Before February of this year, most Ukrainian Jews thought their days of suffering were over, Yael Eckstein, president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, told Fox News Digital just ahead of the start of Passover this year.
Now, she said, "as the season of Passover approaches, a time similar to the very first Passover is taking place in Ukraine."
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Many thousands of Jewish people, "including some Holocaust survivors, are fleeing oppression [from Russia's forces] and [are] praying for God’s miraculous deliverance," Eckstein told Fox News Digital in an email exchange.
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Passover, commemorating the Jewish people's escape from slavery in Egypt, typically lasts 7 days. But this year in Ukraine, said Eckstein, "it is anything but festive" for all those desperately trying to flee their wartorn country.
Family and friends attend the funeral of 37-year-old sergeant Kostiv Andrew, who was killed in action, at the Lychakiv cemetery, in Lviv, western Ukraine, on Tuesday, April 5, 2022. (AP Photo/Nariman El-Mofty)
Noting that Passover is called the Feast of Unleavened Bread "because in biblical times Jews fled Egypt in such haste that there was no time to let the bread rise," Eckstein said that "Jewish families are also leaving in haste," taking only necessities such as medicine and water — if they even have a chance to grab that as they flee the violence and destruction from Putin's Russian forces.
"Jews are once again on the run," she said. "Perhaps no other group in world history knows better about living constantly on the move than the Jewish people," Eckstein added.
A woman walks away from a damaged residential building in a suburb of the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv, where a military shell allegedly hit, on Feb. 25, 2022. Russian forces invaded Ukraine beginning Feb. 24, 2022. (GENYA SAVILOV/AFP via Getty Images)
Eckstein said that in her two decades of doing humanitarian work, she has "never seen such suffering and desperation as I’m seeing today."
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Over the past six or seven weeks, her organization, The Fellowship, has helped thousands of orphans and elderly people flee from Ukraine to Israel, she said. Among the youngest are babies just 2 months old; among the oldest, a 94-year-old.
"Just last week alone, tons of humanitarian aid were sent to Ukraine and Moldova by charities committed to helping the needy."
"Thankfully, there is still much kindness in the world," she noted.
"We see it both in Ukraine and in Israel, which has been suffering through a new wave of terror attacks — and we see it in" how both Christians and Jews, she said, have come together "to support each other in their time of hardship and need."
A resident looks for belongings in an apartment building destroyed during fighting between Ukrainian and Russian forces in Borodyanka, Ukraine. (AP/Vadim Ghirda)
Eckstein recalled a recent and touching "act of solidarity."
She said thousands of "diverse people in Israel, from Christians to Orthodox Jews, turned out to mourn the death of an Arab Christian police officer who was killed while stopping a terrorist from shooting civilians in an orthodox Jewish town." Similarly, she noted that in Ukraine, "a non-Jewish Holocaust survivor — who had survived the notorious Buchenwald [concentration] camp [during World War II] — was mourned by the entire world after he was killed by Russian shelling."
Eckstein said that in the month of March, "millions of dollars were raised to help Ukraine’s Jewish population," with many funds coming "from our Christian friends."
A monument to Taras Shevchenko, a Ukrainian poet and a national symbol, in seen with traces of bullets against the background of an apartment house ruined in the Russian shelling in the central square in Borodyanka, Ukraine, on Wednesday, Apr. 6, 2022. (AP Photo/Efrem Lukatsky)
"Today, people are truly doing God’s work by joining together to bring food, medicine and other essentials to Ukrainian Jews who are unable to flee their war-torn country," she said.
She also said that in a recent week, "tons of humanitarian aid were sent to Ukraine and Moldova by charities committed to helping the needy."
Eckstein pointed to the significance of one Passover prayer that states, "May your cup overflow with happiness and prosperity."
"On top of the 30 tons of food and medicine The Fellowship sends Ukraine weekly, we also shipped over five tons of matzoh so the Jewish community could celebrate this biblical holiday with the traditional unleavened bread," she said.
Despite the pain and suffering that the people of Ukraine have been enduring, Eckstein indicated she remains prayerful and hopeful.
Yael Eckstein is a mother of four and president and CEO of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (The Fellowship).
"The Passover season is rich with meaning and, this year especially, with deep appreciation … As the situation in Ukraine — a story of tragedy and tears, as well as a story of hope and heroism — unfolds, Jews are reflecting on the meaning of the first Passover, which promised freedom from slavery, tyrants and violence."
"My hope," she said, "is that compassionate people from around the world will continue to help" all the troubled and "beleaguered" residents of Ukraine, including the Jewish people "as they celebrate Passover while trying to rebuild their broken lives in unfamiliar places."
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Eckstein pointed to the significance of one Passover prayer that states, "May your cup overflow with happiness and prosperity."
Another prayer of the psalmist, she said, states, "Do not cast me away when I am old; do not forsake me when my strength is gone" (Psalm 71:9).
"Both of these prayers can be answered today," Eckstein noted.
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Eckstein, based in Jerusalem, is a leading international advocate for persecuted religious minorities.
