This week, Ukrainian civilians were targeted by artillery as they attempted to flee and a maternity hospital was hit by Russian rockets in what the World Health Organization reports is the 19th attack on Ukrainian health facilities. A new column of Russians of untold number is steadily advancing toward the capital city of Kyiv, while the out-gunned Ukrainian Army and scores of civilian volunteers dig in to push back against the invaders as long as they can hold out. The latest news from the front in Ukraine is grim, and analysts predict the conflict will worsen significantly in the coming days.
To understand how to help and learn more about how donated dollars are being put to use in the war zone, join us for Memphis Jewish Federation’s Ukraine Crisis: Community Briefing Monday, March 14, at 5:30 P.M. via Zoom. Federation lay leaders will speak, as well as representatives of our key allies on the ground in Ukraine with local connections. Andy Groveman will represent the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI) as a member of its Board of Governors, and Board Member Dr. Michael Levinson and Director of Strategic Partnerships Elisheva Massel will represent the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). You will also hear from Jewish Foundation of Memphis Teen Philanthropists. The discussion will concentrate on the impact of donor gifts through Federation on efforts to deliver humanitarian aid in Ukraine.
To register, click here. This virtual event is open to anyone, and a recording will be made available for those unable to attend the live program. Click here to donate now.
For 14 days Ukraine has been relentlessly and ruthlessly attacked by Russian forces. As tens of thousands make their weary way across the country’s borders and millions more suffer within Ukraine, Jewish Federations continue their vital work to support the Jewish community, through our partner agencies. JAFI, JDC, World ORT, and others are on the ground in Ukraine. As the escalating war unfolds, these organizations are constantly adapting to worsening conditions to provide critical welfare and support to Ukraine’s Jewish community and Jews in neighboring countries, with their work directly supported by gifts to Federations.
As of the morning of March 9, Federations have collectively raised $19.7 million to address critical needs resulting from the situation in Ukraine, with Memphis Jewish Federation donors so far contributing almost $340,000. A special Ukraine Allocations Sub Committee met early last week and approved an initial allocation from JFNA of $8 million which is already helping Ukrainian Jews, both those who are able to flee the country and those who either chose to stay or lack the option to evacuate.
Before the invasion, JAFI Representative Roza Ziatek-Czarnota worked with a steady but manageable stream of Polish Jews, helping them make aliyah. When Russia attacked Ukraine, she was sent to a pop-up facility at a hotel near the Warsaw airport, to help with the wave of Jewish refugees who were able to flee the combat zone to Poland.
“The care we give these immigrants includes lodging here at the hotel, providing clothing and belongings in place of what they were forced to leave behind, psychotherapy, documents and visas from the consulate, and assistance with the aliyah process,” said Roza. “I speak Polish but not Russian or Ukrainian, so with most refugees, I speak English, and I try to recruit volunteers to help me translate. Working for JAFI here in Poland, I know the next few days will be intense. I’m ready.”
Across Ukraine’s southern border in Moldova, JAFI representative Lev, who didn’t offer a last name, is working with his team around the clock to help the hundreds of Ukrainian Jews who have escaped to JAFI’s Moldova Aliyah Facility, opened in collaboration with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
“I’m very proud of our work here. We’re helping people who just left everything behind and fled for their lives,” he said. “It’s not an easy job to do but I’m coping. I’ve been involved in rescuing Jews since 1992. I’ve taken part in countless rescue operations, including Kosovo, so I’ve learned how to cope and put my emotions aside to be able to help them the best I can.”
At JAFI’s Moldovan center and others like it in the region, Jewish refugees are fed, given a place to stay, and offered the opportunity to make aliyah if they choose to. However, many Ukrainian Jews either don’t make the choice to evacuate, or simply can’t.
JDC, the Jewish world’s 911, specializes in providing support to Jews in communities around the world, and during war time this aid becomes all the more urgent.
“I’m worried about the war, about people dying, about destroyed homes in our cities. The air raid alarm scares me,” said Zinaida Spektrova, a 69-year-old JDC client in Zaporizhia, Ukraine. “I’m blind, but I try to keep updated on what’s going on in my country. JDC’s help is vital because it connects me to the outside world and ensures my quality of life. My homecare worker is my eyes and hands now, and her help saves my life.”
In addition to providing welfare visits to the homebound, JDC funding also supports JCCs and other organizations that help Jewish life flourish. At the JDC-funded JCC in Mykolayiv, Ukraine, Director Polina Rysker has seen Jewish life upended.
“Today is a very busy day. We managed to send three buses of evacuees. And at the same time, my team wished (a group of our seniors) a happy International Women’s Day over Zoom,” said Polina. “For me, International Women’s Day means spring and the flowering of all living things. It means joy, dreams, a bright and eventful life for our children. It means everything that is not war.”
The Monday Zoom program will offer further insight into the work our partner agencies are doing as the worst humanitarian crisis in Europe since World War II unfolds. The Federation team will also offer tangible and realistic ways for members of the Memphis Jewish community to help. The situation in Ukraine is desperate and will get much worse before it gets better, but you are not powerless. Collectively, gifts from Jewish Memphians through Federation will spark hope where it’s hard to come by, and bring vital aid to people with nowhere else to turn.
These videos from our partner organizations help tell the story of what is unfolding in Ukraine: