Dozens of Ukraine Refugees Find a Home at Montreal Women’s Seminary
by Menachem Posner – chabad.org
Standing outside the spacious campus of the Chaya Mushka Seminary in Montreal, Nechama, a 20-year-old native of war-torn Donetsk, Ukraine, who spent the past eight years in Kiev, speaks excitedly in Russian about her expectations for this coming year. She is among more than a dozen young women refugees who have been invited to the seminary on a full scholarship.
According to principal Adina Ceitlin, the idea to invite Ukrainian students to the program came to her last year when her Zoom interview with a prospective student from Ukraine kept on being disrupted by sirens and planes flying overhead.
“Growing up in Israel, I remember how frightened I was hiding in a bunker with my mother during the Six-Day War and then again during the Yom Kippur War,” says Ceitlin. “I saw how frightened the girl was, and I thought to myself there must be more girls like her, who we could rescue and allow to continue their studies in a peaceful place here in Montreal.”
With lectures given by accomplished scholars and communal leaders, coupled with a comfortable dorm, she knew the similar would offer the students an experience they’d enjoy and grow from.
As word spread about the program, Ceitlin began interviewing students from Ukraine, who have been scattered in Israel, Austria, Germany and Switzerland.
But finding students proved to be just the beginning, as the seminary staff set out to secure visas and raise funds to provide scholarships, airfare and other necessities for the students, most of whom left most of their belongings in Ukraine.
“We flew from Ukraine to Israel the day before the war broke out,” says 19-year-old Faiga. “We took only backpacks because we expected to be back in a week. No one believed it would happen. I decided to come here because I knew it was going to be quiet, calm, stable—finally after six months.”
Yet even in Montreal, worry of war haunts her, as she speaks of her 80-year-old great-grandmother who initially refused to leave Donetsk, where she lived her entire life, and is now unable to leave. “Every time I call I hear sirens or loud noises, so it’s scary.”
In Montreal, she says, she can gain support from her fellow students.
“We all went through the same thing,” she says. “I am happy to be in an environment with people I know and feel safe with.”
The seminary was founded in 1988 and dedicated to the memory of Rebbetzin Chaya Muskha Schneerson, of righteous memory, wife of the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—shortly after her passing. Over the years, more than 1,500 young women have passed through the institution, many of whom now serve as Chabad emissaries on six continents.
The refugees study alongside students from Canada, United States, Europe and South America, giving them exposure to many cultures and languages.
A fully accredited college program by the Quebec Ministry of Education through its affiliation with Notre Dame College, the seminary provides Ukrainian students with credits they can take with them to Israel, Europe, or hopefully, Ukraine.
“We have been embraced and given support,” says Nechama, who does not yet speak English. “These are good people. They just know we are fellow Jews and we are from Ukraine, and we have already become like family … it even feels a little like home.”
