The Jewish Federations of North America has been leading the effort to alleviate the refugee crisis that resulted from Russia's invasion of Ukraine. Many American Russian-speaking Jews are taking part in this effort. Below are some of their stories. To learn more about how to get involved, visit the Crisis in Ukraine page.

A Prague journey: The trauma of Russia's Ukraine invasion - opinion | The Jerusalem Post

We Jews draw strength from each other and our history – making layer after layer, standing strong against evil, and caring for our own people and for all others who need our help.

In February, as a licensed clinical social worker and harnessing my experience as chief development and social services officer at New York City’s YM & YWHA of Washington Heights and Inwood, I spent two weeks in Prague, working with Ukrainian refugees in the Czech Republic. During my stay, I wrote the following reflection that details one way the Jewish Community Center Movement, the North American Jewish Federations, and the wider Jewish community are supporting the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Continue reading...

Lessons for Ukrainian Refugees From My Holocaust Survivor Grandparents | Algemeiner

The streets of Budapest are marked by stolpersteine (stumbling stones) and other memorials, recounting the names of Jewish victims of the Holocaust who once filled the streets. Today, thousands of Ukrainian refugees stumble along these stones.

As I walked along these streets and read the names of those who perished, my mind kept drifting between the past and present, from the stories of my grandparents’ survival through the Holocaust to my own circumstances that led me to volunteer with Ukrainian refugees. It was on the soil of Budapest, volunteering with Ukrainian refugees, that my life has come full circle. Continue reading...

Just Outside Warsaw Ghetto, Ukrainian Refugee Children Strive for a Sense of Normalcy | JNS

It was the summer of 2006, during the Second Lebanon War. Ilana Baird, a refugee from the Soviet Union, fled Haifa with her family and relocated to Jerusalem, where she was finishing her rabbinical studies. Living with strangers who took in her family, Baird watched the TV every day, wanting to see if her home was still standing as Hezbollah rained down rockets on the port city. All of this was happening while Baird tried to care for her 5-year-old twins while school was out. Continue reading...

I Was a Russian-speaking Jew From Kyiv. Now, I Am Ukrainian | HAARETZ

It wasn't until I watched the bombs raining down on my home city of Kyiv that I began to identify as a Ukrainian. I have not lived in Kyiv for 25 years, but it is where I ran to school as a little girl, attended university, and took my first professional steps. It is where I buried my mother and married my husband. Continue reading...