Remember the Ukrainian people at your Seder this year

When we sit down for our Passover Seders this year, we’ll begin the retelling of our story as we do every year–by opening the front door, lifting up the matzah, and extending to all an invitation to our meal. We will declare, “Let all who are hungry come and eat.”

Broadcasting these powerful words reminds us of a time when this declaration would actually usher in those who were hungry to join in the celebration. Today, we symbolically say this in part to remind us that while we feast, others in the world are still hungry.

Now, more than a month into the war in Ukraine, “Let all who are hungry come and eat” carries with it a poignant and literal meaning. Our hearts are breaking for the millions of Ukrainian people–including 200,000 members of Ukraine’s Jewish community–who are hiding in bomb shelters, fleeing their war-torn home country, or staying behind to defend it.

You are playing a pivotal role in this modern exodus story. Through JUF–you are literally helping the people of Ukraine come and eat. Your gift to the JUF Annual Campaign built–and is fueling–the infrastructure that is providing life-saving services to the Ukrainian people.

In the initial days of the crisis, JUF advanced $1 million in emergency funds to the Ukrainian Jewish community and, since then, has rushed an additional $3.16 million in emergency allocations to our primary overseas partners on the ground.

Those funds are being used wherever help is needed most: welcoming refugees into neighboring countries with food, medicine, and safe drinking water; securing temporary housing and humanitarian aid for those displaced from their homes; and rushing aid to the nearly 10,000 Holocaust survivors that remain in Ukraine.

The current struggle evokes other chapters in the Passover story, too. Take Moses, the most famous hero of our liberation story. Both Moses and Ukrainian Jewish President Volodymyr Zelensky had leadership and greatness thrust upon them. Moses was a reluctant hero who initially told God he wasn’t up to the task of leading the Israelites, while Zelensky was making a living as a comic actor before a drastic career switch only a few years ago.

Zelensky brings to mind another less famous hero of Passover. In a midrash (Biblical commentary) about the Sea of Reeds, a man named Nachshon risks his life by volunteering to be the first of the Israelites to wade into the sea. It’s only once the water is up to Nachshon’s neck that the sea splits, and the Israelites follow him to freedom.

Like Nachshon, Zelensky is putting himself in harm’s way for the sake of his people. Early on in the war, he was offered safe passage out of Ukraine, but declined, quipping that he “needs ammunition, not a ride.”

As we witness Ukrainians making a mass exodus this Passover season, we can draw many comparisons to the Exodus story–but there’s one important distinction. Unlike the Israelites who wished to escape Egypt permanently–and unlike the 2 million Jews who fled hatred and persecution in the former Soviet Union, and resettled in America, Israel, and elsewhere during Operation Exodus–the majority of the Ukrainian refugees, Jews included, have expressed that they hope to go back to Ukraine.

The Jewish community’s desire to return home signals a striking attitude shift toward Jews in Ukraine, a country where its Jewish president won the election in a landslide victory. Historically a hotbed of antisemitism and pogroms, Ukraine today is considered–according to a 2017 Pew Research study–the most accepting of Jews among all Central and Eastern European countries.

Yes, the Jewish community of Ukraine is hungering for many things in this time of war, but acceptance in their native country is no longer one of them.

When we sit down at our Seders this year, let us keep the Ukrainian people in our hearts and minds–and let us hope that one day soon they can return home.

Find a supplemental Passover reading called “Matzah of Hope” to symbolically welcome the Ukrainian people into your Seder on page 41 of Jewish Chicago magazine.