Houston Yeshiva U student travels to Vienna, helps Ukrainian refugees

By Judy Bluestein Levin | Jewish Herald-Voice • Thu, Mar 31, 2022

When Akiva Garner (nephew to CTC members, Josh & Lisa Rothstein) heard that his school, Yeshiva University, was sending a group of students to Vienna to assist Ukrainian refugees, he immediately applied to be a part of the delegation. For Garner, who returned from Vienna March 20, aiding the refugees is in his DNA.

“I try to calibrate my moral compass through the lens of Torah values,” Garner told the JHV from his college dormitory in New York. “Learning [Torah] on its own is not enough; it needs to come in tandem with action. I think there are various quips in Talmudic literature that say that Torah is great because it leads to action. And if it doesn’t,” Garner said, “you actually are missing a very important aspect of Jewish life.”

Garner is no stranger to helping those in need. Even as a Houston teen, he helped flooded residents, following Hurricane Harvey, and through other acts of chesed with fellow students from Robert M Beren Academy. Rather than wallowing in the events of the news, he responds with action.

“Our job is not to sit around when terrible things happen and ask questions about why is G-d doing this,” said Garner, “but our job is just to go do something about it. That’s first and foremost. Our most important response is to do something.”

When the occasion arose to help Ukrainian evacuees, Garner said, “I couldn’t just sit back and say someone will take care of it or I’m sure I won’t make a difference. My attitude had to be one of taking whatever opportunity there was to help someone.”

Traveling to Vienna, 400 kilometers from Ukraine’s border, the students saw firsthand the trauma the refugees faced. Vienna is home to a small Jewish community of 8,000. It has taken on 500 refugees so far, a number that is expected to double. One of the Ukrainians was a teenager with whom Garner made a connection.

“I asked him how old he was, and he told me he was a week before his Bar Mitzvah. His formulation really struck me. … Because when I was 13, it was a big milestone in my life. We looked forward to it for so long that it becomes the center of our lives for that period of time. And, I’m sure it was for him,” said Garner.

“He didn’t answer almost 13, he said ‘a week before my Bar Mitzvah.’ That Bar Mitzvah was the center of his life. And, he was supposed to be celebrating his Bar Mitzvah in the upcoming week with his friends and his community, and now he’s sleeping and eating his meals in an old-aged home-turned refugee center,” Garner explained.

“And I asked him, are you reading Torah? And he said, ‘Yes, I did this past week.’ And it struck me again. He did. He read the Torah, in a shul, in Vienna, over 1,000 miles away from his home where he expected to – and not with his friends, not with his community,” Garner said.

While in Vienna, Garner threw himself into the work. His favorite two tasks were setting up a Purim party for the children and their families and helping out at a hotel for refugees.

“I spent several hours one day in a Jewish-owned hotel that has been closed for two-and-a-half years because of COVID and they have no staff whatsoever,” Garner said. “They were not ready to take on a bunch of people in their rooms, and all their beds are full now. So, we spent several hours basically cleaning out and organizing their storage closets and taking inventory for them.”

One of Garner’s university teachers explained that while we all would like things to be perfect before we act, sometimes that’s just not possible.

“Sometimes, you have to realize that that’s just not how it should work. You should give support and help as much as you can, and then make those secondary accommodations later because these people need help, and they need it right now,” stressed Garner.

“We’ve heard countless times from some of the leaders in the Vienna Jewish community saying, we don’t know how we’re going to pay for this, we don’t know how we’re going to keep on taking more, I don’t know how we’re doing it. It’s an attitude that they really embody, and I really find very inspiring.”

A bit nervous to speak with the refugees, Garner found joy in playing catch and dancing with the kids.

“I was scared to talk to people and look people in the eye who’ve been through these things and hear their stories. I was more inclined to sit down with the kids,” said Garner. “It’s a lot easier to give a smile to the kids.”

The language barrier also posed problems. One occurrence, that happened to one of his friends, really resonated with Garner. Each evening at dinner, the volunteers would join the refugees for dinner. His friend was trying to have a conversation with one of the men.

“It was an older gentleman, and he looked upset the whole time. He started repeating something over and over again. My friend had no idea what he was saying. He couldn’t figure it out. Finally, my friend took out Google Translate and said speak into the phone,” said Garner. “He was repeating over and over, ‘I just want to say, thank you for coming. Thank you for sitting here.’

“That reinforced beliefs in the power that just having a small smile, just offering your time to other people can make a difference,” Garner added. “You can affect other people just by being there for them.”

Yeshiva University continues to help with the crisis.

“It’s very important for the Viennese Jewish community and all these communities who are taking refugees, to get much-needed financial support. Money is money. And, that money pays for food and money pays for supplies and for medicine,” said Garner.

To donate to YU’s Operation Torat Chesed, go to YU.edu/feedrefugees.