Posted on Mar 13, 2022
In Brooklyn, a Ukrainian community re-lives old horror while watching Russia's invasion
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Pavel Averbukh, 86, has lived near New York’s Brighton Beach neighborhood for the past three decades, but when he watches the news about Ukraine, he is transported back to being a 6-year-old in Odessa, Ukraine.
“My heart is bleeding from the pain that I’m experiencing by observing this,” he said in Russian, according to a translator. “The consistent, perpetual fear of being killed and exterminated at any moment is something I’m reliving consistently while watching the news.”
Averbukh is a Holocaust survivor. He said he remembers the day in 1941 when he was lucky enough to get on the last boat out of Odessa. His grandmother, who refused to evacuate Ukraine at the time, was killed during World War II.
As Averbukh attends activities for older adults at Kings Bay Y in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, he said he worries for the safety of many of his cousins who live nearly 5,000 miles away in Ukraine.
“My heart is bleeding from the pain that I’m experiencing by observing this,” he said in Russian, according to a translator. “The consistent, perpetual fear of being killed and exterminated at any moment is something I’m reliving consistently while watching the news.”
Averbukh is a Holocaust survivor. He said he remembers the day in 1941 when he was lucky enough to get on the last boat out of Odessa. His grandmother, who refused to evacuate Ukraine at the time, was killed during World War II.
As Averbukh attends activities for older adults at Kings Bay Y in Sheepshead Bay, Brooklyn, he said he worries for the safety of many of his cousins who live nearly 5,000 miles away in Ukraine.
In Brooklyn, a Ukrainian community re-lives old horror while watching Russia's invasion
Posted from nbcnews.comPosted in these groups: 
Ukraine
RussiaUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum
Brooklyn
WWII World War Two
Ukraine RussiaUnited States Holocaust Memorial Museum Brooklyn WWII World War Two
Posted 2 y ago
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PO1 William "Chip" Nagel
..."He is not alone in this experience. Brighton Beach is home to the highest concentration of Russian-speaking immigrants in the United States. This area is nicknamed “Little Odessa” after the port city in Ukraine. On these streets, Russian and Ukrainian are sometimes more commonly spoken than English. The American Jewish Committee estimates there are 300,000 Russian-speaking Jews in New York.
Stores along Brighton Beach Avenue display Ukrainian flags and QR codes for charities supporting the country and its people. Outside the Brighton Bazaar grocery store, a sign in English reads, “Stop Putin.” It is next to a sign in Russian that translates to “No war.” The Taste of Russia supermarket has taken down its awning as an act of solidarity following the Russian invasion.
As the older adults at Kings Bay Y dance and read local newspapers in Russian, the war in Ukraine is ever present to this group, many of whom are Holocaust survivors like Averbukh."...
..."He is not alone in this experience. Brighton Beach is home to the highest concentration of Russian-speaking immigrants in the United States. This area is nicknamed “Little Odessa” after the port city in Ukraine. On these streets, Russian and Ukrainian are sometimes more commonly spoken than English. The American Jewish Committee estimates there are 300,000 Russian-speaking Jews in New York.
Stores along Brighton Beach Avenue display Ukrainian flags and QR codes for charities supporting the country and its people. Outside the Brighton Bazaar grocery store, a sign in English reads, “Stop Putin.” It is next to a sign in Russian that translates to “No war.” The Taste of Russia supermarket has taken down its awning as an act of solidarity following the Russian invasion.
As the older adults at Kings Bay Y dance and read local newspapers in Russian, the war in Ukraine is ever present to this group, many of whom are Holocaust survivors like Averbukh."...
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