First Jewish prime minister of Ukraine?
Like many Ukrainian mayors, Vlodymir Groysman used to visit his local synagogue on Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah.
But unlike most of them, Groysman, the former mayor of Vinnytsia, did not visit the synagogue as a political gesture. He was going in his private capacity as a member of the Jewish community in his central Ukraine city.
Last year, his reputation as an honest and effective administrator earned Groysman the title of speaker of the Ukrainian parliament. This week, he emerged as President Petro Poroshenko’s pick for prime minister, which would make him the first openly Jewish individual to hold the country’s second- highest post and, at 38, the youngest person to have the job.
Josef Zissels, a leader of the Vaad organization of Ukrainian Jews, pointed to Groysman’s ascent in politics as proof of the absence of serious anti-Semitism in Ukraine, a country with 360,000 Jews. Russia regularly points to the country’s alleged anti-Semitism to justify its conflict with Ukraine, including the annexation of Crimea.
“Clearly, Groysman’s nomination shows the opposite,” Zissels said.
Groysman’s nomination on April 11 followed the resignation a day earlier of Arseniy Yatsenyuk over his seeming failure to fight corruption and implement economic restructuring measures. Members of the coalition headed by Poroshenko were set to vote April 14 on the nomination. — jta
Jerusalem Post names new editor
The Jerusalem Post has named Yaakov Katz, a senior policy adviser to Israel’s right-wing education minister Naftali Bennett, as its editor-in-chief.
Katz, 36, will replace veteran journalist Steve Linde, who has held the post since 2011 and has been at the newspaper for 20 years. The previous editor-in-chief, David Horovitz, left the publication in 2011 and founded Times of Israel.
Katz will take over the job starting next month, according to a Post announcement, which also quoted Linde as saying he “plans to continue working with his Post colleagues in the future.”
Katz served as the newspaper’s military correspondent and defense analyst from 2005 to 2013. He is a faculty member at Harvard’s extension school and was a fellow at Harvard’s Neiman Foundation for Journalism.
“It is an honor and privilege to replace the amazing @stevelinde and head @Jerusalem_Post, a pillar of journalistic integrity & distinction,” Katz tweeted on April 12. — jta & j. staff