Roman Polonsky, director of The Jewish Agency for Israel’s Russian Speaking Jewry Unit, will be in Kansas City Monday, May 19, to provide an important briefing on the impact of the Ukrainian crisis on that Jewish community. He will speak at 7 p.m. in the Social Hall at the Jewish community Campus.
Polonsky visited Ukraine earlier this week, spending time in Kiev, Donetsk and Odessa. He directs The Jewish Agency efforts there in coordination with JDC and ORT.
Prior to his trip he said, “My visit aims to better understand the situation on the ground. I will be meeting Jewish leaders, local Jews, potential olim (immigrants) and newly registered olim in order to get their first-hand impressions. It is important that we operate from a place of knowledge and understanding of the facts and of people’s feelings, fears and needs.”
While in the region, Polonsky was expected to meet Jewish Agency shlichim (emissaries), staff and lay leaders, in order to learn about the challenges they are facing during the current crisis, and to discuss the global Jewish community’s possible answers to these challenges. According to The Jewish Agency’s Aliyah unit, the number of summer flight reservations from Ukraine is on the rise and 777 new immigrants have arrived in Israel from the country since January. This marks a 142 percent increase over the same period last year. More than 200 new immigrants have registered for May flights and June registration continues to grow.
Polonsky will be in the United States from May 16-21 to brief Jewish communal leaders on the developing situation in Ukraine. In addition to Kansas City, he is expected to make stops in Chicago, New York City and Baltimore.
Polonsky joined The Jewish Agency after a long and storied career in Russian media and Israeli politics. In 2009 he served as a senior adviser to Agency Chairman Natan Sharansky and currently heads The Agency’s Unit for Russian-speaking Jewry (RSJ). As director of the RSJ unit, Polonsky oversees The Agency’s network of summer camps, Israel engagement programs, and informal Jewish education programming in Europe and the former Soviet Union.
Prior to his engagement with The Jewish Agency, Polonsky worked closely with Sharansky to establish and promote Yisrael BaAliyah, the political party devoted to representing the interests of Israel’s Russian immigrants. Later, Polonsky served as senior media adviser and spokesman for Sharansky throughout Sharansky’s tenures as minister of housing and construction, interior minister, and minister of industry and trade.
Polonsky is a graduate of Kishinev State Academy in Moldova and The State Academy of St. Petersburg. He holds a master’s degree in education and stage direction, and is an accomplished pianist. After immigrating to Israel in 1990, Polonsky headed the news operations at Vremya, the Israeli Russian language weekly, worked as a political commentator for the Russian daily Vesti, and later as a political analyst for Israel’s leading radio station, Kol Yisrael — the Voice of Israel.
Polonsky writes widely on issues of Israeli politics, Russian Jewry, public diplomacy and strategy.
The Russian-Speaking Jewry Unit of The Jewish Agency is responsible for all programming in the FSU and worldwide for Russian-speaking Jews, including Israel experiences, leadership programs, Hebrew language and Jewish education, aliyah, shlichim and more.
In this time of emergency, the unit is leveraging its many years of expertise and presence on the ground to deal swiftly and professionally with the needs of the local community and their concerned family members in other areas.
