Mendy, a Jewish Ukrainian refugee and student from the Alumim children’s home in Zhytomyr, Ukraine, dresses up for the Jewish holiday of Purim after arriving to Israel following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, at the Nes Harim Field and Forest Education Center in Nes Harim, Israel, March 17, 2022. REUTERS/Amir Cohen

Scores of bakeries and shops across the US and worldwide that sold hamantaschen in celebration of the Jewish holiday of Purim have donated proceeds to a fundraising campaign helping Ukrainian refugees at the Polish border.

“It allows me to connect with family and also show solidarity for the people of Ukraine,” Chicago baker Sam Zeitlin — whose late grandfather was born in Kyiv and was forced to flee the country as a child more during the Russian revolution — told local WTKR news this week. Zeitlin donated proceeds for the sales from his store’s hamantaschen to the Hamantaschen for Ukraine campaign.

The global movement that ran until Purim, on Thursday, partnered with the non-profit organization Polish Humanitarian Action: SOS Ukraine, which assists Ukrainian refugees at Poland’s border.

“My family felt like Ukrainians,” Zeitlin said. “They also happened to be Jewish, but they felt like that was their homeland. And then having to leave, drop everything and get out.” Zeitlin added that participating in the fundraising campaign was a way to pay tribute his grandfather and adhere to his Jewish values of  “wanting to help people who are oppressed and wanting to help people who don’t have a lot.”

The campaign was founded by Laurel Kratochvila, a Boston native who owns a bagel shop in Berlin.

The iconic Russ & Daughters eatery in Brooklyn, NY, committed to donating all proceeds from their hamantaschen sales in store and online on Wednesday and Thursday to the Hamantaschen for Ukraine effort. Nikki Russ Federman, the store’s co-owner, told CBS New York her great-grandfather immigrated from a Polish village near the Ukrainian border before starting Russ & Daughters in the early 1900s.

“It’s very moving now to be able to offer support for people who are, in a way, doing a different kind of exodus. It’s very meaningful,” she said.

The list of shops that participated in the campaign have spanned across the United States as well as in Canada, France, Poland, Denmark, Netherlands, England, and Germany.

Brooke Erceg, who co-owns with her husband the Cup-A-Joe coffee shop and bakery in Hillsborough, North Carolina, said she learned to make hamantaschen just so she could participate in the fundraiser.

In Wisconsin, Bloom Bake Shop pledged to donate 70 percent of the proceeds from its hamantaschen sales to the campaign. The store’s owner, Annemarie Maitri, told a local news channel, “I wish I could stop Putin myself, but I can’t. But what I can do is use my time, my resources — my team feels the same way — to produce something to make a connection. I think our community feels that connection because we sold out in one hour this morning.” During that single hour, the bake shop raised $400 for the global initiative.