The Jewish Medical Center “JMC,” one of the most important medical and social institutions of the Jewish Community of Dnipro, received an extraordinarily touching gift from the USA. The women of the Jewish community of the city of Richmond, Virginia, sent hand-knitted blankets for the patients of the center. These gifts have already been received by the patients of the “JMC Surgery” and “JMC Left-Bank” inpatient units, including elderly people and children suffering from serious illnesses.
Richmond holds a special place in the history of the international connections of the Jewish Community of Dnipro. In this American city serve the emissaries of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem Mendel Lessoff and his wife Daniela Lessoff, daughter of the director of the Jewish Community of Dnipro, Zelig Brez. The communities are bound by strong friendly relations and shared initiatives, in particular the Mezuz.us project, thanks to which Jewish families of Dnipro received mezuzahs for their homes. In the summer of 5786, representatives of the Jewish community of Richmond visited Dnipro and became acquainted with the activities of its Jewish institutions, including the JMC medical center.
And so recently a large parcel arrived from Richmond as a gift to the JMC medical center, and behind this gift stands a wonderful charitable tradition: in Richmond there is a special women’s Jewish community, and its participants – the group Kirva Knitters – gather together every Friday to knit blankets for people in need of help and support. Each item is created by hand, and a small heart is attached to it, symbolizing love and care. This time, the women of Kirva Knitters decided to give the blankets they made to the Jews of Dnipro, and together with the blankets two letters arrived, in which the American benefactresses explained the meaning they invest in their work.
“We send you and your Jewish community love and support in this difficult time. You are in our hearts, and a little heart is attached to each blanket. May these blankets bring you comfort and warmth and become a reminder that people all over the world care about you,” reads the letter addressed to the General Director of JMC, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Alexander Rodinsky. And on a postcard, hand-signed by the participants of the Kirva Knitters group, is written: “With these blankets we send love and warmth from Richmond, Virginia, to Dnipro, Ukraine.”
It is important to note that the name of the group, Kirva Knitters, is deeply symbolic. Kirva in Hebrew means “closeness” or “close connection,” and this emphasizes that the Jewish women of Richmond, intertwining threads before the onset of Shabbos, also strive to strengthen the bonds between Jews regardless of the distances between them, the language they speak, or their social status. Love, care, and attention connect people and convey to them warmth and comfort from friends, even if these friends have never seen one another.
“This gift touched literally everyone who came into contact with it: the doctors, the medical staff, the community staff, and, of course, those who received these wonderful blankets, knitted with such attention and love,” says the General Director of JMC, Doctor of Medical Sciences, Professor Alexander Rodinsky. “And it is especially important to us that this initiative unites people and reminds us how strong the bonds between the Jewish communities of different countries are. We are deeply grateful to our friends from Richmond for this wonderful gift, which has become yet another manifestation of care for people, for the striving to help people, to preserve their health – both physical and spiritual, to surround them with care and love – is one of the most important missions of the united and cohesive Jewish Community of Dnipro under the leadership of Chief Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki.”
