Mar 30, 2016
Federation Helps Ukrainian Jews Celebrate Purim
Imagine a battle-scarred city, nearly devoid of people, pockmarked by shrapnel and bullet holes and covered in layers of dirty slush and snow.
Suddenly, a young member of the Jewish community emerges from a building in a costume and the sound of a grogger – the holiday of Purim’s traditional noisemaker – crackles, breaking the eerie silence.
In parts of Ukraine, it’s a surreal reality.
This past week during Purim, community members and staff from the Greater Miami Jewish Federation’s long-time overseas partner, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), in and near the war zone in the east of Ukraine celebrated the holiday despite the hardships visited upon them by the conflict.
Local Jews in Donetsk, within the separatist-held area, marked the occasion by visiting each other’s homes and exchanging gift packages of holiday foods (the customary mishloach manot).
Meanwhile, in government-controlled cities like Dnepropetrovsk, Kharkov, Artemivsk, and Krasnaormiisk, JDC and local Jews hosted hundreds of internally displaced people (IDPs) at Purim Megillah readings.
The goal was to fulfill Purim’s precept to celebrate with unrestrained joy, especially by providing a much-needed respite for the thousands of displaced Jews and those in separatist-controlled regions severely impacted by economic and political instability.
Since the crisis began, JDC has worked hard to help Jews in Ukraine caught in the crossfire or suffering from the severe economic recession. Through funding from the Annual Greater Miami Jewish Federation/UJA Campaign, JDC has provided extra food, medicine, and medical care; crisis-related home repairs; extra winter items such as warm bedding, clothing, utility stipends, and space heaters; and a full aid package and emergency housing for displaced Jews.
More than 2,700 people have been added to JDC’s aid rolls, most of whom never needed assistance in the past. They include working- or middle-class Jewish families who have found themselves struggling with conflict-related unemployment and general economic distress related to spiking prices on basic goods and utilities, the collapsing local currency, and widespread devastation to property and industry.
