Jewish groups provide assistance to Ukrainian Jews

(JNS.org) Jewish organizations have set up emergency assistance for Ukraine’s roughly 200,000-member Jewish community amid ongoing political unrest there.

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) said that it is providing immediate assistance in areas of Kiev, Ukraine’s capital, to ensure that elderly Jews and people with disabilities receive essential supplies at home. JDC staff and volunteers have been providing food packages and medical supplies to these homebound individuals.

“Even as we mourn the loss of life in Ukraine and track ongoing changes throughout the country, we are ensuring emergency services for those in our care and the uninterrupted flow of critical supplies at this challenging time,” said JDC CEO Alan H. Gill.

Natan Sharansky, chairman of the Jewish Agency for Israel, said immediate assistance for Ukrainian Jews would come from the Emergency Assistance Fund for Jewish Communities, established after the 2012 terror attack on a Jewish school in Toulouse, France. The fund helps global Jewish communities handle security concerns.  

Additionally, the Jewish Agency is launching a fundraising campaign to boost the Ukrainian Jewish community’s security.

“We have a moral responsibility to ensure the safety and security of Ukraine’s Jews,” Sharansky said.