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Viktoriya Torchinsky-Field
Courtesy of Olya Vysotskaya
Center City Resident Returns to
Her Heritage to Help Ukrainians
JARRAD SAFFREN | STAFF WRITER
V iktoriya Torchinsky-Field
grew up in Soviet-era Ukraine
— the Ukraine of Jewish quo-
tas at universities, the Ukraine where
Jews couldn’t practice in public, the
Ukraine where her father felt com-
pelled to hide their Jewish identity
from his daughter until she told him
about how she and her friends left a
Jewish girl out of an activity.

So in 1989, the same year the Berlin
Wall fell, she married a Ukrainian
10 guy who was on his way to the United
States and left the Soviet Union forever.

More than three decades later,
though, Torchinsky-Field is going
back, in spirit, to her native country.

As Russia attempts to reassert control
over its neighbor in a war, Torchinsky-
Field is doing her small part to help her
former neighbors.

Aft er Russia invaded Ukraine, the
Center City resident got together
with some local friends to start the
Philadelphia-Ukraine Rapid Response.

Th e organization works with nonprof-
its to raise money for Ukrainians who
MARCH 31, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
want to stay in their homes.

As Torchinsky-Field explained,
Ukraine is a nation of more than 44 mil-
lion people, and while 4 million are now
refugees, the rest remain in the coun-
try; while other organizations focus on
helping the displaced, the Philadelphia
resident fi gured she could do the most
good by helping those trying to stay.

“We narrowed the mission,” she said.

Torchinsky-Field understands well
how to execute a narrow mission.

During the Soviet Union’s glasnost, or
openness, and perestroika, or recon-
struction, period in the late 1980s, the
Ukrainian teen developed a dream: get
to the United States.

Under the communist regime, she
didn’t think she’d be able go to a pro-
fessional school. Torchinsky-Field was
on an associate’s track for a teacher’s
degree because she felt like she couldn’t
aim higher.

But as a single person, she said, she
would be denied a visa. Instead, she
married her fi rst husband and then
separated from him within six months
of getting to the United States. Both
sides understood the arrangement.

“For all intents and purposes, I did



go through the immigration process on
my own,” Torchinsky-Field said.

When she got to the U.S., she
started pursuing a law degree. Today,
Torchinsky-Field is a corporate lawyer
in a second marriage, one of love, not
convenience. Her parents even joined
her in the United States four years after
her immigration.

While the Ukraine native got out,
many of her friends stayed.

After Russia invaded, she wanted
to book a plane ticket to Poland to
aid refugees. But then she started
talking to other former members of
the Soviet Jewish diaspora in Facebook
small to target the aid.

One partner is the Ukrainian-
American Coordinating Council, the
only U.S. nonprofit to source mili-
tary-grade protective gear like helmets
and vests. Another is Global Surgical,
which sends surgeons and medical
personnel into war zones to provide
care. And the last two partners, Nova
Ukraine and World Central Kitchen,
focus on providing food.

When Torchinsky-Field came to the
U.S., it was HIAS, the Jewish nonprofit
that helps refugees, that paid for her
ticket and connected her with a Jewish
community. All these years later,
“We’re a connector.

The way for people
to understand what
their money is doing.”
VIKTORIYA TORCHINSKY-FIELD
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groups organized around humanitar-
ian efforts. Her compatriots told her,
frankly, it would be selfish to go back.

Another body in Poland is another
body to shelter, another mouth to feed,
they said. Torchinsky-Field realized
they were right, so she took a step back
to consider what else she could do.

One day, she took a walk with friends
and figured it out. An organization that
would help other American Jews, and
Americans in general, dealing with the
same conflict.

They want to do something, but they
don’t want to be a burden, either. They
also aren’t quite sure who to contact.

Torchinsky-Field’s organization
could tell them who to contact.

“We’re a connector,” she said. “The
way for people to understand what
their money is doing.”
The Philadelphia-Ukraine Rapid
Response is not partnering with a ros-
ter full of nonprofits; Torchinsky-Field
wants to keep the number of partners
Torchinsky-Field is a board observer
for HIAS PA, and she listened in on a
call after this war broke out.

HIAS PA leaders said they wanted
to help both Jewish and non-Jewish
refugees, and Torchinsky-Field’s orga-
nization is taking the same approach to
people still in Ukraine.

“There’s no state-sponsored discrim-
ination anymore,” Torchinsky-Field
said of Jews in Ukraine. “So we’re help-
ing everyone who’s in trouble.”
On March 23, she held a webinar
with 140 people to spread the word
about her organization’s mission.

Karina Sutnik, a friend of
Torchinsky-Field’s and a partner in
this effort, said the corporate lawyer is
very convincing.

“She’s remarkable at how she rallied
people,” Sutnik said.

To figure out how you can help, visit
UkraineResponse.org. JE
jsaffren@midatlanticmedia.com ®
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