Israel and Ukraine are holding talks and discussing new pilgrimage routes, not just Uman

Announcement: On August 25, Ukraine and Israel publicly discussed not only the next pilgrimage to Uman but also a broader system of religious routes between the two countries for the first time. Behind one diplomatic formulation are tens of thousands of Israelis, closed Ukrainian skies, warnings of Russian strikes, several holy sites, and two separate meetings with Israeli ministers.

Author: Pavel Shveiko

On August 25, 2026, the head of the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience, Victor Yelensky, held online negotiations with Yariv Levin — Deputy Prime Minister of Israel, Minister of Justice, and simultaneously Minister of Religious Services. They talked about Uman, but this time the conversation did not end with the grave of Rabbi Nachman.

The official statement mentioned Baal Shem Tov, Shneur Zalman, and the pilgrimage of Ukrainian Christians to the Holy Land.

On the same day, Yelensky separately spoke with the Israeli Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar. This already changes the scale of the story: two Israeli ministers in one day discuss religious trips, Uman, and further cooperation with one Ukrainian department. And all this happens less than three weeks before Rosh Hashanah 5787, when Ukraine expects more than 30,000 pilgrims from Israel alone.

I checked the sequence of events from the end of May to August 25. The further back you look, the less effective a simple retelling of “Israel and Ukraine decided to develop pilgrimage” becomes. There are no decisions on new routes yet. However, a much more interesting structure already exists: the state warns people that it cannot guarantee them complete safety, while simultaneously police, border guards, diplomats, and local authorities prepare a system designed for tens of thousands of visitors.

That is why for NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency, the entire chain around it is important, not just one diplomatic meeting.

What Levin and Yelensky actually decided — and what they have not yet decided

Victor Yelensky requires a little explanation for the Israeli reader. He is not the Ukrainian equivalent of the Minister of Religions. Yelensky heads the DESS — the State Service of Ukraine for Ethnopolitics and Freedom of Conscience. The department deals with the state’s relations with religious organizations, issues of freedom of religion, and ethnopolitics. There is no exact Israeli counterpart to this structure.

Yariv Levin, on the other hand, has a very specific role in this conversation. In Israel, he is usually perceived primarily as the Minister of Justice and one of Benjamin Netanyahu’s main political allies. But now Levin simultaneously holds the position of Minister of Religious Services. Therefore, the conversation about pilgrims was not outside his authority.

The meeting was also attended by the Director General of the Israeli Ministry of Religious Services, Yehuda Avidan, and Nachman Joseph Stenberg, whom the Ukrainian side introduced as a representative of the World Zionist Organization and the Jewish Congress.

Officially, the parties formulated two possible directions for cooperation. The first is the expansion of visits to Jewish holy sites in Ukraine, including the graves of Baal Shem Tov and Shneur Zalman. The second is the pilgrimage of Ukrainian Christians to the Holy Land. Yelensky and Levin declared their readiness for deeper and more specific cooperation between the departments.

But the word “possible” cannot be lost here. I did not find a published agreement on new routes, a travel calendar, a budget, a working group, or a list of sites that Israel and Ukraine have already agreed upon. Therefore, the headline “Israel and Ukraine open new routes” would not be true yet. On August 25, a political framework appeared within which such routes could emerge.

Why Medzhybizh and Hadiach are no less interesting for Israel than they seem

Uman is known in Israel even to people who have never been interested in the history of Hasidism. Every September, tens of thousands of followers of Rabbi Nachman of Breslov, who died in 1810 and is buried in this Ukrainian city, go there. The trip has long been part of Israeli public life: the airport, special flights, ticket prices, army restrictions, Foreign Ministry warnings, and debates within the Haredi community.

Medzhybizh and Hadiach sound much less familiar to the average Israeli. But religiously, the map is almost the opposite.

In Medzhybizh, Israel Baal Shem Tov, Besht — an 18th-century religious leader considered the founder of Hasidism — is buried. That is, long before Breslov, Uman, and modern mass pilgrimage, it was with his movement that the tradition began, from which various Hasidic directions later grew.

In Hadiach is the grave of Shneur Zalman of Liadi — Alter Rebbe, the founder of Chabad. For the Israeli reader, there is no need to explain the scale: Chabad is present today in almost every major Israeli city and through a network of shlichim — emissaries of the movement — around the world.

Therefore, the proposal to expand pilgrimage means potentially a completely different map of Ukraine. Uman is primarily associated with Breslov. Medzhybizh leads to the origins of Hasidism itself. Hadiach — to the history of Chabad.

There is no announced state “route” between these points yet. And yet, the very fact that at the level of the Israeli Minister of Religious Services, several centers of Jewish heritage are already being discussed shows a shift: Uman may cease to be the only place in Ukraine around which the two countries annually build separate diplomatic and organizational work.

This story did not begin on August 25: preparation has been going on for several months

If you search for “Uman 2026,” “Hasidim in Uman 2026,” “Rosh Hashanah in Uman,” or “pilgrimage Israel Ukraine,” the date August 25 easily creates a false impression that it was then that the preparation began. In fact, there was already a whole sequence of decisions and meetings before the negotiations between Levin and Yelensky.

On May 28, the leadership of DESS met with representatives of the American Hasidic community. They discussed safety, conditions of stay, and coordination of Ukrainian authorities with religious organizations. This is important: Uman is a huge Israeli topic, but the pilgrimage does not consist only of Israeli citizens.

On July 14, DESS held an interdepartmental meeting. Then the dates of Rosh Hashanah 5787 — from September 11 to 13 — and the need for coordination of services under martial law were officially recorded.

On July 29, a warning from the Ukrainian Foreign Ministry appeared. Its wording is crucial: the ministry asks pilgrims to take into account the inability to guarantee full safety for foreigners. The lack of shelters for such a number of people, limited medical resources in Uman, overloaded ground transportation, curfew, and the risk of transport delays due to Russian strikes on infrastructure are separately listed.

On August 14, at a meeting in the Vinnytsia region, a specific number was already mentioned — more than 30,000 pilgrims from Israel alone. Mass movement is expected from September 6. And on August 18, the Ukrainian ambassador to Israel, Yevgeny Korniychuk, confirmed that ministries, local authorities, police, rescuers, border guards, and medics are simultaneously engaged in preparation.

And only after this chain, on August 25, did negotiations with two Israeli ministers appear. This is no longer the beginning of the process. This is its political continuation.

The plane to Uman no longer exists: where the real routes pass

There is a detail that clearly shows the difference between pre-war pilgrimage and the current one. An Israeli can buy a plane ticket, but the plane will not take him to Ukraine.

After the start of the full-scale Russian invasion on February 24, 2022, Ukrainian airspace for civilian aviation remains closed. Therefore, the international airport is only the first point of a long route.

On August 14, the Vinnytsia Regional Military Administration described the scheme quite specifically. A significant part of the pilgrims should arrive through the airports of Moldova and Romania, then cross the Ukrainian border through checkpoints in the Mohyliv-Podilskyi district of the Vinnytsia region. A separate flow is expected by rail through Poland. Organized groups entering Ukraine by other routes will also pass through the Vinnytsia region.

That is why not only Uman itself is engaged in preparation for Uman. Between the plane from Ben Gurion and the grave of Rabbi Nachman, there is a foreign airport, a bus or train, a state border, Ukrainian checkpoints, and another land section inside the country.

Moreover, we are not talking about a few excursion buses. Ukrainian police in the 2025 report call last year’s celebration an event with the participation of more than 40,000 pilgrims. 726 law enforcement officers were involved to maintain order. This is already a load level of a large mass event, transferred to a city that simultaneously lives by the rules of wartime.

Against this background, the wording about “expanding pilgrimage” acquires practical meaning. If organized flows to Medzhybizh, Hadiach, and other places are ever added to mass Uman, the question will not only be in the religious desire of people to go there. Infrastructure will be required: roads, borders, safety, medicine, transport, and clear rules for groups.

Kyiv warns of danger — and simultaneously prepares to meet tens of thousands of people

On the surface, there is a contradiction here. Ukraine tells foreigners: we cannot guarantee you full safety. And the same Ukraine holds meetings, calculates flows at the border, discusses police, medicine, food, and accommodation.

But if you look at the duties of the state, the contradiction disappears.

The warning answers one question: is it safe today to go to Ukraine with a large religious group? The authorities’ answer is that the state cannot guarantee full safety. Russian missile and drone attacks continue, and the shelter and medical capabilities in Uman are limited.

Preparation answers another question: what to do if tens of thousands of people come anyway? Here the state cannot say: we warned you, now deal with it yourselves. Police, border guards, rescuers, medical services, buses, route control, and coordination with Israel are needed.

Ambassador Yevgeny Korniychuk described the situation exactly like this on August 18. Ukraine recognizes the spiritual significance of Uman for the Hasidim and is preparing for the arrival of tens of thousands of believers, while simultaneously not promising what a warring country cannot promise.

Within Israel itself, the picture is also not homogeneous. While thousands of people are packing their bags for Ukraine, a separate Breslov format of Rosh Hashanah is being created for the second year near the Kinneret for those who stay home. NANews has already analyzed the “alternative Uman” in Yavneel: there completely different reasons converge — the IDF reserve, the draft status of part of the Haredim, and the desire to maintain the festive tradition without a trip to Ukraine.

That is, even within one religious community, there are already two real lines: tens of thousands continue to consider the road to Rabbi Nachman indispensable, and alongside, an Israeli alternative is gradually forming.

Two ministers in one day: why the story already goes beyond Rosh Hashanah

The second meeting on August 25 helps to understand why I do not consider the conversation between Levin and Yelensky purely technical preparation for Uman. A few hours later, the Ukrainian side separately reported on Yelensky’s conversation with the Israeli Minister of Culture, Miki Zohar.

Zohar thanked Ukraine for the conditions for the pilgrimage of Breslov Hasidim in especially difficult times for both countries. DESS conveyed a more political formula: the parties talked about the struggle of Ukraine and Israel for freedom, a just peace, and the very right to exist. Simultaneously, Yelensky and Zohar confirmed their interest in starting cooperation between DESS and the Israeli Ministry of Culture. The conversation was attended by the Chief Rabbi of Uman, Yakov Jan, and Nachman Joseph Stenberg.

This is already another institutional link. Uman is simultaneously handled by Israel’s religious department, the Minister of Culture, Ukrainian DESS, diplomats, police, and regional authorities.

There is also a counter movement from below. On August 7, representatives of the Breslov community publicly thanked Ukraine for the opportunity to continue the pilgrimage during the war. We thoroughly analyzed that meeting and separately distinguished published facts from the community’s own claims.

For NANews, this is where the line between an ordinary seasonal news story and a longer process lies. It is not yet possible to say that a new system of religious exchange between Israel and Ukraine has been created. But it is already possible to see how the annual problem of Uman gradually gathers a permanent network of state contacts around it.

And further, everything will be tested not by statements, but by details. Will a list of new shrines appear? A working group? Joint programs? Organized trips of Ukrainian Christians to Israel? Separate mechanisms for preserving Jewish sites in Ukraine?

If none of this appears, August 25 will remain a successful diplomatic formulation before Rosh Hashanah.

If it appears — then Uman will indeed turn out to be not the final point, but the beginning of a much broader religious route between Israel and Ukraine.