Children learn while inside a room at the Mishpacha Orphanage of Ukraine. Courtesy: George Serebrenik

George Serebrenik, has called Austin his “on and off” home for the past 40 years, and received an MBA at UT. He has been connected with Chabad of Austin for many years, and to Rabbi and Rochel Levertov, the spiritual leaders of Chabad.

Last year, shortly after the war broke out in Ukraine, Serebrenik heard that Rochel Levertov’s sister, Chaya Wolf, was facing dire issues in Odessa, Ukraine. Wolf and her husband, Rabbi Avremi Wolf, are Chabad Shluchim (emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe) who run an orphanage with 80 children and teenagers. The Russian army was advancing, and they wanted to keep the children safe and together, so they needed to leave and relocate to safer shelter. They ultimately escaped to Berlin, where they settled temporarily in a hotel on the outskirts of the city.

“As a refugee myself,” Serebrenik says, “their plight struck me hard. My grandfather had escaped the same area to settle down with his new bride in Czechoslovakia, and my family fled war-torn Hungary to settle in Texas. So, I decided to lend a helping hand. I donated some money to ease some of their expenses, and I also wanted to see for myself how the orphanage was doing in Berlin. Last fall, I first traveled to Hungary to visit the last remaining Holocaust survivor in my family, who is 96 years old. From Budapest, I took a direct flight to Berlin.”

“In Berlin, I was amazed by the fantastic transportation system that included trains, subways, buses, and trollies that arrived every nine minutes,” said Serebrenik. “I couldn’t help but wish that we could have something similar in Austin one day. I called Chaya Wolf, and we set up a meeting for the following day. My iPhone told me the exact route I would need to take, including a train ride to the east of town followed by a local bus that would take me further out. The entire trip took an hour.”

He describes the scenery he saw when he arrived as “in the middle of nowhere on a small two-lane street with little traffic in the middle of a forest.” He walked until he found the five-story building which looked like it had once been a hotel, and met Wolf and her son Rabbi Mendy, who showed him around.

He toured and saw the activities in each room, including classes for children from kindergarten to college age, and one large ballroom being used as the synagogue with prayer books on the sides of the room. “It quickly became clear that this wasn’t just an orphanage,” Serebrenik says, “this was the Jewish community center of Odessa transported to Berlin!”

“They had a full staff to take care of everyone, including physicians and psychiatrists to help people with the trauma. They needed to make the entire hotel kosher, and they had to teach the German cook how to make kosher meals and Ukrainian food,” said Serebrenik.

Due to the tremendous cost of staying in Berlin, Serebrenik says the orphanage and community had recently returned to Ukraine and the children love that they are back.

“I feel for them. Their entire lives have been turned upside down, many are worried about their fathers and brothers in the war.” Even in Ukraine, It costs about $100,000 a month to care for the orphans.

“I’m supporting them according to my abilities,” says Serebrenik, “and I encourage you to do the same as well. Whether it’s a $5 donation or a $5,000 donation – each dollar goes directly towards the living expenses for these families who are struggling in Odessa during this unrelenting terrible war. 

“They are now in the midst of a campaign to build bomb shelters for the children in the orphanage. The link for the campaign is bit.ly/orphanageshelters. Please open your hearts and give towards this effort. “These are our landsmen. Our brothers and sisters. If we don’t help them, who will?”