Holiday goes on in cities under attack Wearing a wide-brimmed sombrero and colorful poncho, Kherson’s Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Wolff, stood in the city’s beautiful renovated synagogue clutching a megillah. All around the Russian-occupied city, there were bombed out buildings, food shortages, and restrictions on movement, but for a few brief moments on Purim eve, there […]

In-person celebrations return, with commitments to Judaism stronger than ever Last year at this time the world was still struggling with a pandemic. This year, hearts and minds are turned towards the people of Ukraine. Nevertheless, Jewish people around the world are celebrating the holiday of Purim, as they have ever since they faced extinction […]

They welcome refugees, distribute food and lead religious services As soon as a river of Jewish refugees began streaming out of Ukraine, it became clear that Chabad-Lubavitch emissaries in Europe needed more manpower—and fast. In response to the urgent pleas for help, the Ukraine Jewish Relief Fund opened a relief desk, which as part of […]

READING BETWEEN THE LINES OF ESTHER’S STORY Purim celebrates a familiar plot: A nation threatened with destruction is saved at the eleventh hour when its enemy’s plans are miraculously thwarted. Deliverance comes through Esther, introduced to us in the Megillah as a young, shy maiden, at first, unprepared when called upon by Mordechai to take […]

Other communal buildings are also damaged; Chabad vows to rebuild A boys yeshivah in Kharkov, Ukraine, that also serves as a synagogue was damaged on Tuesday after it was hit directly by rocket fire— the third Jewish communal building to be damaged in the city. Chabad-Lubavitch of Kharkov’s kindergarten, Ohr Avner Jewish day school and […]

Ramping up mass evacuation efforts from east Ukraine Jewish capital For two weeks of the war in Ukraine, the eastern city of Dnipro—Ukraine’s fourth-largest city with almost a million people and an estimated 50,000 Jews—was a haven of relative calm amid the heavy, daily bombardment of other cities. With its advanced Jewish infrastructure, including the […]

Under constant attack, Daniel fields calls for help around the clock The Chabad.org/News team wishes to introduce you to Daniel, a 21-year-old staffer at the Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish community in eastern Kiev, who has been devoting night and day caring for the elderly and other vulnerable people in Kiev’s eastern flank, known as the “Left Bank.” […]

They raise more than $4,000 for relief efforts Wanting to do something to help Jewish orphans in Ukraine, 13-year-old Maya Solomon recruited a group of friends and hosted a bake sale that netted more than $2,000 for relief efforts. The funds she and her friends raised were then matched by a local community member, bringing […]

Baruch and Levi Yitzchak enter the Covenant of Abraham Even in the most difficult times, the Jewish people have always found reason to celebrate. In Berlin, there is a large contingent of refugees from Odessa, the staff and 120 children of the Mishpacha orphanage, along with an additional 140 women and children (men between the […]

All segments of the community have joined Chabad’s effort While the conflict, bloodshed and humanitarian crisis continues unabated in Ukraine, those who have been able to escape—many with the help of Chabad-Lubavitch, which has evacuated more than 35,000 refugees—have been absorbed by Jewish communities across Europe and beyond, including 500 in Berlin, several hundred in […]