As this article is penned, Russian President Vladimir Putin has announced he will partially pull back Russian troops from Ukraine. But what does that mean? Is the conflict over?

These questions intimately concern the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. The most fascinating analyses are to be found at the stiblech, the Hasidic synagogues, where the congregations have been following with great interest all that’s happening on the border of Ukraine. 

The connections between Ukraine and the Israeli ultra-Orthodox community go back to 1740, when Rabbi Israel, who became known as the Baal Shem Tov, was born in the town of Okup in Ukraine. He founded the Hasidic movement from the forests of the Carpathian mountains. Within a short time, it spread to all of eastern Europe and beyond. 

Rabbi Israel enraptured all of Ukrainian Jewry. His path, based on the teaching that every Jew is beloved by the Almighty, was continued by Hasidic leaders from the cities of Ukraine: his successor Rabbi Dov of Mezeritch, the first grand rabbi of Chabad Rabbi Shneur Zalman of Liady, Rabbi Levi Yitzhak of Berditchev, or Rabbi Nahman of Bratslav. Hundreds more great rabbis lived throughout Ukraine, and after their deaths, they were buried in these towns, and their graves became sites of pilgrimage.