ח׳ אדר ה׳תשפ״ו | February 25, 2026
Senior U.S. Delegation Visits Chabad Orphanage
Four senior U.S. senators, alongside American and Ukrainian ambassadors, met with shliach Rabbi Avraham Wolf in Odessa to discuss the welfare of children in the Mishpacha Ukraine network. The meeting highlighted the orphanage’s critical role supporting hundreds of war-affected children, providing housing and safety amid ongoing conflict.
Four senior U.S. senators, together with the American and Ukrainian ambassadors, met in Odessa, Ukraine, with shliach Rabbi Avraham Wolf to discuss the condition of the children of the “Mishpacha Ukraine” network.
The meeting took place against the backdrop of four years since the outbreak of the Russia–Ukraine war and included an official delegation comprised of Senators Richard Blumenthal, Sheldon Whitehouse, Chris Coons, and Jeanne Shaheen, along with U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Julie Davis and Ukraine’s Ambassador to the United States Oksana Markarova.
During the meeting, Rabbi Wolf presented the current reality facing the children growing up under the network’s care. Established by the Jewish community in Odessa more than twenty-five years ago, the organization operates educational and welfare institutions that provide hundreds of orphans and children from distressed families with a full framework of housing, nutrition, and schooling.
Since the outbreak of the war, the orphanage has become a critical humanitarian lifeline, absorbing children who have lost their worlds due to the fighting and providing them with a safe refuge amid the national chaos.
“To hear about a child growing up here with joy on his face while a war is raging outside is deeply moving,” the U.S. ambassador remarked. “When you hear about a child who grows up here, studies here, and lives his childhood with happiness and a smile, while outside the window there is war, and yet the child is calm and at peace, celebrating Yom Tov and marking birthdays with cake and balloons, it is deeply touching,” she added.
Ukraine’s ambassador to the United States added that what has been built there over the years, and continues even throughout the war, inspires deep respect.
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