Ukrainian Jews receive dairy products ahead of Shavuot

The past week trucks have crisscrossed Ukraine, unloading food parcels among the Jewish communities for Shavuot this week, when it is customary to eat dairy products.

These trucks traveled from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, in the Dnipropetrovsk Oblast to the bombed city of Kharkiv, through the calm city of Poltava in central Ukraine to the tense capital of Kyiv.

The delivery trucks made their way to Jewish communities all over the country, unloading dairy products, meat, poultry, and other basic foods. The goods were distributed by the community rabbis and by Chabad emissaries to tens of thousands of local Jewish families within range of explosions in the ongoing war with Russia.

The trucks passed through dozens of communities in the cities of Zhytomyr, Lviv, Uzhgorod, Chernivtsi, Khmelnytskyi, Vinnytsia, Berdytsov, Cherkasy, Karponitskyi, Kryvyi Rih, Kremenchuk, Poltava, Kharkiv, Sumy, Chernihiv, Uman, Odesa, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Fromeysk, Kaminsky, Dnieper, and Zaporizhzhia. The large-scale distribution was run by Jewish Relief Network Ukraine (JNRU), one of the main organizations assisting and funding Ukrainian Jews since the fall of the ‘Iron Curtain’.

The dairy ice creams, like all the products included in the shipments, were produced in local food factories under the supervision of the Kosher Committee in Ukraine headed by Rabbi Pinchas Vishetski, a Chabad emissary. The trucks delivered different kosher yogurts, ice creams, milk, cheeses and other dairy products that cannot currently be found in Ukraine.

“During these days, a massive campaign is taking place, aimed at bringing as many Jews as possible, including the youngest children, to the synagogues on the upcoming holiday, in order to hear the Aseret Hadibrot [the Ten Commandments], as the [Lubavitch] Rebbe instructed,” said Chabad emissary Rabbi Shlomi Peles, who heads JRNU. “The campaign was carried out through posters, brochures and media productions.”

Zelensky’s hometown, Kryvyi Rih, was one of the cities to receive the milk shipments ahead of Shavuot. Rabbi Liron Edri, the city’s rabbi, said that the war hit the city badly, something that had been reflected in the challenges of managing the community: “Our city was one of the most industrial cities in our region and was considered to be one of the largest steel producers worldwide,” Edri said. “Unfortunately, since the local port was blocked due to the continued attacks, the city was not capable of marketing its products.”

He added that “more than a third of the city’s businesses remained without an ability to operate. This urgent and important aid campaign by JNRU was helpful for the Jews of the city and left them in a reasonable financial situation, enabling them to live with dignity.”

The war in Ukraine is still affecting the entire country, including the Jewish community. Earlier this week, Jewish soldiers from the Ukrainian army were circumcised, according to a statement by one of Ukraine’s Chief Rabbis, Moshe Azman. In an exciting event held in the Central Brotsky Synagogue in Kyiv by Azman, six Jews went through a circumcision procedure, among them Jewish soldiers serving in the Ukrainian army.