Although he was born and raised in Kansas City, Rabbi Yehoshua Ellis has lived in Poland for more than a decade, serving as the rabbi of Katowice.
He works with the chief rabbi of Poland on local and national outreach, education and programming. His most recent work, however, has been in helping Jewish Ukrainian refugees who have fled to Poland.
The son of Cynthia Puritz and the late Dr. David Ellis, Rabbi Ellis is part of a family steeped in Jewish Kansas City. Branches of his family have strong ties with Kehilath Israel Synagogue and Congregation Beth Shalom. He attended Hyman Brand Hebrew Academy through 10th grade, was an Eagle Scout with Troop 61, and helped restart AZA Chapter #2.
He developed a connection with Poland and its Jewish community through various volunteer trips before, during and after becoming a rabbi. He moved to southern Poland in 2010 when he was invited to become the rabbi of the small town of Katowice. He currently lives in Warsaw and works with Poland’s Chief Rabbi Michael Schudrich on community and national Jewish programming.
Ukrainian exodus
Jewish refugees in the past decade are not new to Rabbi Ellis and Polish Jewry. Rabbi Ellis said there was already a presence of refugees from former Soviet states including Belarus, Russia and Ukraine, especially from the Russian attacks of 2014. However, the influx of refugees fleeing Ukraine because of the current Russian invasion is unprecedented.
Rabbi Ellis works with many different organizations to help distribute and dispatch aid and services to refugees across Poland.
“In general, all the various Jewish organizations in Warsaw — which is where most of Jewish organizations’ heads are — more or less form one cooperating body,” Rabbi Ellis said. “This body is able to represent both the community and international Jewry in terms of leadership [and] in terms of resources.”
This body of organizations set up a phone hotline to help refugees figure out where to go and how to access resources. Rabbi Ellis mentioned the body’s temporary housing programs in Warsaw, Krakow and Lublin. The refugees in Lublin are being housed in a hotel that was formerly the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva until the German invasion during World War II.
Other support came from Israel, which set up a field hospital at a Ukraine/Poland border crossing and is helping Jewish refugees who want to make Aliyah.
Passover in Poland
This year, Poland’s Passover seders weren’t focused just on Jewish citizens. They were for any and every Jew in Poland, including refugees and international aid workers.
“It rocked… Pesach was amazing,” Rabbi Ellis said.
Rabbi Ellis was a part of the planning for various seders in Warsaw and Lublin, among others. In Warsaw, about 600 people came to the city’s Marriott hotel to attend a seder planned by the city’s Chabad, Orthodox and Reform synagogues and communities. In Lublin, about 100 people attended a seder in a hotel. Rabbi Ellis said a rabbi dispatched to help with the Lublin seder told the cooks that he wanted to make the seder “like a wedding.”
“On the way home at 1:30 [a.m.] after the seder [in Warsaw], my son said to me, ‘That was awesome,’” Rabbi Ellis said. “I was like, ‘It was.’ Thank G-d. It was awesome.”
The process of keeping a kosher Passover in Poland is hard enough, but the added refugee crisis and turmoil have made things even more difficult.
“Getting kosher-for-Pesach food, even kosher food [in general], certainly is all a lot more work,” Rabbi Ellis said. “[This year], thank G-d, many various Jewish organizations sent a lot of food for us to distribute to all the refugees in all the communities.”
Rabbi Ellis even ran a kosher-for-Passover food service out of his synagogue. Incoming and outgoing orders resulted in him “loading and unloading pallets for two or three days.”
The war, Jewish history, and international Jewish support
In an opinion piece he wrote for Forward and Shavei Israel, Rabbi Ellis wrote, “As a student of Central European history, this invasion scares me greatly. The last time Europe saw something like this, twenty million people died on this side of the Atlantic, and don’t get me started on what happened to the Jews. Our situation is remarkably different this time.”
Rabbi Ellis recounted terrible stories he’s heard of the ravages of war — deaths, injuries, sexual violence.
“It’s a sick thing — a sick war,” Rabbi Eliis said. “There’s a lot of destruction. We’re just starting to deal with it now, and the war is still going on. In terms of the help that’s needed, we’re probably just at the beginning.”
Despite the abject awfulness of the war and refugee crisis, Rabbi Ellis said, “One thing to emphasize is the amazing response of the worldwide Jewish community.”
Many organizations and Jewish Federations have provided supplies and access to resources to make sure desperate needs are addressed. Federations continue to raise money for Ukraine relief efforts, collectively raising some $60 million since the fighting began. Federations also created a first-of-its-kind central volunteer hub in support of refugees fleeing Ukraine — the first two volunteer cohorts from North America have now returned from Poland and Hungary, where they provided humanitarian assistance, aided in immigration processes and cared for children.
“I really appreciate and feel so humbled to be entrusted with the resources of the Jewish community to help these [Jewish refugees],” Rabbi Ellis said. “In terms of the help that’s needed, we’re probably just at the beginning.”
By Sam Kricsfeld, Editor
