Our Jewish Ukrainian Family Needs Help Now!

We need your help on behalf of our Jewish family in Ukraine – innocent victims in a rapidly deteriorating situation.  Ukraine is in chaos and our Jewish community cannot fail the Ukrainian Jews who are caught in the crossfire, many of whom are children or elderly.  

The Jewish Federation of Pinellas & Pasco will match your gifts up to $2,000! 

100 % of all collected donations to our Ukrainian Relief Fund will be distributed to our network of partners and our Federation will absorb all administrative costs.

Let’s work together to ensure the well-being of the most vulnerable members of our Ukrainian family. Your gift and our matched donation will cover the cost of:

• Food supplies
• Medicines/medical services
• Security upgrades, as well as increased security-guard hours, at Jewish community centers
• First aid kits
• Fire extinguishers
• Warm  clothes and bedding
• Blankets and heaters
• Additional fuel needed to deliver food to clients and for home care workers’ transportation to reach their clients

A Family Recovers from Devastation
 

For the Endeberrya family, the recent escalation of violence in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk hit terrifyingly close to home.

Two months into the violence there, a bomb ripped through their house, destroying its walls and roof, crushing their furniture and many of their belongings and killing their dog.

The family left the city immediately, taking with them only what they were wearing. Not knowing where to go, they traveled about two and a half hours northwest to Kharkov, where a family of volunteers from the local Jewish community took them in.

In Kharkov, JDC has been working hard to provide those who have left their homes with material support, host family accommodations and more. But the future remains uncertain for the Endeberryas.

Mother and Son in the Crosshairs

This isn't the first time Aza Grigorenko, 88, has been forced to leave her home because of war.

As a teenager during World War II, she and her mother resettled in the eastern Ukrainian city of Slavyansk. There, Aza met her husband and gave birth to her only son, Alexsandr. 

Even after Alexsandr moved to St. Petersburg, her husband died and she became increasingly frail, Aza stayed. JDC has cared for her for the last decade, sending healthcare workers from the local Hesed social welfare center to her home. 

But when the current crisis in Ukraine intensified, Alexsandr came back to Slavyansk to relocate his mother. Mother and son now share a tiny two-room apartment in St. Petersburg and receive food, medicine and healthcare from their new local Hesed.

But as a citizen of a foreign country, Aza is not eligible for state social support. Alexsandr is not sure what else he can do. JDC is their only lifeline – their only support.

For Olim, Memory Begets Trauma

Yuri Sohriansky is one of hundreds of olim who arrived in Israel from the crisis now raging in Ukraine. For him and his family, making aliyah was a blessing—if not for the help of The Jewish Agency for Israel, they would still be in Lugansk, fearing for their lives.

He recalls:

"The situation in Lugansk, where I was born, is terrible: shots heard everywhere, lack of food, lack of medicine and terrorism against young people throughout the city by mercenaries. The houses across from ours were constantly under falling shells and rockets. 

"From the few phone calls I receive, I have learned of those who have remained. Their lives are difficult, and the elderly sit at home. Those without passports cannot get out.

"I thank The Jewish Agency for helping us arrive in Ashkelon in peace."

A Last Hope for Survival

Maria is an 89-year-old Holocaust survivor living in Khabarovsk, a city in the Russian Far East just 30 miles from the Chinese border.

Since violence erupted in Ukraine, Maria has opened her two-room apartment to two others: her 65-year-old son, Boris, and his 40-year-old son, Andrey.

After Boris and Andrey’s home in Lugansk was destroyed, they fled their battered home city with no money or job prospects. Desperate for safe shelter, Maria and her tiny apartment 5,000 miles away were their only hope.

Together, the three rely on local Hesed workers to supply them with the extra food, medicine and psychological counseling they so critically need.