VOA新闻杂志2022--犹太志愿者与波兰的乌克兰难民联系

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Jewish Volunteers Connect with Ukrainian Refugees² in Poland

A group of American Jewish volunteers who speak Russian visited Poland this summer to work with Ukrainian refugee¹ children.

The children were forced to leave Ukraine after Russia invaded on February 24. Poland has taken in more refugees than any other country.

The children draw pictures, learn English and Polish, and work on math skills. The volunteers are helping³ the children get ready to go to school in Poland later this month. It will be their first time going to school in the new country. They finished school last year by video after leaving Ukraine.

Most of the volunteers do not speak Ukrainian. So, they communicate with the children in Russian, which is also spoken in Ukraine. The Americans are either Russian-speaking immigrants who left the former Soviet⁴ Union more than 30 years ago or are the children of immigrants.

Illana Baird is a Rabbi, or Jewish religious leader, from California. She is one of the 10 Americans working at a summer activities center, known as a camp, in the city of Warsaw. The name of the camp is Fun in the Summer.

Baird said the volunteers feel "a sense of obligation⁵ to help those who are suffering right now." She said Jewish people have suffered in the past. Baird talked about the Holocaust⁶, pogroms and antisemitism. Pogrom is a word from the Russian language used to describe attacks on Jewish communities in the 1800s and early 1900s. Antisemitism is a word used to describe discrimination against Jewish people.

She said the Ukrainians living in Poland are suffering, and the volunteers want to help them feel better.

Baird said some of the children are feeling better. The Rabbi noted⁷ one young girl who at first made a drawing in only black and white, because she said she missed her black dog at home.

A little later, after hearing stories and watching a show with puppets, the little girl made a drawing in color. The girl said she made a pink heart for happiness.

The summer camp will help the children get used to living in Poland. Many of them left Ukraine quickly and only with their mothers. Many men were required to stay behind and help with the war effort.

When the children are at camp studying and playing, their mothers can look for work.

Marta Saracyn is the head of the Jewish Community Center of Warsaw. She said about 30 of the 90 children in the camp are Jewish.

Saracyn described the days at camp as "a lovely bubble for kids to be kids" and not have to worry about their problems for a short time.

The 10 Americans working at the Fun in the Summer camp are part of a group of nearly 90 who left their jobs in the U.S. to help Ukrainian refugees in Poland and Hungary.

Jewish groups in the U.S., Poland and Israel worked together to find people who wanted to help.

The camp is at a Jewish school called Lauder Morasha. It started with the help of Helise Lieberman, an American who is active in Jewish life in Warsaw.

She said there would not have been any Jewish organizations available to help refugees in Poland 30 years ago. Lieberman explained that Poland was home to more than 3 million Jews before World War II but most were killed by German Nazi⁸ forces during the Holocaust. She said the Jewish community in Poland only started to come back after the collapse⁹ of the Soviet-supported communism.

And it looks like the volunteers are helping the children.

Baird, the Rabbi, said one boy became upset when he found out that she was not Ukrainian.

"Why did you come here?" he asked.

She answered, saying: "Because you don't need to be from Ukraine to help others. You just need to be human."

Words in This Story

obligation – n. something that you must do because of a law, rule, promise

bubble – n. a space that is separated from the outside world possibly away from trouble or worry

upset– adj. unhappy or angry

1 refugee   

n.难民，流亡者

参考例句：

• The refugee was condemned to a life of wandering.这个难民注定要过流浪的生活。
• The refugee is suffering for want of food and medical supplies.难民苦于缺少食物和医药用品。

2 refugees   

n.避难者，难民( refugee的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The UN has begun making airdrops of food to refugees. 联合国已开始向难民空投食物。
• They claimed they were political refugees and not economic migrants. 他们宣称自己是政治难民，不是经济移民。

3 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

4 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

5 obligation   

n.（法律、道德上的）义务，责任

参考例句：

• Every player is under an obligation to keep the rules.每个选手都必须遵守这些规则。
• It is the obligation of citizens to perform military service.服兵役是每个公民的义务。

6 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

7 noted   

adj.著名的，知名的

参考例句：

• The local hotel is noted for its good table.当地的那家酒店以餐食精美而著称。
• Jim is noted for arriving late for work.吉姆上班迟到出了名。

8 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

9 collapse   

vi.累倒；昏倒；倒塌；塌陷

参考例句：

• The country's economy is on the verge of collapse.国家的经济已到了崩溃的边缘。
• The engineer made a complete diagnosis of the bridge's collapse.工程师对桥的倒塌做了一次彻底的调查分析。