Sent to me from visitors who walked outside as I sat and chatted indoors

Now refugees are again running from Odessa and across Ukraine. The Nazis decimated the Jews of Ukraine and left behind ruined synagogues that I have visited and where I shed tears

We cannot allow future generations to shed tears inside ruined churches and cathedrals and beautiful opera houses and twin squares

Today thousands are trying to board trains to take them away from the advancing Russian army. I was WhatsApping this morning with Victoria – born and raised in Lviv she and her husband now live and work in Düsseldorf. Highly educated, proudly ukrainian their families remain in Lviv. Victoria’s elderly mother won’t leave. Ruslan’s parents have fled to the countryside. His niece snd her baby managed to get to safety in Germany with Victoria and Ruslan. She begs us all to act now or face tyranny and oppression. Please write to your MP, demonstrate, shout before we are crying amongst the ruins.

Some of those hours re-reading this excellent book

During the day six tiny chicks hatched underneath one of the Silkie hens. Photos tomorrow.

Pray that this madness will be stopped. I am grateful for the distraction of our animals but this is just a momentary distraction. We abandoned Syria, surely we won’t let this happen again? I suppose we will and our “leaders” will wring their hands with their talks of diplomacy. Useless!

I remember a one week trip around Ukraine that Jeremy and I organized for a group from London in 2004. We started in Kyev and were amazed at the beauty of the city. We hired a coach and an English speaking guide. Then we made our way to Lviv stopping at the sites, graves and abandoned synagogues of once thriving Jewish communities and their revered Rebbes. The Nazis had “cleansed” the towns and villages of their large Jewish populations during World War II and all that remained were these sad reminders of a culture, community and life that had been cruelly destroyed. Here and there we found new, tiny, Jewish communities being led by dedicated Rabbis and their wives sent from America and Israel. They were trying to rebuild synagogues, feed the poor and elderly and minister to the remnants of once thriving communities. They welcomed us along the way and provided us with simple but wholesome meals. We admired them. Finally we arrived in Lviv (also known as Lvov, Lwow and Lemberg) – our ultimate destination. My synagogue in London was twinned with the synagogue in that city and we were doing all we could to support the Jewish school, the welfare services for the elderly and destitute Jews and the delapidated but beautiful painted synagogue which had miraculously survived the war. One of our group, a talented and sensitive amateur artist, kept a watercolour diary of our journey and gave us all a copy of this on our return. I am showing two pages below followed by a short 20 second video I received from a rabbi in Kyev who has evacuated some of his community to the small town of Medzhibozh – the birth place of chassidic Judaism

https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=youtube+hgss+lvov&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&hl=en-gb&client=safari#fpstate=ive&vld=cid:fe956e93,vid:YXhggm7X4LY,st:0