Locals help in Poland
Jewish leaders give supplies for Ukrainian refugees
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YOUNGSTOWN -- The parallels of Jewish leaders Lisa Long and Nancy Burnett working to help Ukrainian refugees to safety on the same hallowed ground that saw the mass genocide of the Jewish people in the Holocaust did not escape them -- in fact, it was a reminder of why they volunteered to enter an active war zone.
"This is where over 300,000 Jews were gathered and taken directly to the gas chambers, this is the Warsaw ghetto, this is where all of this is happening now," said Long, Youngstown Jewish Federation financial resource development director, in recapping her trip. "In a place that was responsible for killing so many Jews, the Polish people -- Jewish and non-Jewish-- have come together to make sure that history doesn't repeat itself."
Long and Burnett, a volunteer for the federation, recently returned from a weeklong trip in Warsaw and the Poland-Ukraine border to bring more than 600 pounds of supplies and to offer aid.
They told stories and shared photos from their time overseas to a crowd at the Jewish Community Center on Monday
Long and Burnett worked with Dror Israel, an organization they had worked closely with before during a trip to Israel. Educators from the organization have set up therapeutic day camps / day cares for refugee children in Warsaw, to benefit the children and the exhausted mothers. The Jewish Community Center in Warsaw also has opened its doors to refugees as a day care.
They also assisted at the JCC day care, which offers mothers, who often had to leave their partners behind, the time they need to navigate life in the refugee system. The reality of the room was different than the image they imagined after witnessing the silence of the border and the stoic faces of refugees as they fled their homeland -- it was vibrant and full of life, much like the resilient children who occupied it.
"You hear the noise and the laughter and that's something we didn't expect," Burnett said. "It's generally pretty quiet and those coming across the border look very confused and scared, but in these centers, it's full of laughter and the children are able to be distracted for a short time."
Burnett and Long said it was a life-changing experience, and it has transformed their perspectives. The dandelions popping up in lawns that need mowed and a gas tanking nearing empty are easily brushed off, and now seem like microscopic problems.
"I wake up in the morning in my sheltered life, I don't have to worry about fleeing, I mean I've been worried about the dandelions popping up in my yard," Burnett said. "I just have a deep, deep sense of gratitude for every single thing I have in my life, and a really acute awareness of those who do not have the same thing, both here locally, across the United States and throughout the world."
Long worried that the world might become numb to the atrocities. While news coverage might begin to move on, the war in Ukraine and its effects are far from over. Long said a medical director she met during the trip said post-traumatic stress disorder does not exist over there yet, as the trauma and stress are ongoing.
"With news cycles, in a couple of weeks we'll probably move on to something else, but this crisis is going to last for a very long time, even after the war's over," Long said. "These millions of people who have been driven from their homes are going to be there a long time, so I hope that it doesn't drop out of people's consciousness."
Burnett and Long said the trip and the fundraising experience made them proud to be associated with the small but mighty Youngstown area. Community members donated more than $6,000 toward relief efforts, and the federation itself donated more than $35,000. Long said that for a small community, it can hold its own and its efforts rivaled those of major cities.
Burnett said that the fundraising efforts of the community showed her just how much Youngstown cares.
"We are a small community, but we are a caring community," Burnett said. "I am extremely proud to be a part of the Youngstown area."