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Area Jews Champion Eff orts
to Help Fleeing Ukrainians
BY SASHA ROGELBERG
T he harrowing scenes of Russia’s
invasion of Ukraine have hit
close to home for many area
Jews in past weeks.

For Jennifer Ferd, a member of
Philadelphia’s Russian Speaking Jewish
Moishe House, news of the war made
her “furious.”
“Th ere really is no need for this,”
she said.

Ferd’s best friend is from Ukraine
and her stepfather is from Odessa.

Knowing her family and friends are in
danger overseas made Ferd feel “help-
less.” Moussia Goldstein, who co-directs
the Chabad Jewish Center at Drexel
University with her husband, is in a
similar position.

Her uncle and aunt, Rabbi Avraham
and Chaya Wolff , moved to Odessa 20
years ago to rebuild the Jewish com-
munity there aft er decades of Soviet
oppression. Th ey set up the Mishpacha
Children’s Orphanage — home to
120 children — a senior home for
Holocaust survivors, Jewish schools
and a synagogue.

On March 2 at 4 a.m., the orphans
left Ukraine and arrived in Berlin
on March 4 aft er nearly 60 hours of
travel. Many of the children, includ-
ing a 5-week-old dropped off at the
orphanage three weeks prior, had no
paperwork. Buses to transport them
cost $4,000 each, which the family was
able to fi nance with the assistance of
the Ukrainian Chabad community.

Because of Odessa’s proximity to the
Moldovian border, the Wolff family
was able to assist other Ukranians in
crossing the border, only just fl eeing
the country themselves on March 4.

“Th e ways these people are get-
ting out are pure, pure miracles,”
Goldstein said.

Th e emotional proximity of the crisis
in Ukraine has motivated Philadelphia
Jews to double down on eff orts to sup-
port loved ones and strangers alike
overseas. Th e Mishpacha Chabad Odessa
6 Emergency Campaign organized by
the Wolff family has raised more than
$491,000 as of March 7, still only 50%
of a $1 million goal.

Ferd tried to set up a GoFundMe cam-
paign to support the Philadelphia-based
United Ukraine Relief Committee, but
the campaign was rejected. She has
opted to donate to eff orts led by the
Perelman School of Medicine at the
University of Pennsylvania.

Jewish organizations in the area have
organized larger campaigns as part
of a national eff ort to raise dollars for
Ukrainian refugees and families.

Andre Krug, president and CEO of
KleinLife, who provides support to
Russian and Ukrainian immigrants
and refugees, many of whom are
Holocaust survivors, is not new to this
work. Originally from Kharkiv, Ukraine,
Krug, now a Huntingdon Valley
resident, has heard the news about
bombs detonating near the schools he
attended growing up and by the city’s
mayor’s offi ce. His wife, originally from
Kyiv, had her childhood neighborhood
bombed. “Frankly, I’ve lived in this country
MARCH 10, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
Chabad Jewish Center at Drexel University co-director Moussia Goldstein’s
uncle Avraham Wolff holds a month-old orphan at Mishpacha Children’s
Orphanage in Odessa.

Children from the Mishpacha Children’s Orphanage fl ee from Odessa across the Moldovian border.

Courtesy of Moussia Goldstein



for 30-some years, but I never expected
it to hit this hard psychologically,”
he said.

In addition to continuing trauma-in-
formed counseling to restless Ukrainian
immigrants in Philadelphia, Krug has
encouraged others to donate to the Jewish
Federation of Greater Philadelphia’s
Ukraine Emergency Fund.

“I prefer to do monetary support
because it’s cheaper to buy stuff there
[in Ukraine]. So if you give money
to reputable sources like [Jewish]
Federation, like JDC (American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee), it’s
going to get where it’s supposed to get.”
The emotional
proximity of the crisis
in Ukraine has
motivated Philadelphia Jews to
double down on
efforts to support
loved ones and
strangers alike
overseas. The Jewish Federations of North
America, in partnership with JDC, the
Jewish Agency for Israel, World ORT
and other organizations, identified a
goal of $20 million to raise to support
the estimated 200,000 Ukrainian Jews.

Forty- to 50,000 of those Jews are
“vulnerable populations,” and 10,000
are Holocaust survivors, accord-
ing to Jewish Federation of Greater
Philadelphia President and CEO
Michael Balaban.

As of March 4, the Jewish
Federation’s campaign exceeded
$400,000 in donations.

“The needs are only escalating
throughout this crisis,” Balaban said.

“We’ve got pillars of the community
[and] people that we’ve never heard
of just stepping forward to provide
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