Jewish charities co-ordinate eff orts

Charities raise more than £3m for refugees

The Jewish community continued to rally to raise funds this week for Ukrainians impacted by Russia’s invasion, with ORT UK announcing a partnership with World Jewish Relief (WJR), writes Jeremy Last.

On Tuesday, ORT broke with protocol by urging its donors to support WJR’s Ukraine Crisis Appeal rather than give directly to ORT. Yesterday, WJR said its campaign has so far raised more than £3 million.

With Jews and non-Jews across Ukraine continuing to su er from the bombardment by Russian forces, ORT decided that teaming up with WJR would be the most e ective way of helping its Ukrainian community. ORT has a strong presence in Ukraine, where it has been operating for 25 years. It provides education to 8,000 students, sta and families in Ukraine via its schools and training centres.

Currently, all ORT’s schools and training centres in Ukraine are closed.

Dan Rickman, CEO of ORT UK, said: “Given the extreme situation, our current priority is to ensure that the emergency needs of our Ukrainian community are being served. It is for this reason that we have made the decision to partner with World Jewish Relief, in support of its Ukraine Crisis Appeal.”

WJR is proactively working with its 29 partners in Ukraine and is responding to emergency humanitarian needs within and beyond Jewish communities.

The WJR campaign has already had a strong impact across Ukraine. The charity said it has been providing cash transfers, food and medical equipment to residents, continuing home care and providing psychological support and assisting its partners to evacuate vulnerable people where it is safe to do so.

It has also sent specialists from its humanitarian and refugee teams to Poland and Moldova to support its partners in expanding their capacity to assist refugees fl eeing Ukraine.

In Krakow, WJR is assisting the Jewish Community Centre, helping it to support incoming Ukrainian refugees with safe spaces for women and children, an information hub and accommodation. And in Kyiv, WJR is supporting organisations procuring and hand-delivering food and hot meals to Ukrainians hampered by blockades around the city.

Rickman added: “We know how unusual it is for a charity to ask its donors to consider donating to another charity, but these are unusual times.

“None of us know how long this situation will continue, but as soon as we are able to, ORT will focus on rebuilding our Jewish schools in Ukraine. In the meantime, we’ll also continue to fundraise for ORT’s educational projects around the globe and in the UK.

“ORT UK fully believe that by uniting with the agency best placed to deliver and provide aid, we can ensure that our ORT ben-

‘WE TOOK IN KINDER BUT TURN AWAY UKRAINIANS’

Boris Johnson has ruled out dispensing with checks on Ukrainian refugees attempting to fl ee to the UK from their war-ravaged country, telling MPs this would “expose this country to unnecessary security risks”.

Liberal Democrat leader Sir Ed Davey told the prime minister in the Commons yesterday that “in the months before World War II, the UK took in more than 60,000 Jewish refugees fl eeing Nazi persecution.”

Davey also noted that thousands of Ugandans expelled by former leader Idi Amin, Tamils escaping civil war, Bosnians and Syrians had been welcomed into the UK, but the Home O ce was now “turning away hundreds of Ukranian refugees escaping Putin because they did not have the right paperwork”.

The Lib Dem leader then added: “Can you, prime minister, not see this fl ies in the face of this country’s proud tradition of providing sanctuary?”

Responding, Johnson insisted that what Davey had said about the UK was “completely wrong”, adding that “no one has been turned away”.

He pointed to the refugees from Afghanistan, the applications to settle in the UK from Hong Kong Chinese and the thousands of Syrians who had arrived here.

Johnson then added: “It is important to have checks, let me make this clear.

“People need to understand, there are some people who would like to dispense with checks altogether... simply to wave people thorough.

“I have got to say I do think that is irresponsible and I do not think that is the approach we should be taking.

“We must in no doubt… we know how unscrupulous Vladimir Putin can be.

“It would not be right to expose this country to unnecessary security risks.”

Charities raise more than £3m for refugees

Ukrainian families flee west, away from the fighting

efi ciaries will receive the help they urgently require.”

WJR’s CEO Paul Anticoni thanked ORT for its support. “The coming together of so many of our communal agencies to champion our appeal is immense and in this unique moment, ORT UK’s assistance is truly wonderful. I cannot thank its trustees, sta and supporters enough to be with us at such a traumatic time.

Synagogues across the country came together to collect and pack supplies to be sent to Ukrainians in Ukraine, Poland and other countries.

At Pinner Synagogue, members packaged up bags of goods for humanitarian aid charity Goods for Good,to be sent by lorry to Ukraine. And Barnet United Synagogue said it raised £4,000 for humanitarian aid. It has also collected £2,000 in supplies to be sent directly to refugees of the ongoing crisis. The goods will be distributed by Polish and Romanian organisations to the borders with Ukraine to those who escaped across.

Barnet United’s Rabbi Dr Samuel Landau said he was “overwhelmed by the generosity of people”.

He said: “We must do as much as we can to help people when they are in distress and need: it is part of our Jewish values. Barnet Synagogue is praying hard for the wellbeing and safety of everyone in Ukraine.”

Meanwhile, a charity launched by two Jewish teachers in London fi lled a lorry with supplies to Poland to be distributed to Ukrainian refugees close to the border.

The goods, including clothing, bedding and hygiene items, was due to be handled by Chabad in Warsaw with the vehicle set to leave on Monday. It was organised by Give. Help. Share, set up in 2020 by Borehamwood teachers Amanda Barbanel and Jacqueline Harris. Barbanel said: “Seeing children evacuated on trains feels all too familiar. It’s heartbreaking and we felt compelled to do something.”

An organisation representing a group of Holocaust survivors and their families made a substantial donation to help Ukrainians in need.

The ’45 Aid Society, founded by Sir Ben Helfgott, said it had donated £10,732 to WJR’s Ukraine appeal.

WJR, then known as the Central British Fund, was instrumental in bringing over the group of survivors, known as The Boys. The 732 is symbolic as it represents the number of Boys that WJR helped to bring to the UK after liberation.

A ’45 Aid Society statement read: “The Boys continue to be grateful to WJR for helping them to heal and start new lives and now feel it is their time to give fi nancial support to help WJR in their vital work in the Ukraine.”

Angela Cohen, chairman of the ’45 Aid Society, said: “We have given a donation to [WJR’s] Ukraine Crisis Appeal, as our Boys remember only too well what it felt like being a refugee, losing members of your family and having to fl ee because of war with nowhere to go.”

HUNGARY - 200,000

SLOVAKIA - 150,000

MOLDOVA - 90,000

ROMANIA - 85,000 POLAND - 1,300,000