Bluma fled to Dnipro from Pokrovsk in December 2024, when the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine made life impossible. Her restaurant was destroyed in one of the daily drone attacks from a frontline that was a mere two kilometers away. The Jewish businesswoman was one of the many refugees who had come to the riverside Ukrainian city from the east.
A year later, the Dnipro Jewish community was helping Bluma rebuild her life, but Pokrovsk remains a focal point of intense fighting between Russian and Ukrainian forces. The Russian military has sustained heavy casualties in its slow push to take the city, but according to the Institute for the Study of War, over a year later, just over half of the city has been conquered.
A senior military officer told The Jerusalem Post that Pokrovsk was a difficult situation, but, as with many cities, in some places the Ukrainians were gaining ground, and in others the Russians. Bluma said that one of the reasons that Russia wanted to seize Pokrovsk was because of its large industrial and mining base, most of which had been destroyed.
Another reason was that it was a gateway into the rest of the contested Donetsk region, and conversely, as one soldier said, it lay on a major thoroughfare to Dnipro. Bluma said that, if Russia seized Pokrovsk, its range for launching drone attacks would increase. In addition, Russia would be able to control highways and further disrupt life for Ukrainians. She hoped that the Russian military would not get any closer to Dnipro, where she had just begun to rebuild her life with her family.
Jewish refugees reflect after Pokrovosk falls
In Pokrovsk, Bluma had owned a well-regarded restaurant, which had even hosted Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last summer. She would often come to Dnipro on business, making the city a natural place of refuge when her family fled the Russian advance. The strong Jewish community made it all the more ideal.
Bluma had volunteered with the JDC-backed Chesed organization in her hometown, organizing holiday events for residents. Yet, in Dnipro, her family was welcomed to a wealth of Jewish community resources. She was able to send her daughter to a well-established Jewish school, the Levi Yitzhak Schneerson school, which consistently ranks within Dnipro’s top 10 schools in mathematics, English, and Ukrainian. Her family has ready access to the large synagogue and massive Menorah Center, which has a supermarket for Kosher food, a business center, and kosher restaurants.
The community helped Bluma find an apartment, and had been a great moral support. Bluma tries not to miss any services or holiday events, but the demands of restarting her business have been great.
“I didn’t find the community, the community found me,” said Bluma.
The Dnipro Jewish community has welcomed many refugees from eastern Ukraine, according to community director Zelig Brez. The community said that it had taken in non-Jewish elderly refugees into its retirement home. For many, like Bluma, they are trying to rebuild their lives.
Bluma hopes to one day return to Pokrovsk, but even if the war were to end now, the city is ruined, and would take years to rebuild. The civilian population is gone. Many, like her, had fled. Others were taken into Russia, staying because they were sympathetic to the invaders or elderly and had no means of leaving.
The Pokrovsk native advised other Jewish refugees to come to places like Dnipro, which has an established community that can provide support.
“Appreciate every second with your family and friends. The war didn’t just destroy, it tore people apart from one another,” said Bluma. “Find a synagogue and community to be close to.”