The Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine (FJCU) distributed nearly 40,000 Shavuot holiday packages to Jewish households across the war-torn country last week, according to the organization.
“Despite hopes just a month ago that this year’s Shavuot might be celebrated amid a ceasefire, Ukrainian Jews are moving forward with holiday preparations marked by joy and spiritual devotion,” it said.
The statement referenced reports that Russia had positioned some 50,000 troops near Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, in what officials have described as a new summer offensive.
The buildup comes after the collapse of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, which Moscow invaded in February 2022. On Sunday, Ukrainian drones struck Russian air force facilities deep in Siberia, according to officials in Kyiv.
Local Chabad emissaries across Ukraine coordinated the delivery of the 39,500 Shavuot packages. Despite tens of thousands of Jews leaving the country since 2022, many thousands still remain in Ukraine.
A significant number of those who left immigrated to Israel. In Israel, the group Shishi Shabbat Israeli organized Shavuot celebrations for dozens of Russian-speaking newcomers in Tel Aviv and Haifa.
The new immigrants from Ukraine, Russia, Belarus and other former Soviet countries gathered for shared learning, open discussions and homemade dairy dishes on Saturday in Tel Aviv and Haifa, according to Shishi Shabbat Israeli. On Sunday, its centers in those cities hosted festive holiday meals, welcoming many immigrants who were celebrating Shavuot in Israel for the first time.
The packages distributed in Ukraine contained holiday candles, illustrated Ukrainian-language booklets about Shavuot, printouts of the Ten Commandments, traditional dairy treats, hygiene products, and coloring pages for children.
The Ten Commandments materials are part of a project to translate the entire Torah into Ukrainian, involving a dedicated team of scholars and Ukrainian linguists, according to the FJCU. The statement also noted that several tons of drinking water were provided to remote communities.
“This aid package caters to children primarily because they represent the future of both the Jewish people and Ukraine’s Jewish community,” said FJCU’s Rabbi Mayer Stambler. “The Torah was given for their sake, and we must invest all our energy in helping them connect with our magnificent tradition, embrace it with pride, and pass it on to the next generation.”
Ukraine had approximately 45,000 people who identified as Jewish in 2020, according to the “World Jewish Population” report published that year by Sergio DellaPergola, a scholar of Jewish demographics at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Russia, which has also seen tens of thousands of Jews leave since 2022, had 155,000 Jews in the same year.