The Joint Distribution Committee also has promoted security measures to protect staff and volunteers. After the firebombing of the Zaporizhia synagogue, JDC reinforced security measures for its charity organization in the city.
The JDC has been continuing to provide assistance to elderly and homebound Jews living in areas of Ukraine that have been affected by the unrest.
With Yanukovych ousted and avoiding the acting government’s warrant for his arrest for alleged murder, many hope the situation will stabilize as the country prepares for the elections. But if it doesn’t, Rabbi Bleich’s community may not be able to keep its institutions running for another month.
“We already paid the bill for January, and now we have to pay the bill for February, and it’s a big one,” he told JTA on Friday.
His community has launched an online campaign on religious websites in the United States aimed at collecting additional funds. The Lauder Foundation is providing payment for security in three community-run schools.
Rabbi Moshe Azman of Kiev, who is another claimant to the title of chief rabbi of Ukraine and heads Chabad’s activities in the country, advised Jews in media interviews to keep a low profile until the situation calms down.
Hillel Cohen, who is responsible for the Hatzolah Jewish first aid service in Kiev, did not heed Rabbi Azman’s advice. On Friday, he and other volunteers were driving in the Hatzolah ambulance in an attempt to help Jews in need of medical attention.
But he conceded that driving last week amid the burning barricades of Kiev was at times a blood-chilling experience.
While the prominence of ultranationalists within the opposition protests has caused concern, Jews also have been active participants in rallies held in Ukraine’s Independence Square, or Maidan.
Rabbi Bleich, who is visiting the United States, was asked in a radio interview on Sunday night, following Yanukovych’s ouster, about concerns over anti-Semitism within the ranks of the protesters.
“The majority of the protesters are grassroots, regular, everyday old people from Ukraine that were fed up with living in a corrupt society, and they came out to protest against it and to try and make change, and they were successful in making change,” he said. “There’s no question about that. That’s the majority. They’re not anti-Semites, they’re not right-wing, nationalist, neo-fascists or Nazis, the way the Russians have been trying to paint them.”
But he cautioned that there is a minority element within the opposition that is anti-Semitic, citing Svoboda.
(JTA)
