Hushed Brooklyn Outfit Rescues Thousands From Ukraine

By Mica Soffer – COLlive Publisher

At 1:00 AM, a group of young Chabad Yeshiva students enters a vacant residential house in Brooklyn’s Crown Heights neighborhood, eager to spend the night in buzzing activity.

They sit down around a table in the dining room, each equipped with cellphones and laptops. For the next few hours, they will be making an endless loop of phone calls and sending texts and emails.

Speaking Russian, Ukrainian, Yiddish, Hebrew and English, they run through names, scenarios, leads, times, locations and compensations.

These students, who study during the daytime at the Central Yeshiva Tomchei Tmimim Lubavitch – 770 Eastern Parkway, are part of an unlikely group that forms what is simply named as the “Ukraine Rescue Mission.”

Since Russia’s President Vladimir Putin declared war on Ukraine, a humanitarian crisis has developed to proportions unseen in recent years. Some 3 million people have fled the country, the U.N. Refugee Agency (UNHCR) said.

With Ukraine defiantly fighting back the invasion, Russian forces bombed Ukrainian cities and villages leaving behind destruction and losses. Jews from these locations sought to evacuate but faced challenges such as transportation, funds and closed off roads.

Stepping in to assist them was an under-the-radar operation from Brooklyn that has not been publicized until now.

To date, this group has funded, sanctioned and transported thousands of Jews to safety out of Ukraine to Romania, Moldova, Germany and Israel. Their success is as surprising as the identity of the people behind it.

When the war broke out and the urgent need was becoming clear, rabbis and leaders of the Sephardic and Syrian Jewish communities in New York, New Jersey, Brazil, Panama and Mexico sprung into action. They quickly launched a fundraiser on RaiseThon, accumulating over $4 million.

Those funds were made available to the Yeshiva students in Crown Heights who spend the Brooklyn nights, when it’s morning in Ukraine, in negotiating with drivers, government and security officials, and community members. The funds allow them to dispatch people to locate lone Jews, arrange for transportation and food, and send convoys of escapees, in midst of war.

TEACHER AND WARRIOR

Coordinating the bochurim’s work and the donors’ plans is Margalit Chudaitov (nee Gozlan), a mother of 6 children and a resident of Crown Heights. The Israeli native runs the Hebrew Department at the Magen David Yeshiva in Flatbush and works at Beth Rivkah High School in Crown Heights.

She was exposed first-hand to the effects of the war, trying to evacuate her teenage son who was a student of the Chabad Yeshiva in Dnipro (previously Dnipropetrov) in central Ukraine.

“When the war started, people started telling me to get my son out,” she told COLlive.com. “I said he should remain with the rest of the bochurim in the Yeshiva. But soon, it became too dangerous and we began making calls to arrange for the yeshiva bochurim and staff to escape.”

That experience has prepared her for the tedious road ahead in helping many others.

“My son and his Yeshiva went by train and then took buses to cross the border,” she recalls. “It took several days. At one point, the bus was stuck for hours on the border. They were the worst hours of my life. Thank G-d, they made it to Germany safely, and they are now learning there.”

Upon arriving in Germany, her son told her about the harrowing experience and shared how they escaped with barely any belongings. It dawned on Mrs. Chudaitov that many of the refugees from Ukraine are in the same situation and are now living with only the shirts on their backs.

Mrs. Chudaitov, her heart aching for those suffering, got together with a friend and collected clothing and other relief items which they sent to the Ukrainian border.

“I was in Ukraine 3 months ago to visit my son and saw the beautiful Jewish community that was built there. It’s like a mini-Israel. They have a Jewish hospital and restaurants, in addition to shuls and schools. It’s hard to believe it is all gone now,” she says.

YESHIVA SOLDIERS

Soon, connections were made between the generous Syrian and Sephardic Jewish communities and the Chabad Shluchim in Ukraine, in a partnership orchestrated by Chudaitov who was able to connect them.

And so began a huge effort to assist thousands of Jewish residents of Ukraine to escape the war-torn country.

Also working on coordinating efforts was Rabbi Lazer Avtzon, Executive Director of the Global Jewish Assistance & Relief Network and local activist. Rabbi Avtzon obtained the use of an empty home and set up a Crown Heights office for the volunteers to work, purchasing computers, desks and chairs, and also providing financial assistance and food daily.

He also set up a second office for female volunteers working out of Machon L’yahadus school, where he provided additional computers and food for the volunteers.

From these offices, volunteers coordinate the many details and logistics of getting people out. Much of the work begins at 1 AM in New York – which is 7 AM in Ukraine when their day is just getting underway.

“Each convoy of buses takes much planning since each trip requires a bus, a driver and gasoline – all of which are scarce and cost a lot of money,” Mrs. Chudaitov explains. “Some cities require working with government officials to get the residents out, since the city is already under Russian rule.”

At first, the cost to rent a bus to the border was $3,000. As the war prolonged, the prices have risen to $5,000 and then $7,000. She says the price is now close to $12,000. All this is in addition to finding qualified and willing drivers. “Many times they will quit after taking on the job due to shooting or bombing in the area,” she says.

Volunteers at the Crown Heights office work on arranging transportation, reaching out to people who need to escape, and helping with legal papers, government connections and anything else needed to get people across the border to freedom.

Mrs. Chudaitov says the volunteers have shown superhuman dedication, working long and demanding hours and not wanting to leave to go home to rest. “They catch short naps in the office before getting back to work,” she describes.

Because many of these volunteers – the Yeshiva students – grew up in Ukraine, they are familiar with the geography, people and agencies to pull off these rescue missions.

A COMMUNITY STEPS FORWARD

None of this would be possible without the funding from the Syrian and Sephardic communities, who have “opened their hearts and their pockets in an unprecedented way,” says Mrs. Chudaitov.

The campaign is being spearheaded by Rabbi Raymond Sultan of the Sephardic Heritage Museum, Rabbi Joey Haber of the Magen David Synagogue in Brooklyn, and Rabbi David Ozeri of the Yad Yosef Torah Center – Birkat Yaacov synagogue in Brooklyn.

Flatbush-based real estate investor Harry Adjmi, who is heavily involved in the mission, estimates the number of those evacuated in the thousands.

“We were on the ground on day one,” he said. “We’ve saved thousands to date and we are committed to continue to help these people to get them to safe passage, to pull them out by busses and vans, town by town, city by city.”

Rabbi Moshe Kotlarsky, Vice Chairman of Merkos L’inyonei Chinuch which oversees the network of Chabad Shluchim worldwide, wrote a personal note to the rabbis behind the operation.

“We thank you from the depths of our hearts for your extreme generosity towards the rescue efforts,” he wrote in a letter shown to COLlive.com.

Quoting the saying that saving a life is equal to saving a universe, Rabbi Kotlarsky wrote: “You have saved many many worlds. May Hashem bless you with all of your heart’s desires for the good with health and happiness and success.”

A STEP AWAY FROM DEATH

Back at the home-office of the rescue mission, every day (and night) is fraught with worry. “We are literally buying people’s freedom,” Mrs. Chudaitov says. “At this point, having money can buy a person’s life. Our line is that we are in a race who will come to a city first – the Russians or us. The operation is increasingly becoming more expensive, dangerous and difficult.”

One example this week was when a woman called about her parents who were too elderly to initially flee. “Their city was being bombed and they had no electricity or water,” she said.

The mission pulled off the impossible and located them. “It took a huge effort to locate them and when I called the woman to tell her that her parents are on the bus out finally, we both were crying hysterically. It was so emotional.”

Another example was when a bus was about to leave the heavily attacked city of Chernihiv (historically known as Chernigov) in northern Ukraine. “As people were getting on the bus, a bomb fell on the building behind them,” she said.

One elderly woman from Kharkiv was unable to walk, so an ambulance was dispatched to drive to the bus, and she had to be placed on a mattress inside the bus. In the town of Nizhyn, 40 people needed to escape – but special connections were needed from the local government since the city has been taken over by the Russians.

On Purim day, Mrs. Chudaitov took a needed respite from the work and joined the Community Purim Bash organized by Bais Shmuel Chabad, of which she and her husband Rachamim Chudaitov are members, at the Oholei Torah Ballroom.

She was seated next to a woman she didn’t know and they began chatting. The woman then introduced her to a relative she had brought along to the party. The relative introduced herself and shared how she had just arrived from Ukraine, having escaped the country during the war.

When Mrs. Chudaitov asked her where she was from and how she had traveled, the relative told her about the bus she had escaped on coordinated by Chabad Shliach Rabbi Yossi Wolff out of Kherson. It was a bus that had been organized by Mrs. Chudaitov…

“The moment was beyond emotional,” she said. “We have been working day and night to help so many people, but this was the first one I had actually met. It was so intense to see the fruits of our work, thank G-d.”

Mrs. Chudaitov says, “People always asked why I sent my son to a Yeshiva in Ukraine. ‘Why there? Aren’t there enough Yeshivas in New York or Israel?’ they asked. Now it is clear. My son learning there gave me the Shlichus to save all these people.”

VIDEO: A broadcast about the Ukraine Rescue Mission

VIDEO: Scenes from a War Zone