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Thousands of Ukrainian refugees who recently fled their war-torn country amid its ongoing conflict with Russia and are now in Brooklyn, New York attended a job fair Wednesday hosted by The Edith and Carl Marks Jewish Community House (JCH) of Bensonhurst in partnership with UJA-Federation of New York.

The Ukrainian newcomers were able to speak with 70 different employers who are hiring in multiple industries, including  T-Mobile, TD Bank, JP Morgan & Chase, TJ Maxx, Marshalls, Best Buy, Brooklyn Chamber of Commerce, NYC Parks & Recreation, Jewish Board for Family and Children Services, Jewish Association Serving the Aging (JASA), health industry provider and small businesses in the community.

A total of 700 Ukrainian refugees registered to attend the job fair but over a thousand ultimately attended, Alex Budnitskiy, the CEO and executive director of the JCH of Bensonhurst, told The Algemeiner. The Jewish center also had to start turning away employers because too many wanted to be involved in the job fair.

“I think there’s an eagerness to hire and get a job, on both sides,” Budnitskiy said. “Its a two-way street. Employers really want to have a quality work force, candidates to be employed, and Ukrainians really want to work. Our goal is to match their skills with employers’ needs.” He added that many of the Ukranian refugees had to wait until now for their work authorization to get approved, and that’s why the job fair was not held earlier although the Ukrainians have been living in Brooklyn for some time now.

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Representatives from English language and vocational training courses will were also available for the Ukrainian refugees who are interested in improving their skills.

The JCH has held similar job fairs in the past to help newcomers in the Brooklyn community navigate the local job search. The Jewish center has a work force development center — as well as other social services for immigrants — and for more than a quarter of a century one of their priorities has been to train and place immigrants in jobs, Budnitskiy explained.

Ukrainain crisis response center since February 2022 when legal help, emergency care assistance, mental health, help pay rent, help with childcare. With help from UJA, Placed 70 Ukrainina kids with no charge to summer camp and 70 kids in aftr school center at no charge with help from UJA.

A job fair is one of the instruments that we use to make sure we can get all community businesses together and speed up the process of [having] meetings with potential employers, Budnitskiy said.

Feedback: They were so appreciative and some of them said that they already got interviews on the spot. But the real success we can measure only in a few weeks when we know how many were interviewed and how many secured the jobs. But we’re hoping for good results.

He explained that most of Ukranian refugees who have arrived in Brooklyn are mothers coming with their children while their spouses remain in Ukraine. So come with their entire family but “majority of them if not all are extremely needy,”Budnitskiy. “They don’t have anything, not even food on the table.”

Source of original article: Culture – Algemeiner.com (www.algemeiner.com).
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