A high school student from Newton, Mass., created a platform more than a year ago with his rabbi to send direct financial aid to displaced Ukrainian families using the Chabad-Lubavitch network.
Since its inception, the organization, Ukrainefamilyconnection.com, has raised more than $50,000 from donors in the Boston area. Chabad CTeen member Noah Farb came up with the concept together with Rabbi Mendy Uminer, a Chabad rabbi from Brookline, Mass.
The two brainstormed as to how they could provide direct aid to displaced Ukrainians. Rabbi Uminer then contacted a close rabbinical school colleague, Rabbi Chaim Levitansky, who has served as the chief rabbi of Sumy, Ukraine, for the past 20 years. After numerous Zoom meetings, the three agreed that the best way to help Rabbi Levitansky’s congregants would be through direct monthly cash infusions.
Farb started fundraising first with friends and family, and then expanded his reach into greater Boston and beyond through a website he created, Ukrainefamilyconnection.com. All of the funds raised were sent to Rabbi Levitansky in Sumy, who distributed them in the form of monthly stipends to the neediest members of his community. A year into the project, more than 100 members of Rabbi Levitansky’s community have benefited from funds provided through the initiative. He has since shared letters from beneficiaries, some of which were posted on the site.
Rabbi Uminer and Noah Farb found a novel way, using the Chabad network, to increase engagement of communities in America, and to directly aid displaced persons from Sumy, Ukraine. A year in, the two continue to work on expanding their project by engaging additional Boston community members, doubling down on fundraising efforts and recruiting students in other geographies to set up similar fundraising drives.
As the child of immigrants whose grandmother was born in a displaced persons camp, Farb said he felt obligated to help those in need in Ukraine and says he is grateful to Chabad for enabling the project to successfully move forward.
