KU Chabad Director Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel has been heavily involved in providing funds to help host over 100 Jewish children from a foster home who had become refugees from Odessa, Ukraine.
The children, along with over 300 other refugees, are being hosted as part of a program by Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel’s brother, Rabbi Yehuda Tiechtel, the director of Chabad of Berlin.
“My dear older brother… took it upon himself to rescue hundreds of Jewish children whose lives were in danger,” Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel wrote in an emailed update. “As he is overwhelmed with this huge undertaking, I took it upon myself to help out with the tremendous funds he needs to sustain this huge operation that fell upon him.”
Rabbi Yehuda Tiechtel received a message from a rabbi in Odessa, Ukraine, on March 1. It detailed the deteriorating situation in the city; there were threats of rocket attacks and constant blaring of sirens. Parts of the city’s water and electricity were being cut, and he was concerned about the Jewish foster home.
Rabbi Yehuda Tiechtel contacted diplomats and international security officials to begin a rescue operation for the Jewish children, many of whom lacked passports. According to ABC News, flights were not an option, so the resulting international effort to evacuate the children to Berlin resulted in a 1,000-mile bus journey across the borders of Moldova, Romania, Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic and finally Germany.
The rescue operation took 60 hours and resulted in newfound safety for 108 children and 12 staff from Odessa. They arrived on March 4. The effort received widespread news coverage from agencies such as ABC News, Washington Post, and The Algemeiner.
Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel took it upon himself to begin raising funds from around the country to help his brother’s operation to host the refugees in Berlin.
“We rented a hotel and started providing three meals a day for them,” Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel wrote. “In addition, we started a program for them to be properly taken care of.”
German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier visited the refugee children on March 7 and spent two hours having lunch and speaking with them.
Rabbi Yehuda Tiechtel has begun hosting more refugees — mostly single mothers and children — from cities across Ukraine, including Kiev, Kharkiv and Dnipro. A second hotel had to be rented. A total of 420 refugees are currently hosted in Berlin because of Rabbi Yehuda Tiechtel.
“Our first goal is to provide them with a roof over their heads and a place to sleep,” Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel wrote. “We are working closely with the German government. They are being supportive and trying to help us with registering [the refugees] officially and giving them permission to stay, arrange health insurance and other issues.”
Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel says hosting each person costs $55 per day ($30 for lodging and $25 for food). Hosting all 420 people costs $23,100 per day — upwards of $161,000 per week.
“We are planning firstly for three months, then we will see where things are holding to plan how to go further,” he wrote. “Right now we're concentrating on the ‘now,’ trying to help them daily with lodging and food and all the other material and spiritual needs.”
Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel said that many local Kansas City community members have contributed.
"This is a significant opportunity for us to fulfill the teaching of the Talmud that ‘all Jews are responsible for one another,'' said John Isenberg of Prairie Village, Kansas, who is supporting the Tiechtels’ program. "What better way can we do this than by supporting efforts like this?”
Those interested in donating to Rabbis Zalman and Yehuda Tiechtel’s operation can visit charidy.com/adoptanorphan/KUChabad, wire money to American Friends of the Jewish Campus Berlin, Inc. (TD Bank, routing number 026013673, account number 4353846236), or write a check to Chabad at KU, 1203 West 19th St., Lawrence, KS 66046. Those with a Donor Advised Fund at the Jewish Community Foundation can request their funds be sent to American Friends of Jewish Campus Berlin.
"While we feel so much pain for what our brethren are experiencing in Ukraine, Judaism teaches us about the importance of transforming our tears into action,” Rabbi Zalman Tiechtel said. “Although we may be miles away, it is incumbent upon us to ensure that every Jewish child has a warm bed to sleep on and the hug and support that they need so badly. This effort is a meaningful way to have a real impact and help those in need."
