OPINION: Against the odds, Jewish life survives in Ukraine
Paul Anticoni, Chief Executive, World Jewish Relief
It’s quarter to seven in the evening in Kharkov, eastern Ukraine. The city is now home to thousands of people who have fled the fighting elsewhere.
The sun shows no sign of setting on another relentlessly hot day. A haze spreads far and wide across the parched earth.
On the eighth floor of a soulless Soviet-era tower block, temperatures are sweltering.
There’s no air conditioning, and no breeze to offer respite. The electricity has gone again and, with it, the power to the lift.
My thighs ache after climbing flight upon flight of stairs. Marathon training was easier than this.
The heat doesn’t seem to bother Lyudmila. “Would you like a cup of tea?” she asks, firing up her coal stove.
Another layer of soot cakes the living room ceiling. Her world consists of just two small rooms. A living room-bedroom houses everything Lyudmila owns.
There is clutter everywhere, signs of a life gone by.
Classics of Russian literature from the 19th and 20th centuries surround her bed. Piles of yellowing newspapers reach to the ceiling. Faded photos show her now grown-up children, who have long since left Kharkov.
A small menorah sits proudly on a shelf; a significant statement in a country where Jewish life still twinkles against the odds.
Next to this room is her tiny kitchen, devoid of the Kenwoods and fancy utensils I’m used to.
Lyudmila struggles to walk because of a chronic leg condition but she gingerly goes over to the sink to fetch some glasses for tea.
Despite her suffering, she is, as we at World Jewish Relief find with so many of the people we support, endlessly hospitable.
Her communal apartment has other residents, but they’re not related. They’re noisy and play loud music at night.
When I last visited Lyudmila, she was using the eighth-floor’s shared bathroom but as she grew older she found she felt less comfortable with the other residents around.
The communal toilet is dark and dirty. We built her a private toilet behind a curtain in her kitchen. It probably wouldn’t be what we’d choose for ourselves, but what else could we do?
Lyudmila, beaming, tells me about the improvement this has made to her life.
The good news continues. After years of being surrounded by other people but finding herself always lonely, she’s started having guests round again.
Lyudmila has joined our ‘Warm Homes’ programme where older people that we support meet up regularly in one of their homes.
They can settle down to have food and a natter.
Sometimes the gathering is themed around a Jewish holiday, or someone’s birthday. Sometimes they meet with medical and social-care professionals.
It may not sound fancy, but its effect is transformational. The tired Lyudmila of old has been replaced by a chatty and warm personality.
She is 82 and has lived through some of the most significant moments in world history.
Having survived the horrors of Nazi Germany, she’s seen off communism and witnessed the fall of the Iron Curtain.
She saw Ukraine’s independence declared in 1991 and later the Orange Revolution of 2004.
Recent times have been just as unsettling, as months of protest led to another revolution and the fall of another government.
Though Ukraine has new leaders, it does not yet have lasting calm.
As we know from the news, violence has displaced more than a million Ukrainians from their homes.
Hundreds of thousands are seeking refuge elsewhere in Ukraine.
We know of at least 2,000 Jewish individuals in need of shelter. Residents who stay put are not immune from danger.
The psychological impact is beginning to take its toll. Many are suffering trauma, having lost relatives in the fighting. Others are isolated, having lived without electricity or water for weeks.
The common thread is that they feel abandoned.
The cost of fresh food has more than doubled in Zaporozhye, eastern Ukraine.
In Kiev, the price of fuel has risen by 48 percent.
Medicines are 70 percent more expensive in Kharkov.
As the crisis goes on, we expect such basic goods to become even less affordable.
The political turmoil has taken its toll on Lyudmila. She worries about her family and about paying her gas bill ahead of a bitter winter.
We’ve been able to support her at this difficult time. But as winter approaches, there is much more work for us to do.
• You can support World Jewish Relief’s emergency appeal for the Jews of Ukraine by going to https://www.wjr.org.uk/ or calling 020 8736 1250
You can follow Paul HERE and World Jewish Relief HERE.
Thank you for helping to make Jewish News the leading source of news and opinion for the UK Jewish community. Today we're asking for your invaluable help to continue putting our community first in everything we do.
For as little as £5 a month you can help sustain the vital work we do in celebrating and standing up for Jewish life in Britain.
Jewish News holds our community together and keeps us connected. Like a synagogue, it’s where people turn to feel part of something bigger. It also proudly shows the rest of Britain the vibrancy and rich culture of modern Jewish life.
You can make a quick and easy one-off or monthly contribution of £5, £10, £20 or any other sum you’re comfortable with.
100% of your donation will help us continue celebrating our community, in all its dynamic diversity...
Engaging
Being a community platform means so much more than producing a newspaper and website. One of our proudest roles is media partnering with our invaluable charities to amplify the outstanding work they do to help us all.
Celebrating
There’s no shortage of oys in the world but Jewish News takes every opportunity to celebrate the joys too, through projects like Night of Heroes, 40 Under 40 and other compelling countdowns that make the community kvell with pride.
Pioneering
In the first collaboration between media outlets from different faiths, Jewish News worked with British Muslim TV and Church Times to produce a list of young activists leading the way on interfaith understanding.
Campaigning
Royal Mail issued a stamp honouring Holocaust hero Sir Nicholas Winton after a Jewish News campaign attracted more than 100,000 backers. Jewish Newsalso produces special editions of the paper highlighting pressing issues including mental health and Holocaust remembrance.
Easy access
In an age when news is readily accessible, Jewish News provides high-quality content free online and offline, removing any financial barriers to connecting people.
Voice of our community to wider society
The Jewish News team regularly appears on TV, radio and on the pages of the national press to comment on stories about the Jewish community. Easy access to the paper on the streets of London also means Jewish News provides an invaluable window into the community for the country at large.
We hope you agree all this is worth preserving.
