Approaching 30 years after the Ukraine left the Soviet Union and gained its independence, scores of Jewish people are reported to be turning to Jesus as they reject decades of communist teaching when they were raised as atheists and forced to deny the existence of God.
Over the last several years missionaries have recorded increasing numbers of Jewish people coming to faith and many of these have been from Ukraine or from a Russian-speaking background. Misha, a Christian Witness to Israel missionary (and Russian-speaking Ukrainian Jewish person himself), highlighted the story of Kayla, a Jewish woman who approached him when she saw he was reading an article from a Christian magazine. Misha took time to share his faith and after they had met many times for Bible study, Kayla gave her life to Jesus.
Since 1991, when Ukraine officially became an independent state, some 1million Ukrainians and other Russian-speaking Jewish people have emigrated to Israel, fleeing the antisemitism which is still rife throughout the region. However, many of these new immigrants struggle to adjust to life in Israel as they can’t speak Hebrew, finding work is difficult and the cost of living is high.
Joseph Steinberg said: ‘Many of the Jewish people we are seeing respond positively to Jesus are from the older generation. They were raised to deny the existence of God and yet knew they were a people who existed because of God and so they are naturally inquisitive about spiritual matters.’
Steinberg continued: ‘The older generations have either lived through the horrors of the Holocaust or spent decades living under oppressive communist rule which has created a spiritual vacuum. Now many are open and receptive to hearing about the true and living God who offers eternal life through the Messiah Jesus.’
Igor and Galina Barbanel, both native Jewish Ukrainians, are missionaries in Odessa, reaching out to Jewish people still living in Ukraine. Today, Odessa has a thriving Jewish population of around 45,000, but during the Holocaust 100,000 Jewish people were murdered during the first month of the Nazi occupation in 1941 alone. For over 20 years Igor and Galina have devoted their lives to sharing their faith with Jewish people living in Odessa and in other cities of the former Soviet Union.
Steinberg concluded: ‘We are totally committed to bringing the gospel to this post-Soviet community, who have suffered so much but yet are still hungry to hear God’s message of salvation in Jesus.’
