The book by Moshe Asman “Between Miracle and Reality” became a personal testimony of faith, war, and Jewish Ukraine

On April 28, 2026, the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Asman announced his autobiographical book in Ukrainian “Between Miracle and Reality” (original Ukr. – “Між дивом та реальністю“). In the publication, he emphasized that he presented the book at the celebration of his anniversary, and the text itself became for him not just a collection of memories, but an attempt to honestly tell about the path, faith, family, service, and those events that shaped his view of life.

Autobiography as a personal document of time

The book “Between Miracle and Reality” holds special significance for Moshe Asman. He himself wrote that this is not his first book, but this work became the most personal.

In it, he talks about his life journey, random encounters with kind people, difficult trials, and those “real miracles” that, according to him, he saw at different stages of life. This format is important not only as the biography of a religious leader. For the Jewish audience in Israel, it is also a view of the fate of Ukrainian Jewry through a person who found himself inside great historical changes.

Moshe Reuven Asman is known as the Chief Rabbi of Kyiv and Ukraine, as well as a religious and public figure associated with the Brodsky Synagogue in Kyiv and projects to help the Jews of Ukraine, including initiatives for refugees and the settlement of Anatevka. These facts are also mentioned in open descriptions of his activities.

Why the title sounds particularly strong

“Between Miracle and Reality” is not just a beautiful formula. In the Ukrainian and Jewish context of recent years, it sounds almost literally.

Reality is war, destroyed cities, evacuations, anxieties, losses, constant tension, and the need to help people here and now. Miracle is surviving families, saved communities, unexpected meetings, support that comes at the most difficult moment, and faith that a person does not lose even when there is too much pain around.

In this sense, Asman’s book can be read not only as a personal story. It becomes part of a broader memory of how Jewish life in Ukraine went through the Soviet past, emigration, the return of religious tradition, Ukraine’s independence, and the current war.

What Moshe Asman wanted to say with this book

In his message, Asman wrote that he created the book not just as memories. For him, it was an attempt to share what shaped his faith in the Almighty, family, service, and understanding of life.

This is an important formulation. It does not attempt to present the biography as a ceremonial report. On the contrary, it is about the internal route of a person who connects personal trials with religious experience and social responsibility.

According to Asman, the book contains not only the past but also plans for the future: where he wants to go next and what good deeds he intends to do. This makes the autobiography not a final point, but a continuation of the journey.

For the Israeli reader, there is a separate meaning here. Ukraine often appears in the news through the front, diplomacy, arms supplies, Russian attacks, and the fate of Jews in the war zone. But behind these topics are specific people, communities, rabbis, volunteers, families, children, the elderly, evacuees, and those who stayed in place.

The connection between Ukraine, Israel, and the Jewish people

The story of Moshe Asman touches on several spaces at once: Ukraine, Israel, post-Soviet Jewry, and modern Jewish memory. He was born in the Soviet space, then was connected with Israel, and later became one of the notable figures of Jewish life in Ukraine.

That is why his autobiography may be of interest not only to those who personally know the author. It is important for those who are trying to understand how the Jewish communities of Ukraine lived before the great war, how they met the Russian invasion, and why the topic of Ukraine today cannot be something distant for Israel.

NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency considers such stories precisely in this context: not as a separate religious chronicle, but as part of a larger conversation about the connection between Israel, Ukraine, and the Jewish people.

Why this book is important now

The autobiography of a rabbi, written during the war and after decades of public service, inevitably becomes more than a personal text.

It captures the experience of a generation that went through the late USSR, repatriation, the return to tradition, the development of Jewish institutions in independent Ukraine, and the new catastrophe of the Russian war. In this biography, the personal constantly intersects with the historical.

It is especially important that Asman talks about motivation and faith. He wrote directly that he hopes: for someone, this book will become a source of strength, faith in oneself, and, most importantly, faith in the Almighty.

Not just memories, but a message

In this text, there is no desire to sum up, but an attempt to pass on the experience further. For a religious leader, this is natural: a personal story turns into a lesson, and a lesson into responsibility before people.

The book “Between Miracle and Reality” was already mentioned in connection with Moshe Asman’s anniversary evening. In one of the materials, it was noted that at this evening, guests were given an autobiographical book with a personal blessing and the author’s signature.

For Israel, such stories are especially sensitive. Israeli society well understands the value of memory, the power of personal testimony, and the significance of religious tradition at a moment of national trial.

That is why Asman’s publication is not just news about a new book. It is a reminder: Jewish history in Ukraine continues not only in archives, museums, and tragic dates. It continues in living people, in communities, in help, in prayer, in the choice to stay close to those who are having a hard time.