“It’s pretty incredible.”
Noah Farb, a Newton high school senior, created a website (Ukraine Family Connection) with help from Rabbi Mendy Uminer of Chabad of Chestnut Hill, and has raised over $50,000 for the victims of the war in Ukraine. The donations have come from four states and three countries.
Over $50,000 will go directly to the Ukrainian people for all manner of good. In the village of Sumy alone, more than 100 people have benefited from the funds.
According to Farb, the effort “just felt like the right thing to do.”
He thought of the project as he was watching the war unfold on TV. “I saw the devastation and destruction and thought: ‘How can I help as many people as possible?’” said Farb. The first step was contacting his Rabbi, Mendy Uminer. Together, they had a discussion on their options.
There was a big one: Chabad.
“It’s a movement within Judaism that started actually in Ukraine in the last century or so, and there’s a network of Chabad rabbis all around the world who each have their own little community there,” Farb said.
“I figured that my local Chabad rabbi would potentially know people in the Ukraine and that through this connection, there would be a way to most directly get aid to those in need.”
As it turned out, Farb was right. Rabbi Yechiel Levitansky, the chief Rabbi of Sumy, Ukraine, and a close friend of Uminer’s, could provide a lead. After contacting Levitansky, Farb and Uminer then had to consider what they would do. The result of that discussion would be Ukraine Family Connection.
Originally, there was no website.
“The fundraising was just sent out to people I know, people that Rabbi Umuner knows, and other people in my community. I could tell people at school, I could tell my friends and their parents, but exposing it to the world was going to be a much better way to fundraise a large amount of money that could significantly help a lot of people.”
It was also paramount, according to Farb, that the help should go directly to Ukraine.
“There’s a website, I’m forgetting the name of it right now, but it tells you how much nonprofits actually give to the cause they’re fighting for, and sometimes the amount is very low. I wanted to try and find a way to help out people while still staying true to the cause.”
“Not donating for the sake of donating, but for the sake of helping”
So Farb booted up squarespace.com and created his own site. Shortly thereafter, he and Uminer were collecting tens of thousands of dollars to give to the Ukrainian people. In addition to the financial side of things, the website also provides information about Ukraine Family Connection’s cause, as well as a way to communicate with people in both countries.
But the network spanned farther than that.
In the end, UkraineFamilyConnection.com brought together folks from Australia and Canada, in addition to New York, Colorado, Utah, Missouri, and, of course, Massachusetts.
Some of the people, said Farb, “are friends of mine, while others I met through philanthropy. One of them actually reached out through the website, while another was put in touch by one of my friends.”
Farb did all of this, he said, because he just likes helping people. “I’ve always been interested in helping,” he noted, “as early as fifth grade, I started a fundraiser to try and raise money for the heart wings of Boston Children’s Hospital, which is where I had surgery that saved my life as a baby.”
Farb has worked on projects with the goal of limiting youth homelessness in Boston and has been a part of many clothing and food drives, all in the local area. He does not have any relatives currently in Ukraine, but he wanted to help out anyway.
“I felt somewhat of a personal connection,” Farb said, “and I knew I wanted to make an impact. So this was a way that I figured I could help.”
Donations may be made at Ukraine Family Connection.
Andrey Sarkanich is a junior at Newton North High School and a Fig City News summer intern.