JERUSALEM — Two buses carrying more than 100 Jewish refugee children from a foster home in Odesa are making their way across Europe to Berlin, where the local Jewish community will provide them with accommodation.
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The children are just a few of the roughly 1 million people who have fled Ukraine since Russia invaded it last week.
Rabbi Mendy Wolff, 25, spoke to the Associated Press on Thursday as the convoy made its way across Romania, after the group crossed from Ukraine into Moldova the previous day.
He said many of 105 children, the youngest only 37 days old, lack proper documentation, which prevented them from fleeing the Black Sea port of Odesa until Wednesday.
“We cannot fly because nobody has documents,” he said. Instead they are making a roughly 2,000 kilometer (1,200 mile) overland trek across the continent to the German capital.
The Jewish children have received financial assistance from Jewish aid groups, and diplomatic support from Israel, Germany and other European states, who have facilitated their swift passage so that they reach Berlin before sundown on Friday, when the Jewish Sabbath begins.
“We’re not making them feel for a second that they are refugees, that’s our main thing,” said Wolff, an Odesa native who is fleeing his hometown.
Berlin?