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TJF Provides Assistance to Ukrainian Refugees On February 24th, 2022, Russia invaded Ukraine and refugees began spilling across bordering countries. An estimated 200,000 Jews were living in Ukraine, many of whom were trapped in conflict zones in east Ukraine or fled the fighting. Support for the Jewish community was urgently needed. The global Jewish community rallied its resources and came together, drawing from over a century of crisis response experience to aid those Jews who remained in Ukraine, those trying to evacuate, and the thousands of refugees who have now spread across Europe and other countries.
The Tidewater Jewish Foundation provided a $25,000 grant to the United Jewish Federation Ukraine Emergency Fund. Nobody anticipated the scale or length of the fighting. In FY2022, Tidewater Jewish Foundation donor advised fund holders granted $540,000 to Ukraine emergency relief, with over $440,000 going directly to the United Jewish Federation of Tidewater’s Ukraine Emergency Fund. The UJFT Fund was created to help with a variety of issues, such as securing the local community and its institutions, maintaining critical welfare services, launching an emergency hotline, securing five Jewish schools, and training staff to manage crisis needs.
The Ukraine Emergency Fund was established to assist with the challenges of protecting the Jewish community trying to escape the conflict or sheltering in place.
Our donors also recommended grants to the following organizations • Friends of United Hatzalah
• International Fund for Animal Welfare
• American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
• Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS
• American National Red Cross
• Agudath Israel of America
TJF hosts Sofer and educational experience for Tidewater
Rabbi Moshe Druin gets to work on evaluating nearly 30 Torahs for the Tidewater Jewish Community.
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Grants in Action: Meet & Greet with a Sofer highlighted a $24,000 Tidewater Jewish Foundation Community Impact Grant to Temple Emanuel. It gave over 50 community members the opportunity to meet a Sofer, learn what they do, and see them in action. Invited to Tidewater by Temple Emanuel, the Sofer spent a week in Tidewater evaluating and assessing 30 scrolls from various community congregations and organizations. “Temple Emanuel contacted every synagogue, Hillel, nursing home, Chabad, and
Chavurah in the area to ask whether they had Torahs that needed, or they wanted, to be inspected,” said Lovitz. “It was determined that there were over 25 Torahs in the Tidewater community that needed to be evaluated.” “We are incredibly grateful to the Tidewater Jewish Foundation for allowing us to have the community’s Torahs evaluated,” said Jason Lovitz, Grant Writer and Past President of Temple Emanuel. “Bringing in Rabbi Moshe Druin to come and evaluate 30 scrolls over the week was a pretty cool thing.” 7