Former NO city councilor Arnie Fielkow helps Ukrainian children escape from war

NEW ORLEANS (WVUE) – Six thousand miles separate Louisiana from Ukraine. Despite years of war in the Eastern European country, dozens of Ukrainian children got to hear about something special about New Orleans from former city councilman Arnie Fielkov, who has served as an executive in both the NBA and NFL.

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

Felkov and his 19-year-old daughter Svetlana visited the Ramah camp in the Chernivtsi region in western Ukraine.

“This is my fourth trip to the region and my second trip to Ukraine in the past two and a half years since the outbreak of the war. It simply means the world to me and my family,” Ukraine said.

Svetlana and her sister Janka were adopted by Fielkov many years ago.

“17 years ago we were fortunate to adopt our two daughters from Ukraine, and they have become a blessing in our lives,” Felkov said.

Rabbi Irina Gritsevskaya, the camp’s director, said the camp provides respite to children affected by the war between Ukraine and Russia.

“So the camp brings kids from all areas of Ukraine, including areas that are heavily bombed right now, like Kharkiv, for two full weeks here, two full weeks of classes, actually allowing these kids to spend two weeks outside of the war zone, in a relatively safe area of Ukraine, having access to all the activities that normal kids have to help them with their daily lives,” Gritsevskaya said.

She said it was great that Fielkow and his daughter had contact with the children at camp.

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

Gritsevskaya also said that children attending the camp have clear emotional scars caused by the war.

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

Felkov was happy to see Ukrainian children playing.

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

Gritsevskaya says that children want to escape the dangers of war.

“We have a long waiting list of children who want to get into this camp and escape the war zone,” she said.

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

Fielkow admits he wasn’t sure what to expect from the children upon arrival, given the atrocities of war.

“It was amazing. You know, I wasn’t sure what to expect because, as Irina will tell you, you know, these kids, for the most part, come from conflict areas, you know, they had a very difficult time,” Felkov said. “As soon as I walked in the door, I literally walked in the door, they were singing and laughing and dancing. They were greeting me in Russian and Ukrainian, and with my daughter, Svetlana, such joy.”

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

Thanks to Fielkow’s efforts, some of the children were able to go to camp.

“And all of this was funded by an anonymous family foundation that heard about what we were doing and wanted to do it and said they wanted to be a part of it, ‘go for it and we will support you,’” Felkov said. “Out of 165 children here in Ukraine in these two weeks, 20 of them are brought in by us and by this general generosity of this donor.”

Thanks to his work, some Ukrainian teenagers could immigrate to the USA in 2023.

“We sent them to Camp Ramah in Northern California, just like we did last year. A total of 36 Ukrainian youth were able to benefit from this great cooperation,” he said.

He would love to take others to New Orleans, but there are some obstacles.

“We would like to do that. It’s not so easy, you know, for Ukrainian children to come to the U.S. So we found out about it from the camp in California. You know, the U.S. embassy in Kiev is still closed,” he said.

Fielkov talks passionately about how to help the people of Ukraine.

“I pledged that I would do everything in my power to help the Ukrainian people and pay tribute to my daughters, that’s why we are here and that’s why we have established this wonderful cooperation to bring children to this wonderful camp Ramah here in Ukraine,” Felkov said in a video call from Ukraine.

For Fielkow, his stay in the camp was a kind of closing-of-the-circle experience.

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

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

“We’re about eight hours away from where Svetlana and Janna’s sisters are. And honestly, it’s probably not very safe to travel where they are right now. So we just made the decision that this trip would be to camp Ramah Ukraine and to see the kids and the campers and to allow Svetlana to, you know, enjoy, you know, her Ukrainian friends,” Felkov said.

He admires the commitment of the Ukrainian people in the fight to maintain independence.

“My prayer and hope is that this war will end justly and soon, and the people of Ukraine will be able to return to their families and return to their lives without fear of the daily missiles, drones and other weapons that will be thrown at them, and for the children of Ukraine, let’s hope that some kind of normality will return,” said Felkov, who still lives in Ukraine.

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