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OctOber 29, 2015 | the Jewish Home
The Jewish Home | MARCH 31, 2022
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my mISSIon to HelP ouR SIblIngS In ukRaIne By Shoshana Rockoff
It
was 1 pm on a Friday afternoon when I closed Yeshiva University’s Zoom call informing us of everything we could possibly bring to Vienna for the Ukrainian refugees. It was crunch time, and we, the student volunteers, had until Shabbos and a little bit of Sunday to gather toys, games, costumes, crafts, Judaica, technology and medicines for the refugees. I was in Cleveland for a teaching fellowship at the time and racked my brain as to how I could fill one duffle bag by Sunday. I drafted up a text to send around to a few communal group chats and asked one of my siblings to put a small box outside my front door in the Five Towns to gather donations. Doubtful as to how this method of collection would fill even half a duffle bag, I sent out another text to the community in Cleveland informing them of my mission as well. What unfolded from the click of a button exceeded all of my expectations. Within minutes of sending out the text, my phone exploded with messages about different kinds of donations, as well as invitations by store owners to come to their warehouses and take what was necessary for the refugees. My siblings texted me around the clock that the box outside my house in the Five Towns was overflowing and needed to be taken in every few minutes. Schools in the community started mobilizing drives where students gathered around sorting, packaging and labeling duffle bags. I came home to a house covered in donations, and my expectation of a mere halffilled duffle bag was beautifully proven wrong; there ended up being around 50 duffle bags filled with goods for refugees halfway across the world. We couldn’t even fit all of the duffle bags in our car and needed the help of extended family to make shifts loading and unloading duffle bags from donation sites. I was able to bring a significant amount of the duffles to Vienna, and we are working on getting the rest of them out to other refugee missions. Almost two weeks later, I’m still amazed at how quickly people rose to the occasion. Witnessing the donation turnover was almost as impactful as the trip that followed. I saw firsthand the great lengths that people will go to in order to help another person in need. There is no nation like Am Yisrael, and this was my first taste of that on this mission. It also taught me that it is crucial to never underestimate what you are capable of achieving and making happen. Even before my trip, which in its own right was so impactful, I was changed by this community, a community that I am so proud to be a part of. Even more so, I am humbled by our community’s willingness to help without fully grasping where our help was going to. Many of us have written letters to soldiers or packed food packages for a family in need, but we don’t get to see the look on their faces as they read those letters or open those packages. It is the ultimate chessed to send without complete knowledge of the destination, but every so often it can give people a little boost to see where the fruits of their labor are headed. As someone who had the special privilege of seeing where your donations ended up, I would
love to share some highlights, lessons and pictures from my experiences in Vienna. Words are limiting, but I will try as best as I can to share with you all what I learned this past week about the resilience and kindness of humanity, the ability to change lives and worlds, and the unique connection of the Jewish people.
Real PeoPle, Real StoRIeS Before this trip, when I heard the words “Ukrainian refugees,” I pictured tears and the blurry faces of people miles away. After this mission, I can say that I now picture Avital, Leora, Gabi, Adele, Emily and Chaya Malka, a few of the many people I had the privilege of forming connections with. Although we didn’t speak the same language, broken Hebrew was common ground in order to connect with one another; for those who didn’t speak Hebrew at all, hand motions and gestures were key. Despite language and cultural barriers, I felt really connected to each person I met. Perhaps I even connected to them more deeply because I had to put in so much effort to form a bond without relying on words alone. Avital, a 10-year-old girl who escaped Ukraine with her pregnant mother and four sisters, is strong willed and developed an entourage of 10-year-old friends and fellow refugees who followed her wherever she went. Leora has such a chein to her, and although a little timid and shy, she insisted that I find her a bunny costume for Purim amongst the plethora of donations (which B”H we found in no time thanks to you guys). Gabi loves candy, and everywhere she goes she wears her sparkly wheely sneakers that the other kids admire. Adele is Gabi’s older sister, and she clearly makes it her responsibility to help her mother look out for her younger siblings. Emily has the most contagious laugh and was insistent on keeping her Purim costume a surprise from the other children (she ended up being a cheerleader). Chaya Malka, who made peace signs in every selfie we took, doesn’t speak Hebrew but would laugh hysterically when I misunderstood her hand gestures. When we arrived in Vienna, our first mission was to sort and organize the bags full of donations that we had brought for the refugees (from you!). Dispersed amongst
the clothes, toys, games and technology were letters written by American children to give to the Ukrainian children. That night after eating dinner with the refugees, Leora and I sat down to color together. I was brought back to my own home where I had sat with my own sister Leora just a day before while she colored cards for the Ukrainian children. The contrast between the lives of these two Leoras was striking. My Leora lives in a comfortable and happy home and neighborhood; this little girl Leora had just ran away from her home and everything she ever knew. My Leora has friends who also dressed as cheerleaders for Purim and who also wear sparkly wheely sneakers, but her friends drew the “thinking of you cards” while the Ukrainian children who dressed as cheerleaders and wore cool sneakers received them. Leora’s sister even asked me “what hotel I’m living in now.” For them, abnormality has become the new normal.
PuRIm Using all of your costume donations, we set up a “Purim pop up shop” where all of the children could choose whatever they liked. I will never forget the look on these children’s faces as they walked around the Purim party in their Purim costumes. I had watched those very costumes travel from attics in America, to a bin at my front door, into a duffle bag, and then flown overseas to Austria. They were people’s “Purim themes” from years ago, that costume in the basement that no one had looked at or thought about in years. To these refugees, however, these costumes were light in the darkest of times. They made little girls feel like princesses and little boys feel like policemen. I can’t begin to express the joy of bending down to place a crown on a girl’s head who just days before had to flee her home in Ukraine. In that moment I was also reminded of how much unnecessary stuff we have. How many of us even remembered those crowns lying on the bottom of our dress-up bins? Many of us are lucky to own so much “stuff,” stuff that we think of as a burden, stuff that simply sits and waits to be cleared out before Pesach. This “stuff” that can seem so miniscule to us holds the ability to provide an infinite amount of joy to somebody else. If we changed our mindset to think that
