In an improvised hospital, Michael treats the warriors with the doctor who saved him
Humanitarian equipment, Passover gifts, matzah and wine - these are the things that Rabbi Hillel Cohen, head of the Rescue Union in Kiev, distributed during the week to the Jewish fighters in the Ukrainian army camps.
Cohen, 43, also came to Michael Yona Warszewski.
The 48-year-old medic of the Rescue Union volunteered to assist the Ukrainian army immediately after the outbreak of the war.
Before the war Michael worked as a lawyer in Kiev.
With the invasion of the Russian army, he evacuated his family from Ukraine and volunteered for service.
It was stationed in Vasilkiv, a city near Kiev, which now houses 22,000 people.
Along with the local doctor Vladimir, who also has Jewish roots on his father's side, the two are in charge of treating soldiers and civilians.
The treatment was done in the field, and in an improvised hospital they set up on the spot.
Tables without mattresses are used as beds for the operating room and treatments.
Ahead of Seder night on Friday, Cohen handed Michael a lot of medical equipment, including an oxygen generator, and of course matzah and wine.
"I am very grateful to the Rescue Union for this shipment," Michael said.
"But if that is possible, we are very much in need of an ambulance here. We do not have even one ambulance here, and the nearest hospital is 40 km away."
Distribution of humanitarian aid, Photo: The Jewish Confederation in Ukraine
"Perhaps you will tell why you feel obligated to the doctor and the hospital you established here?" Cohen asks him.
"No, no, I do not want to tell," Michael is ashamed, but Rabbi Cohen completes the details.
On February 26, in the early morning hours, Russian paratroopers landed near Vasilkiv, 40 kilometers south of Kiev, in an attempt to take control of the Ukrainian Air Force and Asilkiv base.
Heavy fighting took place there between the Russian paratroopers and the Ukrainian defenders.
Two Russian planes were shot down, and about 200 Ukrainians were injured.
One of the wounded is the medic himself, Warszewski, who found himself on the treatment table at the makeshift hospital.
The doctor, next to whom he had previously provided medical assistance to others, treated him this time, and pulled out the shard that had penetrated his back.
"That's why he feels grateful for this place and the doctor who treated him, so he stays to serve here. He sanctifies the name here as he helps everyone. Throughout the week we will continue to distribute matzah and wine to Jews serving in the Ukrainian army. I personally know several dozen such Jews. "
Cohen himself plans to celebrate the holiday in Mziboj, Ukraine, away from his wife, children and grandchildren, whom he evacuated from Kiev to Israel.
In Mezhibozh, near the tomb of the Baal Shem Tov, there will be a central seder to be re-evaluated by Cohen.
"The Rescue Committee of the Tents of the Tzaddiks, headed by Rabbi Israel Meir Gabay, is behind the initiative. Two complexes were rented in the Carpathians and Mazybuz for all seven days of the holiday, including accommodation and kosher food, which are held to host hundreds of Jews.
"We have distributed publications in the Jewish communities, and among the Jewish refugees who fled from eastern Ukraine, that they are invited to celebrate Passover in a safe and kosher place, at no cost."
One of the Jews who accepted the invitation was Jaroslav Dor, 18, from Kribivrog.
"Two weeks ago my brother and I left my parents and came to Mejibouz. My mother says the situation in the city is getting worse. The parents are currently in a safe place, in a village near Kribyrog. I am used to celebrating the order outside the house, because I grew up in a boarding school. "There are not many Jews here at the moment, but I hope that more will come before the holiday. With the help of the name, the next Passover will be celebrated in built-up Jerusalem."
"I hope next year we can celebrate Passover in quiet Odessa"
The upcoming Passover holiday will be celebrated by 24-year-old Yitzhak Gusov together with about 80 Jews at the London Hotel Odessa.
"The owner of the hotel is a wealthy Jew, who decided to invite for free, for all the holidays, anyone who stays in Odessa and wants to celebrate the holiday in a safe and kosher place," says Gusov, a student at the Ateret Hamelech yeshiva of the Tikva community in Odessa, who remains in the city.
"The hotel is located on a main street, inside a secure compound next to a state-owned building, next to a military checkpoint. We were issued special permits with a permit to enter the compound," he adds.
The Tikva community of about 2,000 people has left Odessa in an organized manner and is now in Romania.
Gusov is among the few left behind.
Hope for quiet.
Gusov,
"My parents in no way wanted to leave Odessa, so my brother and I stayed here with them. To this day we lived, along with other friends who remained, in our rooms in the dormitory, but on Monday the Ukrainian army asked us to vacate the place because they needed it." , Gossov says.
"They did it well, and said they would return everything after the war. So we evacuated all our equipment to another Tikva compound. There are only a few left of our community in Odessa, and the synagogue is closed. Most of the Chabad community is also in Berlin, but the rabbi of Chabad "D, Rabbi Avrahami Wolf, remains in the city, and he will hold the Seder at the London Hotel. My brother and I plan to celebrate there, but my parents are secular and do not want to join. Because every evening there is a curfew from nine o'clock, after the Seder we will stay at the hotel."
Gusov does not have much free time.
He runs around all day to deliver medicine to the elderly left in Odessa, and to pack necessary equipment left behind by thousands of community refugees as they hurriedly fled the city.
He transports the equipment to Romania in organized shipments.
"It's pretty good I'm busy. I do not have time to think, and look at the news. That way it's easier to live. If I look online and see what's going on in Ukraine, people are being killed and there are bombs, I start crying. So I stay away from it all. I'm glad there is somewhere to celebrate "The holiday, and there are also matzahs and wine in abundance. I hope that next year we will be able to celebrate Passover in quiet Odessa."
But in the Haggadah they say "next year in built Jerusalem."
"It suits me to be here in Odessa next year as well, but if the prophet Elijah comes to take me to the built Jerusalem - then I can not refuse," he laughs.
Were we wrong?
Fixed!
If you found an error in the article, we'll be happy for you to share it with us
