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Cleveland Jewish News

As citizens of Ukraine live in crisis due to the resurgence of the Russian-Ukrainian conflict, Jews in Odessa are standing their ground.

Led by Rabbi Avraham Wolff and his wife, Chaya, the Jewish Community of Odessa not only operates several Chabad congregations, but also several schools and community centers, a senior home with 40 residents and an orphanage with 83 children from ages 0 to 18. While other citizens move to flee from an impending Russian invasion, Chaya Wolff told the Cleveland Jewish News in a Feb. 10 interview that the thought to leave has never crossed their mind. Chaya Wolff is the sister of Rabbi Zushe Greenberg of Solon Chabad, who translated the interview from Hebrew. Both Chaya and her husband grew up in Israel before moving to Odessa in the 1990s.

“When the Rebbe sends someone to a community, you don’t run away,” Chaya Wolff said. “You’re there forever, for life. We’ve lived in Odessa longer than we lived in Israel. We look at the nursing home and the babies – and there is nothing to talk about. (Leaving) has never crossed our mind.”

While studying at a yeshiva in Ukraine, Rabbi Avraham Wolff fell in love with the country. But what intrigued the couple about the Odessa Jewish community was that so many Jews were “desperate to practice after so many years under communism that they were begging people to come and teach them,” Chaya Wolff said.

“They were suffering from antisemitism in Ukraine, and the Jews didn’t even know why they were hated,” she said. “They didn’t know what it was about Jews that everyone didn’t like. They want to know about their own identity and how to stand up for themselves.”

She said a lot of the stress amid the Russian-Ukrainian conflict comes from making sure the community feels safe and cared for in the best way possible.

“Many people come and ask us, ‘Should we collect food? Should we run away?’” Chaya Wolff said. “On one end, we don’t want to panic the community, we tell them, ‘don’t worry.’ But on the other end, we can’t take responsibility for everyone by telling them don’t go. It’s really difficult to walk both sides – to keep the community calm as everyone is coming to us asking questions. We are the rabbi and the rabbi’s wife. Everyone is looking up to us, and we’re supposed to know better than everyone else. Everyone puts their lives in our hands and it’s a very stressful time. We have to tell people to not go crazy, but on the other hand if you can do something, go ahead and do it.”

Throughout it, the Wolffs continue to try and provide guidance, Rabbi Avraham Wolff told the CJN.

“We know it is a question of life and death,” he said. “This alone gives us the strength to give the right answer. We feel like God helps us to give the right answer. When so many people look up to you for guidance, you find that strength that the Lubavitcher Rebbe empowered us with – to be like his extension, his messenger. Through that, we see miracles and how God has guided us.”

Chaya Wolff added, “We get our bravery from the rebbe. (His memory) charges our batteries with faith. That blessing gives us inspiration and bravery. The power to overcome and to hope eventually things will work out.”

Russian-Ukrainian tensions are something the Wolffs have lived with since their move to Ukraine in the 1990s. But concerning the 2014 conflict, Chaya Wolff said it was easier to live life normally as Odessa felt like it was “in a different universe.” Now, it’s hard to escape the impending threat, she explained.

“Life in Odessa was normal then,” she recalled. “But now, the threat of Russia is now throughout all of Ukraine. It is not just one small piece anymore. It’s about everyone now. It’s a very different feeling than it was before.”

That concept of a constant threat can be difficult to process, Avraham Wolff said, but they work hard to make sure it doesn’t deter them.

“The last few months, people have been so scared that they don’t really even have the strength to feel scared anymore,” he said. “They’re so worried, they don’t even know what to think. We feel our job is to bring people some relaxation, to give them a smile, some strength, some hope. With everyone in the world dealing with COVID-19 for two years and everyone already feeling that stress, Ukrainians also have the real fear of being attacked. It is such a paralyzing, stressful feeling right now. We feel our job is to just go around and give some hope to people. (The community) shouldn’t feel pulled down by this fear they have. … Especially now with our orphanage and elderly home, we can’t move them. The need is constant, the fight is constant.”

Chaya Wolff added, “Who is going to help them if not us?”

In a community of over 35,000 Jews, the Wolffs said their biggest responsibility is to press on and prepare for life to continue.

“We have to prepare for Purim and Passover,” Chaya Wolff said. “We plan for that like everything is going to be good. But, we don’t know. Life is going to continue, and we still have to think of our people. But, we just don’t know how it’s going to play out.”

And knowing that others care about the community’s struggle is enough to help push them forward and plan for a future, Avraham Wolff said. Recently visited by a pastor from Dallas, Texas, he said the pastor was unable to understand the depth need in Ukraine until he was physically there.

“It’s impossible to communicate this feeling to people, you almost have to come here to just get the big picture,” Rabbi Avraham Wolff said. “I took the pastor to the orphanage. He saw our youngest child, only two weeks old. He picked him up and hugged him. He told us that he has a child the same age. He was trying to give the child love, to embrace him and give him the feeling that there is someone that cares for him. That hug was worth so much to me – that I am not the only crazy guy that is ready to stay with these orphans. That there is someone halfway across the world that cares, too.”

Jewish Community of Odessa and Mishpacha Orphanage are taking donations to help operations. To learn more, visit mishpachaorphanage.org.

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