An Odesa Jewish elementary school and a Jewish orphanage were severely damaged in Russian bombings on Wednesday night, according to Southern Ukraine and Odesa Chief Rabbi Avraham Wolff and Chabad, leading to the decision to temporarily shutter the school.
The Chabad Ohr Avner school suffered a direct hit, according to Chabad, and a Mishpacha Ukraine orphanage was devastated by nearby explosions. Wolff told The Jerusalem Post that no one was harmed in the barrage.
The rabbi said in a separate statement that the orphanage caregivers barely had time to guide the children to the shelter.
“We barely had time to close the door, and then the big explosion came. It shook the entire street, but the speed with which we acted was more important than ever this time,” said Wolff. We realized that right next to us was a direct and fatal hit.”
Wolff told the Post that the school was rendered unusable, and students were temporarily transferred to another Jewish school. Chabad said that some of the children had to sit in hallways and shelters for classes.
Glass, window frames, and furniture needed to be replaced or repaired, and, with the help of the global Jewish community, he believed the school could resume operations within a few months.
The Russian attacks on Odesa ebb and recede, with Jewish sites repeatedly hit during the Kremlin’s assault on civilian population centers. The first concern of Wolff was the most vulnerable populations, including the children of the community’s orphans and the elderly, which had around 50 Holocaust survivors. Many of the survivors were over 90 years old.
“This is where most of our energy is invested, to take care of their integrity, their well-being, and their normal lives,” said Wolff.
A suicide drone struck a synagogue in Odesa in August. In July 2023, Hillel International’s building was hit by a missile.
Source:
www.jpost.com
