglass was refused entry by the guard and by Yossi Azman, who said: "We've had too many problems with journalists". She was later shown round informally. She saw schools, a carpentry workshop, an apartment building, a greenhouse, a synagogue and a large mikvah under construction. She was told there was an orphanage. The tomb of the Hasidic rebbe Mordechai Twersky of Chernobyl (1770–1837) stands just outside the wall.[2] In 2022 Azman told the Forward: "We have a hotel there and a school."[6]
Funding and donors
JTA reported in 2015 that the first phase of the "$6 million project" was paid for "with money raised locally and abroad".[7] By 2016, Liphshiz wrote, Azman, working "with money from his own pocket and private donors", had "spent more than $1.5 million". The donors included "the Moscow-born kosher food supplier Michael Zelman of London and the Dubinsky family from Kiev". Azman told him: "I'm in debt to my eyeballs, but I'm not afraid because this is God's mission."[1]
Weinglass's 2020 visit found two donor plaques of interest:
- Ilan Tzorya. A plaque on the main apartment building reads "This building was donated by Ilan Tzorya, God bless him". Tzorya founded the binary-options platform provider Tradologic. Weinglass notes that "Tzorya has never personally been accused of any wrongdoing by the various law enforcement agencies that have investigated or prosecuted Tradologic-run websites."[2]
- Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Another building was funded by the Euro-Asian Jewish Congress. Citing Israel Hayom, Weinglass reported that its president, Mikhail Mirilashvili, and his son Yitzhak "are among the project's most significant donors".[2]
(Critical/investigative source.)
- Editor's note: No accounts for Anatevka itself, or for the Ukrainian body that runs it, were found. The donor information above comes from press reports and on-site plaques. It is not a complete list.
American Friends of Anatevka and the Giuliani affair
American Friends of Anatevka was, according to Weinglass, "a 501(c)(3) nonprofit set up in October 2017 by Fruman, together with Azman. Parnas was also reportedly a board member."[2] JTA reported that Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman "sit on the board of the American Friends of Anatevka". The Forward reported that Azman "appointed to his organization Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman, two associates of former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani".[4][9]
In May 2019 Rudy Giuliani, then Donald Trump's personal lawyer, planned to travel to Ukraine to give a paid speech. The Jewish group in question "was later revealed to be American Friends of Anatevka".[2] Citing the Organized Crime and Corruption Reporting Project, JTA reported that "Giuliani was slated to deliver a paid speech at a fundraiser for Azman's Anatevka project in May 2019". Parnas and Fruman were to have met Volodymyr Zelensky "on the sidelines". Giuliani cancelled the trip.[4] Instead he went to Paris, where he met Azman, "received an oversized key to the hamlet, and was named its honorary mayor".[2] In November 2019, Weinglass reports, Bloomberg "reported that New York prosecutors have been examining American Friends of Anatevka's bank records" after Parnas and Fruman were indicted.[2]
Legal status. Parnas and Fruman were arrested and indicted in October 2019 on campaign-finance charges. Fruman pleaded guilty to soliciting a contribution by a foreign national, and on 21 January 2022 he was sentenced to 366 days in prison. On 22 October 2021 a jury convicted Parnas on campaign-finance and false-statements charges. He also pleaded guilty to a wire-fraud conspiracy, and on 29 June 2022 he was sentenced to 20 months in prison.[10][2] None of these charges was brought against Azman, Anatevka or American Friends of Anatevka. Prosecutors "examining" the charity's bank records is not an accusation against it, and no charges against the charity or Azman were found in the sources reviewed.
- Editor's note: The convictions and sentences come from the Justice Department release. The Bloomberg articles of 2019 were not read directly; they are cited here as reported by the Times of Israel.
The 2022 Russian invasion
On 12 March 2022 Ynet reported that "Anatevka's shelters are filled with mattresses", with Jews from the Kyiv region taking cover there. The hamlet's Chabad representatives said: "From nothing, we organized sleeping space, mattresses, only for women and children, and sadly, it's not enough for everyone." Azman's son, who had left for Moldova, said his father planned to stay "until the last Jew leaves."[5] In an April 2022 interview with the Forward, Azman said: "During the first two weeks, hundreds of Jewish people were coming to Anatevka and we evacuated them from there. But there were tanks and constant bombing around Anatevka."[6]
- Editor's note: The state of Anatevka after spring 2022 has not been researched for this page.
See also
- Moshe Reuven Azman
- American Friends of Anatevka
- Chabad and Ukraine
- Chabad and Trump
- Chabad-Lubavitch movement
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 Cnaan Liphshiz (JTA), "In real-life Anatevka, Ukraine's Jewish refugees cling to tradition", The Times of Israel, 29 March 2016. Press.
- ↑ 2.00 2.01 2.02 2.03 2.04 2.05 2.06 2.07 2.08 2.09 2.10 2.11 2.12 Simona Weinglass, "Inside Anatevka, the curious Chabad hamlet in Ukraine where Giuliani is 'mayor'", The Times of Israel, 31 January 2020. Critical/investigative press.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 Sam Sokol, "Displaced by a brutal war, Ukraine's Jews start life anew", The Times of Israel, 26 January 2020. Press; cites Bloomberg (2019).
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 "One of Ukraine's chief rabbis endorses siege of US Capitol by Trump supporters", Jewish Telegraphic Agency, 6 January 2021. Press; cites OCCRP.
- ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Alexandra Lukash, "Ukrainian Chabad hamlet shelters Jews as Russians press on", Ynetnews, 12 March 2022. Press.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1 6.2 Helen Chervitz, interview with Rabbi Reuven Azman, The Forward, 8 April 2022. Press (interview; Azman's own words).
- ↑ 7.0 7.1 JTA, "Named for Fiddler on Roof's Anatevka, new village to house Ukraine Jewish refugees", The Times of Israel, 9 August 2015. Press.
- ↑ "Rabbi Moshe Azman", Office of the Chief Rabbi (officeofchiefrabbi.org), accessed October 2026. Self-published; Chabad-side.
- ↑ Jacob Kornbluh, "Meet the two men who claim to be chief rabbi of Ukraine", The Forward, 3 March 2022. Press.
- ↑ US Attorney's Office, Southern District of New York, "Lev Parnas Sentenced To 20 Months In Prison For Campaign Finance, Wire Fraud, And False Statements Offenses", 29 June 2022. Official source.