The rabbi of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s parents has told the Times of Israel that the media-shy couple does not know what their son is up to.
Rabbi Liron Ederi, the Chabad-Lubavitch movement’s emissary to the city of Krivoy Rog, told the outlet that Zelensky's parents clearly do not wish to be famous, and their son's presidency has prompted them to question his motives.
“I remember when his son was elected, he complained to me one day, asking why his Volodymyr was doing what he was doing. 'What was missing in his life that he wanted to become president? Why?'" Ederi recalled Zelensky's father wondering.
Shortly after Zelensky was elected, his parents went into "defensive mode".
"They didn’t understand why their son needed it, what got into him. They wanted their quiet. A peaceful family life. Having their son become president was more of a nightmare than a dream to them.”
Zelensky's Jewish heritage does not draw much attention, with the president neither denying them nor highlighting them much. His father was a mathematics professor at the Krivoy Rog National University, and his mother has a backgorund in engineering. In 2020, Zelensky told the Times of Israel that they were "an ordinary Soviet Jewish family", adding that most Soviet Jews were not very religious.