Features
Organization in Ukraine known as Zgraya that has many Jewish members desperately needs your help to continue doing its important work
By BERNIE BELLAN Alexander Kovalchuk is a 27-year-old Jewish Ukrainian who is currently in Kyiv working with a group of young people, mostly in their 20s and 30s, called Zgraya (https://zgraya-help.com). Zgraya means “wolf pack” in Ukrainian. In normal times, Alexander told me that he is a video editor, “working in post production” – mostly in “commercial and music videos.”
Alexander said that he moved to Kyiv about two weeks ago from where he was living. He met up with other members of Zgraya whom he knew from before and was put to work making camouflage nets for the military.
I said to Alexander that Alex Guider, who moved to Winnipeg from Kyiv 11 years ago (and about whom we have a story at http://jewishpostandnews.ca/local/1078-jews-from-ukraine-who-have-settled-in-winnipeg-offer-conflicting-opinions-about-the-russian-invasion) told me that a lot of the members of Zgraya are Jewish. About how many were Jewish, I asked Alexander? He said that lots were but he didn’t know how many.
Alexander went on to explain that Zgraya was started by a young Jewish woman by the name of Evgeniya Talinovskaya eight years ago (in 2014) when Russia seized Crimea and began to foment an insurrection in the Donbas region of Ukraine.
In short order, once Alexander came to Kyiv, he told me, he and others in the group were asked to do “cooking for our army” and for people who had come to Kyiv from other cities.
Alexander went on to describe the four areas in which Zgraya members are contributing to the Ukrainian defense effort, but frankly I couldn’t understand what he said so I consulted the Zgraya website.
Here are pictures from the Zgraya website that show what kind of work the members of the group are engaged in doing:
The four areas in which Zgraya is involved are: Providing humanitarian aid to the hardest-hit areas; supplying hospitals with hot meals and trying to contact international organizations to access medical equipment; supplying civilians with medications, meal kits, and transportation – and helping Ukrainians who have moved to Kyiv to find places to live; and helping to supply the military with clothing, ballistic protection, medicine, and hot meals. (The Zgraya website – zgraya.help.com has more detailed information.) Later on, Alexander added that Zgraya is now involved in evacuating Ukrainians from areas that have been liberated from Russian control. (More about this later.)
Insofar as obtaining medicines goes, Alexander explained that it’s not simply a matter of finding drugs in whatever drugstores might be open. “People have no money for buying it,” he says, “and a lot of drugstores that are open, they doesn’t have special drugs that people need.”
“But,” he added, “we are finding it, we are buying it.” Alexander went on to note that there are about 15 people in the group who are doctors who are devoting themselves exclusively to “helping people with what they need” in terms of medicinal requirements. If certain drugs are not attainable, then the doctors will try to find suitable substitutes, he said, but for so many people, having the money to pay for drugs is simply impossible. Zgraya provides the medicines at no cost, but clearly the group is desperate for outside donations in order to keep going.
“We have a large volunteer group that can deliver medicines and food,” Alexander said, because “a lot of people can’t even go from their home to go to the store. It was a problem even before the war,” he added.
Buying food is also a challenge, but the biggest financial problem for Zgraya, Alexander noted, is paying for the evacuations of civilians from areas near Kyiv that were hit hard by the invading Russian forces – but that have now been abandoned by the Russians.
“One evacuation will be for 120 people,” he explained, but it costs in the neighbourhood of “7,000 Euros” (approx. $9600 Cdn.) for one evacuation.
“When we are going to a city (or town) we are delivering food, we are delivering drugs…and we are bringing back 120 people, but every day we receive requests for around 300 people – it’s mothers, it’s children, it’s old people who need to be evacuated.
“Every day Zgraya spends something like 16,000 Euros. You need to understand we don’t have big donations from anyone. Most of our donations are from just regular people who are trying to help us.”
I asked Alexander whether he’s married.
“No, I’m not,” he answered. “I have a girlfriend and of course, I was worried about her – maybe she don’t want to hear it. I was trying to force her to move to Lviv once the war started. She has the possibility. She has family in Prague, but she doesn’t want to go.”
I said to Alexander that I would do whatever I could to raise awareness of Zgraya – whether it was through our newspaper, our website, or our Facebook page. I told him to keep in touch.
Later, after we had finished our conversation, Alexander sent me a message, asking that if anyone does want to make a donation through the group’s website https://zgraya-help.com please send the money through Paypal, if possible. “Paypal is the fastest and greatest way,” he wrote. “Now every day is count.”
Features
Understanding the Differences Between the Three Roulette Classes
Roulette is one of those games that denotes the world of casinos most iconically with its spinning wheel and suspenseful moment when people wait for the ball to land on a number. Not all roulette, however, is the same. There are three classes of roulette: European, American, and French. They have rules and variations that somehow make them stand out and give extremely different gaming experiences. Let’s take a look at some of these differences and understand what makes each roulette class special.
The Classic Choice of the European Roulette
The typical character of European Roulette is the presence of a single zero, thus making it highly favorable among players due to a very low house advantage of 2.7% and, therefore, higher odds of winning. It offers a number of inside and outside bets that can suit different players’ appetites for risk. The reason the players like European Roulette is that it is easy to play, and the odds are quite even.
This game of roulette easily finds its place on most online websites in several variants, from differently themed games to different betting limits to accommodate any type of player. Be it a new starter or a seasoned gamer, European Roulette offers them all a slick and smooth experience with good graphics and interaction that they would want more of.
The Elegance and the Strategy of the French Roulette
French Roulette is often touted as the most sophisticated style of the game. It shares this with European Roulette, which also has a single zero wheel; however, the features are different, with the inclusion of various rules termed “La Partage” and “En Prison.” These rules create such a drastic reduction in the house edge down to as low as 1.35% on even-money bets that it affords the player a number of options for a gaming experience. French Roulette also boasts an assortment of table layouts and special bets that give the game a strategic edge, intriguing experienced players.
Spin Casino roulette games offer a sophisticated, classic European casino atmosphere in the version of French Roulette. The detailed tutorials and user-friendly interface mean that new players will take no time to learn the nuances of this great game, allowing everyone to enjoy the strategic depth of this variation.
The American Roulette, With High Stakes
Another successful variant is American Roulette, most especially in North American casinos. The key difference between American and European roulette lies in the addition of a double zero slot on the wheel. This adds to a 5.26% house edge, thereby giving it a moderate advantage over its European cousin. This also contains an extra layer of unpredictability and fun with the double zero and lures players who like higher stakes and a faster-moving pace of the game.
The realness of the experience means that American Roulette fans will get a true taste of Las Vegas-style casino action. From this brand, high-quality American Roulette games are available for players to try their luck with the double zero in immersive graphics and sound effects that bring the excitement of the casino right to your screen.
Try these roulette variations and enter a whole new world of casino gaming, where each spin holds a new chance at excitement and rewards. Be it for the first-timer or a seasoned player, roulette is a game in which the thrill keeps one sitting on the edge.
Features
Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw: Preserving Memory, Honoring History
Auschwitz is one of the most powerful symbols of the Holocaust and its lessons are as current as ever. As the world prepares for International Holocaust Day the need to remember and educate becomes even more urgent.
At Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw, our mission is to help you connect with this dark chapter in history. We offer guided tours to Auschwitz-Birkenau from Warsaw and Krakow so you can visit the largest Nazi concentration and extermination camp where over a million innocent lives were taken.
Why Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw?
A visit to Auschwitz is an emotional experience and we want you to get the most out of it. Our guides will walk you through the historical context, tell you stories of those who suffered, resisted, and in some cases survived. With respect and sensitivity, we will share the history that can’t be forgotten.
We offer full day tours from both Warsaw and Krakow so you can visit Auschwitz whether you’re coming from Poland’s capital or its cultural hub. Our tours include comfortable round trip transportation so you can focus on the experience without worrying about the logistics.
Extra Educational Content
Apart from the day trips, Auschwitz Tours from Warsaw also provides a lot of educational content about Auschwitz and the Holocaust. Our website is a resource for learning with articles and materials about Auschwitz’s history, World War II, and the long-term impact of the Holocaust.
For those who can’t visit in person, these materials are a window into this dark period of human history so the lessons of the Holocaust are available to everyone.
Honoring the Past on International Holocaust Remembrance Day
International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th is a global moment of remembrance. It’s a day to remember the 6 million Jews and millions of others murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
It’s not just about the victims of the Nazi regime but about learning from history so we never repeat the mistakes.
January 27th is the anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz-Birkenau in 1945, a day of unimaginable suffering but also of survival. The site itself is closed on this day for commemoration, but it’s a place of great importance for those who want to reflect on what happened here.
Although the gates are closed to visitors on January 26 and 27, it’s a day of personal reflection and remembrance for those who have passed away.
But on January 27th, a special area will be open for those who want to mark this solemn day on the grounds of the Memorial. This is a unique opportunity to reflect and remember in silence, on the very ground where so many lives were lost.
If you can’t visit Auschwitz today, International Holocaust Remembrance Day is still a chance to connect with the stories of survivors and victims. It’s a day to educate ourselves and others, not just about the past but about the present need to face hatred, intolerance, and anti-Semitism in all its forms.
If you’d like to learn more about our tours or explore our educational content, visit us at auschwitztoursfromwarsaw.com. Join us in remembering the past and keeping the message of “Never Again” alive.
Features
The Hurdles Facing Egyptian Intellectuals
By HENRY SREBRNIK In the twentieth century, many middle-class Egyptians adopted a cosmopolitan cultural style. They wanted to move the country toward a more liberal and secular state.
But they always came up against, and were unable to surmount, the strength of a very strong Islamic religious culture. In despair, some, despite their own preferences, ended up preferring autocracy to what they considered a backward and dangerous ideology.
In 1952, a revolution brought the Free Officers movement, led by Gamal Abdel Nasser, to power. It seemed to have brought a secular quasi-socialist regime to power.
But the undercurrents of politicized religion, though banned by Nasser, did not disappear. The Muslim Brotherhood, which had been founded in 1928 by Hassan al-Banna and preached a fundamentalist Islamism guarded exclusively by the sharia, was outlawed. Its most prominent theoretician, Sayyid Ibrahim Qutb, was executed in 1966.
But secular movements fell from favour following Egypt’s defeat by Israel in 1967, and the country was transformed into an autocracy following Nasser’s death three years later. From 1981 until 2011, Egypt was ruled with an iron hand by Hosni Mubarak, until popular unrest forced him to step down during the Arab Spring.
Would this herald a new, democratic chapter in Egypt? Would free elections bring about a rebirth of secular politics? The answer was no.
Mubarak’s ouster cleared the way for the Muslim Brotherhood to participate openly in Egyptian politics, and to that end the group formed the Freedom and Justice Party. In April 2012 the party selected Mohamed Morsi to be its candidate in Egypt’s presidential election. Morsi defeated Ahmed Shafiq, a former prime minister under Mubarak, that June.
Morsi soon issued an edict declaring that his authority as president would not be subject to judicial oversight until a permanent constitution came into effect. Although he defended the edict as a necessary measure to protect Egypt’s transition to democracy, mass demonstrations were held against what many saw as a seizure of dictatorial powers.
Worsening economic conditions, deteriorating public services, and a string of sectarian incidents, including attacks on the country’s Coptic Christian minority, strengthened opposition to Morsi’s rule. Clashes between Morsi’s supporters and critics in late June 2013 culminated in massive anti-Morsi protests around the country.
On July 3 the military under the head of the Egyptian Armed Forces, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, removed Morsi from power. A figurehead president, Adly Mansour, was installed, but it was clear that Sisi, who retained the title of defence minister, wielded power.
Sisi claimed that the military had carried out the will of the Egyptian people, as expressed in the anti-Morsi protests, and that the Islamist-dominated administration led by Morsi had put the Muslim Brotherhood’s interests before those of the country.
A month later the Egyptian police and armed forces committed what Human Rights Watch deemed “one of the world’s largest killings of demonstrators in a single day in recent history.”
Eleven years on, the murder of over 1,000 supporters of the deposed president, known as the Rabaa Massacre, has gone largely unpunished. The Muslim Brotherhood was formally outlawed that September and Morsi was jailed. Prison conditions were harsh, and he was denied adequate medical attention. He died in 2019.
Sisi officially left the military to run for president and was elected in a clearly fraudulent manner in May 2014. He has been re-elected twice since, in March 2018 and again in December 2023, when he was reported to have won with 89.6 per cent of the vote after several opposition figures were prevented from participating. Under his reign, Egypt has degenerated into a police state even more repressive than the 30-year dictatorship of Hosni Mubarak.
Caught between the proverbial rock and a hard place, Egypt’s pro-democracy and civil society movements jettisoned their long-standing commitments to human rights and the rule of law and enthusiastically supported the return of military rule.
One of those civil society leaders, Saad Eddin Ibrahim, was among Egypt’s most influential intellectual figures. He had spent his career insisting that democracy is the solution both to political authoritarianism and to the allures of religious fundamentalism in the Arab world.
Pushing back against the prevailing view that Islamist groups must be marginalized, he argued that they should be included in the democratic process. He even went so far as to advocate, in an article titled “Toward Muslim Democracies,” that “it will be better for us as democrats, for the Islamists, and for Egypt to enlist Islamists under the flag of democracy.”
He encouraged Egyptians to support this vision and put aside common fears about Islamist movements and had been arrested for his views under Mubarak. Yet even he abruptly became an apologist for authoritarian rule.
The “problem” was that the bulk of the Egyptian masses were unwilling to part with their religious traditions or wholly consign them to the realm of the private. Put another way, if most Egyptians were given the choice between being liberal or being Muslim, they would overwhelmingly select the latter.
Faced with that reality, these intellectuals forged authoritarian alliances to forcibly impose their worldview on an otherwise unwilling populace. When Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood were in actual control of the state rather than at its fringes, the liberal secularists chose authoritarian rule. This is the same tragedy found in most of the Arab world.
Henry Srebrnik is a professor of political science at the University of Prince Edward Island.
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