Escape from Kyiv

Rabbi Yaakov Bleich, a chief rabbi of Ukraine, is working around the clock to provide food, shelter, safety and evacuation routes for Ukrainian Jews displaced by the ongoing crisis.

Since Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24, Rabbi Bleich has spent his days moving between Poland and Hungary, helping refugees reach the border and organizing escape plans for those trapped within besieged cities like Kyiv, where he serves as rabbi of the Kyiv Main synagogue in Podol and vice president of the World Jewish Congress.

Rabbi Bleich, who is American-born and has worked in Kyiv since 1991, managed to leave Ukraine just a few days before the war broke out. At the time, he was working back and forth between Ukraine and New York.

“He attempted to go right back [to Ukraine],” says Rabbi Avrohom Bleich, Yaakov’s brother, who is the rabbi at Congregation Bnai Israel-Beth Yehudah in Oak Park. “But he wasn’t able to get back in.”

Instead, Rabbi Yaakov Bleich did what he could from outside of the country. “Every single day since a few days before the war and until this very day, he has buses leaving his shul taking Jewish refugees out of Kyiv, those who are willing and able to leave,” his brother explains. Each day, several buses full of 50 refugees at a time leave Kyiv and travel to the border. People are allowed one piece of small baggage, often leaving most of their possessions behind. It’s a dangerous journey. Buses encounter checkpoints, shelling and shooting, sometimes traveling through routes that are just as unsafe — if not more unsafe — than the Ukrainian capital itself.

It’s a risk, however, they’re willing to take, knowing that on the other side of the border is safety.

“At this point, they’ve taken out thousands on these buses,” Rabbi Avrohom Bleich says. “It’s terribly dangerous. People are shot at all the time on the roads, either by mistake or on purpose.”

Refugee buses travel by military escort, who help get the buses in and out of the city to the Ukrainian borders, where there are refugee camps. “It’s a lengthy process,” Rabbi Bleich adds.

The Hungarian border, in particular, has been extremely helpful to Rabbi Yaakov Bleich’s mission. It’s what his brother calls a “relatively simple walk” — about 30 minutes to cross by foot into Hungary from Ukraine — compared to other borders, which have more challenging routes.

“The border is not just going to let your bus drive right through,” Rabbi

Avrohom Bleich says. “It doesn’t work like that.”

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Right now, the mission is to get people to leave Ukraine. “It’s a pressure campaign,” Rabbi Bleich continues. “It’s calling people and telling them to get out or contacting their relatives and telling them they should leave.”

With one road left out of Kyiv that may not be open much longer, he adds, “Leave, because otherwise it’s not good.”

If the war continues, Rabbi Bleich estimates that the needs will quickly change. “This is going to shift more and more from a rescue situation to a refugee situation,” he explains.

Not everyone, however, is willing or able to leave, keeping thousands of Ukrainian Jews at risk if the crisis becomes a long-term issue. Right now, donations are crucial to keep operations afloat.

“People are giving their lives for this,” Rabbi Bleich, who recently spoke about the issue at an event at Young Israel of Oak Park, says. “The rest of us, we can try to support them financially and through prayer.”