MARCH 7 • 2024 | 11
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essay
For Ukraine’s Jews, the Work is Not Yet Done

2022, the center became a
staging ground for truckloads
of emergency aid — part of
the 800 tons of humanitarian
assistance we’ve delivered so
far.
A few blocks from missile
strikes, it now hosts children’s
camps and soulful Shabbat
services and operates a “kids’
hub,” offering academic
enrichment to children who
haven’t had in-person school
for years — robbed of normal
childhood by the pandemic
and now the ongoing crisis.
And amidst blizzards and
blackouts, Beit Dan has also
become a “warm hub,” a safe
place for beleaguered Jewish
Kharkivites to charge their
devices and obtain a hot
drink and warm meal.

“If you share in our pain,
and provide support where
it’s needed, I’m forever
grateful,” said Nika Simonova,
Beit Dan’s program director.
“The ability to remain human
is the main thing. Done right,
I believe that can save the
world.”
That’s why we at JDC,
aided by a coalition of
partners including the
Jewish Federations, Claims
Conference, and International
Fellowship of Christians and
Jews, deployed a historic
response to this conflict and
remain committed to the
Jewish future here.
We’re focused on ongoing
humanitarian support for
more than 41,000 Ukrainian
Jews, expanding trauma relief,

closing children’s educational
gaps, and getting unemployed
Jewish community members,
among millions of Ukrainians
plunged into poverty, back to
work.
There is no doubt that
the Jewish world is now
responding to crises on
multiple fronts, including
this one, but we have been
here so many times before.
We must draw strength from
our history and from the
sure knowledge that this
is what we’re built for. Our
compassion and commitment,
when leveraged with that
timeless sense of mutual
Jewish responsibility, means
we can tackle the challenges
we face — and come out on
the other side even stronger.

As I walked through Lviv
on my last day in Ukraine,
I asked my cousin Anna
Saprun, a 25-year-old
business analyst, how this
period has changed her.
“I hate what’s brought
me here, but I love who
I’ve become,” she said with
a fierce and feisty smile.
“Nothing scares me anymore.
I feel powerful.”
Two years after the
conflict began, Ukraine’s
Jews are inspired anew each
day, resolute in the sure
knowledge that they know
exactly who they’re working
for — each other.

Alex Weisler is a former journalist

and the JDC’s senior video and

digital content producer.

Teen Sonia Bunina, right, works with elderly Jews in Poltava, Ukraine,
teaching them how to use special smartphones designed for seniors
distributed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee as
part of its relief effort.

Tamara Vasilenko (far left) — an elderly Jew in Sumy, Ukraine —
celebrates Shabbat in her home with volunteers from the American
Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and the director of the local
Hesed, Elizaveta Sherstuk.