Posted on 03/03/22
| News Source: WBAL
The Russian invasion of Ukraine is having an impact on the Jewish community in our area. There are a lot of Jewish families that are from Russia or Ukraine or have families in those countries.
WBAL-TV 11 News spoke with Rabbi Velvel Belinsky, who was just in Ukraine a few months ago, and he said that many of his members are Russian or Ukrainian, making the war a devastating situation for both.
"It is definitely horrifying," Belinsky, of the Ariel Jewish Community Center in Baltimore, said.
He, like many others, has been watching the conflict between Russia and Ukraine. It's something that hits hard because many members of the community center are Russian or Ukrainian.
"It is a tragedy for everyone living in Ukraine, and it's a tragedy for the Jewish community in Ukraine just like anybody else living, and I believe it's a tragedy for the entire world," Belinsky said
Belinsky was born in the Soviet Union and came to the United States in the early '90s. He still has friends and relatives in Russia. They have said many are divided on the issue.
"Russia itself is very split. There are people who know what it is going on and understand it is a full-scale war and Russia entered borders of another country and started attacking them. Then there are others who are influenced by the media." Belinsky said.
He said overall, the conflict shows that war can happen anytime anywhere.
"We, for one more time, got a chance to remind ourselves that this world is not as peaceful and as friendly as we'd like to believe, and we always need to be on guard for bad, evil people," Belinsky said.
He is unsure how this will all play out, but he is hoping for the best.
"It's just very scary. Nobody knows how it's going to end. It's very scary," Belinsky said.