Friends of Romania

We are Friends of Romania (FoR), a U.S. 501(c)(3) Public Charity that seeks to strengthen the two-way alliance between the United States and Romania in the domain of education, culture, diplomacy and shared values. Connecting Jewish Americans of Romanian and Eastern European descent to their roots also figures high on our agenda.

Russia has waged war on Ukraine, forcing millions to find refuge, and we NEED all the help we can get and give. A dramatic situation happened to the orphaned Jewish refugees from Odessa. Please take a moment to read the below, and kindly help us in achieving our goal of helping the orphaned Jewish refugees live and settle in Romania:

In 1993, Tikva first opened its doors in Odesa, Ukraine, with a broad humanitarian mission and an emphasis on reviving a community in this former communist region. Through these efforts, they discovered the plight of local Jewish children suffering homelessness, abuse, neglect or living in bleak and destitute State orphanage environments.

Following their harrowing escape from Odesa, they are now trying their best to maintain their humanitarian mission in Romania, a foreign environment and highly challenging operating conditions. Tikva has, in essence, taken an entire community of almost 1,000 Jewish children from Ukraine and transplanted them (after the first two horrifying weeks of the war) to Romania. Their main objective has been keeping the community together as a family. The hope is that in the absence of their physical community and facilities, they can at least replicate that feeling of home as much as possible while maintaining the psychological cohesiveness and comfort that unity provides. FoR is passionate about providing all the help we can for the Tikva orphanage to survive and thrive in Romania.

This Go-Fund-Me is the first of many efforts to help the Tikva orphanage in Romania, and hopefully, we can provide the comfort needed. Please find below some photos of the Tikva orphans in Romania: