The rash of antisemitic attacks sweeping the nation had nothing in common with what had just happened. Two foreign rabbis, one Israeli and the other American, stood in the street waiting to be interviewed by local police. It was the flat they were sharing into which someone had just thrown three Molotov cocktails. As the fire department was finishing off the last of the flames, Eli, the Israeli rabbi, broke the silence.
“This is not a random incident,” he said to his American colleague, a well-known rabbi from Miami named Eitan Groh.
“How do you know that? These attacks are like a nightly occurrence these days.”
“You think thugs randomly targeted the flat of an American rabbi and an Israeli rabbi employed by Israeli intelligence?”
“It’s possible,” Eitan said.
“Trust me, this is not a coincidence. You will see. The police aren’t going to find any fingerprints. There aren’t going to be any skid marks from a car skidding away. No witnesses will have seen anything useful. Whoever did this knew well what they were doing, and what message they were sending,” Eli explained.
“What message?”
“A message to us. That we better find what we need and get out of this country before it’s too late.”
“Well, it’s either that or just another random attack on the local Jewish community,” Eitan responded.
The two men stood quietly for several minutes before a local policeman approached them.
“Well, gentlemen. It seems someone doesn’t like you very much,” he said with a healthy hint of sarcasm.
“Really, there is someone who doesn’t like rabbis in Ukraine?” Eli answered.
“Keep your comedy to yourself,” the policeman said changing his jovial tone to anger.
“We will investigate further, but so far, we see no clues here. I hope you have somewhere else to stay tonight,” the policeman said unempathetically.
Eli glanced at Eitan. Eitan wasn’t convinced that this was anything more than a random antisemitic incident, but he was certain that the police were not at all interested in their plight.
“You don’t have to say it, Eli. I know, our time here is coming to an end,” Eitan said.
“It’s not just us. Once again, the presence of our people is no longer tolerable in this land.”