Der Standard, March 15, 2022
German original: https://www.derstandard.at/story/2000134135428/juedische-gemeinde-wien-hilft-und-waechst
The IKG (Israelitischen Kultusgemeinde or Jewish Community) of Vienna has taken in 500 Jews from Ukraine, with another 500 expected by next week. Many of the children already go to school and are celebrating their first Purim in Vienna.
“One four-pack of ‘Manner’ wafers per bag?” asks a volunteer at the refugee assistance center hastily set up at the Jewish Community (IKG) of Vienna. “Yes, all four,” says the young man, who is actually studying for his Matura (high school final exams), but is now preparing welcome bags for Jews that have fled Ukraine. He fills disinfectant into small bottles. Each bag also contains a SIM card, a city map in Hebrew, various brochures, and FFP2 masks (an EU standard similar to N95 masks in the US) in Ukrainian blue and yellow. For those who arrive penniless, there is also financial start-up assistance. “They shouldn’t feel abandoned,” says one helper, “they are part of a community.”
Every Second Family without a Father
Next to the high school student and a retiree, a teacher also helps with packing between her classes on Monday morning. Sitting at a computer next to her, a man looks through the names of those who have already arrived. There are about 500 of them, and next week there will be up to 1,000, many of them still on their way. The IKG, which itself has had about 8,000 members so far, is also helping with transportation. "Every second family comes from Ukraine without a father; there are very many children among them, including pregnant women," says the man at the computer. Most of them come from Odessa, Kiev, and very many from Dnipro. For many elderly and bedridden people flight - and the arduous journey of several days with long waiting times at the oblast borders that fleeing would require - would have been simply too much. They remain behind.
At an extra table sits a man who came to Vienna from Kiev several years ago. In front of him are lists of families; the names of those for whom apartments have already been found or that have already found accommodation in one of four hotels in Vienna are highlighted.
He is actually a businessman, but for the past two weeks has mainly been the refugee aid coordinator for the IKG. “I immediately started organizing help through circles of friends when the war broke out - my phone was ringing all the time,” he says. Then, IKG President Oskar Deutsch contacted him and asked him to organize refugee aid for the IKG as soon as possible. It began with four people, says the coordinator, who in the meantime has “put his day job on hold.” And now 200 people are helping: With the accommodation, at the hotel receptions, or they themselves take families in. “The Whatsapp groups are buzzing all the time,” the teacher tells us. “Every problem is solved,” adds the pensioner. One family didn't have a prayer shawl with them, one musician didn't have a keyboard, everything was set up.
The coordinator believes that most of the Jewish refugees want to stay here. There are Jewish schools, kindergartens, and sport clubs here, and a Russian-Jewish community that can help the Ukrainians communicate.
Kosher Food and Clothing
Kosher food is available at various eateries and synagogues, and the IKG's psychosocial center, Ezra, helps people cope psychologically with their flight. Pop-up stores for children and adults offer clothing as well as costumes. After all, Purim is also celebrated this week, and that is when children like to dress up. A chance for a little lightheartedness. There will also be a special “Purim welcome celebration.”
Oskar Deutsch will also come - wearing a blue and yellow FFP2 mask - to get an overview of the situation. Regarding the old women and men who remained in Ukraine, some of whom survived the Holocaust and should now flee again, he says: “We're trying to get them out safely together with German communities.”
“It's hard to explain,” Miriam tells me a little later in the lobby of a hotel where Jews are currently housed, “but some people are so connected to their birthplace that they can't leave.” That is how her grandparents feel, she says. But she herself and her five children managed to escape Dnipro. The two oldest sons are with a rabbi in Düsseldorf, the three little ones are with her in Vienna.
Yanika arrived at the same hotel at 3:30 am with her eleven-year-old daughter Yeva and her dog. She has hardly slept and has been fleeing for several days - and yet she is beaming. Because she is on her way to meet her son in the city. He is studying in Vienna, and she has not seen him for months.
Yeva looks happily at her cell phone next to her: she has just learned that her class president is in Vienna. And a friend is also safe.
Hotel with a Doctor's Office
Only when Yanika talks about her husband does she sound more serious. He had to stay because he is of military age. “But I hope he won't get drafted,” she says.
Dorit Muzicant explains organizational matters to Yanika in Russian before showing STANDARD around the hotel. Muzicant has also temporarily put her job as a journalist on hold to take over the organization of the hotel. It closed in 2020 because of Corona and now had to get going again. A doctor's room was set up on the first floor, and meat and milk tables in the breakfast room were marked with slips of paper according to kosher rules. In the foyer, there is also a corner for games.
Students from New York
The team of volunteers on site is a colorful mix: Sophie from the Jewish-Austrian University Students organization, Maria, a Ukrainian who is studying in Vienna and abruptly moved into the hotel to help, a pensioner who knows everything from neon lighting to changing SIM cards, and two women who were already part of the Shalom Alaikum initiative founded in 2015. Back then, Jewish women and men helped mostly Muslim refugees. The group received the Bruno Kreisky Prize for Human Rights in 2019. “The network is worth a lot now,” says one of the two women after cleaning the foyer, “many from back then help now.” On Tuesday, the team got further reinforcement: 20 students from Yeshiva University in New York arrived.
Meanwhile, a boy named Mendel roams the hotel hallways, looking for someone. "Who are you looking for, then?" asks Muzicant. “The Mashiach,” the boy replies. Maybe the Messiah is coming to Vienna, too. Mendel apparently thinks it's possible.
(Colette M. Schmidt, 3/16/2022)