Local Residents Clash With Jews While Trying to Bar Them From Uman

On Friday, August 28, local residents of Uman tried to bar chassidim from entering the city for the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the tziyon of Rav Nachman of Breslov, zy”a, KAN News reported. The chassidim were amongst the dozens of Jews who had entered Ukraine in the hours before a ban on foreign nationals entering the country goes into effect.

In videos which were posted on social media, angry crowds of locals are seen pushing and shoving the chassidim as they confronted them before dawn on Friday morning.

Later, as the chassidim tried to enter some of the apartments they had rented in a half-completed residential building, locals are heard yelling at the Jews in Ukrainian that they are acting dangerously and that they should get out of the town.

The building was under construction, but its completion has been stalled as a result of dispute between the owners and the construction workers. A man who claimed to be the owner of the building is seen pleading with police, in English, to allow the visitors to enter the building, telling the police many times, “It’s my house.”

The local police instructed the Jews that they may stay in Uman, but not in the uncompleted building itself.

Israeli media quoted Uman Mayor Oleksandr Tsebriy as saying, “People are afraid for their lives, we don’t want visitors here this year.”