Three Rabbis
Help Ukrainian Refugees
in Poland
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
Courtesy of Rabbi Gregory Marx
T hree Philadelphia-area rabbis, Gregory Marx, David Levin and Jon Cutler, traveled to Poland from April 10-14 to help refugees from the
war in Ukraine.

Marx, of Congregation Beth Or in Maple Glen, and Levin, who runs the Jewish Relationships Initiative, a nonprofi t organization
in Wynnewood, said they went to off er practical support and “to bear witness.”
That fi rst reason included bringing bags of supplies, like clothes and toiletries, and more than $500,000 from their congregations.

Such practical support was important for Ukrainians, both Jews and non-Jews, who were forced to leave their homes.

But it was the second reason that drove the rabbis to leave the relative safety of their own homes.

“Bearing witness is key,” Levin said.

It’s key because it’s their responsibility as faith leaders, according to Marx and Levin. Rabbis need to see the tragedy of war up close,
bring the reality home to congregants and help them make sense of it.

Marx and Cutler are also co-presidents of the Board of Rabbis of Greater Philadelphia, while Levin is on the executive committee.

(Cutler leads Beth Israel Congregation of Chester County.) So they all felt that they had a wider obligation to bear witness for all area
Jews and rabbis, too.

“We take our teaching seriously,” Marx said. “We had to do something.”
The trip came together after an invitation from the Jewish Community Centre of Krakow, which is organizing relief eff orts there. The
JCC reached out to Rabbi Jeff rey Salkin of Temple Solel in Hollywood, Florida, who spread the word to other American rabbis.

Marx, Cutler and Levin each decided to go on their own. But when they realized they all wanted to make the journey, they said let’s
take it together.

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