On Thursday 21 August, three Knesset members came with a delegation to the Kharkov synagogue to meet the local Shliach and Chief Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz, along with representatives of the Jewish community in Ukraine to discuss the current situation in Ukraine and how to help absorb the hundreds of Jewish refugees that have fled to Kharkov from Lugansk and Donetsk.

The Knesset members Zeev Elkin (Likud Chair, Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee); Alex Miller (Yisrael Beitenu) and Fania Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beitenu ,Chair, Lobby for Financial Education in Israel) were very concerned about the welfare of so many homeless Jews
who are now in Kharkov indefinately.

Each organisation explained how they are trying to help the refugees. Rabbi Moishe Moskovitz explained that since the synagogue is the Jewish center of the city – most of these Jewish refugees make their first stop in the synagogue. So the community needs help to give vital help to these families – food, clothes and somewhere to live.The Jewish community has all its dormitories filled with families, young children and daily gives meals to families from Lugansk and Donetsk.

The Knesset members on the one hand were impressed with what has been done – and in turn also gave encouragement to keep looking for a system and help to solve this large humanitarian crisis. The Rabbi stressed the urgency of establishing an emergency fund to help respond to the needy and a system to ensure that all the Jewish refugees in Kharkov know that they can turn to the Jewish community for help.

362