Editor’s Note: In the following article by community leader and JCFR Board Member Sam Revenson, he shares perspectives on a recent visit to Ukraine, including to our sister city of Zaporizhia. Ukraine is besieged with its 4th year of war marked by ongoing missile strikes, including recent damage at the local Mazel Tov JCC. Along with our JDC partners, the Federation continues to provide critical support for the community. Their resiliency continues to astonish, even celebrating Jewish holidays via Zoom.
(Above) This photo of Sam Revenson hugging a senior citizen is representative of an expression of thanks, especially with older folks who were more than appreciative of the individual from the American Jewish Community who traveled thousands of miles to share that they are not forgotten in this moment what may be the most difficult year of this war to date.
By Sam Revenson
Ask any Jewish American: “Where did your family come from when they immigrated to America?” Perhaps 50% will say they came from that part of the world before the Soviet Union began - from Belarus Russia, Poland, Romania, Lithuania, Hungary, Moldova, Georgia. At the center of it all is Ukraine. We call it Eastern Europe.
Our Richmond Jewish Community has its own special Sister City relationship of more than a dozen years with Zaporizhia - a city on the main river of Ukraine, the Dnieper River. It’s about an hour’s drive from Dnipro, which has an even larger Jewish Community that is based out of an amazing and large building made to look like a Menorah called The Menorah Center. Each of the Jewish Communities work together based on proximity. As does Kryvyi Ri, a smaller community that’s also an easy driving distance.
Ukraine is where ‘Fiddler on the Roof’ is based. This is the land of Sholom Aleichem, the Baal Shem Tov, the beginnings of Hassidism and other Jewish historical sites. The cities we may have heard of - Kiev and Odessa - from our Grandparents or listed on immigration papers.
Ukraine is one of the countries of the Former Soviet Union. Each country now seeks democracy and market economies. The food is fantastic; the people are friendly; it’s an exciting period of change. With current exchange rates, your dollars go a long way. When you visit Ukraine’s Jewish Communities, the organizations, acronyms, and movements are familiar: JCC, Hillel, AJT (think BBYO), JFS, and as well Holocaust Museums.
As you can imagine, it’s both a unique and difficult time to visit Ukraine because of the unprecedented war that is now in its fourth year. What makes this war different is not just the David vs Goliath metaphor, but rather the dramatic change in how this war has changed from past technologies to current and future technologies. From large numbers of tanks, guns, and soldiers to a transition to drones of various types, human controlled rolling robots that shoot guns or explode (not the humanoid kind), and AI. From traditional battlefields to the majority of attacks on civilian targets, infrastructure, and populated cities.
As you can imagine, not a lot of American civilians are visiting currently. While Jewish Communities in Ukraine continue to be vibrant, active, with many people to serve; they also feel isolated from the outside world. Against this backdrop, I visited five Jewish Communities in Ukraine and in the capital of Moldova another; for a total of six Jewish Communities visited the last days of May into in June. The travel and land journey was almost three weeks. The length was determined by the number of cities visited.
Since 2020, first there was COVID, which was followed by the war. Many people from Richmond had visited before and during 2019, including myself. But for six years, and for good reasons, this continuity had not happened.
Why? The purpose of such a journey today is twofold: To provide a human and personal representation of the support our community in Richmond, and the Jewish Community as a whole wants our Jewish People in Ukraine to feel and experience - even if it cannot be on a larger basis at this time.
Secondly, and just as valuable, a journey is important to listen and learn, to see and witness. To understand the needs of today and going forward, and to hopefully communicate this here in the time ahead.
How? What were the methods, the precautions and the manner of a trip at this time could be accomplished in 2026? I am fortunate to have developed a strong network of Ukrainian relationships over the last nine years. I traveled with Oksana Stakhnevych -who many of you met while she was a refugee from Zaporizhia living with her family in Richmond. She too is well connected in the FSU Jewish communal world.
Thank You JDC and Chabad Rabbis
A strong thank you must also be directed to JDC; the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. They uniquely enhanced this journey by making available and scheduling all of their local contacts in each Jewish Community. I also want to thank the Chabad Rabbis I met in several cities. Their amazing work and strength gave me strength and added an extra layer of comfort on these travels.
We also had the benefit of a SUV vehicle from the Stakhnevych family that Oksana had used in January for a similar journey to Zaporizhia. Did we shelter from time to time? Yes. Did we use all local information resources possible? Yes. Did we stay in hotels that had the best possible shelters in that community that were highly recommended? Yes. Was I inconvenienced once in a while? Maybe.
The positives were simply off the charts. The learning was beyond expectations. Can it all be shared in one article? Impossible.
One important subject that must be addressed is their fundamental area of need - Trauma support. Most, if not all of us, have had sad and difficult life experiences involving loss of one kind or another. Imagine having such loss experiences week-after- week; possibly day-after-day, for four plus years. While we may learn to cope and find ways to get on with our day-to- day life here in U.S., we also have trauma of one kind or another.
Special Trauma Centers
At the Zaporizhia JCC and other major city JCC’s in Ukraine, special Trauma Centers have been created in the last year and staffed thanks to JDC. These centers are successful. I’ve now seen their work firsthand.
As you can imagine, what is also important and valuable is getting a respite - a break from the day-to-day life of war experiences. For Trauma support, there are two options. One is to go to what we would describe as overnight camps outside of the cities in the beautiful countrysides of Ukraine. Here the war is minimal at best, it’s peaceful and less costly than the second alternative - camps outside of Ukraine.
This photo is from a dedicated room for sensory therapy as part of the Trauma Center based inside of the MazalTov JCC in Zaporizhia. Here, Sam Revenson joined in on a tour being provided to various humanitarian agencies in Zaporizhia so that they too can learn from the Mazal Tov JCC. JDC has set up five such Trauma Centers in Ukraine. Zaporizhia being an important city for treating trauma has such an important center. Additionally, there were other facilities and dedicated staff for treatment.
Outside of Ukraine is the complete absence of war. However, the journey to get to these camps, whether Szarvas Camp in Hungary or another out of country camp, it is long and takes days, which cuts into the total time away from the cities. Both have their positives; funding often determines how many can receive these opportunities. Each option seeks funding from different sources and grants. Locally, the same questions exist, the ever-present questions of how best to fund those in need.
With this article, there are just some of the photos from my journey. I look forward to sharing more about life today with the perspective of having been there before. Feel free to reach out individually or in groups to me samrevenspm@gmail.com.
All of this starts and ends with our Federation. The dollars you contribute to the Annual Campaign literally saves lives not only locally but in countries like Ukraine and in cities such as Zaprorizhia. I have seen firsthand the impacts.
I am also pleased to report that 75 displaced Ukrainian families in Richmond have received services from the JFS Richmond, Federation’s partner since 2022 in this effort – made possible, in part, by the Annual Campaign.
From generation to generation and from strength to strength we sustain Jewish life and Jewish Communities wherever there are Jewish People.
(Above) In spite of the war life continues. These are elementary age children receiving their lessons in a Jewish School in Odessa. In this class a student asked to see my US Passport to prove I was from the US. It was amazing to them as it was for others to receive such a visit in these times.
(Above) Doing a JDC Home Visit. Such visits can be a wellness visit, delivery of needs and care packages with food, or care giver and/or Social Worker visits. Here in Chisinau Moldova we visited refugees from Zaporizhia. The mother is 85, her daughter in her 50’s. They share a small one room everything but the kitchen and bathroom apartment.
