Alina Flora Tiranovenko takes pride in knowing that her work at the matzot factory helps her former community in Odessa enjoy the spirit of Passover despite the challenges of war
At the beginning of the war last year In Odesa, Ukraine, Chabad Rabbi Avraham Wolff and his wife Chaya acted quickly to help their community escape the country. 300 orphans were sent to Germany where they stayed in rented rooms. With the orphanage in Odesa empty, they started a school, complete with a bomb shelter so kids from the local Jewish community had a place to meet and have meals. That school has sustained the children through the war thus far, and the orphans returned a few weeks ago, so the bomb shelter is now the school. It's rare story of courage and hope among all the bleak tales of the year-long war.
When Russia invaded Ukraine, many Jews fled to Israel and other countries. Some of the sick and elderly, however, couldn't leave. As the war enters its second year, CBN News traveled to Ukraine to see how Jewish communities there are surviving. In Odesa, everything is quiet for now, but life is not normal. There are military checkpoints along the highways, sirens sounding at night and sometimes during the day, which keeps people in shelters. Streets remain unlit at night and power is periodically cut to homes and businesses on an almost daily basis.
Whether in Odesa or Mykolaiv, many Jews have been left behind in Ukraine amid the ongoing Russian invasion, including the elderly and Holocaust survivors.
Thousands of Jewish refugees have fled to Israel, while others have remained behind, subject to Russian bombing and a lack of electricity, water and food