The Jewish educational institutions in Dnipro, Ukraine, have become huge centers for the absorption of Jews from the cities on the front lines.
The buildings that housed the school, Beit Hanna High School and even the Chabad Innocent Supporters’ Yeshiva until the beginning of the war – have in recent days received more than 1,000 refugees sleeping in dormitory rooms, classrooms and even in the yeshiva’s large classroom.
All these places have mattresses and beds, pillows and blankets and they are full of refugees, many of them elderly.
While the Jewish educational institutions in Dnipro are in the city center, the local yeshiva – where the children of Chabad emissaries in Ukraine, who have since been transferred to Germany, studied until the war – is located in a pastoral and fenced compound outside the city.
On the work of absorbing refugees, treating them, catering them and taking those who are interested in an orderly transportation system outside the borders of Ukraine, Rabbi Shmuel Kaminecki, Rabbi of Dnipro and the Chabad emissary in the city, in cooperation with the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine.
In Dnipro there is a large and well-established Jewish community in Ukraine, numbering more than 30,000 Jews, and from it Chabad dominates the activities in all the cities of the country. The city also has a ‘Menora’ center with 54,000 square meters and is known to be the largest Jewish center in the world.
Rabbi Kaminecki: “A large part of the older refugees are in a difficult medical condition and are unable to embark on a long journey that will last for several days. They prefer to stay within the territories of Ukraine, as close as possible to home and we of course give them this option and take care of any shortages.
Since last Friday there have been several alarms in the city, but Dnipro is still considered the safest city among the big cities and therefore the traffic of Jews to it from all over eastern Ukraine is very large. “Every day we receive hundreds of Jews here, a minority of them stay and most of them continue on the trains and buses that we rent for that purpose.”
At the same time, preparations for Purim are continuing in the offices of the Federation of Jewish Communities in Ukraine: Dozens of employees and volunteers of the federation finished work last week on preparing 50,000 parcel deliveries to be distributed before and during Chabad.
All the shipments had already left all over Ukraine: from Donetsk and Lugsenk in the east, under Russian occupation to Uzhgorod and Khust at its western end, near the Slovak border; From Obruch in the north, near the Belarusian border to Mogilev-Podolsk in the south, which borders Moldova.
Each package delivery includes a fancy scroll with Russian and Ukrainian translation, manna ears, chocolates, snacks and other pastries.
Not only with physical help to the Jews, the Chabadniks of Ukraine are busy these days, but also with spiritual activity: in parallel with all this, and under fire, a special 75-page booklet was published in Ukraine in Hebrew and Russian. For redemption.