No End in Sight for Ukraine’s Jews
Yael Eckstein | March 15, 2023
When war threatened Ukraine over a year ago, I never thought it would come.
When war did come, The Fellowship was uniquely situated on the ground in Ukraine, to help the many Ukrainians who were displaced, providing shelter and basic needs, and flying thousands of Jewish people to their biblical home, Israel.
And as the war rages into its second year, the needs for the thousands who remain in Ukraine have only grown.
I’d like to thank our good friends at CBN News for highlighting the work of a few ministries—including The Fellowship—who continue providing help and hope to Ukraine’s Jews. CBN’s Leslie Stahl traveled to Odesa to see how the city’s Jewish communities are surviving:
In Odesa, everything is quiet for now, but life is not normal. There are military checkpoints along the highways, sirens sounding at night and sometimes during the day, which keeps people in shelters. Streets remain unlit at night and power is periodically cut to homes and businesses on an almost daily basis.
English teacher Anna Derenko remains in Odesa with her two children. She told CBN News, “My husband is on the war (front) and he’s trying to protect our motherland. He’s far from our home.”
“Many people lost their work,” she explained. “And many people had to leave the country and go abroad, especially women with children. Even my husband wanted me to go somewhere with children but I said I can’t do it without him.”
So, Derenko puts her life on hold, waiting for her husband to return.
“Now we are waiting for the end of the war,” she said. “Maybe, you know, we don’t have plans. We have only dreams and we are afraid of making plans. That’s why we don’t know what we will do after this.”
In the meantime, organizations such as Tikva are helping Derenko and many others here. Tikva provides food and medicine, with support from the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ)…
Read the rest of this story at CBN News to learn how Ukrainian Jews are surviving the ongoing war.