(Jewish Group) In Brooklyn's 'Little Odessa,' Jews from Ukraine and Russia find the war 'terrifying'

[Behind the Aegis]

In Brighton Beach, New York, a community in Brooklyn known to many as “Little Odessa,” named after the port city in Ukraine, many Jews are struggling to navigate the fear and uncertainty that has wracked the community as Russia wages an unprovoked war on their former country.

In the weeks of saber-rattling by Russian President Vladimir Putin, and with Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24, many have become distraught and terrified thinking about what might happen to the towns they grew up in and to their families and friends still living in Ukraine.

“It’s very painful, it’s very unfair to the military, it’s unfair to children,” Lyudmila Ruda, a Ukrainian Jewish immigrant who works at the Shorefront Jewish Community Council Food Pantry, told The New York Jewish Week. “We need help.”

The seaside neighborhood, where English is still heard less often than Russian and Ukrainian, is a thriving enclave of Jews who moved to the United States in the 1970s, ’80s and ’90s as refugees from the former Soviet Union. Cyrillic signs mark the restaurants, pharmacies and stores on Brighton Beach Avenue, a main commercial street that runs parallel to the Coney Island boardwalk.

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