(Jewish Group) A Jewish Family's Exodus From Mariupol, Ukraine's 'Living Hell'
SOURCE: link
The people of Mariupol understood they were living on a powder keg. On the Ukraine side of the makeshift border with the separatist Donetsk People’s Republic, Mariupol has been a flashpoint since 2014. That’s why, when Russia invaded Ukraine six weeks ago, Mariupolites thought they were better prepared than most. They thought they knew what to expect.
Tragically, they were wrong.
“Mariupol has become a living hell,” says the city’s lone rabbi, Mendel Cohen. Cohen and his wife, Esther, established Chabad-Lubavitch of Mariupol in 2005, opening a synagogue and Jewish school, building a mikvah and social-services center, and slowly rekindling the flame of Jewish life where it had been stifled by Communism for 70 years. “Everything we built over 17 years is gone,” he says. Some 90 percent of Mariupol has been destroyed by a brutal campaign of non-stop shelling and harsh aerial bombardment that has turned the port city into a place of black smoke, twisted metal and death.
The humanitarian crisis has been compounded by the fact that Mariupol has been under siege since nearly the beginning of the war, cut off from Ukraine by land, air and sea. Food and medicine are scarce. There is no running water, gas, electricity or cell-phone service—the latter further complicating rescue efforts. On April 11, the mayor of Mariupol told the Associated Press that more than 10,000 civilians have died in the onslaught so far.
As Passover approaches and Mariupol continues to deteriorate, Cohen is doing all within his power to track down and pull people out of the besieged city and help them to safety—before it’s too late.
You can read more at the link above.