The recent deadly earthquake that hit Turkey and Syria, claiming the lives of over 35,000 people, were not the only earth shattering events to strike the globe in the past few months.
There is the political earthquake that hit Israel when the new government announced its plans to overhaul the judicial system in a move that is threatening to tear Israeli society apart. Then, there is the humanitarian earthquake in Ukraine, which struck with the onset of Russian military onslaught a year ago.
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Elderly Ukrainian woman stands inside a home destroyed by Russian missiles
(Photo: Avishag Sh'ar-Yishuv, International Fellowship)
Hours after Turkey was ravaged by the quake, Israeli search-and-rescue teams were already on the ground, helping pulling survivors out from underneath the rubble and nursing the injured back to health.
In Ukraine, it's no different, with Israeli and Jewish organizations helping the general population and the Jewish communities in bombarded cities, such as Odessa and Mykolaiv.
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International Fellowship of Christians and Jews volunteer helping the bed-ridden Ukrainians
(Photo: Avishag Sh'ar-Yishuv, International Fellowship)
The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, which has welcomed many journalists who came to witness the consequences of war firsthand, became one of the most important bodies when it comes to helping Ukrainian Jews survive and make Aliyah - for those who wish to relocate.
It bears mentioning that many of the donations to the NGO came from the Evangelical community in the Unites States.
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Lines for food aid packages in Ukraine
(Photo: Avishag Sh'ar-Yishuv, International Fellowship)
The fellowship saw some 5,000 Ukrainian Jews come to the holy land in the past year, and has raised $30 million to facilitate search-and-rescue operations, establishment of daycare centers and supplying food aid packages.
The Odessa-based Chabbad center distributes weekly food packages to the elderly, which in many ways were the hardest hit by the humanitarian crisis. Lines of the impoverished and the destitute line up to get something to eat. Standing in line in a freezing cold, with only cats and dogs walking the streets, simply to get their hands on some clean water.
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Ukrainians line up to fill up bottles with clean water
(Photo: Avishag Sh'ar-Yishuv, International Fellowship)
Meanwhile, Rabbi Abraham Wolf and wife Haya help manage aid for the 5,000 Jews still in Odessa. I asked Rabbi Wolf, who has been serving as Odessa's chief rabbi for the past 20 years, what motivated him to leave Israel and establish aid centers in remote locations around the globe.
"Just like the tale of why God chose Moses as the quintessential leader to guide the Jewish people through their desert hardships, emphasizing the principle that there is safety in numbers, but those left on their own are vulnerable."
The local Chabbad school can be found behind barricades set up to defend themselves from advancing Russian forces.
Rabbi Menachem Mendel Schneorson is a Mykolaiv native. The Russians unsuccessfully attempted to take over the city, but did leave immerse sights of destruction in their wake. Their Chabbad center also features lines for food distribution, daily power outages and subzero temperatures.
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Drawings depicting war by Odessa children
(Photo: Avishag Sh'ar-Yishuv, International Fellowship)
Out of 200,000 Jews residing in Ukraine before the war, 150,000 still remain.
During the holiday of TuBishvat at the beginning of February, we were there to take part in the holiday festivities held for the children in Odessa.
A few days later, a Tel Aviv-bound charter flight left from neighboring Moldova with plenty of those making Aliyah onboard.