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£1.2m raised for Jewish students and orphans forced to flee war-torn Odessa
“Some roads had been bombed. We saw some crashes”
March 3, 2022 11:41
“Some roads had been bombed. We saw some crashes”
March 3, 2022 11:41A UK appeal has raised £1.2 million for the Tikva Jewish orphanage and schools, whose students fled war-torn Odessa in 14 buses and embarked on an exhausting journey to a safer location near the Carpathian Mountains.
Tikva evacuated around 400 children and others last week. A further 50 were still on the road on Tuesday.
Around 80 of those involved in Tikva have managed to cross over borders into neighbouring nations. But most are either wards of the state or men of conscription age and so cannot legally leave.
Trustee and CEO Refael Kruskal told the JC that a bomb blast last week “less than a half-mile from the girls’ home shook the girls tremendously.
“As soon as the shelling happened next to the girls’ orphanage, I decided we had to evacuate immediately at seven o’clock in the morning on Friday. We were going to take everyone out of Odessa.”
In wartime conditions, the cost was significantly higher and with severe traffic jams, one bus took 27 hours to make a journey that would typically take 16 hours. With travel becoming ever more difficult, another was on the road for 36 hours before reaching Tikva’s new location, a summer camp near the mountain range.
“We tried to stay together but it became more and more difficult as the drivers were panicking, the people were panicking and the fire [coming from] behind,” Mr Kruskal reported.
“Some roads had been bombed. We saw some crashes in different places.
“There were some places which had been mined by Ukrainians because they wanted to hamper the speed of the Russian invasion.”
Particularly emotional was the group being able to make kiddush on Friday.
“It’s so surreal and so different from anything which we know about in 2022, standing at a petrol station on Friday night with 400 lost people,” Mr Kruskal added. “And babies crying.
“Suddenly people were weeping. It was a very difficult and moving moment, certainly for us as the community leaders but also for the people around.”
He had comforted small children who burst into tears after seeing him with a suitcase when he was moving his belongings from one room to another.
“They didn’t believe I was actually staying with them. The fear of abandonment; the fear of being alone in this time of war.”
He said he had barely slept, given the situation — “it’s a huge burden. However, with the challenges comes strength.”
The UK appeal for Tikva has been administered through the Charity Extra platform and has attracted more than 2,000 donors.
But Karen Bodenstein, chief executive of Tikva’s UK support charity, said that “due to the difficulties of a war economy, the cost of essential items such as bedding, generators, food and security are rising at alarming rates.
“Our costs are currently at $2 million [£1.5 million] and rising. We are very concerned about the safety of our children who remain in Ukraine and we implore anyone who can donate to please do so. We must ensure that the team on the ground have everything they need to keep our children and community of young families and elderly safe.”