By Efrat Lechter
After close to 400 thousand people in the Ukraine lost their homes and the lives of millions more changed beyond recognition following the Russian invasion, the Jewish community in the old synagogue in Odessa, which has already seen the evil of humanity, is trying to hold on to the hope that peace will still come. And still – due to increased fighting in the area, including sirens and bombings that shook the walls of homes in the middle of the night – Rabbi Avremi Wolf, Shliach and the Chief Rabbi of Odessa and Southern Ukraine tells anyone who asks him, “If you can leave, get up and go.”
“There is no reason to be in a place of danger for no purpose,” explains Rabbi Wolf, who cares for the Jewish community of Odessa, which in normal times numbers approximately 35 thousand people. Up until the invasion, the local synagogue was packed full, but now, after he helped thousands escape Odessa and with more than half of the community having become refugees, the seats in the synagogue are mostly empty and Avremi remains with his wife, Chaya, and their children, as part of their mission which they began in the 1990s.
Regarding the call to leave, Rabbi Wolf says, “We are doing what we do in a way that will not hurt the morale of those who remained because they were unable to leave. One because he has a sickly, elderly mother, little children who cannot travel, those who have no passport . . .” But not only those. They can’t evacuate everyone. The streets are barricaded and the main problem now is not only when will the Russian invasion of the city will take place, but also how to survive the siege they are already experiencing. “It is extremely problematic evacuate people, very difficult to manage the entire operation. We have 120 children in the orphanage, 50 Holocaust survivors in the Seniors Home, 600 children in the school and kindergarten,” explains Rabbi Wolf, adding that, “the situation is moving towards a food shortage and famine.”
Famine, nothing less – in the wheat silos of Europe that supply the State of Israel with grain. There is going to be a shortage here – no supplies. Everything has come to a standstill and within the next ten days this is going to turn into a humanitarian saga. Rabbi Wolf does consider leaving – he has a community to manage and an orphanage to run, but still – how will they survive? “We equipped ourselves in advance with large amounts of water and quantities of flour, volumes of . . . but these supplies are waning.”
We met Rebbetzin Chaya Wolf in the Chabad House, where she introduced us to her “family,” a home with 120 Jewish orphaned children who were abandoned. Among the friends in the “family” is Tuvia, a baby less than five weeks old. “This is a child who does not cry,” says the Rebbetzin. “This is a child who feels unwanted. It is heartbreaking.”
“How do you plan on safeguarding the children,” we asked, and the Wolfs replied, “We need miracles. We doven to HaKadosh Baruch Hu. That’s why we are here. That is why we cannot get up, take our own eight children and say, ‘I saved myself.’ That is not an option. These are our children and we are responsible for them. We are with them and we do everything we can to make it possible.”
