Jews of Ukraine need world Jewry's help
Op-ed: Some 15,000 to 20,000 Jews live in areas where pro-Russian insurgencies have taken place and many have lost their homes, livelihoods and savings. Kiev's Jewish community is seeking additional funds to provide long-term housing for these refugees.
The revolution sparked protests in East Ukraine, Yanukovych’s former base of support, and over a year later large areas of the region are enmeshed in intensive armed conflict between Russian separatists and Ukrainian troops.
Between 15,000 and 20,000 Jews live in areas where pro-Russian insurgencies have taken place and many have lost their homes, livelihoods and savings. Hundreds of Jewish refugees have arrived in major cities outside the conflict zone around Ukraine, and the country’s Jewish communities are struggling to feed, clothe and shelter them.
At the moment, the situation for refugees from the East in Kiev is dire. Ukraine is in a deep recession and the war in the East has placed additional strain on the government’s resources. As a result, responsibility for Jewish refugees, as well as for many others who use their soup kitchens and free clinics for refugees, has fallen completely on the Jewish community.
We at the Jewish community of Kiev have assisted over 300 refugees in finding new homes over the past year, providing for their food, clothing and housing needs, and have sent almost 200 to Israel.
At the present time, refugees in Kiev are being housed in the community’s unfinished summer camp, located 200 kilometers (125 miles) from Kiev in a rural region near the city of Shpola. However, in order to provide for their futures, it is essential that they find work and viable long-term housing and that they receive desperately-needed medical and psychological rehabilitation.
In an effort to provide long-term housing for refugees, the Kiev Jewish community has purchased land just outside Kiev, where it plans to construct a Jewish community for 300 to 500 displaced persons. Coincidentally, the land is located just outside the Kiev municipal borders in the town of Anatevka, where the Yiddish writer Sholem Aleichem famously set several of his Tevye the Milkman stories that inspired the play "Fiddler on the Roof."
Located only 30 minutes from the Kiev city center, the community will serve as a basis for refugees to find work, receive rehabilitation and begin new lives.
The community is currently under construction and will feature housing in small apartment blocks, a school, an orphanage, an old age home, a synagogue and rehabilitation center. We hope it will serve as an inspiration for the government and other non-governmental organizations to likewise begin creating long-term solutions to the refugee crisis.
In the past two months since we purchased the land on which we are building the community, we have begun construction on short-term housing units, the school and the synagogue, all of which we received earmarked donations towards. Currently, we hope that the first families will be able to move into the community this September.
However, we are in desperate need of additional funds to continue with the project and we now turn to the international Jewish community for help in caring for refugees and resettling them. Funding is important, but so is raising awareness. We ask you to tell people about the situation in Ukraine and to share information about the refugee crisis on social media.
"Kol Yisrael Areivim zeh la’ zeh" – all Jews are responsible for one another. It is essential that the international Jewish community come to the aid of the Jews of Ukraine.
Yitzchak Schwartz is writing on behalf of the Jewish community of Kiev.
To learn more about the Kiev Jewish community’s efforts to aid Jewish refugees from East Ukraine, or to make a tax-deductible donation to aid their efforts, visit, http://www.anatevkajrc.com. You can also learn more and show your support for the Ukrainian Jewish community on our Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/anatevkajrc.
