Ukraine was once home to the largest Jewish population in Europe, with approximately 1.5 million Jews living in the Soviet republic of Ukraine. By 2023, a year after Russia’s devastating full-scale invasion, the Jewish community of Ukraine was estimated at around 43,000 – just 3% of what it once was.

World Jewish Relief, supported by the UK’s leading Jewish communal agencies, has launched a Ukraine Crisis Appeal in response to the rapidly deteriorating situation on the country’s border with Russia. The latest reports indicate that over 150,000 Russian troops surround Ukraine’s border, and forces have now been deployed inside Eastern Ukraine.

A sense of foreboding, a storm brewing on the horizon, pervades the country as the days become shorter and nights get colder. Military frontlines are at a stalemate, and like last year, a wintertime escalation of aerial bombardments with no end in sight. Not least, a sense that global attention has moved on, just when conditions become ever more perilous.  

From 22 October to 4 November, JW3’s celebrated kosher restaurant Zest, in partnership with World Jewish Relief, will be turning yellow and blue as a celebration of all things Ukrainian. The Taste of Ukraine extravaganza is being held to coincide with Liberation Day in Ukraine on 28th October.