Against the backdrop of the intensification of Russian shelling of Ukrainian cities: Jewish communities across Ukraine are preparing for the month of holidays.
While the fighting in the country continues as usual, with the sounds of explosions becoming part of everyday life, the community rabbis are working around the clock. They are organizing enormous logistical efforts to ensure that the holidays are held in the most dignified manner and to strengthen community cohesion, despite the dangers.
The Chabad network in Ukraine, JRNU, which is behind the distribution of aid packages to all Jews in the country, made a strategic decision: to produce most of the basic food and holiday products on Ukrainian soil, in special local factories that were trained in advance.
The most obvious example is in a central industrial area in the Kiev region. The area is surrounded by logistics centers and huge warehouses that have suffered heavy damage and daily bombings in recent weeks, but miraculously, the factory chosen to produce the pure honey remains standing.
The production workers continue to work there under constant vigilance, with the noise of the machines mixing with alarms. In addition to the honey factory, which was certified by Rabbi Yehoshua Wiszczy of the Okerkasher kashrut system, special slaughter lines for meat and poultry were also certified under the shadow of the war.
The main phase of the operation will begin next week: a fleet of huge aid trucks will set off from the supply centers towards dozens of Jewish communities scattered throughout the country. Huge pallets of essential food products will be unloaded at the foot of the Jewish centers in the various cities, and from there they will be transported directly to the homes of community members through an internal, orderly and respectful distribution system.
The varied food list, alongside poultry, fresh meat and jars of local honey, will also include dairy products, special honey cakes brought by air train from Israel, festive honey cakes made in the challenging city of Zaporozhye, canned goods and various spreads. To give the package added value, it is accompanied by spectacular and accessible information leaflets in the local language on the essence of the holiday months, alongside a unique and rich calendar that combines Jewish content and pictures of community life.
Jewish communities in Ukraine are expecting record participation of Jews in synagogues and various holiday activities this year.
""We are preparing for an unprecedented number of worshippers who will come to Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur prayers," says Rabbi Simcha Lebenaretz, Chabad Mishluchei in Kiev, who is coordinating the distribution effort. "After such a long and exhausting period of war and uncertainty, people are looking more than ever for togetherness and tradition. We all look up and pray together that the new year that is coming upon us will finally be a calm, peaceful and sweet year.".
