While global attention is focused on developments in the Middle East, Russia launched a large-scale offensive this week against Ukrainian strongholds in the Donetsk region, aiming to expand its control over the area. This development, which has largely gone under the radar, only highlights the hardship faced by Ukraine, where the country’s Jewish community will mark its fifth Passover under relentless Russian bombardment.
Despite this-and following the harshest winter since the outbreak of the war-Chabad emissaries in Ukraine have in recent days completed their preparations for the holiday. As part of these efforts, and through an initiative and support from the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (FJCU), they distributed, as they do each year, lavish holiday packages to tens of thousands of Jewish households across the country.
The packages, delivered to 51,000 households, include a set of handmade shmurah matzah and machine-made matzah baked at the “Tiferet HaMatzot" bakery in Dnipro, wine, grape juice, a Seder plate, a set of four cups for the Seder night, holiday and Shabbat candles, a Passover Haggadah translated into Ukrainian, informational materials about the holiday, as well as towels and a festive tablecloth.
At the same time, continuing a tradition upheld since the fall of communism, public Passover Seders will be held with the participation of thousands in 41 major cities throughout Ukraine.
Following the great success of last year’s pilot-during which Jewish soldiers on the front lines received, for the first time, precisely measured “kezayit"-sized matzot (the smallest matzot in the world)-this year the Federation introduced a new initiative. As part of it, Jewish children studying in Jewish schools in the city of Dnipro placed stickers with drawings on the matzot designated for soldiers at the front, offering encouragement, holiday greetings, and prayers for freedom and redemption.
On some of the matzot, children wrote “Happy Festival of Freedom," referring both to the holiday itself and to the hope for the war’s end. On others, they wished a happy Passover in Hebrew and Ukrainian or wrote that they are praying for the soldiers’ safety and safe return home. There were also drawings depicting tanks alongside the four cups, or matzah next to Ukrainian flags.
Rabbi Mayer Stambler, Chairman of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine and a Chabad emissary, said: “This Passover, we are bringing every Jew in Ukraine-wherever they may be-not only the mitzvot of the holiday, matzah and the four cups, but also the joy of the festival. The Jewish soldiers on the front lines, exhausted from the long war, will be deeply moved to receive these Passover packages adorned with children’s drawings.
“This will remind them that they are awaited at home, that they are loved, that people are hoping for their success and praying for them. We pray that this Passover we will finally merit true freedom, and that we will be privileged to partake of the Passover offerings with our righteous Messiah in the Third Temple."