Children from different cities including Mariupol who fled the war in Ukraine build an improvised “house” with chairs and blankets in Krakow, Poland

When news of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine broke out, the congregants of the Stephen Wise Free Synagogue (SFWS) in Manhattan had the same reflex as many people across the world: They opened their wallets, collectively donating $150,000 for humanitarian relief. Now, more than six weeks later, the congregation is doing what perhaps no other synagogue in the United States has yet done: organizing a congregational mission to the Ukrainian border, reports eJewishPhilanthropy’s Ben Sales.

A familiar playbook: It’s at once an indication of the Jewish community’s sustained, and even escalating, commitment to Ukraine, and another sign that Jewish groups that are focused on the issue are following the playbook they use for another country beset by violence: Israel. Like Jews have done for decades during conflicts in Israel, communities are raising money, sending leadership delegations and now organizing congregational missions.

Sustaining commitment: The synagogue’s rabbi, Ammiel Hirsch, said the goal of the trip was to bring “your warmth, your compassion, your humanity to Ukrainians who have lost everything” — in addition to duffle bags full of supplies. Like previous Jewish delegations, they’ll travel to Poland’s border with Ukraine, and visit relief sites. The four-day trip during the last week of April will bring around 35 people and cost almost $3,000 a person. Hirsh is not concerned that that money isn’t all being spent directly on aid: He hopes the trip persuades people to “sustain their willingness to provide some kind of financial and other support.”

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“Not everyone who works in the changemaking business is necessarily involved in continually highlighting their own vulnerability, but for those of us whose work is rooted in the marginalization of our own bodies, asking for and receiving support with this work can be particularly challenging. Personally, I owe a debt of gratitude especially to the Black and/or disabled Jewish folks who have shared their wisdom with me on working for change within a community that continues to reveal not only its resistance to change, but also its ongoing biases against the people highlighting the need for that change,” writes Rabbi Minna Bromberg, founder and president of Fat Torah, an organization dedicated to confronting weight stigma in Jewish communal life and deploying Jewish tradition in ways that liberate all bodies, in eJewishPhilanthropy‘s weekly Parsha Phil column.

Avoiding tokenism: “Too often, attempts to help end up recreating the very marginalization and stigmatization that we know needs to be dismantled. Too often, we are better intentioned than we are actually beneficial. Seeking diversity, we end up with tokenism, or our attempts at inclusion only highlight the ‘otherness’ of those we seek to include.  How can we help rebuild rotten structures of belonging from the ground up?”

Examining tzara’at: “This week’s Torah portion knows a thing or two about rotten structures. Parshat Metzora begins in the middle of a continued conversation about what to do about ’tzara’at’ — an affliction that is usually translated as “leprosy,” though it has nothing to do with the bacterial infection once called “leprosy” (now known as Hansen’s disease). This kind of tzara’at can affect a person’s skin as well as their clothing and even their house. The Torah lays out elaborate rituals for purifying the person, or cloth, or home impacted by tzara’at.”

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“My son Ethan is an optimistic, fun-loving, deeply caring person. He is also autistic. He is my youngest child, and as a Jewish mother of three boys, I’ve had the privilege of planning two prior bar mitzvahs. While the planning for each child followed a similar pattern, each child is unique so each planning process is unique. This was all the truer for Ethan’s bar mitzvah. As a professional in the nonprofit sector for over two decades, I approached Ethan’s bar mitzvah as I do in my work with clients — by asking questions. Questions like: What is our vision? What is our mission? What outcomes are we hoping to achieve? And, what is our strategy to achieve our vision, mission and outcomes?” writes Linda Simansky in an opinion piece for eJewishPhilanthropy.

Community commitment: “Our vision for Ethan’s bar mitzvah was informed by our family’s deep commitment to the Jewish community. We developed a picture of how having a bar mitzvah would enable Ethan to engage in the Jewish community five, 10, 20 years from now. Knowing certain prayers and being able to be called to the Torah for an aliyah (a special blessing before and after the Torah reading), would equip Ethan with knowledge and skills to be included in the Jewish community as an adult.”

Careful crafting: “Given Ethan’s needs, we used our “mission statement” to determine who we would invite to the bar mitzvah: our closest friends and family who completely understand Ethan, and teachers and therapists who love Ethan as much as we do and are equally invested in his success. We considered other questions. What would his invitation look like? How do we reflect Ethan’s contagious love of life and celebrations? What setting, location and timing would allow Ethan to maximize his potential for success? How do we craft a party that would be celebratory and enjoyable for Ethan?”

Read the full piece here.