Ukraine Update 16.3.2022: On the Ground in Chernivtsi

17/03/2022

Update from Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, Executive Director of Midreshet Ukraine, who is now in Chernivtsi


Ze’ev Waxman, lay leader of the Odessa community, bought groceries and distributed food to senior citizens. There is not much variety at the understocked supermarkets, but Ze’ev has gone to each home to check on everyone who is taking refuge there.

In Kharkiv today the principal’s husband managed to buy 60 kilos of frozen fish to distribute to all of our families! They make a traditional Jewish-Ukrainian fish soup with it (pictured below).

In Chernivtsi, Lev Kleiman, is in constant in motion. Today, there are 60 people sleeping in a hotel, apartments and in the community center itself. When asked how many people went through the center these past weeks, Lev said “We passed 500 people a long time ago.” Now the numbers are even higher with ten to fifteen people leaving and arriving each day. Our communities, in partnership with Masorti Olami, try to find something good and worth celebrating, and last week in Chernivtsi there was truly a happy event! A counselor from the Ramah Yachad summer camp who fled Kharkiv with her boyfriend is celebrating a wedding! Together the two will come to Israel.

From the youth movements and summer camps there is also a lot of involvement and news. A NOAM youth counselor prepared and hosted a lunch for the group of young people. A young boy active in the Ramah Yachad summer camp, arrived alone in Chernivtsi after a tremendously difficult journey from Kharkiv.

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Currently funds allocations:

  • $8,000 per week for hotel rooms and apartments in Chernivisti
  • $4,000 per week for food served at the Masorti Refugee Center in Chernivtsi
  • Thousands of dollars on tickets for dozens of refugees coming to Israel
  • Payments for the community’s lodging and expenses in Romania
  • Housing refugees from our Masorti Congregations in Hungary, Poland and Germany

To donate via The Schechter Institutes or via Masorti Olami.

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