New work highlights Russian Jewish soldiers

An encyclopedia that pays tribute to Jews’ contribution to the Russian military was published in Ukraine.The Jewish Military Encyclopedia contains 1,800 biographies and 1,200 photos of Jewish soldiers and officers in the Czarist and Soviet Armies as well as the armies of some countries of the former Soviet Union. One thousand copies were printed of the volume, which was collected and edited by Ilya Levitas, long-time president of the Jewish Council of Ukraine, a group that promotes Jewish culture in the former Soviet republic. The theme of Jewish contribution to the military “is alive today because of some people who want to rewrite history and misrepresent facts about Jewish participation in World War II and its Jewish heroes,” Levitas told JTA.