With the thousands of illegals crashing over our Southern border each and every day and among these illegals, an untold number, diseased and other criminals, many disappearing into our country to continue their activities among us, we wonder, perhaps foolishly: “Why not transport Ukrainian Jewish refugees (real refugees!) to Mexico and have them enter our country, ready to become true Americans for life?” They would truly appreciate the opportunity to become working, contributing, loyal American citizens. Crazy, but it makes you think: Where is the American Jewish communities’ concern for their Ukrainian brothers and sisters not to press specifically for Jewish refugees to be admitted here in any manner, before they are slaughtered?
Prior to the Russian invasion, Ukraine was home to one of the world’s largest Jewish communities, an estimated 350,000 Jews, now threatened by war. It is the birthplace of some of Judaism’s most distinctive ideologies and traditions. The Hassidic movement emerged out of Ukraine. Rabbi Menachem Schneerson was born in the town of Kikolaev.
We wonder then, and this needs repeating; why the myriad of our own supposedly Jewish organizations, many of whom earlier trumpeted the need for and contributed to the importation into the U.S., of Syrian, Afghan and other Muslim refugees from their war torn lands, haven’t, to our ears, yet murmured the thought of resettling Ukrainian Jews in our own communities? The former Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, now shamefully, officially called, HIAS, has, for years gotten paid a pretty penny for bringing in Muslims from the Mid-East. To our knowledge, they have ceased working to aid Jews.
Yet they still seek Jewish funds by hawking their, “HIAS Haggadah” which merely tells of their concern for “refugees,” in general. Hadassah, in an article published in The Times of Israel, written by one of its board members, Patricia Levinson, tells the heartening story of how Hadassah has rushed aid to Ukraine, not specifically to help Jews medically or to help them flee the dangers of the country to safer havens such as Israel or the U.S. They are, “humanitarian.” They help everyone. If you take in Jewish donations, why not focus on Jewish needs? We ask, why should Jews contribute to such a “Jewish” Red Cross?
But we are heartened by stories emerging from this horror, of the heroism of Chabad and the State of Israel working to save Ukraine’s Jewish population from another Holocaust. Chaba Rabbi Avraham Wolff and his wife, Chaya, recently helped their whole orphanage of over 80 children, plus another 150 mothers and children escape to Berlin. Other Chabad orphanages managed to bring their wards to safety in Poland.
They are brave, caring and should be lauded for their holy work to save Jews. Israel’s ambassador and consul to Romania, David Saranga and Roni Shabtai, organized an operation to rescue some 100 Jewish children from an orphanage into Romania. Jews helping Jews. Who else cares? We should have learned our lessons during WWII when American Jews were silent. That’s how Holocausts happen. In closing, we admit we never knew of any Jewish orphanages in Ukraine or anywhere else. Why have not Jewish couples been made aware of this and given the opportunities to welcome these kids lovingly into their homes? We hope this wakes us up, sadly, to the seemingly never-ending needs of Jews around the world and our responsibility to meet them…head on. Let’s finally wake p!!!
