Since the times of the Hebrew Patriarchs – Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob – the town of Beersheba has always been viewed as a place of safety and respite for weary travellers. For those on the ancient paths through the Negev desert, it was the well of Beersheba which drew them, and gave renewed hope and strength for the remaining journey ahead.
Today, we see this becoming a reality once again. In the heart of modern Beersheba, Israeli women who are traumatized, troubled and alone can find a haven and source of refreshment in an ICEJ-sponsored women’s shelter located in the heart of the city.
Since May 2020, there have been 31 women along with their children who have found a secure refuge at the shelter to rebuild their lives. Depending on each woman’s needs, the shelter provides lodging for the short term (several days) or for longer periods of a year or more. In addition, they are provided such basics as food and clothing, while the shelter’s staff offer sound counselling and help the women resolve various health, social and legal issues in their lives.
Moreover, while staying in the Beersheba women’s shelter, the women are made to feel loved and precious in God’s eyes and in the eyes of others. This care and support are crucial, as most have seldom experienced these throughout their traumatic pasts. Along the way to rebuilding their lives, the women are encouraged to develop new skills and realize their talents and potential. They also learn about accountability and taking responsibility.
Nevertheless, this important work comes with many challenges. First, it requires trained staff who can invest a large amount of time to understand the women and the challenges they face. A personal approach is required for every individual to help them deal with serious emotional traumas. It can be a great challenge for women who have lost their hope to gain the motivation to start life anew. Despite all these difficulties, the work of the shelter has brought great benefit and is transforming the lives of many women. Here are a few brief stories:
*Nataliya, a Russian-Jewish immigrant, came from a detox facility, where she was getting help with her alcohol addiction. She had no social allowance, no money and nowhere to go, and she found a safe haven at the shelter for half a year. During this time, she got her documents in order, received disability recognition and government assistance, and finally moved from the shelter to a rented apartment.
*Lena is another lady who has been staying in the shelter for a year already. She came with a new-born child (the first child she was allowed to keep by the social services) and made beautiful progress. As a result the social services agreed to let her take back one of her older children who had been living in a foster family. What a joy to see a family reunited!
*Alexa is a mother of two children who came from another shelter for battered women. Her condition was so hopeless that social services were ready to take her children from her. Thankfully, after half a year in the shelter she was able to improve, and social services was pleased with her progress, especially the way she was taking care of her children. Finally, Alexa was able to rent an apartment and moved out of the shelter to begin writing a new page in her life.
When these ladies came into the Beersheba women’s shelter, they had no money, no social allowance, and no family or friends who were ready to take them in. At this crossroads in their lives, the shelter welcomed them with open arms and helped each one to ‘catch their breath,’ take time to rest, restore their physical and emotional strength, put their documents in order, and ask for government benefits and other help from social services. Even more importantly, the hope is that they will encounter true peace and healing which only comes from God.
Please consider a generous gift that will enable the ICEJ to help ‘Give a Future and a Hope’ for many Israeli women. You can offer them a fresh point to start over in their lives.
[*Names are changed to protect their privacy.]
Polonsky shared several touching stories he encountered while constantly shuttling between Warsaw and Budapest this week. One involved two young Jewish sisters, aged 12 and 13, who had stood for twelve hours on an over-crowded train to reach Poland. The cabin car they were in normally seats 40 people, but it was crammed with some 400 fleeing refugees. The young girls were travelling alone, as their mother had to stay behind in Ukraine to take care of her aging parents. The sisters were met by the local Israeli ambassador, and they will arrive in Israel in coming days.
ICEJ-Finland national director Jani Salokangas will arrive with a team in Poland on Friday to deliver a ton of relief aid requested by the Chief Rabbi of Warsaw to help the local Jewish community care for scores of Ukrainian Jewish refugees who have taken shelter with them. The Finnish team will remain in Poland for several days to assist war refugees and deliver more relief aid where needed. ICEJ-Finland also will continue to assist Russian Jews heading for Israel along the St. Petersburg-Helsinki route, which is expected to see a sharp increase of immigrants in coming months.
Finally, the Yad Rosa emergency call centers for Holocaust survivors which the ICEJ sponsors in Jerusalem and Haifa will now be connected to the Jewish Agency’s special hotline number recently set up for Ukrainian and Russian Jews to inquire about making Aliyah. Additional volunteers who speak Ukrainian and Russian have already come forward to help staff the Yad Rosa call centers. This was done at the urging of Prime Minister Bennett to help JAFI handle the high volume of calls now being received on their hotline. Since the hotline was set up about two weeks ago, it has already received over 16,000 calls, including nearly 7,000 calls inquiring about making Aliyah to Israel.
Later in the afternoon, two more flights with another 200 Ukrainian Jewish immigrants landed at Ben-Gurion Airport, where they were warmly received by a welcoming party which included Israeli officials as well as Nicole Yoder, the ICEJ’s VP for Aid & Aliyah. Nicole noted that the vast majority of the arriving passengers were women and children and the elderly, as Ukrainian men between 18 and 60 were required to stay behind and join the battle to defend their country.
With millions of Ukrainians fleeing the intense shelling of their cities and Russia’s economy also tanking under the mounting pressure of international sanctions, Israeli officials say they expect as many as 100,000 Ukrainian and Russian Jews to make Aliyah in the coming year or so, depending on how the conflict plays out. Counting those who are Jewish and their immediate families, there are an estimated 200,000 Ukrainians and more than 600,000 Russians who are eligible to immigrate to Israel.
On Sunday, Israel will welcome the first flights of Ukrainian Jewish olim since the Russian invasion began, bringing an initial group of 300 Jewish war refugees to safety in Israel. They will be placed in absorption centers and hotels for several months as they adjust to their new life in the Jewish homeland.
When Russian forces began invading Ukraine last Thursday, the Jewish Agency quickly set up a free hotline for Ukrainian Jews to request assistance with making Aliyah, and so far they have received calls from more than 5,000 Jews interested in immigrating to Israel. But with the war spreading to so many areas, and a mass exodus of civilians heading west towards safety, bringing these Jewish families out is proving difficult.
Israel is planning to take in an initial wave of 3,000 Ukrainian Jews in coming weeks, and thousands more are expected to keep coming after that. Counting those who are Jewish and their close relatives, there are an estimated 200,000 people remaining in Ukraine who are eligible to make Aliyah.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s brazen orders to crush Ukraine’s independent spirit harkens back to the ominous Soviet occupation of Czechoslovakia to snuff out the Prague Spring in August 1968. This aggression also represents a dangerous flaunting of the global order and could have very serious consequences, especially for Israel and the Middle East.
The ICEJ has been involved in the Aliyah from Ukraine since the 1980s. We were especially active in the early 1990s when we helped transport over 35,000 Ukrainian Jews on their way to Israel by sponsoring the Exobus project. Another 7,000 later came out in special van convoys regularly sent into western Ukraine by the ICEJ’s Swiss branch. And since the conflict in eastern Ukraine first erupted in 2014, the Christian Embassy has assisted with the Aliyah of over 2,000 more Ukrainian Jews seeking to reach Israel.
Instead of celebrating birthdays together in the dining hall, we now are going to the residents, bringing them a cake and a moment of joy through music. Yaacov, a long-time resident, just celebrated his 98th birthday, while Lydia just turned 84.
We have housed Yehuda temporarily to see if the Home is a suitable place for him. Our social worker, Fadi, is trying to collect more details about Yehuda before a decision is made on where is best for him. Meantime, our ICEJ volunteer team helped Yehuda decorate his room and turn it into a home. Several times Yehuda broke down, emotionally overwhelmed by the love and care showered upon him.
Standing on the plateau of the Golan, with an amazing view across the rolling green mountain range into Syria, Chen Levy – the Israeli security chief for Moshav Meitzar, talked about his concerns for the area with Nicole Yoder, ICEJ Vice President for AID & Aliyah. He noted that in the past, the moshav had experienced an attempted terrorist infiltration as well as gunfire from across the border. This should come as no surprise, as for several years now members of Daesh – affiliated with the Islamic State terror network – were in control of the adjacent corner of southern Syria.
When the ICEJ heard of the lack of bomb shelters in Moshav Meitzar, there was no hesitation in agreeing to place several mobile shelters in this community. Thanks to very generous donors from the Netherlands and Switzerland, the Christian Embassy was able to purchase two much-needed bomb shelters and the location for placing them was carefully selected.
“We expect the government to provide us with shelters, but when we receive them from friends outside the country, that is something special,” he told Nicole in response.
