Weisenberg donates $38,000 to Ukraine

Harvey Weisenberg has a history of helping those in need - people, businesses and even entire towns. Now, he’s helping an entire country.

Weisenberg, 88, who served as a New York State Assemblyman for nearly 25 years and was a Long Beach police officer and teacher in the city’s schools, is known widely as Mr. Long Beach, particularly for his philanthropic activities.

With the help of residents and some others, a donation of $38,000 was made to the aid of Ukrainian residents, including $35,000 of Weisenberg’s own money.

“The Russian army wasn’t just invading and attacking Ukraine, they were attacking women and children,” Weisenberg said. “I couldn’t just stand by and watch that happen.”

So, Weisenberg had an idea: collect $1 from every Long Beach resident and end the money to help the Ukrainian residents. Long Beach has a population of roughly 35,000. With some simple math, that would come out to about $35,000.

Pretty soon, Weisenberg was walking down the street or in the supermarket and people would come up to him, offering him money. It started to become difficult to keep track of so he had to stop accepting money from “the great people of Long Beach,” he said. He donated the rest of the money.

To get the money to Ukraine,  he gave the money to local Ukrainian churches, which were able to help move the money.  The churches include the Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Church in Lindenhurst and St. Michael’s Ukrainian Orthodox Church and Cultural Center in Uniondale.

In a letter, St. Michael’s thanked him for his donation, saying. “On behalf of the Ukrainian people… thank you for your advocacy and generous donation of $38,000 to support the people of Ukraine in the time of our ongoing fight for the free world and democratic values.”

Weisenberg started receiving letters, photos and messages on social media from some of the churches, residents and hospitals his money helped in Ukraine. His money was used for medical supplies, food, water and the rebuilding of some of the destruction.

One of the letters was from Zoreslava Liulchak, the director of the Dzherelo Children’s Rehabilitation Centre in Lviv.

“Let this letter express our sincere respect and gratitude for your solidarity with Ukraine. We are sad that the reason for our acquaintance is so tragic, but we believe this is only the beginning of our friendship.”

Wesienberg said he never expected to hear back but doing so touched his heart.

“God gave me a mission,” he said. “And that mission is to help people.”