Chief Rabbi of Moldova HaRav Pinchas Saltzman turned his shul into a refuge for Ukrainian refugees and before Shabbos told his regular mispallelim to stay at home due to lack of room in the shul, B’Chadrei Chareidim reported.

“There was no choice,” HaRav Saltzman told B’Chadrei. “I told the Jews in the city not to daven or eat here because we had no other place to put the people who fled from Ukraine. We had cases of pikuach nefesh mamash that couldn’t wait until after Shabbos. Whatever we could push off until after Shabbos, we pushed off.”

HaRav Saltzman traveled on Shabbos to the Ukrainian border, received dozens of phone calls and text messages, paid money if necessary, and gave orders to cook on Shabbos for women and children.

Rav Saltzman’s rescue activities involved difficult humanitarian cases of vulnerable refugees arriving in Moldova on Shabbos, including those who were wounded by shelling, the elderly, babies, and pregnant women.

“If these people had remained in Ukraine, their lives would have been endangered, there were cases of pikuach nefesh,” HaRav Saltzman said.

Members of the kehilla and United Hatzalah volunteers provided Shabbos meals for the refugees who had arrived in Kishinev, as well as hundreds of hot meals to refugees still at the border crossing.

I’m at the Moldova/Ukraine border crossing to provide emergency assistance to thousands forced to flee the country, following the escalation in hostilities
I’m seeing An unprecedented humanitarian crisis. Families fleeing, children suffering.
Keep on praying for Peace in Ukraine. pic.twitter.com/cVDtGM9ui1

— Yaakov Flitchkin (@Yaakov_Flitch) March 1, 2022

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)