Dear Bayit Family,
I’m writing what I hope will be the first of a few notes over the coming days, sharing what’s in my heart.
With gratitude to our Bayit family and my inner family, and with immense indebtedness for the UJA Federation of NY’s moral leadership, deep organizational connections and vision and at their invitation, I am preparing to travel with 20 NY area rabbinic colleagues to Poland and the Ukrainian border on Saturday night soon after Shabbat, returning late Tuesday.
We’ll be on the ground in Warsaw and Lublin, near and at the border in Przemsyl (powerful story about what’s happening in Przemsyl now
here) and Medyka, meeting in each location with many groups doing humanitarian work with refugees (servicing the Jewish community and all Ukrainian refugees), incredible organizations that have turned their operations over in a matter of days to confront this staggering new reality. Many are grantees of UJA - the dollars we have donated through that link go directly to enable them to service the now millions of refugees whose lives have been turned upside down in an instant. We currently understand that most refugees that have traveled to Poland expect to stay in Poland for now - the nation is evolving to absorb them by the day.
We will be bringing medical supplies and other humanitarian supplies to distribute (all set already), and I will be giving Rabbi Schudrich, the Chief Rabbi of Poland, some of our Bayit’s Matanot L’Evyonim collection to distribute on Purim day to those in need (donate
here).
I take this trip to try in some small human way to express the Divine ethic of עמו אנכי בצרה, of being with those in travail, and recognizing that the most "עמו",
with them, I can be is to show up. That in connecting with refugees and those helping support them I can send the message that as a Jewish community we are with them, we feel their pain, they are not alone, and we are mobilizing to their aid. And to further open my heart, and bring that back to all of you, by bearing witness and helping on the ground.
Going on the heels of Shabbat Zachor, I feel deeply the ethic of erasing Amalek - of drowning out and trouncing evil with an outpouring of good, with care for the vulnerable, especially the newly, suddenly vulnerable. That we answer the evil being perpetrated upon the Ukrainian people by responding with love and compassion, with presents and presence.
I go with a prayer that emerges from a reflection about Mordechai. The instant we meet Mordechai in Megillat Esther, a verse after just learning his name, we pivot to the mournful trop of Eichah and recount that he is a refugee, an exile from his homeland of Jerusalem. He is raising his cousin Esther who has no parents. It’s not hard to imagine what might have happened to them. As central as this refugee identity seems to be to Mordechai's character, we never return to it again - we simply follow the heroic, resilient, religious and compelling character that he is through the story. It’s a note of hope - that from the darkest times, the most profound displacements, we can emerge stronger.
We are now in the depths. And still - I hope these refugees will be able to return home quickly, and I pray that they will be Mordechais and Esthers, able to transcend their impossible circumstances to survive and thrive. What we have learned from our history and our Torah is that we must do everything in our power to help them do so.
Please know that I go carrying each of you with me. Please don’t hesitate to be in touch with messages and kavvanot (intentions) you would like me to take in my heart on your behalf. I will do my best to send email updates from our trip.
Here at home, please join the broader Riverdale community and beyond again at 4:00pm this Sunday at the Russian Diplomatic Compound to help us manifest what we chanted last Sunday: “Until Putin leaves, we won’t leave”.
Please continue to give. We have a Ukrainian support resources page up on our website now - click
here.
With love and gratitude,
Steven
