World
Scared but defiant, Ukraine’s Jews pray in basements as bombs fall
Between the howl of air-raid sirens, Kyiv’s Chief Rabbi is determined to keep providing a Jewish life
March 3, 2022 15:00
Between the howl of air-raid sirens, Kyiv’s Chief Rabbi is determined to keep providing a Jewish life
March 3, 2022 15:00As missiles shook Ukraine’s capital last Sunday, congregants gathered in the basement of the Kyiv Jewish Centre to pray and comfort each other.
And in Odessa, in between the nerve-shattering howl of air-raid sirens, Orthodox men gathered defiantly in shul to dance and sing.
Across Ukraine, Jews have been digging deep to keep the remnants of their communal rituals alive amid the Russian onslaught.
The Chief Rabbi of Kyiv, Rabbi Jonathan Markovitch, told the JC he was determined to keep providing a Jewish life. He said: “We have a kitchen and we are doing kosher food, and give it to all the people who need it. Shabbat of course, and all the services, we have. But I must say we don’t have lessons like it was before the situation. We just have the praying.”
The rabbi has pledged to stay and care for those who are unable to flee. He revealed that a woman aged 101 and another of 104 are among the members of the community left in the city under siege.
He also explained he was aiding “everybody who needs help”, Jews and non-Jews alike, including opening up his synagogue basement as a shelter.
Rabbi Markovitch said: “Most of the people that can run, they are not staying here. We are here to help those people that cannot get out of the country.”
He and his wife Inna stockpiled six tonnes of food, water, fuel and 50 mattresses in their shul’s basement.
Besides feeding those attending the synagogue, the Chabad rabbi and his volunteers are also delivering food to those who cannot come. This includes an estimated 1,000 members of the community aged 80 or more, some so infirm they are unable to leave their homes at all. He said: “We have 200 people in the community who cannot walk because they are seriously ill. They stay in their bed. We feed them.”
The synagogue is there for everyone in need, he said: “We help not just the Jewish people. We are helping everybody who needs help, because our synagogue has a basement and it’s the only basement in the area, and a lot of people who want to hide when there’s panic, they come to the synagogue, and they have shelter.”
Urging Jews around the world to help, Rabbi Markovitch said the community urgently needs money: “We need supplies. We need to buy food. Food and water. That’s all. We can still find food, but we understand that in a few days all the stores will be empty.”
Igor Shatkhin, development director at Mishpacha Odessa, a network of Jewish orphanages and schools, said they had sought out bomb shelters that date back to the last war.
“We’re trying not to create panic and trying to stick to official news sources — there’s so much fake news. People don’t know what’s true and what’s not,” he said.
Mishpacha Odessa cares for more than 100 children and also runs a Jewish university and an old people’s home but they’re not evacuating yet. “We’re hoping for the best — we’ve been praying every day but also we’ve been buying up generators, dry food and tins with a long expiration date.”