How for the first time in the world a fallen IDF soldier was commemorated in the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv

This is the first case in world practice where a street in a city outside of Israel has been named after a fallen IDF soldier.

A street in Kharkiv has been named after Sergeant of the Israel Defense Forces Alexei (Asher) Neikov, who saved dozens of children from death during a terrorist attack on a school bus. This was reported by Israeli journalist Shimon Briman in his article on the website “Ukrainian-Jewish Encounter”.

In September 1996, 17-year-old Alexei independently repatriated to Israel from Kharkiv. He was preparing to study at the Technion — dreaming of the department of astronautics and aerodynamics. But he decided to first serve in the IDF — the Israel Defense Forces.

On October 29, 1998, terrorists directed a car filled with explosives at two school buses carrying Jewish children near the settlement of Kfar Darom.

Israeli soldiers guarding the buses managed to turn their jeep across the road — and took the hit themselves. The children were unharmed, two soldiers were injured. One died. It was Sergeant Alexei (Asher) Neikov.

Sergeant of the Israel Defense Forces Alexei (Asher) Neikov — a hero, writes Shimon Briman, who saved dozens of children from death during an attack by Arab terrorists on a school bus, received the highest posthumous honor in his hometown: a street in Kharkiv — the second-largest metropolis in Ukraine, is named after him. This is the first case in world practice where a street in a city outside of Israel has been named after a fallen IDF soldier.

Kharkiv is located just 30 kilometers from the border with Russia and is subjected to daily rocket attacks from the aggressor country. The city, which had a population of one and a half million people before the full-scale Russian invasion in February 2022, has been defending itself not only on the front lines but also in the sphere of culture and ideology for the third year.

The toponymic commission of the Kharkiv municipal council recently decided to rename 367 street names, alleys, and squares associated with Russia and the USSR. Kharkiv Mayor Igor Terekhov signed this decision, and it came into effect on May 1, 2024.

Among the new street names are the names of 35 fallen defenders of Ukraine who were born in Kharkiv or defended the city; 13 of them were awarded the highest title of Hero of Ukraine.

In addition to the fallen Ukrainian soldiers and officers, the name of one Kharkiv native — Alexei Neikov, an IDF sergeant who died defending Israeli children in 1998, is now eternally glorified on the streets of Kharkiv.

Against the backdrop of anti-Semitic demonstrations and anti-Israel unrest on university campuses in the USA and cities in Western Europe, such a clearly pro-Israel step by the municipal council and mayor of Ukrainian Kharkiv deserves special respect.

As part of the implementation of the Law of Ukraine “On the Condemnation and Prohibition of Propaganda of Russian Imperial Policy and Decolonization of Toponymy,” 510 street names and other toponymic objects have been renamed in Kharkiv since the beginning of Russia’s aggression against Ukraine.

History laughed at Putin: the president of Russia attacked Ukraine using the beacon ideas of “protecting and spreading the Russian World,” but in reality, Putin led to a colossal reduction in the zone of influence of Russian culture and the Russian language.

In Kharkiv, which was previously considered the most Russian-speaking city in Ukraine, almost all names associated with Russia and the USSR, with Russian and Soviet culture, were erased from the map from 2022 to 2024. More and more residents of Kharkiv are demonstratively switching to the Ukrainian language, unwilling to speak the language of the occupiers.

“The author of these lines, writes Shimon Briman, has been following these renamings for almost two years. As a historian and author of the article “Kharkiv” in the Jewish Encyclopedia, in the summer of 2022, I prepared a list of 25 outstanding Jews in the history of Kharkiv at the request of the Jewish community. This list was submitted to the municipal council as options for renaming streets. One of the main names on this list was Alexei Neikov.

The name Neikov was supported by municipal council deputy Irina Goncharova-Bagalei and the chief rabbi of Kharkiv, Moishe Moskovich. Letters in support of this initiative were written by the Israeli ambassador to Ukraine, Michael Brodsky, public organizations “Israeli Friends of Ukraine” and “Orthodox Union Israel.”

Today I can proudly say that three personalities from this list of outstanding Jews have become streets in Kharkiv, where my childhood and youth passed.”

In addition to the name of Alexei Neikov, the names of architects Viktor Estrovich and Alexander Ginzburg, whose masterpieces still adorn Kharkiv, were also approved in the renaming list, despite being endangered by Russian missile and Iranian “shahid” attacks.

Viktor Estrovich was shot by the Nazis in December 1941 in Drobitsky Yar. Putin’s occupiers continued the tragedy of the Holocaust at this place in March 2022, shelling the memorial complex in Drobitsky Yar, where almost 15,000 Jews of Kharkiv, killed by Nazi occupiers, lie in two mass graves.

The outstanding urban planner Alexander Ginzburg led the Jewish community of the city after the liberation of Kharkiv from the Nazis in 1944-1945, under pressure from Stalin’s punitive organs.

The irony of today, writes Shimon Briman, is that some Jewish or quasi-Jewish names were removed from the map of Kharkiv in the spring of 2024 during the liquidation of Russia’s legacy. Thus, four (!) Birobidzhan passages, named after the “Jewish Autonomous Region” of the Russian Federation, were renamed.

The street of Isaac Dunaevsky, a Soviet composer-Jew of the 1920s-1950s, was also renamed. Kharkiv did not forgive Dunaevsky, who studied and began his career in this city, for such pro-communist songs as “My Moscow,” “My Wide Native Land,” “Oh, It’s Good to Live in the Soviet Country,” “Song of Stalin,” “Song of Kakhovka.” Especially in wartime, when this Moscow tries to expand its possessions by barbaric methods at the expense of a neighboring country, and Kakhovka was captured by Russian occupiers who blew up the Kakhovka Reservoir in southern Ukraine.

But, writes Shimon Briman, let’s return to the fate of the Kharkiv Jewish youth Alexei Neikov, which connected Ukraine and Israel.

He studied for several years at Jewish school No. 170 under the leadership of Grigory Shoikhet, then graduated from the senior classes of the religious-Zionist lyceum “Sha’alvim,” which at that time had the highest percentage of graduates repatriating to Israel in the world.

Now, after the renaming of the former Gastello Street, Jewish secondary school No. 170, which has a room in memory of Alexei Neikov, will be located on a street named after its student Neikov.

In September 1996, 17-year-old Alexei arrived in Israel without his parents. He was preparing to study at the Technion — dreaming of the field of astronautics and aerodynamics. But he decided to first serve in the IDF — the Israel Defense Forces.

On the tragic day of October 29 (9th of Heshvan) 1998, at 07:30 am, Arab terrorists directed a car filled with explosives at two school buses carrying 48 Jewish children near the settlement of Kfar Darom in Gush Katif.

Israeli soldiers guarding the buses managed to turn their jeep across the road — and took the hit themselves. The children were unharmed, two soldiers were injured. One died. It was Sergeant Alexei (Asher) Neikov — forever a 19-year-old new repatriate from Kharkiv.

The evening before, Asher called home.

“Tomorrow I have my first combat mission: to escort a bus with children. I’ll be in the first jeep.” “Why necessarily in the first?” — his mother worried. “Because in the first. I decided so.”

Thanks to his feat, in the children he saved, who have grown over 25 years, more than 120 of their own children — young Israelis — were born. So, Asher Neikov preserved lives for them too. Some of them named their children in his honor with the names Asher and Ashrat. They still maintain contact with the soldier’s parents — Klara and Semen Neikov, who live in Haifa.

In memory of Neikov, a Torah scroll was written for the synagogue in the Jewish settlement of Kfar Darom, which was destroyed in 2005 by order of Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon during the so-called “disengagement from the Gaza Strip.” The Jewish settlements destroyed then later became bases for Hamas terrorists, against whom Israel is now waging a heavy war.

The children he saved and who grew up created a touching video clip “Children of the Ninth of Heshvan” in memory of Sergeant Neikov in 2014.

In 2022, Neikov’s parents were presented with a portrait of Alexei, assembled from hundreds of photographs of the saved children, their families, and the children born to them.

“Naming a street after our student Asher Neikov is a huge achievement! At first, I couldn’t believe that in the conditions of war, Kharkiv remembers a person born in the city who became a true hero of Israel. Therefore, I perceive this decision of the municipal council and Mayor Igor Terekhov as a historic event and as an important stage in the context of Ukraine-Israel relations,”

– Israeli rabbi and lawyer Shlomo Asraf, who was the founder and spiritual leader of the “Orthodox Union” Center in Kharkiv and the religious-Zionist lyceum “Sha’alvim” from 1993-2009, told me, writes Shimon Briman.

Kharkiv resident Irina Sherstobitova, Asher Neikov’s English teacher at the “Sha’alvim” lyceum, noted:

“Every year we tell our students about his feat. The lyceum has a memorial board about Asher’s amazing act. A bright and righteous guy, polite and erudite, he spoke French, English, Russian, Ukrainian, and Hebrew, brave and physically fit, with an incredibly attractive smile. We must believe in the bright future that such brave guys as he give us.”

Klara Neikov, Alexei’s mother, received the news from Kharkiv with great gratitude.

“I just have no words. Thank you very much to everyone who supported this initiative. My husband and I would be happy to visit Kharkiv and unveil a memorial plaque on the street named after our son. If only the situation around the city improved, and if the war ended,” — Klara Neikov told me, writes Shimon Briman, in a phone conversation.

In the Israeli organization “Yad Le-Banim”, which coordinates work on commemorating fallen IDF soldiers, in response to my request, writes Shimon Briman, they replied that they are not aware of other cases of naming streets in cities outside of Israel after fallen Israeli soldiers, and that, likely, the decision of the Kharkiv authorities is the first example of this kind in the world.

The Kharkiv street in honor of Alexei Neikov will become another bridge of friendship and interpersonal connections, linking Ukraine and Israel — two countries fighting for the freedom, independence, and physical survival of their citizens.

This bridge works both ways. In the same days when the Kharkiv municipal authorities were deciding on renaming streets, the Kharkiv National University named after Vasyl Karazin was selecting the first laureate of the Mark Azbel Prize in theoretical physics.

We wrote about this — “The Prize of Israeli Scientist and Dissident Mark Azbel Will Help His Alma Mater in Kharkiv, Ukraine”.

This prize was established in the spring of 2024 in memory of the outstanding physicist — Professor of Tel Aviv University Mark Azbel, who began his scientific career at Kharkiv University.

Irina Kolodna from the Israeli city of Ramat HaSharon, the widow of the scientist, allocated $25,000 for five years to support young researchers at Kharkiv National University. The first laureate of the Azbel Prize became 39-year-old Dr. Zakhar Maizelis, a professor of the Department of Theoretical Physics; his award ceremony will take place on May 16, 2024, in honor of Israel’s Independence Day.

In all this, I, writes Shimon Briman, see great symbolism — and timeliness. Precisely now, when Ukraine and Israel are repelling attacks from the global axis of evil.

It was from Kharkiv that the BILU ensemble (1882) came — Jewish students of the University who were the first in the world to begin reviving the Land of Israel with their labor. It was the Kharkiv Zionist Conference (1903) that in an ultimatum demanded the creation of a Jewish state only on the ancient Land of Israel, rejecting the “Uganda Plan.”

It was the Kharkiv industrial giant “Turboatom” that refused in 1997 — at the request of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Minister of Industry and Trade Natan Sharansky — to supply turbines for a nuclear reactor in Iran, which delayed the Iranian nuclear program for many years.

It was in Kharkiv in 2024 that for the first time in the world a street was named after a soldier of the Israel Defense Forces.

And it is precisely to Kharkiv National University that an award named after an Israeli scientist-physicist — a student of Academicians Landau and Lifshitz — comes from Israel.