Kiev – An Israeli couple in Ukraine’s capital city of Kiev were rescued from a near-lynching last Friday, right before Shabbat.
Zalman Hetzklovich and his wife were walking in Kiev’s Independence Square in the center of the city, when eight Ukrainians wearing uniforms and holding sticks suddenly leaped out of a van at them.
The Ukrainians pointed at the couple, shouting in Russian for them to stop.
“I understood that if I didn’t run at that moment it would be the end of us,” reported Hetzklovich. “I stopped a taxi and got in with my wife, asking the driver to get us out of there. The attackers surrounded the car and demanded the driver stop.”
“The driver stepped on the gas and knocked over the rioters, who succeeded in damaging one side of the cab. The driver was able to drive one block away until he reached a traffic jam; we saw the pursuers were back, and had gotten into their car, starting to chase after us,” recounted Hetzklovich.
The Israeli couple proceeded to get out of the taxi and run on foot several streets away, until they reached a synagogue, where they realized they had miraculously managed to escape.
