When Russian troops invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2022, Yuliia, 26, a Jewish single mother of three from Kherson, barely had time to flee her hometown before it fell to Russian control.
After reaching relative safety in nearby Mykolaiv, Yuliia worried about how she’d support herself and her children. Previously a census taker for the Ukrainian Army, Yuliia—who asked that only her first name be used out of concern for her safety—had no marketable professional skills.
Eventually she found help from a program funded by UJA-Federation of New York that offers vocational courses in trades ranging from massage therapy to hairdressing. Run by World Jewish Relief, the program has helped over 3,700 internally displaced women find decent jobs, engage in profitable self-employment or launch a business.
Yuliia, who did manicures as a hobby, decided to train in nail artistry.
“Thanks to this program, I completed professional training as a manicurist,” said Yuliia, who now earns the equivalent of $550 a month. “My skills and knowledge are now the most valuable assets I have, something I can carry with me anywhere. I can work on my own schedule without neglecting my children.”
With the war back in the headlines as the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion looms, Ukraine’s Jews are hanging on—and in some cases even thriving—thanks in part to funding of Jewish aid programs by UJA-Federation.
“Since the first day of the war, UJA’s funding has brought critical, lifesaving aid to the people of Ukraine, particularly within the Jewish community,” said UJA’s CEO, Eric S. Goldstein. “Even when the war retreated from the headlines, we remained focused on helping to support the most vulnerable in the Ukrainian Jewish community.”
UJA has allocated more than $26 million for emergency use in Ukraine since the start of the war, paying for everything from feeding internally displaced persons to helping refugees reach Eastern Europe and Israel, according to UJA. In all, UJA, which had a strong funding presence in the region before the war, estimates that its aid has reached more than 720,500 people.
Over three years, the conflict — Europe’s deadliest since World War II — has wreaked destruction on a scale that’s almost unimaginable.
“The impact on Ukrainians, their communities and infrastructure is devastating,” said Rachel Moser, senior lead in UJA’s caring department, who participated in one of the first UJA groups to visit the Polish-Ukraine border in March 2022, when shocked refugees were pouring across the frontier. “Families have been uprooted, livelihoods impacted and mental health affected by sustained trauma. Their future remains uncertain.”
While the world’s attention has shifted elsewhere and the Jewish community has refocused on Israel’s struggles, UJA remains a steadfast long-term supporter of Ukraine’s Jews, said Ezra Moses, UJA’s senior lead of strategic grant-making.
“Our grantees constantly tell us they thought they’d be forgotten after Oct. 7, that they’d have to fend for themselves,” Moses said. “People will give generously at the beginning of an emergency but then their minds turn elsewhere. We knew we’d have to provide for Ukrainian Jews for the long haul.”
UJA’s focus now is on building resilience in addition to providing humanitarian aid — to ensure that Ukrainian Jews can support themselves, their families and their communities in the long term.
“Men are conscripted to fight and kids aren’t going to school, so women must work in order to hold down the fort,” said Lauren Epstein, deputy director of UJA’s caring department. “They can’t really go anywhere, and there are also electricity blackouts for much of the day. There’s a need to train women to access remote work.”
The organizations currently receiving support from UJA work in mental health, employment and Jewish community outreach. Since the war started, UJA has supported 84 nonprofits, with 65% of the money spent in Ukraine and the remaining 35% sent to help resettle refugees in Eastern Europe, Israel and the New York area.
Osik Akselrud is executive director of Hillel CASE (Central Asia and Southeastern Europe), which covers not only Ukraine but also Azerbaijan, Georgia, Belarus and Moldova. After Russia attacked Ukraine, he said, Hillel lost more than 50% of its funding when its biggest partner fell subject to anti-Russia sanctions. Yet there still were five Hillel centers in Ukraine to run—in Kyiv, Kharkiv, Dnipro, Lviv and Odesa.
“In these difficult times, Jews need to feel protected, so Hillel took responsibility not just for students but for the Jewish community in general,” Akselrud said. “We began to conduct Jewish holidays, do home visits for the elderly, and work with youth and kids in community centers.”
In 2022, only two months after the war broke out, Hillel—with funding from UJA—trained students who conducted 49 communal seders across Ukraine. Despite the obvious security risks, Hillel hosted 64 seders in 2023 and more than 40 in 2024. Each year, the seders draw some 2,000-3,000 attendees.
Three years on, major population centers are still subject to frequent Russian missile attacks. Many Jewish activities have moved to the relative safety of Lviv, in far western Ukraine near the Polish border.
“Everyone in Ukraine is under stress from the daily pressure of alarms and bombings, and our mental health is suffering,” said Tanya Smotkin, director and fundraising coordinator for Hillel Kyiv. “I think mental health needs are bigger now than when the war started.”
Project Kesher Ukraine, a Jewish feminist leadership organization, has gotten three UJA grants totaling $180,000. One is for mental health and well-being, including psychological counseling for internally displaced women and annual breast cancer prevention campaigns.
A second grant financed the translation of Hebrew prayers into Ukrainian and the printing of 1,000 Ukrainian-language Passover Haggadahs.
“Since the beginning of the war, because of migration from big cities, we lost a number of Jewish educators. Also, the Jewish community is mostly Russian-speaking, but because of current sensitivities people are switching from Russian to Ukrainian,” said Vlada Nedak, CEO of Project Kesher.
A third grant funds a program providing computer and financial literacy courses to displaced Jewish mothers across Ukraine, including 100 laptops to help them start their own freelance businesses.
Among them is Karina, 42, a filmmaker from Kyiv, who two years ago decided to pursue a career in architecture. Until recently, Karina used an old laptop that barely supported the advanced software she needed. With Project Kesher’s help, she’s now developing housing projects—including one for people displaced from their bombed-out homes in Bakhmut—while juggling her studies and caring for her 5-year-old.
“This program is a genuine manifestation of respect, care and love for women,” Karina said.
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This story was sponsored by and produced in partnership with UJA-Federation of New York, which cares for Jews everywhere and New Yorkers of all backgrounds, responds to crises close to home and far away, and shapes the Jewish future. This article was produced by JTA's native content team.
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