Rabbi proposes kindertransport-inspired initiative
‘I have always wondered how I could repay the debt I owe to the kindertransport, who saved my then 11-year-old mother.'
A rabbi in Kent is attempting to set up a ‘Ukrainetransport’ for families fleeing the Russian invasion. Jonathan Romain’s mother fled Nazi Germany on the kindertransport which Quakers helped set up during world war two.
Linking with the charity Refugees At Home, the Maidenhead rabbi tweeted he had been inundated with offers of help in the UK, with more than 500 households offering rooms for refugees. He described it as an ‘exhausting but a wonderful response to a terrible situation’.
‘I have always wondered how I could repay the debt I owe to the kindertransport, who saved my then 11-year-old mother. Now is the time, which is why I am helping to coordinate Ukrainetransport,’ he tweeted. After fleeing the Nazis on the kindertransport, Romain’s mother was looked after by a family in Devon.
Speaking to The Guardian on 6 March, the rabbi said he hopes refugees can be hosted by British families, rather than being put up in hotels, as people fleeing Afghanistan were last year. Those offering help, he said, range from people with ancestors who had to flee during the second world war, and others who are ‘just appalled for humanitarian reasons’.
The rabbi can be emailed at rabbi@maidshul.org.
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