Page 2 - CUFI Update Spring 2022

The understandable presence of fear, uncertainty, and heartbreak are reflected in the eyes of the Jewish refugees including the children. They came with nothing but the bags in their hands and the clothes on their backs, yet they consider themselves the lucky ones for having escaped.
After weeks of desperately seeking a way to flee, all the while enduring bullets and rockets exploding around them, through sheer force of will they find a path out of the warzone. Once there, they are met inside Ukraine by a bus driver who braves the border every day to pick up the displaced and take them to safety. Within minutes of leaving Ukraine, they arrive at the refugee collection centre.
Their arrival at this safe haven constitutes the first moment in nearly a month during which the refugees need no longer fear the barbarians who’ve invaded their cities and towns. Finally, the sirens and explosions have stopped. Finally, the mothers can take a moment to kiss their babies in peace, and the children can take a moment to breathe. Finally, these weary souls can rest their minds. And it’s been your support that has helped enable their escape from unspeakable trauma.
When we arrived at the refugee collection point – formerly the cultural centre of a sleepy rural town a few miles from the Hungarian border – we talked with an elderly couple for whom this was their fourth time escaping war; we looked in the eyes of a child about 9-years-old with a thousand-yard stare; we watched in sorrowful awe as a boy around 10-years-old comforted his weeping mother; and we met a brave young woman from Ukraine’s Donbas region who at the ripe old age of 21 served as her refugee group’s “captain” during their border crossing.
Once the refugees are processed, they travel to the Jewish Agency’s makeshift consulate in Budapest, Hungary where they are met by volunteers, many themselves Ukrainian, who seek to guide the refugees through the immigration process and provide for their basic needs. One such volunteer,
a lanky, bespectacled 21-year-old Ukrainian boy, happened to be in Hungary when the war started. He is from Mariupol where the Russian army is murdering civilians daily. For weeks he had no idea if his family was alive
or dead, yet he never stopped working, never stopped helping. Another, an Israeli-born teacher living in Canada, left behind her husband and three children to come to Hungary and serve as the refugees’ humanitarian Sherpa. She speaks fluent Ukrainian and is constantly on the move explaining to the refugees where they need to go and what will happen next, only pausing to hold them when they cry. She is the essence of compassion amidst the chaos.
Finally, sitting behind a humble desk covered in papers and flanked by a giant Israeli flag pinned to her office’s Soviet-era cement wall, the refugees meet Israel’s Iron Lady in Budapest – the Consul General responsible for every immigrant who comes through her doors. She is exhausted yet professional. And behind her tough exterior is a heart of gold. She doesn’t let anyone see her tears, but she weeps every night.
The gruelling and perilous journey concludes only when, at long last, Ukraine’s Jewish refugees arrive in the Promised Land. There the Jewish Agency and the Israeli government provide for them and help them find a way to start over. Finally in Israel, the survivors of Mariupol and Kharkiv will build new lives alongside the descendants of those who were liberated from Auschwitz and Babi Yar.
However, none of this happened on its own. Financial support is vital to enabling the refugees’ survival through Aliyah to Israel. From food and blankets to diapers for the babies and medicines for the infirmed, all the necessities of life must be provided for these survivors.
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Eye-witness account from the Ukraine-Hungary border
Our CUFI team just returned from Budapest, Hungary with
Since the invasion of Ukraine, CUFI has been raising funds to aid Jewish Ukrainian war refugees hoping to immigrate to Israel. We are grateful for every gift — large and small, but our efforts are far from over. During April, a small CUFI team travelled to the Hungarian border with Ukraine to document the CUFI-supported efforts to enable these refugees
to make Aliyah. What follows is a personal account of what they saw.
another plane load of Jewish refugees. They were able to witness and record those seeking a safe haven from their war-ravaged nation and to finally set foot in the Promised Land. We have helped thousands but there are thousands more who desperately need to flee Ukraine and we will not rest until every Jewish person who seeks refuge is in Israel. Alone we can do little but united, with God’s help, we can accomplish miracles.” Pastor John Hagee