Help the Jewish Refugee Response in Vienna
Many Jewish-Ukrainian Refugees have sought safety in Vienna and the Jewish Russian-speaking Community of Vienna (JRCV) are assisting more than 500 Jewish refugees who need accommodation, meals, and schooling. See the personal and urgent message below from Rabbi Moshe Kolomoitsev, Director of the JRCV, for further details of their activities and the need for this appeal. JRCV’s activities have also been reported on Chabad.org News.”
Jewish-Ukrainian refugees are arriving in the city every day and JRCV expect hundreds more to require accommodation, meals and ongoing support. They also need funding to arrange more bus transportation from the borders of Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Romania, especially for the elderly and infirm, who cannot otherwise travel to the city safely. Please make a much-needed and urgent donation to enhance JRCV’s Jewish Refugee Response. Every cent will help and will be directed to the needs of those Jewish refugees who have sought safe haven in Vienna from the devastating war in Ukraine.
All donations of $2 or more to this urgent appeal are tax-deductible in Australia.
Further info contact email the co-ordinator, Michael Rosenfeld at this address: jrcvappeal.au@gmail.com
A personal and urgent message from the Director of JRCV, regarding this appeal:
Dear Friends,
Many Jewish-Ukrainian Refugees have arrived in Vienna, some with our help and co-ordination, and we have begun to assist more than 500 Jewish refugees who need accommodation, meals, and support. My wife, Rebbetzin Dina, and I have received hundreds of calls from Jewish families fleeing Ukraine. In response, our community has funded and organized bus transportation from the borders of Moldova, Poland, Hungary and Romania, to facilitate their entry to Vienna. Each trip takes some 14 hours. This transportation has been of particular help to the elderly and infirm.
Having been born and raised in Ukraine myself, I feel deeply for their plight. In co-operation with other Jewish communities in the city, our Russian-speaking Jewish Community in Vienna is working hard to meet the logistical challenges of welcoming and assimilating these refugees. Many are housed in apartments and hotel rooms at no cost because of the generosity of local people, businesses and the local Bukharian Jewish community. We have organised communal meals at designated locations, three times daily, at no charge. We have also organised volunteers and funded the provision of some staff, where the refugees are accommodated, to offer further support for their daily needs. Schooling of refugee children is also being supported through our activities. Over the recent Purim holiday, our community organised festivities attended by around 400 Jewish refugees.
As you could imagine, to maintain such an influx of people has been very resource intensive. While financial assistance is provided by the municipality of Vienna and the umbrella organization of the Jewish community in Vienna, the Israelitische Kultusgemeinde (IKG), we need much more funding to meet the daily demands. More and more Jewish-Ukrainian refugees are arriving in the city every day and we expect hundreds more to require accommodation, meals and ongoing support. We also need funding to arrange further bus transportation from the borders of those countries mentioned.
The Chai Foundation in Australia has generously offered to assist our urgent fundraising campaign. I am hoping that you may be able to support our refugee response with a donation of whatever you can make. Every cent will certainly help and will be directed to the needs of those Jewish refugees who have sought safe haven in Vienna from the devastating war in Ukraine.
In advance, thank you for your generosity.
Most sincerely,
Rabbi Moshe Kolomoitsev
Adar Sheni, 5782 March, 2022. www.jrcvienna.com