The video does not feature Jewish people trying to “build a new Israel” in Ukraine

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In early October, a Georgian-speaking Facebook account published a video allegedly showing Jewish people walking with baggage at a location resembling a train station, accompanied by a caption suggesting that they were moving to Ukraine to “build a new Israel” there.

Screenshot 2024 10 24 162950 The video does not feature Jewish people trying to “build a new Israel” in Ukraine

The video circulating online is being disseminated with a false caption to claim that Jewish people are moving to Ukraine to “establish a new Israel”.  In reality, footage is filmed in Uman – an important site for Hasidic pilgrims.  Similar shots from the same location shows that Jewish people gather in Uman annually to celebrate Jewish New year.

  • Geolocation: The building shown in the video is located in Uman

Myth Detector was unable to determine the exact date the video was recorded, but the earliest available version was published on YouTube on October 2 this year. We managed to identify the building in the video, near which turned out to be the railway station in Uman.

Screenshot 2024 10 24 162955 The video does not feature Jewish people trying to “build a new Israel” in Ukraine
Source: Google maps.
კადრი გავრცელებული ვიდეოდან
Shot from the disseminated video

Uman is a central city in Ukraine, 215 kilometers south of the capital Kyiv, population is around 80,000 people. Hasidic Jews arrive here every year to mark Rosh Hashanah. For three days, they celebrate. The grave of Rebbe Nachman of Breslov is buried here. 

30,000 pilgrims have already arrived in Uman this year, Iryna Rybnytska from the Historical Cultural Center of Uman told AFP.

  • Hasidic pilgrims’ annual celebration of the Jewish New Year

The video spread in social media shows traditional Jewish dress walking carrying suitcases. 

Myth Detector checked the video by InVid (fake news debunker) and found other similar shots from the other videos which are filmed by international news agencies (such as Agence France-Presse (AFP), The Associated Press (AP)) during those days where the video was shared.

Beside that, the similar photos brought us to some articles with similar photos where Hasidic pilgrims celebrate the Jewish New Year. They arrived in the Ukrainian city of Uman to celebrate the Rosh Hashanah celebration which begins October 2 and lasts until October 4. This is an annual celebration: every year, thousands of ultra-Orthodox Hasidic Jews arrive in Uman, where the grave of Breslow Hasidic movement founder, Rebbe Nachman is located. Even though Russian aggression is going on, Jews do not stop celebrating this day in Uman. In 2023, the city was hit by Russian missiles, civilians were killed

In August, 2024 the U.S. Department of State recommended that U.S. citizens do not travel to Uman for the annual pilgrimage to the grave of Rebbe Nachman during Rosh Hashanah. 

Ukraine closed the air space in 2022 when Russia’s full-scale invasion started, forcing visitors to travel overland via other European countries in order to reach Uman. The United Jewish Community of Ukraine said that more than 14,000 pilgrims were unable to travel to Uman, partly as a result of Iran’s attack on Israel. 

Jewish residents make up 0.2% of the total population in Ukraine. According to the World Jewish Congress, in 2023, Ukraine was home to 45,000 Jews, making it the fourth-largest Jewish community in Europe and the 11th-largest in the world. Jewish communities have existed in the territory of Ukraine since the late 9th century.

The same footage, accompanied by similar antisemitic captions, was shared across different platforms (1, 2, 3). The authors of the video demonstrate anti-Semitism and sow hatred on national grounds. Similar news was spread last year as well, at that time it was interpreted that Jews were moving to Ukraine to create “Heavenly Jerusalem”, which is a conspiracy theory and was denied by the official Kiev as well.

About the Source: 

Irakli Zakareishvili is a lawyer who openly voices his pro-Russian sentiments and Soviet nostalgia on social media. Zakareishvili has disseminated a number of false and manipulative claims.


Serine Gabrielyan

Myth Detector Laboratory


The article has been written in the framework of Facebook’s fact-checking program. You can read more about the restrictions that Facebook may impose based on this article via this link. You can find information about appealing or editing our assessment via this link.

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Country: Israel, Ukraine
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