A Queen Esther for Our Times: Celebrating Purim and Jewish Resilience in Ukraine

Purim is a joyful holiday because the story doesn’t end badly; Queen Esther’s bravery and intelligence saves the Jews from their imminent destruction at Haman’s hands. Though Ukraine’s Jews are enduring a very different catastrophe today — shelling, blackouts, and near-constant uncertainty —- it’s their fellow Jews, like the thousands of JDC volunteers across the country, who are coming to their aid. 

In this reflection, we hear from one person who helps lead these efforts —- Daria E., the coordinator of JDC’s Volunteer Community in Ukraine. For Daria, the legacy of Queen Esther is all around us, showing up in the daily, unwavering, and courageous efforts of Jewish volunteers. 

I don’t know if I’m lucky or unlucky, but it just so happens that my birthday falls on February 24th, the day the conflict in Ukraine began. On that day, in 2022, there was no thought of having a birthday. All of us at JDC were focused on one thing — delivering life-saving aid to the isolated, elderly, and vulnerable Jews who depend on us each and every day. 

More than three years later, I understand that nothing exists in isolation: There is no light without darkness, no good without evil, and no joy without sorrow. And in the middle of this catastrophe, I believe that all that’s bright, good, and joyful is embodied by one figure: the volunteer.

Volunteers hold up the world. 

I’m the coordinator of JDC’s Volunteer Community network in Ukraine. The Volunteer Community was established in 2014 during a crisis that shook the entire country. Our primary mission more than a decade ago, when there were just 15 volunteer centers, was to assist those who fled after losing their homes. We helped them integrate into new Jewish communities and provided material support. The Volunteer Community builds on essential work JDC had been doing in these communities for decades through JDC-supported Hesed social service centers, Jewish Community Centers (JCCs), and countless volunteers who have given their time and energy to Jews in need.

Time moves forward and circumstances change — the challenges we now face are different and more severe. To meet the moment, the Volunteer Community expanded our work and doubled in size. Today, our network consists of 33 volunteer centers in 27 cities with about 3,000 volunteers. Last year alone, we assisted more than 37,000 people across Ukraine. 

That’s 37,000 individual souls, all with their own story, desires, needs, and dreams — each a world entire. 

This wasn’t inevitable. When this catastrophe began in 2022, we feared that people would leave, and we’d be left here with no one to give assistance. But in the first month or two of the conflict, we saw that the opposite was true — people engaged more and more in volunteer activities. 

That’s because the Volunteer Community gives them something priceless. Many of our volunteers lost everything when this nightmare started. They may be internally displaced persons (IDPs) who fled their communities and found themselves in an unfamiliar place. So, they connect with a Hesed social service center and secure food, medicine, clothing, and accommodation. But after they receive these vital necessities, they still crave what every human needs: a sense of purpose. 

Volunteering restores their dignity. When a person volunteers, they regain the understanding that they’re valued and that there are people around them who, on the one hand, are helping just like they are, and on the other hand, are ready to support them as well. 

What do our volunteers look like?  They’re teens, parents, children, elderly, those with disabilities and those in strollers. Our oldest volunteer is a 93-year-old woman from Chernihiv. She knits socks for younger grandmothers and grandfathers. Even when babushkas come for assistance, they often find themselves helping someone else in the process. Aid recipients become volunteers and vice versa. 

That’s the ethic of the Volunteer Community — mutual aid, and the notion that those who give support also need support, too. Many of the 40,000 we helped last year may go on to assist others. 

Sometimes you volunteer and discover yourself in the process.  Recently, a group of volunteers traveled to another city and worked to address the community’s challenges. One of their tasks was to clean the local Jewish cemetery. A volunteer was clearing an area of the cemetery so overgrown you couldn’t see the gravestones. When she finally cleaned away the stone, she found her own last name on it.

The first name was her uncle’s. 

The uncle had disappeared years ago, but the volunteer discovered where he was buried and was able to find his children and other relatives. After 70 or 80 years — whether through divine intervention, coincidence, or a combination of these factors — her Jewish family was reunited. 

Volunteering shows us that Jews have the right and the responsibility to decide what our tomorrow will look like. When we help others, we follow the example of Queen Esther, who knew she had a mission — to be the instrument through which freedom will come. 

This decision is in our hands. We can rely on fate to save us, or we can choose to act, to help, even to risk everything for each other. We can choose to be a Queen Esther for our times. We can volunteer. 

When we help others, we follow the example of Queen Esther — to be the instrument through which freedom will come.

The Purim story teaches us to see light in what seems to be darkness. It teaches us to look around, to find spirituality and faith and increase it. Jewish communities in Ukraine today are both Mordechai, who, sprinkling his head with ashes, calls people to return to the roots of faith, to awaken their spirituality, and Queen Esther, who is ready to go against the odds, imperiling herself to save the lives of her people. We are called back to ourselves, to our heritage, even as we’re called to action — to help our fellow Jews. 

The third year of this struggle has taught us that there must be room for joy and spirituality and Jewish tradition, no matter what — this is our strength and our motivation to go on. That’s why we’ll celebrate Purim and, in the face of all that is wrong, celebrate each other, too. 

Volunteers will make this possible, all part of our annual “Bring Joy” program. We’ll bake hamantaschen for the homebound. We’ll deliver mishloach manot (Purim gift baskets) to at-risk children, the elderly, and those with disabilities. We’ll visit the isolated and lonely and sick. And we’ll spin our groggers with delight and defiance.

“People come into this world to do one good deed,” Jewish wisdom tells us. “But if they don’t know which one, let them do all the good deeds they’re able to do.” JDC’s Volunteer Community gives everyone the chance to do as much good as possible. 

It’s in this way that they discover why they’re here — what they came into this world to do. 

Daria E. is the coordinator of JDC’s Volunteer Community — a network of volunteer centers in dozens of cities in Ukraine. 

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