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Camp Ramah returns to Ukraine after a war-induced exile — now with a bomb shelter
(JTA) — Ramah Yachad, a Ukrainian Jewish summer camp, celebrated its 30th anniversary last year in exile, having relocated to Romania following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine that February.
This year, the camp is back in its longtime home in the Chernivtsi region of western Ukraine — a move that camp leaders said was both pragmatic and symbolic.
“In the beginning of the war, we were so scared to do it even in the safe areas of Ukraine,” Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, the camp’s director, told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. “But this year, we decided to come back because many kids couldn’t get out of Ukraine. Not all the kids have passports.”
Returning to Ukrainian soil has also strengthened the camp’s sense of purpose, according to counselor Lena Grebelnaya.
“This year, it is more special because we are still here in Ukraine with the kids,” Grebelnaya told the JTA. “We have some challenges here because there are [air raid] alarms, but apart from that, we try to make this period joyful for the kids. It’s important for them to know that there’s still joy in life.”
Campers and a counselor at Ramah Yachad pose in their 2023 T-shirts, showing an outline of Ukraine for the first session in the country since Russia invaded in 2022. (Courtesy Midreshet Schechter)
Among those who made the trek to Ramah Yachad is 16-year-old Daniel Prichodko. Before the war, he saw friends every day at his Jewish school in Kharkiv. Then his city, about 25 miles from the Russian border, came under brutal and unceasing bombardment. Now his friends have left Kharkiv, his family is battling an economic crisis and Prichodko’s school meets only on Zoom.
On July 28, he joined 122 other children between the ages of 8 and 17 at Ramah Yachad, operated as part of the Masorti movement’s activities in Ukraine. There, the campers whose childhood has been robbed by war are spending 12 days playing, studying and celebrating Jewish traditions together.
Their days start with a “boker tov” (or “good morning” in Hebrew) along with singing and dancing, followed by morning prayers, then “peulah” (learning activities) and “chugim” (recreational activities such as arts, sports, cooking and dance classes).
Prichodko said being surrounded by Jewish peers and teachers again feels like “being at home.”
“Since I study in the Jewish day school, before the war we had morning prayers, holidays, Hebrew classes,” he said. “Since the war started, we are learning online. Celebrations are more difficult and sometimes impossible. The level of education is not the same.”
Inevitably, there are some changes at Ramah Yachad this year too. Although it is held near Chernivtsi, a city spared from the missiles razing Ukraine’s eastern, central and southern regions, the camp is ready for air-raid sirens.
“We prepared a shelter where we can take all the kids,” Gritsevskaya said. “We even prepared surprises there. We bought candies to wait for them, so each kid gets a candy at the entrance.”
Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya affixes a mezuzah to a building at Ramah Yachad in Ukraine at the start of the 2023 session. (Courtesy Midreshet Schechter)
A staff psychologist also works constantly with the campers, who struggle with fear and stress.
The past 18 months have ruptured every aspect of Ukrainian children’s lives. Along with the loss, violence and terror of war, many have lived through economic devastation. The proportion of children living in poverty has nearly doubled from 43% to 82%, many of them among the 5.9 million people displaced within Ukraine, according to UNICEF. Shelling and airstrikes have disrupted their access to electricity, water and basic health services. Their education has also suffered, compounding two years of schooling interrupted by the COVID-19 pandemic and over eight years of turmoil for children in eastern Ukraine.
These broad threats to their wellbeing have culminated in a mental health crisis, with UNICEF estimating that 1.5 million children in Ukraine are at risk of depression, anxiety, post-traumatic stress disorder and other psychological issues.
“The war changed me drastically,” said Hannah Prizcher, a 15-year-old Ramah Yachad camper from Kyiv. “I started to fear loud sounds and sometimes I am scared to be outside. In the midst of the war I decided to pray every morning, and to light Shabbat candles.”
This is Prizcher’s first year at camp, and she has already made new friends.
“I love the dancing in Ramah Yachad, the activities and ‘laila tov’ [‘good night’], ending the day together with my group,” she said.
Over 100 campers traveled to Ramah Yachad’s Ukraine campus for the 2023 session, after a year’s war-induced interruption. (Courtesy Midreshet Schechter)
Getting to camp was not simple for everyone. Some children, like Prichodko, traveled from dangerous areas such as Kharkiv. Without the possibility of airplane travel, the train journey from Kharkiv can take two days.
But their country’s instability did not deter the campers. Instead, after serving just 80 campers in Romania last year, Ramah Yachad saw heightened demand this summer, reaching its usual capacity just a week after opening registration. The campers have always received varying degrees of financial aid — in a normal year, most families could cover about 25% of attendance costs, Gritsevskaya said — but since the war broke out, they rely almost entirely on stipends provided through donations.
“We had a long waitlist,” said Gritsevskaya.
As the director of Midreshet Schechter, an initiative of the Schechter Institutes in Jerusalem, she has traveled from her home in Israel into Ukraine several times since the war’s start to facilitate Jewish observance and experiences.
“In times of trouble, people care about being together and they realize how important it is,” she added. “For many of those kids, it’s really two weeks to breathe freely.”
Victoria Maksymovich is a first-year counselor joined by her son, a second-year camper. “We came to not think about the war,” she said. “My son is really happy here.”
Like other camps in the Ramah network, Ramah Yachad strives to show children that they are part of a global Jewish community, according to Gritsevskaya. Many of its activities are designed to foster a connection and identification with Israel, including classes on Hebrew language, Israeli society and the Israeli army, some taught by Israeli staff. (Israel saw an influx of 15,213 Ukrainian refugees last year, along with 43,685 Russians, according to the Jewish Agency.) Midreshet Schechter sponsors the Zionist programming in partnership with Masorti Olami, which represents Conservative Jewish communities worldwide.
“It’s very important for me that the kids remember we are one Jewish family and we will never leave them alone,” said Gritsevskaya. “It’s important that they have this joyful Jewish experience of Shabbat, of Shacharit [morning prayers], that they can carry with them throughout the year to hold them safe — psychologically, not only physically — even if it’s hard for them right now to be Jewish in their places.”
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The post Camp Ramah returns to Ukraine after a war-induced exile — now with a bomb shelter appeared first on Jewish Telegraphic Agency.
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Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire
Explosions send smoke into the air in Gaza, as seen from the Israeli side of the border, July 17, 2025. Photo: REUTERS/Amir Cohen
The spokesperson for Hamas’s armed wing said on Friday that while the Palestinian terrorist group favors reaching an interim truce in the Gaza war, if such an agreement is not reached in current negotiations it could revert to insisting on a full package deal to end the conflict.
Hamas has previously offered to release all the hostages held in Gaza and conclude a permanent ceasefire agreement, and Israel has refused, Abu Ubaida added in a televised speech.
Arab mediators Qatar and Egypt, backed by the United States, have hosted more than 10 days of talks on a US-backed proposal for a 60-day truce in the war.
Israeli officials were not immediately available for comment on the eve of the Jewish Sabbath.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on a call he had with Pope Leo on Friday that Israel‘s efforts to secure a hostage release deal and 60-day ceasefire “have so far not been reciprocated by Hamas.”
As part of the potential deal, 10 hostages held in Gaza would be returned along with the bodies of 18 others, spread out over 60 days. In exchange, Israel would release a number of detained Palestinians.
“If the enemy remains obstinate and evades this round as it has done every time before, we cannot guarantee a return to partial deals or the proposal of the 10 captives,” said Abu Ubaida.
Disputes remain over maps of Israeli army withdrawals, aid delivery mechanisms into Gaza, and guarantees that any eventual truce would lead to ending the war, said two Hamas officials who spoke to Reuters on Friday.
The officials said the talks have not reached a breakthrough on the issues under discussion.
Hamas says any agreement must lead to ending the war, while Netanyahu says the war will only end once Hamas is disarmed and its leaders expelled from Gaza.
Almost 1,650 Israelis and foreign nationals have been killed as a result of the conflict, including 1,200 killed in the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack on southern Israel, according to Israeli tallies. Over 250 hostages were kidnapped during Hamas’s Oct. 7 onslaught.
Israel responded with an ongoing military campaign aimed at freeing the hostages and dismantling Hamas’s military and governing capabilities in neighboring Gaza.
The post Hamas Says No Interim Hostage Deal Possible Without Work Toward Permanent Ceasefire first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel
People hold images of the victims of the 1994 bombing attack on the Argentine Israeli Mutual Association (AMIA) community center, marking the 30th anniversary of the attack, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, July 18, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Irina Dambrauskas
Iran on Friday marked the 31st anniversary of the 1994 bombing of the Argentine Israelite Mutual Association (AMIA) Jewish community center in Buenos Aires by slamming Argentina for what it called “baseless” accusations over Tehran’s alleged role in the terrorist attack and accusing Israel of politicizing the atrocity to influence the investigation and judicial process.
The Iranian Foreign Ministry issued a statement on the anniversary of Argentina’s deadliest terrorist attack, which killed 85 people and wounded more than 300.
“While completely rejecting the accusations against Iranian citizens, the Islamic Republic of Iran condemns attempts by certain Argentine factions to pressure the judiciary into issuing baseless charges and politically motivated rulings,” the statement read.
“Reaffirming that the charges against its citizens are unfounded, the Islamic Republic of Iran insists on restoring their reputation and calls for an end to this staged legal proceeding,” it continued.
Last month, a federal judge in Argentina ordered the trial in absentia of 10 Iranian and Lebanese nationals suspected of orchestrating the attack in Buenos Aires.
The ten suspects set to stand trial include former Iranian and Lebanese ministers and diplomats, all of whom are subject to international arrest warrants issued by Argentina for their alleged roles in the terrorist attack.
In its statement on Friday, Iran also accused Israel of influencing the investigation to advance a political campaign against the Islamist regime in Tehran, claiming the case has been used to serve Israeli interests and hinder efforts to uncover the truth.
“From the outset, elements and entities linked to the Zionist regime [Israel] exploited this suspicious explosion, pushing the investigation down a false and misleading path, among whose consequences was to disrupt the long‑standing relations between the people of Iran and Argentina,” the Iranian Foreign Ministry said.
“Clear, undeniable evidence now shows the Zionist regime and its affiliates exerting influence on the Argentine judiciary to frame Iranian nationals,” the statement continued.
In April, lead prosecutor Sebastián Basso — who took over the case after the 2015 murder of his predecessor, Alberto Nisman — requested that federal Judge Daniel Rafecas issue national and international arrest warrants for Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei over his alleged involvement in the attack.
Since 2006, Argentine authorities have sought the arrest of eight Iranians — including former president Ali Akbar Hashemi Rafsanjani, who died in 2017 — yet more than three decades after the deadly bombing, all suspects remain still at large.
In a post on X, the Delegation of Argentine Israelite Associations (DAIA), the country’s Jewish umbrella organization, released a statement commemorating the 31st anniversary of the bombing.
“It was a brutal attack on Argentina, its democracy, and its rule of law,” the group said. “At DAIA, we continue to demand truth and justice — because impunity is painful, and memory is a commitment to both the present and the future.”
31 años del atentado a la AMIA – DAIA. 31 años sin justicia.
El 18 de julio de 1994, un atentado terrorista dejó 85 personas muertas y más de 300 heridas. Fue un ataque brutal contra la Argentina, su democracia y su Estado de derecho.
Desde la DAIA, seguimos exigiendo verdad y… pic.twitter.com/kV2ReGNTIk
— DAIA (@DAIAArgentina) July 18, 2025
Despite Argentina’s longstanding belief that Lebanon’s Shiite Hezbollah terrorist group carried out the devastating attack at Iran’s request, the 1994 bombing has never been claimed or officially solved.
Meanwhile, Tehran has consistently denied any involvement and refused to arrest or extradite any suspects.
To this day, the decades-long investigation into the terrorist attack has been plagued by allegations of witness tampering, evidence manipulation, cover-ups, and annulled trials.
In 2006, former prosecutor Nisman formally charged Iran for orchestrating the attack and Hezbollah for carrying it out.
Nine years later, he accused former Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner — currently under house arrest on corruption charges — of attempting to cover up the crime and block efforts to extradite the suspects behind the AMIA atrocity in return for Iranian oil.
Nisman was killed later that year, and to this day, both his case and murder remain unresolved and under ongoing investigation.
The alleged cover-up was reportedly formalized through the memorandum of understanding signed in 2013 between Kirchner’s government and Iranian authorities, with the stated goal of cooperating to investigate the AMIA bombing.
The post Iran Marks 31st Anniversary of AMIA Bombing by Slamming Argentina’s ‘Baseless’ Accusations, Blaming Israel first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns
Murad Adailah, the head of Jordan’s Muslim Brotherhood, attends an interview with Reuters in Amman, Jordan, Sept. 7, 2024. Photo: REUTERS/Jehad Shelbak
The Muslim Brotherhood, one of the Arab world’s oldest and most influential Islamist movements, has been implicated in a wide-ranging network of illegal financial activities in Jordan and abroad, according to a new investigative report.
Investigations conducted by Jordanian authorities — along with evidence gathered from seized materials — revealed that the Muslim Brotherhood raised tens of millions of Jordanian dinars through various illegal activities, the Jordan news agency (Petra) reported this week.
With operations intensifying over the past eight years, the report showed that the group’s complex financial network was funded through various sources, including illegal donations, profits from investments in Jordan and abroad, and monthly fees paid by members inside and outside the country.
The report also indicated that the Muslim Brotherhood has taken advantage of the war in Gaza to raise donations illegally.
Out of all donations meant for Gaza, the group provided no information on where the funds came from, how much was collected, or how they were distributed, and failed to work with any international or relief organizations to manage the transfers properly.
Rather, the investigations revealed that the Islamist network used illicit financial mechanisms to transfer funds abroad.
According to Jordanian authorities, the group gathered more than JD 30 million (around $42 million) over recent years.
With funds transferred to several Arab, regional, and foreign countries, part of the money was allegedly used to finance domestic political campaigns in 2024, as well as illegal activities and cells.
In April, Jordan outlawed the Muslim Brotherhood, the country’s most vocal opposition group, and confiscated its assets after members of the Islamist movement were found to be linked to a sabotage plot.
The movement’s political arm in Jordan, the Islamic Action Front, became the largest political grouping in parliament after elections last September, although most seats are still held by supporters of the government.
Opponents of the group, which is banned in most Arab countries, label it a terrorist organization. However, the movement claims it renounced violence decades ago and now promotes its Islamist agenda through peaceful means.
The post Jordan Reveals Muslim Brotherhood Operating Vast Illegal Funding Network Tied to Gaza Donations, Political Campaigns first appeared on Algemeiner.com.