ON THE COVER
TEMPLE ISRAEL put together a Help from Afar Fund, which will go directly to individuals and communities in Ukraine. Donate at www.temple-israel.org/form/ help-from-afar-ukraine.html.
YEVGENIYA GAZMAN @YGAZM
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TOP: People from all over Metro Detroit gathered Downtown to show solidarity with Ukraine.
Let’s Talk About Ukraine
Cherry and Rabbi Ariel Markovitch and their children
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MARCH 10 • 2022
M
y sister and her husband, Cherry and Rabbi Ariel Markovitch, are one of more than 30 Chabad emissaries in Kyiv and more than 200 in Ukraine. After three days of continuous attacks, Rabbi Yisrael they successfulPinson ly escaped from Kyiv with their three children and crossed the border to Romania. They are currently living with my parents, the Chabad emissaries in Nice, France. Since they landed in France last week, they are working around the clock helping members of their community to leave Ukraine. At the same time, they are working nonstop to get supplies and food to those who are still stranded and are under continuous cur-
CAMPAIGN FOR UKRAINE In response to the crisis, the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Detroit, working with the Jewish Federation of North America and their international partners, JDC, JAFI and World ORT, opened a Ukraine Emergency Fund campaign to provide rescue and relief for the 200,000 Jews in Ukraine. The funds will be used to support temporary housing for those fleeing violence, care for homebound older adults, food, medication and supplies, security for Jewish institutions and other critical services. For Federation, it means a lot to help Ukrainian Jewry in the face of the crisis. “The Jewish Federation, through its Annual Campaign, has been taking care of our global
few conditions with no access to food. The situation changes with every minute. FAMILY TIES I last visited Kyiv in 2019. My family roots there run deep. My great-grandfather Nachum Pinson studied in the famous Chabad Yeshiva as a teenager in the town of Lubavitch under the guidance of the fifth and sixth Rebbes. He raised a beautiful family in the town of Charkov and made a living as a businessman. In 1939 he was arrested by the KGB for the sin of giving his kids a Jewish education and living an observant Jewish life. He was sent to the gulags in Siberia where he perished from famine and exhaustion at the young age of 57. A cousin sent me a newly discovered KGB file about Nachum and his three friends that were arrested at the same time.