Jonathan Markovitch

Jonathan Markovitch was born in 1967 in Uzhhorod

Jonathan Benyamin Markovitch was born on 21 October 1967 in Uzhhorod into a rabbinic family. His maternal grandfather, Rabbi Yechezkel Feivel Oestreicher, was a rabbi and shochet in the city. At the age of 3 he moved to Israel with his family.

He studied at a Chabad Talmud Torah and yeshiva in Kiryat Gat, then at the Kfar Ganim Yeshiva under Rabbi Zucker. He received rabbinic ordination from Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, the Chief Military Rabbinate and other rabbis. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from the Technion and a master's degree in education from the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.

In 1985 he joined the Israeli Air Force and served 12 years as an aircrew officer. He left the service with the rank of major.

In 2000 he moved with his family to Kyiv. As Chief Rabbi he and his wife built community institutions, including a Chabad center, kindergartens, a Jewish school, a kosher certification system and a humanitarian aid network. In early 2023 he was appointed Rabbi of Ukraine's prison system.

During the war with Russia he led humanitarian work and moved hundreds of elderly residents to a shelter in Poland. He started a Torah scroll in honor of Ukraine's Jews, in which President Volodymyr Zelenskyy wrote a letter. He is married to Elke Ina Markovitch, and they have 7 children.