Chabad and Ukraine

Relations between the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, its Ukrainian communities and their patrons, Ukrainian politics and the wars of 2014 and 2022

Chabad and Ukraine covers the documented links between the Chabad-Lubavitch movement and Ukraine since independence in 1991. Chabad emissaries make up most of the country's Jewish clergy. The main topics are:

• the Dnipro (formerly Dnepropetrovsk) community and its Menorah Centre, funded by the PrivatBank owners Ihor (Igor) Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Bogolyubov;
• the legal proceedings against those two men, which have different legal statuses;
• the long dispute over the title "chief rabbi of Ukraine";
• Chabad's role in sheltering and evacuating Jews in 2014 and after the Russian invasion of 2022;
• contacts between Chabad and President Volodymyr Zelensky.

For the movement's organisation in the country, see Chabad Lubavitch of Ukraine.

Dnipro and the Menorah Centre

Background

Dnipro has a special place in Chabad history. Menachem Mendel Schneerson, the seventh Lubavitcher Rebbe, spent much of his youth there. His father, Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Schneerson, was the city's chief rabbi until Soviet secret police arrested him in 1939. Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki (also spelled Kaminetsky and Kamenetzki) is the city's chief rabbi and Chabad emissary. He arrived in 1990. He told JTA in 2008: "For many Chabadniks in the whole world, Dnepropetrovsk is a very special place because of the history ... We give the rebbe all the credit because he sent me here and he gave me a plan, and he told me how to work and he gave us blessings."

Funding by Kolomoisky and Bogolyubov

In 2008 JTA reported that "Three of Ukraine's four richest men are members of the city's Jewish community and they have bankrolled a raft of construction projects". It said that "Two partners in the Privat group industrial holding, Gennady Bogolubov and Igor Kolomoysky, are funding the center and an attached Holocaust museum, respectively". Bogolyubov was president of the community's "parliament", which had a $7 million annual budget. The planned building was also to house the national headquarters of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine.

Chabad.org reported that the centre opened in October 2012. It described the building as "spearheaded by philanthropist Gennady Bogolubov, president of the local Jewish community and chairman of the Ukrainian Jewish Congress, and his Privat banking partner Igor Kolomoyskyy". Its seven towers cover 538,000 square feet. At the opening, the head of the regional administration "expressed deep gratitude to Bogolubov and Kolomoyskyy". Lev Leviev, vice-president of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the former Soviet Union, and Vadim Rabinovich unveiled a commemorative plaque. Philanthropists Alan Green and Motti Korf unveiled another.

In 2014 JTA called the centre the "$100 million JCC of Dnepropetrovsk". It said that "Non-Jews sometimes refer to the center as the Kolomoisky building — Igor Kolomoisky, a Jewish billionaire, funded the building with fellow Ukrainian billionaire Gennady Bogolyubov, the president of the Jewish community of Dnepropetrovsk". Kaminezki described the building as "a great beacon of light that tells the Jews of Ukraine: 'We are here. Come join us. The time for hiding is over.'"

Editor's note: the 2008 and 2014 JTA reports divide the funding differently. In 2008, Bogolyubov was funding the centre and Kolomoisky the museum. In 2014, the two men funded the building together. No source found gives each man's contribution or says which bank or company accounts the money came from. Nothing in the court judgments cited below links the Menorah Centre to the funds in dispute.

Kolomoisky as governor, 2014

In April 2014, after the Maidan revolution and the outbreak of fighting in the east, Kolomoisky was appointed governor of Dnipropetrovsk region. JTA wrote that he had "become something of a national hero since making sizable donations to the ill-equipped Ukrainian army".

PrivatBank litigation and other proceedings

The two men were PrivatBank's founding shareholders. Several proceedings have been brought against them since the bank was nationalised. Their legal statuses differ and are set out separately below.

English High Court and Court of Appeal: civil liability

Status: civil liability; not a criminal conviction. PrivatBank was Ukraine's largest bank. The National Bank of Ukraine declared it insolvent on 18 December 2016, and it was nationalised over the following days. In December 2017 the bank sued Kolomoisky, Bogolyubov and six companies in London. The Court of Appeal had already confirmed the English courts' jurisdiction in 2019 ([2019] EWCA Civ 1708).

The trial lasted 43 days. On 30 July 2025 Trower J gave judgment ([2025] EWHC 1987 (Ch)). He held the two men liable under Article 1166 of the Ukrainian Civil Code for US$1,911,877,385, less the agreed value of assets transferred to the bank (US$149,919,593). That left a principal sum of US$1,761,957,792. The Court of Appeal summarised the judge's findings as follows:

"The Appellants had procured the Misappropriation between November 2013 and September 2014, using their control of the Bank and a network of shell companies. They did so by instructing their associates at the Bank to effect 270 fraudulent drawdowns ... The Appellants were the ultimate beneficiaries of this fraudulent scheme: the funds extracted from the Bank ended up funding the Appellants' businesses through a process of money-laundering so complex it was impossible to trace."

On 22 May 2026 the Court of Appeal (Arnold LJ, Nugee LJ and Sir Launcelot Henderson) dismissed the two men's appeal ([2026] EWCA Civ 658). The appeal was limited to their "Repayment Defence", which argued that the loans had been repaid. The Court of Appeal noted that "most of his findings are unchallenged". Counsel for the bank stated that the judgment upheld was "for over US$ 3 billion".

Editor's note: these are findings of a civil court on the balance of probabilities, made under Ukrainian tort law. They are not a criminal conviction. The sources used here do not explain the difference between the principal of about US$1.76 billion and counsel's figure of over US$3 billion. This page has not seen the consequentials judgment ([2025] EWHC 2909 (Ch)) and does not rely on it.

United States: civil forfeiture complaints and visa designation

Status: allegation. On 6 August 2020 the US Department of Justice filed two civil forfeiture complaints in the Southern District of Florida. They concerned office buildings in Louisville and Dallas. According to the DoJ, the complaints "allege that Ihor Kolomoisky and Gennadiy Boholiubov ... embezzled and defrauded the bank of billions of dollars". They also allege that associates of the two men, Mordechai Korf and Uriel Laber, "created a web of entities, usually under some variation of the name 'Optima,' to further launder the misappropriated funds". The DoJ added: "A complaint is merely an allegation and all defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty beyond a reasonable doubt in a court of law."

Status: government designation (executive finding, not a court ruling). On 5 March 2021 Secretary of State Antony Blinken designated Kolomoisky under Section 7031(c). He stated that, as governor in 2014–15, Kolomoisky "was involved in corrupt acts that undermined rule of law ... including using his political influence and official power for his personal benefit". The designation bars Kolomoisky and members of his immediate family from entering the United States. Kolomoisky has denied wrongdoing.

Editor's note: Chabad.org lists a "Motti Korf" among the philanthropists at the 2012 opening. The DoJ complaints name a "Mordechai Korf" as an associate. This page records both facts but has not found a source that discusses the connection or gives Korf's response. The complaints are allegations.

Ukraine: criminal proceedings

Status: allegation (charged; no conviction found as of October 2026). On 2 September 2023 a Kyiv court ordered Kolomoisky held in pre-trial detention on suspicion of fraud and money laundering. The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that "during 2013-2020, Ihor Kolomoisky legalised more than half a billion hryvnias [$14m] by withdrawing them abroad and using the infrastructure of banks under [his] control". His lawyers said he would appeal. He was later charged with ordering the attempted murder of the lawyer Serhiy Karpenko in 2003; notice of suspicion was served on 8 May 2024. On 15 October 2026 a Kyiv district court extended his detention in that case to 13 December 2026.

Kolomoisky and Zelensky

According to the BBC, Kolomoisky's TV channel "gave Mr Zelensky his break with the comedy series Servant of the People, before he backed the former actor's bid for the presidency". Zelensky "has repeatedly denied that Mr Kolomoisky has had any influence over the government". After the 2023 detention Zelensky said there would be no return to "business as usual for those who plundered Ukraine and put themselves above the law".

The chief rabbi dispute

Several men have claimed the title "chief rabbi of Ukraine". Since 2005 the main rivals have been Yaakov Dov Bleich, a Karlin-Stolin Hasid, and Moshe Reuven Azman, a Chabad rabbi who leads Kyiv's Brodsky Synagogue.

• In 2005 JTA reported "One country, three chief rabbis" after Azman's election. Critics, "who include most of the country's rabbis and dozens of secular activists", said the vote "was primarily intended to increase media magnate Vadim Rabinovich's influence over President Viktor Yuschenko".
• According to the Forward, Bleich "was widely recognized as chief rabbi of both Kyiv and Ukraine in 1992 ... although he was never properly elected". In 2003 Chabad appointed its own chief rabbi, Azrael Haikin. Azman's 2005 election "was deemed illegitimate by a majority of the local Chabad rabbis, who represented the Federation of Jewish Communities". Viktor Yushchenko named Azman his liaison to the Jewish community. The Forward concluded in 2022 that Azman "has solidified his standing as the country's chief rabbi".
• In 2021 JTA described Bleich as "the only one recognized as such by the World Jewish Congress and the European Jewish Congress". It said Azman's claim was "disputed, including by the World Jewish Congress".

Azman, Giuliani and the Trump circle

JTA reported (critical) that in May 2019 Azman met Rudy Giuliani in Paris. The meeting "seemed to have been arranged by Lev Parnas and Igor Fruman", who sat on the board of the American Friends of Anatevka. Azman presented Giuliani with a key declaring him "honorary mayor of Anatevka". After the storming of the US Capitol on 6 January 2021, Azman posted that the "Maidan has begun in the USA ... The people protesting against mass election fraud broke into the capital. God bless America." Bleich responded: "Rabbi Azman is voicing his own opinion ... I don't think Ukrainian Jewry has or should have a stand on U.S. politics." The Forward noted that Parnas and Fruman "were indicted in 2019 on campaign finance charges". See also Chabad and Trump.

Wars of 2014 and 2022

2014: refugees from the Donbas

In 2014 JTA reported that one of the Menorah Centre's two hotels was serving "as temporary housing for some of the hundreds of refugees displaced by fighting". The centre also hosted a mass wedding for 19 Jewish couples. Azman founded Anatevka, a village near Kyiv, for Jewish families displaced from the east.

2022: evacuations

After Russia invaded in February 2022, Ynet reported that Anatevka was sheltering Jews from Kyiv. Azman's son said his father planned to stay "until the last Jew leaves". In October 2022 Azman told JTA that his synagogue had "spent upwards of $2 million evacuating Jews from all over the country". JTA described him as "one of multiple men to claim the title of Ukraine's chief rabbi".

Chabad.org reported in March 2022 that Dnipro, "led by the city's chief rabbi and Chabad-Lubavitch emissary Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki", had become "the center of refugee and aid activities for the Jews of eastern Ukraine". The Menorah Centre served as a hub from which people joined "a Chabad-organized convoy, bus or train carriage" towards Lviv and the Polish and Moldovan borders. An emissary said the work was coordinated with "The Federation of Jewish Communities (FJC), the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), the Jewish Agency".

Editor's note: most accounts of the evacuations come from Chabad's own media or from the rabbis involved. This page has not found independent figures for the number of people Chabad evacuated.

Zelensky and Chabad

On 14 September 2023 Zelensky met 32 Chabad emissaries and rabbis. JTA called it the president's "first official meeting with Jewish leaders since Russia invaded". The meeting was organised by the Chabad-affiliated Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, led by Rabbi Meir Stambler. Zelensky presented medals to 15 Jewish soldiers and renewed his appeal for Israeli military aid. He told the rabbis: "Because of you, the glorious Jewish community continues to flourish here." JTA added that some Chabad rabbis had helped their families leave early in the war, but "all have returned".

Editor's note: apart from this meeting and the Kolomoisky connection above, this page has found no sourced evidence of a special relationship between Zelensky and Chabad. Bleich, not a Chabad rabbi, also reported a call from Zelensky in 2022.

Further reading

• Galina Zelenina, "Serving the Jews, Serving the Empire", in New Trends in the Study of Haredi Culture and Society (Purdue University Press, 2024), pp. 29–58. doi:10.2307/jj.22177844.6. Not consulted: the text was not accessible, and nothing on this page relies on it.

See also

• Chabad Lubavitch of Ukraine
• Moshe Reuven Azman
• Russian oligarchs and Chabad
• Berel Lazar and the Kremlin
• Chabad and Trump
• Chabad and fraud