Mohel From Dniepro, Child – Refugee From Kharkiv, Bris In Kishinev, Moldova

NEW YORK (VINnews) — Among the harsh stories of darkness and destruction in Ukraine, a ray of light shone Tuesday, a story of hope and faith which symbolizes the continuity of Jewish life amid the displaced Jews of Ukraine.

A Jewish mother was not part of the Jewish community in her town of Kharkiv and when her child was born did not see a reason to circumcise him. However after fleeing her home and arriving in Chișinău (Kishinev) in Moldova, she saw the amazing reception of the local Jewish community for every Jew arriving and decided that she wanted her son to become a kosher Jew.

The woman asked Rabbi Mendy Axelrod, a Chabad emissary who serves as the rabbi of a shul in Kishinev, to help organize her son’s bris as soon as possible. Rabbi Axelrod found another refugee in the town, Rabbi Yaakov Gaisonowitz, who is considered the most expert mohel in the FSU (Former Soviet Union) and performs more than 500 circumcisions a year in Ukraine and Russia.

Rabbi Gaisonowitz had fled from Dniepro with his family and is in Kishinev from where he intends to continue to Israel or to another community of refugees in Europe.

Since the local shul is full of refugees, the mohel decided to find a sterile place to perform the bris, which took place Tuesday in a Mother and Baby center where a member of the local Jewish community is employed. The child, who is two and a half years old, was named Chaim Shalom Yoel and has been registered in the local Chabad kindergarten while his mother and family members stay in Kishinev to recover from their ordeal.

Rabbi Zusha Abelski, the director of the Moldovan Jewish community said that the bris had  “given us renewed strength as we work feverishly to save Jewish refugees who are streaming here the whole time.”