Anyway, we were on our way back through the Zhytomyr region, when we heard on the radio: “Citizens, air raid alert.” And suddenly a Russian SU-27 was flying right over our heads, and then it was shot downed by two Ukrainian planes… Zhytomyr itself looked terrible too: the rigged up bridge, blown up roads, an entire street block without windows, everything was charred.
When we were leaving the Zhytomyr region, we got stopped at the checkpoint and asked where we were going. We explained. They asked: “Aren’t you afraid?” By then the camp had been looted, but the guards did not find the underground storage with the chicken. We got the Torah scroll and the meat and went back to Peremyshlyany, and then moved to Irshava, where the Kyiv community settled.
I clearly remember the first night at the new place. The resort was close to the highway. We were drifting off to sleep when a truck drove by making a huge ruckus. At that point our two younger kids jumped down to the floor without waking up and covered up their necks to protect the arteries as I taught them. I felt a lump in my throat. They are true children of the war with honed reflexes. We had a lot of “adventures,” and our lives hung in the balance multiple times, but the most scared I felt was in that hotel room, when I was looking at my kids lying on the floor.
My father-in-law and mother-in-law live in Crimea at a military base
In a while we moved to Hungary, where rav Blaykh partially restored the Kyiv community. I was so exhausted on the way that I fell asleep at the wheel. The car was basically totalled, but all of us were completely fine…
Approximately 200 people settled in Budapest, and the rabbi told me to set up a dining hall for them. I hired some people; we bought the equipment and were able to provide food for the entire community, daycare, and school, as well as festive meals. We spent a year like that, and then the funding ran out. Now I live in Vienna and work as a mashgiach in a Sephardic restaurant. At first I spent two months living out of my car until I saved up the money to rent an apartment and send for my family. Unfortunately, the children of Ukrainian refugees only receive assistance in Austria for one year, and it is mostly focused on learning German. Now even that is not available. We might have to take the kids out of school.
Still, the main ordeals are behind us. The kids have relaxed: at first they were unusually quiet, stayed at home, and did not go anywhere.
The war really played a trick on our family. My brother was in the occupied territory in the Kharkiv region for a bit. And my parents in law, military retirees, live in Crimea on the territory of a military base. And they are very pro-Russian.
Friends and acquaintances in Russia stopped getting in touch once the war started. And before that they talked in TV-slogans: why did you start Maidan and the revolution etc. They (Ukrainians) are the enemies; they killed Jews, how could you support them…