Tagged Ukraine’s Jews

Op-Ed: For Ukraine Jews, Purim holiday merely a respite

A heavily damaged hotel near the airport in Donetsk, Ukraine, Feb. 26, 2015. Jews still living in the embattled city have become enormously dependent on foreign assistance, according to the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. (Andrew Burton/Getty Images)
March 5, 2015 / Alan H. Gill, JTA

NEW YORK (JTA) — Jewish perseverance, and more than a bit of chutzpah, lies at the heart of the Purim holiday we celebrate this week. It is one of the reasons we are instructed to mark this raucous holiday with boundless joy and why thousands of Ukrainian Jews, despite… Read more »

Giant Ukraine JCC provides shelter from the storm — in style
October 1, 2014 / Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA
A rendering of the Menorah Center in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, which is said to be the largest Jewish community center in Europe. (Jewish Community of Dneproperovsk)

DNEPROPETROVSK, Ukraine (JTA) — Five months into the war that turned him into a refugee in his own country, Jacob Virin has already attended 20 Jewish weddings — including those of his son and two other relatives — at the $100 million JCC of Dnepropetrovsk. Towering over the skyline… Read more »

Ukraine Jews hunkering down amid turmoil
February 25, 2014 / Talia Lavin and Cnaan Liphshiz, JTA
Alena Druzhynina of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, pictured above in white helmet, entered the tense Independent Square area of Kiev on Feb. 22 to bring a package of food to an 82-year-old pensioner who had been homebound since the worst of the violence began. (JDC)

(JTA) — The turmoil in Ukraine has left one of Europe’s largest Jewish communities on edge. After an outbreak of violence in Kiev last week that left dozens of protesters and policemen dead, President Viktor Yanukovych fled the capital and parliament installed an interim leader to take the still-contested… Read more »