Students at an Atlanta synagogue are sending messages of hope to children forced to flee Ukraine.
Fourth to seventh grade students at Congregation Bet Haverim created almost 30 cards to send to Ukrainian children now living in Israel. The cards will be electronically sent to Dror Israel, an organization that is helping displaced Ukrainian children. The cards will be translated to Ukrainian.
“It’s just very touching, how tuned in the kids were to imagining something that’s kind of unimaginable,” Rabbi Dayle Friedman said Monday.
On Sunday, members of the North Druid Hills synagogue visited the Grant Park Conservancy to see the daffodils they planted in November bloom. As a part of the Daffodil Project, the congregation planted the daffodils to remember children who were killed during the Holocaust.
Started in 2010, The Daffodil Project is a worldwide initiative, created by Andrea Videlefsky, a Marietta doctor. The goal of the project is to plant 1.5 million daffodils, to remember the estimated 1.5 million children who perished in the Holocaust, according to the website. The project also strives to support children today who are experiencing humanitarian crises. So far, more than 700,000 bulbs have been planted.
The daffodil was selected because the shape and color of the flowers represent the yellow stars Jews were forced to wear during the Holocaust, the website says.
As the congregation gathered to see the daffodils bloom, the students made cards for Ukrainian children who have become refugees in Israel.
The students are empathetic to the needs of the children who have been displaced, Friedman said.
Though the congregation originally planned the event to remember the children killed during World War II, they were happy to also take the time to support children suffering due to a war raging today, the rabbi said.
“The message is that there are kids in Atlanta, Georgia, who are thinking of them and praying for them and care about them and wishing them a good future,” Friedman said.
Credit: Courtesy of: Congregation Bet Haverim
Credit: Courtesy of: Congregation Bet Haverim
About the Author
