Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Rabbi Yaakov Bleich TEAM PAGE
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American Friends of Kyiv and British Friends of Kyiv together with our partners across the world are working around the clock to save lives in Ukraine.
In the first two weeks of the conflict alone, we evacuated over 2000 men, women and children from Kyiv and other cities & towns in the east and centre of Ukraine to safer havens in the west of Ukraine. We have since evacuated hundreds more with 2-3 buses per day plus dozens of cars.
We created three refugee camps in the west of Ukraine in Peremyshlyany, Yampil and Belz and have since consolidated them into one large refugee camp near the Hungarian border where we provide over 1000 hot meals per day.
We have assisted hundreds of refugees across the border into neighboring countries.
The cost of each bus evacuation with security and a military escort is $28,000.
The cost of running the three refugee camps is $25,000 per day.
We are receiving non-stop requests from communities, families and individuals throughout Ukraine asking for our help.
If you know anyone that needs help in Ukraine, please email info@jewishkiev.org.
Please partner with us by donating to our campaign which is directly saving lives.
The Charidy website and all the volunteers are working on no commissions.
Thank you for your help and support !!!
To donate over the phone, please call:
In US: 1-845-414-5948
In UK: +447894125093
Or email: orachchaimfoundation@gmail.com
In US: American Friends of Kiev Jewish Community, TAX ID # 11-3527658.
In UK: Orach Chaim Foundation, Reg Charity No: 1142504.
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Update on The Situation in Ukraine From Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich
Tuesday evening, March 22
I spent Shabbos in our camp in Western Ukraine and came to Budapest on Sunday to see what can be done to set up an infrastructure for the people from our community who have relocated here.
Today, we are celebrating the bar mitzvah of a boy from our school who is now in Budapest with his family. It is a very happy occasion that is being attended by many members of our community who have come to Budapest, together with members of the local community.
In the meantime, we are continuing to evacuate people from Kyiv every day. We had busses leaving for the border on Sunday and Monday. On Tuesday, there was a curfew, so no busses could leave. Otherwise, we had busses going to the border every day. At the same time, we have people coming to join our camp in Western Ukraine every day and we are supplying them with kosher food and whatever else they need.
Kyiv continues to be bombed. The Russians have bombed the city on a daily basis for the last four days, destroying a shopping center, buildings and home.
The eyes of the world are currently on the city of Mariupol in Eastern Ukraine, which has been almost completely destroyed by the Russians. Mariupol is a city of 350,000 residents, about 20% of whom have fled the city and about 10% have been killed in the bombings. 90% of the buildings in the city have been destroyed by Russian bombs. The Russians are targeting this city because it is in an important strategic location for Putin, as conquering it will allow him to have a direct ground route between Russian and Crimea.
We are looking forward to better news and continue to hope and pray that the war ends soon.
Friday Morning, March 18
Update From Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich on The Situation in Ukraine
Boruch Hashem, we had an unbelievable Purim in our camp in Western Ukraine. I think that no one expected us to be able to have a Purim that was so full of simcha and happiness in the middle of a war, with so many people’s lives in limbo, but there so much joy amongst all the evacuees in the camp.
We had a beautiful seudah together and everyone happily gave each other Mishloach Manos. I want to thank all those who worked on the logistics, including providing costumes for the children, etc.
We also just received a shipment of tashmishei kedusha, including siddurim, Chumashim, yarmulkas, tzitzis, and even a Tikkun Korim. Again, I thank everyone involved in providing the evacuees with all the things they need.
Our evacuations from Kyiv are currently continuing. Kyiv is now being bombed, which makes the evacuations even more urgent and necessary. Today, six residential buildings were bombed. It is of utmost importance that we continue providing as many busses as we can to get as many people out as possible. Both today and yesterday, we sent a more busses out of the city. There was a curfew on Wednesday so we couldn’t send any busses that day, so we sent out extra busses on Tuesday evening before the curfew began.
I am also in contact with other cities who are asking for our help in evacuating people, including the city of Niezhin. I hope that we will be able to evacuate people from that city today.
I offer my gratitude to all those supporting our efforts and I hope that with Hashem’s help, this difficult time will end quickly.
Monday Evening, March 14
Update on The Situation in Ukraine from Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich
Busses of evacuees are continuing to leave from our shul in Kyiv. We are continuing to evacuate as many people as we can every day. We have surpassed the mark of 2,500 people brought to safety. Many of them have been brought over the border and others are in our camp in Western Ukraine.
Today, one bus arrived at the border in the morning and two others left Kyiv headed to the border.
I am currently in Budapest, where I have met a number of families from our community who were evacuated over the previous week and are now living in hotels. Together with askanim from the United States, we have arranged one kosher hotel in Budapest for the religious refugees who are there and require kosher food. Askanim are also serving food to refugees at the Hungarian border, after they cross over from Ukraine.
It was reported in the news that a Russian bomb and rocket hit a residential home in Kyiv and tragically killed one person. This occurred on the street where our school and kindergarten are located. The windows of our kindergarten were smashed by the force of the bomb that exploded right next to it.
We are maintaining security on all of our buildings – our shul, school kindergarten, hotel and assisted living home- to ensure that no looting or vandalism occurs in any of them. There still are people in the shul who are either unable or unwilling to be evacuated. It is also still being used as a base for evacuations, both for us and for other organizations that are involved in evacuating the elderly. Our hotel is also being used for people who missed the curfew to leave the city. They sleep in the hotel and are then evacuated the next morning.
We will continue, with Hashem’s help, to take as many busses and people as we can out of the danger zone.
Motzoei Shabbos, March 12
Update on The Situation in Ukraine From Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich
On Friday, I went to visit a bus we sent out of Kyiv that made it across the Hungarian border full of children from our schools, parents and former students.
So far, we have evacuated 42 busses and over 2,000 people. All 350 beds in our refugee camp in the Carpathian Mountains are full and we are providing 1,000 meals daily.
Shabbos in the camp was very beautiful and emotional, especially because our devoted community worker Chana and her son Dovid joined the camp for Shabbos. As I mentioned in a previous update, Chana had been taking care of registering all of the refugees even while she was trapped in the city of Erpin. After many attempts, we finally were able to rescue her and Dovid, who is a student in one of our schools, on Thursday.
We are looking forward to beginning school in the camp on Sunday and to continue giving the people there some semblance of normal, Jewish life, so that they can feel like evacuees and not refugees.
Last week, I was approached by someone I know who told me that his sister was in a hospital in the city of Chernikow. The city is under Russian bombardment and it is extremely difficult to get in or out. She had been wounded in the shooting and needed to be evacuated. I contacted the right people and helped pay to have evacuated on Friday afternoon and transferred to a safe area. She is now, boruch Hashem, safe and on the road to recovery form her injuries.
Thursday Evening, March 10
Update on The Situation in Ukraine from Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich
Today, I came to Hungary to personally see the situation amongst the refugees at the Hungarian-Ukrainian border.
Once again today, our busses that left Ukraine arrived at the Hungarian border and our people were sent into Hungary. We also sent out more busses from the shul in Kyiv today.
Over the last five days – between Sunday and Thursday of this week – we sent off 15 busses in total, with close to 1,000 people making it to safety across the border. In addition, we sent five busses to our new camp in the Carpathian Mountains in Western Ukraine.
There are now 350 refugees being housed in our camp. Every bed is taken. It was completely full almost as soon as we opened it. There still are many people calling us from all over Ukraine asking for a place in the camp. These are refugees who want to be in a kosher camp with a good Jewish environment where they can have a positive experience after coming out of such a treacherous experience.
We are now taking people from around the Ukraine to our camp in Yampoli. We thought that this camp would no longer be needed with the opening of the new camp but we have reopened it because of the tremendous demand and need. If needed, we will also be reopening our camp in Premishlan before Shabbos.
I have a piece of very good news to relate today. Boruch Hashem, we were able to evacuate Chana and her son Dovid from the besieged city of Yerpil. Chana is a dedicated worker for our community organizations, while Dovid is a student in our yeshiva. During the first week of the crisis, Chana took care of registering all of the refugees requesting to be evacuated. Even when she was trapped herself, she spent all day registering the names of others in need of help to ensure that they receive our assistance.
Chana and Dovid were stuck in the city of Yerpin, which has been completely bombarded by the Russians an has not had water or electricity. For over a week, we were unable to get them out. We sent soldiers and special operations personnel several times to try to extricate them but they were unable to do so. Today, the people we sent were finally able to get them out of the city and bring them to a bridge from which we were able to evacuate them by car to the shul in Kyiv, and from there to join our camp in the Carpathian Mountains. We will be making a seudas hodaah to celebrate their salvation from captivity.
We are still working on getting other Jews out of Yerpin. It is a very dangerous place that is under Russian occupation. Although the Russians claim they have created a humanitarian corridor for refugees, they are still shooting at people as they try to escape.
Wednesday Evening, March 9, 2022
Update on The Situation in Ukraine From Chief Rabbi Yaakov Bleich
I spent the day at the Polish-Ukrainian border, where I found thousands of people being housed in different camps, where they are being provided with beds, heat and food. There were many organizations greeting them. While we were there, a delegation from the JDC pulled up, including volunteers from Monsey, who began greeting people. There also are some Jewish volunteers by the Hungarian border. But it is obvious to me that many more volunteers are needed, as there are many Jewish refugees here.
At the border, I tried to greet as many refugees as I could. Some of them had come by bus and some were just walking on foot. Many had walked five or six hours after traveling for days from whatever city they came from. There is a line of at least 5,000 people waiting at the border for their turn to cross.
This morning, the busses that left from the shul in Kyiv yesterday crossed the border safely and arrived in Hungary. Today, one bus left from the shul in Kyiv, carrying about 65 people, and two busses left from the city of Niezhin, carrying over 100 people. These three busses traveled to the refugee camps in western Ukraine.
We had the privilege of having a mother and three-day-old newborn baby on one of our busses that arrived in the border city of Koson. We hope that tomorrow the mother and baby will be met by people at the border who will be able to help them obtain everything they need. We also had the privilege of transporting children and grandchildren of Righteous Gentiles who have been documented by Yad Vashem as having saved Jews during the Holocaust. They contacted us and asked if we can get them out of Kyiv, and we were happy to do so and to help save the children of those who helped save Jews.
We are working on consolidating all of the Jewish refugees in western Ukraine the location that we have obtained in the Carpathian Mountains. We have run into some logistical problems that we are working on resolving. Today, we brought some of the residents of our assisted living home in Kyiv there, as well as some other refugees. We hope to bring over everyone there so that we can create some semblance of a normal community, with a Kollel, yeshiva, shul and some type of school system.
We have ordered more busses for tomorrow. I also hope to visit the Hungarian-Ukrainian border tomorrow to see the work being done there.