Thank you for posting this beautifully, challenging, hauntingly and yet also hopefully written post. I am an evangelical Christian steeped in the Jewish as well as Christian Scriptures. I pray for Ukraine, for its refugees, and for God’s / YHWH’s intervention.
Israel is all that stands between another holocaust and freedom. For those Jews who do not support Israel, this passage from Mr. Aronson should convince you otherwise. “ In Kishinev, these lines aren’t a memory but a description. My Shema companion, his son and the others are traveling to new lives under the guard of a Jewish army, itself much of the answer to two millennia of dispersal and powerlessness.”
“he cobbled together a living as a taxi driver, a mechanic, car refurbisher and salesman, a translator, and a tour guide. “I’m not sitting and doing nothing,” he said. “I must support everybody because I am the man in my family.””
———————————————-
So that would be the *actual* patriarchy, as opposed to the purely theoretical one.
Good to hear so many have stepped up to help. All the more necessary since we know Obama Admin Part 3 has zero interest in flying planeloads of these refugees to the United States. The percentage of refugees with western values would be WAY too high.
A sweet, inspiring story. I’m Christian, and I know that my faith is nurtured across the ages by the devotion of my Jewish forebears. My determination to live faithfully is inspired by contemporary Jews still living amid various degrees of enmity and persecution, wherever they go. Communism can’t abide any strain of religion because fealty to anything else undermines state control. My heart bleeds for these Jews, and I love them for standing up for their religious freedom! They help me stand up for mine - not in Ukraine or Moldova now, but, remarkably, in my own country with the American state incrementally suppressing Christianity.
Mr. Aronson’s article highlights another reason to hope and pray that Ukraine will fend off Putin.
Though I don’t doubt this writer’s sincerity, he presents only one perspective of the situation in the Donbas. It’s clear that that ethnic Russians in that region of Ukraine have resisted the de-Russification of their ancestral homelands by the Ukrainian government. His account, though, does support the government and media narrative that is being presented in the West. Unfortunately, however, that narrative is just as biased as this writer’s account. We in the west are not being provided a balanced view of the war in Ukraine. The omission of other perspectives amounts to deception. Here are just a few examples of that deception:
You speak of theory but you are taking action on the front lines so, much respect for putting yourself out there Cole! And giving those running shoes to that boy - beautiful!!!
I’m not one for American-style contempt for the purely theoretical.
Considering the damage that's been done by the absolute commitment to 'Purely Theoretical' policies for COVID, Climate Change, and other leftist doctrine, maybe a little contempt on your part is warranted.
To me this is kind of an odd thing that people do. war is hell, on everyone equally. why do we keep focusing in on specific ethnic groups? Everybody that’s fleeing war is dirty and hungry and having a hard time finding food. unless one group for some reason has more of a bull’s-eye on them than another and I just don’t get it. Although I suppose highlghting any individual highlights their culture. If your between a male 18-50 and a citizen of the Ukraine i’m looking at you wondering why you fled.
That being said I have always been very pro-Israel. It’s the one functional democracy in a region full of violence and tyrants. A true oasis.
My paternal great grandparents were wise enough to flee with their three sons and daughter to flee a town not far from Kiev in the 1890s because of extreme poverty, religious discrimination, forced conscript into the Czar’s army and persecution from the locals. They made their way to NYC like so many other Ashkenaz Jews who knew they could not have normal lives in what was referred to as the Pale of Settlement. It pains me to see this history happening all over again. Oddly enough, my maternal grandparents fled Kishinev, the very same city where this essay takes place in the 1880s when pogroms murdered thousands of Jews. I’m glad they fled and migrated here never looking back at what was never considered home to any of them. Sadly, they were never considered Ukrainian or Russian or Rumanian. They were always seen as outsiders. I’m glad that some and hopefully many, will find their way to Israel.
Thank you for posting this beautifully, challenging, hauntingly and yet also hopefully written post. I am an evangelical Christian steeped in the Jewish as well as Christian Scriptures. I pray for Ukraine, for its refugees, and for God’s / YHWH’s intervention.
Israel is all that stands between another holocaust and freedom. For those Jews who do not support Israel, this passage from Mr. Aronson should convince you otherwise. “ In Kishinev, these lines aren’t a memory but a description. My Shema companion, his son and the others are traveling to new lives under the guard of a Jewish army, itself much of the answer to two millennia of dispersal and powerlessness.”
Thank G-d for Israel.
God bless you for stepping up and helping. It tears at the heart to see the suffering of the Ukrainian people.
“he cobbled together a living as a taxi driver, a mechanic, car refurbisher and salesman, a translator, and a tour guide. “I’m not sitting and doing nothing,” he said. “I must support everybody because I am the man in my family.””
———————————————-
So that would be the *actual* patriarchy, as opposed to the purely theoretical one.
Good to hear so many have stepped up to help. All the more necessary since we know Obama Admin Part 3 has zero interest in flying planeloads of these refugees to the United States. The percentage of refugees with western values would be WAY too high.
A sweet, inspiring story. I’m Christian, and I know that my faith is nurtured across the ages by the devotion of my Jewish forebears. My determination to live faithfully is inspired by contemporary Jews still living amid various degrees of enmity and persecution, wherever they go. Communism can’t abide any strain of religion because fealty to anything else undermines state control. My heart bleeds for these Jews, and I love them for standing up for their religious freedom! They help me stand up for mine - not in Ukraine or Moldova now, but, remarkably, in my own country with the American state incrementally suppressing Christianity.
Mr. Aronson’s article highlights another reason to hope and pray that Ukraine will fend off Putin.
Though I don’t doubt this writer’s sincerity, he presents only one perspective of the situation in the Donbas. It’s clear that that ethnic Russians in that region of Ukraine have resisted the de-Russification of their ancestral homelands by the Ukrainian government. His account, though, does support the government and media narrative that is being presented in the West. Unfortunately, however, that narrative is just as biased as this writer’s account. We in the west are not being provided a balanced view of the war in Ukraine. The omission of other perspectives amounts to deception. Here are just a few examples of that deception:
https://jeffcuttler.substack.com/p/ukrainian-war-lies?s=w
Outstanding article. It aligns with the email I just received from my spiritual director on the theme, "Stay focused."
You speak of theory but you are taking action on the front lines so, much respect for putting yourself out there Cole! And giving those running shoes to that boy - beautiful!!!
Sasha sounds like he’s between 18 and 60. I guess staying and fighting to protect his father and grandmother isn’t a thing for him.
I’m not one for American-style contempt for the purely theoretical.
Considering the damage that's been done by the absolute commitment to 'Purely Theoretical' policies for COVID, Climate Change, and other leftist doctrine, maybe a little contempt on your part is warranted.
Regardless, thank you for the work you are doing.
Loved this piece.
To me this is kind of an odd thing that people do. war is hell, on everyone equally. why do we keep focusing in on specific ethnic groups? Everybody that’s fleeing war is dirty and hungry and having a hard time finding food. unless one group for some reason has more of a bull’s-eye on them than another and I just don’t get it. Although I suppose highlghting any individual highlights their culture. If your between a male 18-50 and a citizen of the Ukraine i’m looking at you wondering why you fled.
That being said I have always been very pro-Israel. It’s the one functional democracy in a region full of violence and tyrants. A true oasis.
My paternal great grandparents were wise enough to flee with their three sons and daughter to flee a town not far from Kiev in the 1890s because of extreme poverty, religious discrimination, forced conscript into the Czar’s army and persecution from the locals. They made their way to NYC like so many other Ashkenaz Jews who knew they could not have normal lives in what was referred to as the Pale of Settlement. It pains me to see this history happening all over again. Oddly enough, my maternal grandparents fled Kishinev, the very same city where this essay takes place in the 1880s when pogroms murdered thousands of Jews. I’m glad they fled and migrated here never looking back at what was never considered home to any of them. Sadly, they were never considered Ukrainian or Russian or Rumanian. They were always seen as outsiders. I’m glad that some and hopefully many, will find their way to Israel.
Light in the darkness
Beautiful. Gob Bless You.
B'H may you continue this wonderful work for our brethren