Nassau rabbis bring Torah to Ukrainian refugees in Poland, as a message to help 'erase the hate'

A delegation of rabbis, led by three from Nassau County, traveled to Poland last week, and presented a Torah to Ukrainian Jewish refugees, bringing a message of hope to those fleeing a war torn nation.

“It’s something that a group of Jews need, to have a sacred Torah in order to observe,” said Rabbi Art Vernon of Congregation Shaaray Shalom of West Hempstead. “For the Ukrainian community, we know there’s a war going on and life is not normal. Some have been displaced in Ukraine and are trying to maintain some sense of normalcy.”

Vernon was part of the delegation, led by Rabbi Jay Rosenbaum, president of the North American Board of Rabbis and the rabbi emeritus of Temple Israel of Lawrence, along with Rabbi Steven M. Graber of Temple Hillel in North Woodmere.

They returned Thursday night after a five-day trip in which they presented the Torah, a scroll containing the Five Books of Moses, to the Ukrainian ambassador in Warsaw. The ambassador was expected to deliver it to Jewish refugees, the rabbis said from Poland.

“That was the purpose of coming to Poland, to help erase the hate. I know they were deeply touched by it,” Rosenbaum said. “Also, the Torah addresses the issue that led to this terrible tragedy and profound conflict we see being acted out in Ukraine,” noting that the Torah's commandments are being violated in Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

“This is an International criminal act of coveting the property and the independence of Ukraine,” Rosenbaum said. “The golden rule is very essential to our Abrahamic thinking. It is the love of my neighbor as thyself … We see it being acted out on Ukraine. Looking at one's neighbor, not with a sense of love, but with suspicion and jealousy or fear that if your neighbor has what you don't have and that's not humanity.”

The group of rabbis also met with Ukraine’s deputy ambassador to Poland and members of the Polish government, Graber said, including Poland's deputy Foreign Minister Arkadiusz Mularczyk. Among other subjects, he said they discussed the need to strengthen the trans-Atlantic bond between Poland and the United States.

The Ukrainian ambassador told the rabbis he expected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy would have a message of thanks for them, he said.

Vernon said the delegation also visited the Auschwitz Concentration Camp, established during WWII in then German-occupied Poland and the place where more than 1 million Jews were murdered. Vernon said their story, once forgotten under Soviet rule, is now memorialized in Poland.

Vernon said he hoped, through his trip, to bring back to his Long Island congregation a greater understanding of the Holocaust, in which 90% of Polish Jews were exterminated.

By John Asbury

john.asbury@newsday.comJohnAsbury

John Asbury is a breaking news and general assignment reporter. He has been with Newsday since 2014 and previously worked at The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, California.