Former Oregon City Councilman Arnie Fielkow Helps Ukrainian Children Escape War

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE)—Six thousand miles separate Louisiana from Ukraine, and despite a years-long war in the Eastern European country, dozens of Ukrainian children had the chance to hear something uniquely New Orleans from former City Councilman Arnie Fielkow, who worked as an executive in both the NBA and NFL.

“Of course, sports are the common denominator in a lot of situations and, you know, given my career in the NBA and NFL, I was trying to tell them a little bit about the NBA, but I was also trying to explain what ‘Who Dat’ football is like,” Fielkow said.

Fielkow and her 19-year-old daughter Svetlana visited the Ramah camp in the Chernivtsi area of ​​western Ukraine.

“This is my fourth trip to the region and my second trip to Ukraine in the last two and a half years since the war began. It means a lot to me and my family,” said Ukraine.

Svetlana and her sister Yana were adopted by Fielkow and his wife years ago.

“We were fortunate enough to adopt our two daughters from Ukraine 17 years ago, and they have been the blessing of our lives,” Fielkow said.

Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, the camp director, said the camp provides a respite for children experiencing the war between Ukraine and Russia.

“The camp brings together children from all areas of Ukraine, including areas that are being heavily bombed right now, such as Kharkiv, and brings them to spend two full weeks here, two full weeks of activities, allowing them to be two weeks outside the war zone, in a relatively safe area of ​​Ukraine, and enjoy all the activities that normal children have to help in their daily lives,” Gritsevskaya said.

She said it was great that Fielkow and her daughter interacted with the children at the camp.

“It’s very important. The kids were excited to talk to Arnie about sports in the United States and to see that he and his daughter are willing to make all that travel to be in a country at war,” Gritsevskaya said.

Gritsevskaya also said that children attending the camp have obvious emotional scars from the war.

“It’s definitely not easy. We have a psychologist who works full time at the camp with these children,” she said.

Fielkow loved watching Ukrainian children having fun.

“They’re having fun like kids should. They’re between the ages of 10 and 17, and again, some of them come from areas like the city of Kharkiv, which people may or may not have heard of, but it’s 20 kilometers from the Russian border. It’s being bombed literally every day and these kids are in shelters every day,” she said. “So to be able to come to a camp like this and have fun for two weeks and be with other kids who are going through similar things is just phenomenal.”

Gritsevskaya says children are eager to escape the dangers of war.

“We have a long waiting list of children who want to come to this camp to escape the war zone,” he said.

“It’s definitely not easy. We have a psychologist who works full time at the camp with these children.”

Fielkow admits he wasn’t sure what to expect from the children when he arrived, given the horrors of war.

“It was amazing. I wasn’t sure what to expect because, as Irina will tell you, these children mostly come from conflict zones and have been through very difficult times,” Fielkow said. “As soon as I walked through the door, they were literally singing, laughing and dancing. I was welcomed in Russian and Ukrainian and, together with my daughter, Svetlana, it was a joy.”

Fielkow is the national vice president of Maccabi USA, an organization that fosters Jewish pride through sports and humanitarian work around the world.

Some of the children were able to attend the camp thanks to Fielkow’s efforts.

“This was all funded by an anonymous family foundation that heard about what we were doing, wanted to do it, and said they wanted to be a part of it, that if they did it big, we would support them,” Fielkow said. “Of the 165 children who will be here in Ukraine for these two weeks, 20 of them will be brought through us and the general generosity of this donor.”

And thanks to their work, some Ukrainian teenagers were able to travel to the United States in 2023.

“We sent them to a Ramah camp in Northern California, as we did last year. In total, 36 Ukrainian youth were able to benefit from this tremendous collaboration,” he said.

He would love to bring others to New Orleans, but there are some impediments.

“We would love to do that. It is not so easy for Ukrainian children to come to the United States. We found that out at the camp in California. The US embassy in kyiv is still closed,” she said.

Fielkow radiates passion when he talks about helping the people of Ukraine.

“I made a commitment to do everything humanly possible to help the Ukrainian people and to honor my daughters, and that is why we are here and that is why we created this great alliance to bring the children to this wonderful Camp Ramah here in Ukraine,” Fielkow said in a video call from Ukraine.

Being at the camp was something of a coming-of-circle experience for Fielkow.

“I went to Camp Ramah in Wisconsin and it was a big part of my childhood. So it’s almost like coming full circle here,” she said.

Although Fielkow’s daughters have two older sisters still living in Ukraine, Svetlana was unable to see them during her recent trip.

“We’re about eight hours away from where Svetlana and Yana’s sisters are. And honestly, it’s probably not that safe to travel to where they are right now. So, we just made the decision that this trip was going to be to go to the Ramah Ukraine camp and see the kids and the campers, and let Svetlana, you know, enjoy her fellow Ukrainians,” Fielkow said.

He marvels at the commitment of the Ukrainian people to fight for their continued independence.

“My prayer and hope is that there will be a just end to this war and soon, and that the people of Ukraine can go back to their families and go back to their lives and not fear the missiles, drones and other weapons that fall on them every day, and for the children of Ukraine, hopefully some normality will return,” Fielkow said. who still live in Ukraine,

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