MAY 19 • 2022 | 13

need, so I was lucky to have been taken 
under his wing, and so we went to work.” 
Since the beginning of the war, Katz 
has been providing relief efforts, funded 
by many organizations, including 
B’nai B’rith International, to Ukrainian 
refugees who have made it to Siret. 
Norkin spent his first week in 
Romania working with Katz providing 
relief to refugees in Siret as they stepped 
up efforts to procure medical supplies, 
equipment and an ambulance for 
Odessa. By the second week, he had 
teamed up with the Joint Distribution 
Committee in their efforts to transport 
a few Jewish Ukrainian Jewish families 
who were stranded in the port city of 
Mangalia. In his rented van, he was able 
to transfer nine refugees to Bucharest, 
where they boarded a chartered flight to 
Israel. 
Norkin said, eventually, Katz recruited 
a friend who is an ER physician in 
Bucharest who procured a Mercedes 
Benz Sprinter ambulance that could be 
used in Odessa. 
They stocked the ambulance with 
medication, including thousands of 
dollars of thyroid pills, something that 
many Ukrainians need as a lingering 
effect of the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear 
disaster. 

LANSING’S JEWISH 
COMMUNITY STEPS UP
While overseas, Norkin got a call from 
Amy Shapiro, executive director of the 
Greater Lansing Jewish Federation, 
who told him that the community was 
financially backing him by collecting 
$7,000 in donations to cover the cost 
of the ambulance, as well as additional 
$7,000 for medical equipment like dual 

patient monitors and defibrillators, 
medicine and first aid supplies. 
“As soon as I heard about (Ody’s work 
in Ukraine), I knew this was something 
that community would get behind,” 
Shapiro explained. “Ody is well known 
and well liked from the years he has 
operated Michigan Flyer. He is very 
active at his synagogue, Kehilat Israel. 
And when I heard about this ambulance 
project, I knew that would really inspire 
people to donate because they knew 
exactly where the money was going.” 
Although they had an ambulance in 
their possession by the end of March, 
Norkin and Katz still had to contend 
with red tape from Romanian officials 
to transfer the ambulance’s ownership 
title to the Jewish community of Odessa. 
It took some more connections, plus 
a few phone calls from Michigan 
Congresswoman Elissa Slotkin, to seal 
the deal. 
On the night of April 7, Norkin 
and Katz drove the ambulance from 
Bucharest to the Isaccea border, crossed 
the Danube by ferry and arrived in 
Odessa by early morning. It took 24 
hours to drive the 584-km trek between 
Bucharest and Odessa — a journey that 
in normal times can be done in under 
nine hours. 

continued on page 14

The second 
ambulance for 
Dnipro.

Ody Norkin in the back 
of the ambulance he’s 
delivering to Dnipro