At the invitation of HaRav Pinchas Saltzman, Chief Rabbi of Israel HaRav Lau on Wednesday flew to Moldova, where hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have been arriving in recent weeks. HaRav Lau visited the shul in Kishinev, which has been transformed into a place to sleep for Jewish refugees. Prior to Shabbos, HaRav Saltzman told the mispallelim not to come to shul on Shabbos as he needed the space for the refugees. “I hope that the shul will revert to a place of tefillah but people are made to feel at home here – it’s simply moving,” Rav Lau said. Apart from providing chizzuk to the refugees, HaRav Saltzman also requested that HaRav Lau come to Kishinev to assist him with complex halachic shailos that arose due to the war.

Amid the pain and suffering of Ukrainian Jews fleeing from the war front came a moving story on Tuesday that symbolized the continuation of life amid travails – a Jewish toddler entered the bris of Avraham Avinu. The mother, a Jewish refugee from Kharkiv, was not connected to the Jewish kehilla in Kharkiv and was not interested in a bris milah when her son was born. But when she arrived in Kishinev and saw the special welcome that the Jewish community showed to every Jew, she decided that she wanted her son, now two and a half, to have a bris. She turned to Rav Mendy Axelrod, a Chabad Rav in the city who serves as the Rav of the shul in Kishinev and is involved in the reception of Jewish refugees to Moldova, and requested that he arrange a bris for her son as soon as possible.

Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainian refugees have been standing in lines in the freezing cold at Moldovan border crossings in recent days, with about 230,000 Ukrainians thought to have entered Moldova since February 24. Few wish to stay in Moldova. About 150,000 refugees already crossed into Romania, from where they can travel to various countries in Europe. A JTA reporter spoke to refugees from Odessa – Jewish and non-Jewish – who had just crossed the Moldovan border on six buses organized by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and will soon be continuing to Bucharest, Romania.

German President Frank-Walter Steinmeier made a special visit on Monday to the Jewish center in Berlin, where 120 Jewish orphans from Odessa arrived on Sunday. The president sat and talked with the children and Rav of Berlin HaRav Yehudah Teichtel for two hours, before delivering a speech. “When the war was just beginning, Chabad immediately began rescuing people,” the president said. “I’m very excited to be here. When I stand here next to the children who were saved from the war, I also see the people who acted immediately – the people who mobilized to save people and help immediately.

As war continues to rage across Ukraine, more and more people are fleeing the country amid Russian missiles hitting residential areas. One of the families rescued on Thursday was a frum family with a newborn. The person who assisted them was Ortal Elbaz, who serves as the Israeli Consul in Croatia, but for the past week has been assisting the Israeli staff in Israel’s embassy in Hungary, which shares a border with Ukraine. The consulate issued documentation for the baby and the family received guidance and assistance in crossing the border from Ukraine into Hungary. Additionally, on Wednesday, Israel Consul in Romania Roni Shabtai assisted 47 Israelis to cross the border from Ukraine into Romania.

Chief Rabbi of Odessa HaRav Avraham Wolf and his wife Chaya spent Shabbos in Moldova with 140 women and children who fled Odessa on Friday, with the men forced to stay behind due to the mandatory recruitment order in Ukraine. On Sunday, the group will continue their travels to Berlin, Germany to unite with the over 100 orphans that were rescued last week from the Mishpacha orphanage in Odessa, which is run by the Wolfs. The orphans, the youngest a five-week-old baby, spent 52 hours on buses from Odessa, arriving in Berlin on Thursday after crossing the borders of Romania, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic.

bDr. Yaqoub Abu El-Rob, a Palestinian doctor fleeing Ukraine, and his family found refuge with Chabad in Anatevka, a village west of Kyiv, where HaRav Moshe Azman is providing shelters for hundreds of Jews and non-Jews, i24NEWS reported. The El-Rob family from Jenine has been living in the city of Irpin, near Kyiv, for the past few years. As the shelling in Kyiv and the surrounding areas intensified, they were forced to abandon their home. The problem was that they had nowhere to go. Dr. El-Rob told i24 that he heard about the village from his wife’s family. Although they didn’t know if they would be welcomed there, they had no other options and he began the trip, which normally takes only a half-hour, with his wife and two children.

Russian-Israeli oligarch Roman Abramovich announced on Wednesday that he is selling the Chelsea Football Club and will be donating the sale proceeds to victims of the war in Ukraine. Amid fears of sanctions in wake of the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Abramovich had already relinquished control of the team last week, handing it over to its charitable foundation trustees. Abramovich wrote in a statement: “The sale of the Club will not be fast-tracked but will follow due process. I will not be asking for any loans to be repaid. This has never been about business nor money for me, but about pure passion for the game and Club. Moreover, I have instructed my team to set up a charitable foundation where all net proceeds from the sale will be donated.

The organization that handles claims on behalf of Jews who suffered under the Nazis said Wednesday that Germany has agreed to extend another $720 million (647 million euros) to provide home care and supportive services for frail and vulnerable Holocaust survivors. The New York-based Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, also referred to as the Claims Conference, said the money will be distributed to more than 300 social welfare organizations globally. “We are proud to announce this significant allocation at a time when these funds are critical, due to the age, poverty and increasing disability of our waning survivor population,” said Gideon Taylor, the organization’s president. “We know these funds provide vital support during these difficult times,” he added.

In a surreal scene, 15 Russian decorated former top army officers and military personnel traveled this week to the village of Lubavitch – in order to pray at the kevarim of the Tzemach Tzedek, z’tl, [Reb Menachem Mendel Schneersohn, the 3rd Lubavitcher Rebbe] and his son, the Maharash, z’tl [Reb Shmuel Schneersohn, the 4th Lubavitcher Rebbe]. Jews who were davening at the kevarim were surprised by the sight of decorated Russian officers at the site and asked them why they were there. They responded that they heard that prayers said at the tombs of the Jewish righteous were accepted so they traveled to the village on the 33rd anniversary of the Russian withdrawal from Afghanistan to pray for peace. They had fought in the Soviet-Afghan War and they prayed that another war wouldn’t occur.