Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Polish Jews Send Passover Aid to Ukraine

Members of the Jewish community of Warsaw donated food to Jews celebrating Passover in western Ukraine.

The 200-pound shipment arrived from Warsaw to Lviv on Friday, and from there was transported to Ivano-Frankivsk, a nearby city whose Jewish community experienced a shortage in goods ahead of the holiday, Poland’s chief rabbi, Michael Schudrich, told JTA.

Since the fall of communism, the Jewish communities of Poland and Ukraine received millions of dollars in aid from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC, and other Jewish welfare bodies.

The financial situation of Jewish communities in Ukraine deteriorated recently due to instability that paralyzed the country’s market and was connected to a bloody revolution that resulted in the ousting from power of former president Viktor Yanukovych.

“After decades of only receiving generosity of others, we are gratified that now we can also extend help to those who are in greater need than ourselves,” Schudrich said on Sunday. “Personally this has a very special meaning to me since my Grandmother, Clara Brill Schudrich, came from Ivano-Frankivsk (then Stanislow).”

Anna Chipczynska, the newly elected president of the Jewish Community of Warsaw, said the members of her community feel that “this is our obligation to help those in need, especially a Jewish community so close to Poland.”

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.