Rebbetzin Miriam Moskowitz and her husband, HaRav Moshe Moskovitz, have been Chabad shlichim to the Jewish kehilla in the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv (also known as Kharkov) for 32 years.

They have remained in the city, Ukraine’s second-largest, even as it came under intense Russian shelling in the past few days, killing civilians and reducing universities and police and government offices to rubble. [However, on Wednesday morning, they brought their children to safer grounds.]

Rebbetzin Moskowitz, a mother of 12 children who grew up in Australia, spoke to Israel’s Kol B’Rama on Thursday morning. “The Russians blew up our school area yesterday, where just a week ago we celebrated the school’s 30-year anniversary with the children. All the windows were shattered.”

“The whole city is in ruins. Every day we receive pleas for help. We sent all our children away.”

The Mosovitches were interviewed by CBS News on Wednesday.

“It’s like a very, very difficult situation,” Rebbetzin Moskovitz said. “Just across from the street from the synagogue, they bombed the government building.”

“In the morning, they started bombing next to the house and just went on, the bombs and the noise, and the building was like shaking. So we jumped in the car,” Rabbi Moshe Moskovitz said.

“We went to the synagogue, which hopefully won’t be the last time. We went downstairs to see all the people, went downstairs to see the cook,” Miriam Moskovitz said. “Today, the bombing is so intense that anybody that we were able to … was in touch with us. We just said in between bombings, just run to the synagogue, and at least you’ll get bread.”

The CBS report continued: “The couple said more than 100 people have been sheltering in the basement of the synagogue. Food and care packages are also being given out to anyone who comes by. In between curfews, they pray in the sanctuary and answer calls for help.”

Rabbi Moskovitz asked viewers for “prayers as he evacuated his 10th bus of children from an orphanage.”

Israel’s Channel 13 News reporter Or Heller, who is currently reporting from Ukraine, was recently hosted together with his crew at the Moskovitz home. He posted a thank you for their hospitality on Twitter and wrote: “When we asked him why he isn’t fleeing, Rav Moskovitz answered: ‘I won’t abandon the 20,000 Jews in Kharkiv.’

“Tzaddik,” Heller concluded.

תודה רבה לרב חבד של קהילת חארקיב משה מוסקוביץ׳ ולרעייתו הרבנית מריים מוסקוביץ׳ שאירחו אותנו כיד המלך. כששאלנו אותו מתי הוא בורח מחארקיב ענה ״לא אעזוב את עשרים אלף היהודים בחארקיב.״ צדיק. pic.twitter.com/W3QwtUEVms

— Or Heller אור הלר (@OrHeller) February 27, 2022

Anyone interested in assisting the Jews in Kharkiv can do so here.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)