A group of Holocaust survivors and their relatives have petitioned Yad Vashem to ask that Ukrainian priest Andrei Sheptyts'kyi be recognized as a Righteous Gentile. The petitioners credit Sheptyts'kyi, who headed the Ukrainian church at the time, with saving hundreds of Jews, mainly children who were hidden in church institutions. Nevertheless, Yad Vashem has thus far refused to grant him the title, on the grounds that being a Ukrainian nationalist, he initially supported the Nazi invasion. The petition was sent in response to an article in Haaretz Magazine earlier this year, in which a Yad Vashem spokeswoman said the institute would reconsider if a new request were submitted