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MARCH 2 • 2023 | 7

essay

Among Ukraine’s Jews, A Year 
of War Has Transformed the 
Ordinary into the Sacred
N

early 600 Jews stand 
shoulder-to-shoulder, 
eyes trained on the 
young man leading the service 
to close out Shabbat. The crowd 
sings a soulful 
Havdalah tune 
that lifts up its 
final words: 
“hamavdil ben 
kodesh l’chol” — 
“the One who 
divides between 
sacred and ordi-
nary.
”
It looks like a Shabbat gather-
ing anywhere else in the world, 
but I’m in the western Ukrainian 
city of Truskavets, where — 
from every part of their con-
flict-scarred country — these 
Jewish community volunteers 
have come together for a four-
day retreat, energized by the 
chance to learn from each other 

and take a deep breath. 
I’m back in Ukraine for the 
first time since the crisis began 
to learn from these men and 
women making miracles hap-
pen. I came to document and 
share stories from this gathering. 
Remarkably, it’s the largest-ev-
er in the former Soviet Union 
arranged by my organization, 
the American Jewish Joint 
Distribution Committee, or JDC, 
which has worked to aid needy 
Jews and build Jewish life in the 
region for decades. 
With its wine and sweet-smell-
ing spices, Havdalah eases the 
transition from the holy purity of 
Shabbat to the workaday mun-
danity of the week. Surrounded 
by hundreds of Ukrainian Jews, I 
felt uplifted, as I always do when 
I travel to this region and see its 
defiant, vibrant Jewish life. 
The usual rules don’t apply. 
Here, the ordinary becomes 
sacred.
On this, my 14th trip to the 
former Soviet Union in 10 years, 
I’ve come to know it as a place 
where that switch is truly flipped. 
Rebuking a painful history, from 
the Holocaust to Soviet oppres-
sion, everyday actions become 
lifesaving and essential. That’s 
never been more true than this 
past year, as Jewish communities 
here worked overtime to meet 
the enormous humanitarian 
needs of this crisis. 
Simple flashlights become 
beacons enabling home care 
workers to reach the bedridden 
elderly Jews they serve. Bus trips 
between cities are transformed 

into escape hatches for those 
fleeing rocket attacks. A box of 
nonperishables is manna from 
heaven for those faced with 
empty grocery shelves, and each 
call from a volunteer is a life raft 
for the loneliest seniors and most 
vulnerable at-risk families.
Over the last year, more than 
3,000 volunteers engaged in 
projects affecting 36,000 peo-
ple. This work is part of our 
expansive response to this cri-
sis — supported by the Jewish 
Federations of North America, 
the Claims Conference, 
International Fellowship of 
Christians and Jews, individu-
als, families, corporations and 
foundations. It includes provid-
ing uninterrupted assistance to 
43,000 Jews in Ukraine and the 
delivery of 800 tons of human-
itarian aid. Among those we 
help are the elderly and families, 
internally displaced people, and 
the new poor who have lost their 

livelihoods in the devastation.
Not blind to the challeng-
es they face, Jews and Jewish 
communities here are resilient 
and resolute in the knowledge 
that there’s something more 
important at play. It’s a clarity 
of purpose that means, against 
all odds, they’ve grown even 
stronger. 
“My fears were boil-
ing me alive,
” said Tatiana 
Chumachenko, a 34-year-old 
Odessa mother of two. She start-
ed volunteering this summer 
and now runs weekly cooking 
classes and art therapy sessions 
for elderly Jews. “So I made the 
decision to widen my world — 
to take on more responsibility, 
to take care of more people. And 
volunteering literally saved me.
” 
Thousands of Ukraine’s Jews 
just like Tatiana have chosen 
determination, not despair. 
They’ve driven through besieged 
cities delivering medicine and 

ARIK SHRAGA

Alex Weisler 
JTA
Truskavets, 
Ukraine 

ARIK SHRAGA

Alex Weisler joins the massive 
group Havdalah at JDC’s 
volunteer Shabbaton in 
Truskavets, Ukraine, on Feb. 18. 

A Havdalah ceremony at the JDC’s Jewish community volunteer 
Shabbaton in Truskavets, in western Ukraine, drew nearly 600 
Ukrainian Jewish community members who have been volunteering 
throughout the conflict to aid their neighbors in need, Feb. 18, 2023. 

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