Seeking hidden Jews — report by our Aliyah fieldworker Koen Carlier

People often ask how we contact, or find, the Jewish families in the Ukraine. When it comes to free transportation to the embassy and airport the contact is made through the Jewish Agency. They know when people are due to depart and the details of their destination in Israel is.

The Jewish Agency also has a record, which is occasionally incomplete, of individuals in the various Ukrainian provinces who are eligible to make aliyah (return of the Jewish people to Israel). There still are some hidden Jews with or without documentation. Not long ago, a dying woman in a small town requested her family to congregate and, to their amazement, she informed them that she was Jewish. Sequentially, that family is now preparing to make aliyah.

Via the distribution of food parcels, and our visits to families, we proclaim the message of the Lord’s call to the dispersed people to ‘come home’. While visiting Jewish families, a representative of the Jewish Agency taught us a valuable truth when she said: if you consider making aliyah, do not postpone it. Both the Jewish schools and orphanages have an important task in preparing students for aliyah.

Home at last

Liliya and her children

For the exhibition ‘Dreaming about Jerusalem’, we interviewed 12-year-old Violetta. A year later her dream became reality. Furhtermore, Liliya and her family, from the small village of Dovzjok, could also leave for Israel much sooner than expected. An orthodox priest warned her not to go to Israel, because there she would be given a mark on her right hand! But, Liliya knew the Bible and she knew the time had come for a one-way journey to Israel.

In short: being ‘fishers’, and helping the Jews to make aliyah, is the calling and task of us non-Jews. Many people are visibly and invisibly involved in the Northern Countries and the rest of the world. Read about this in Isaiah chapter 11. We are in absolute need of your prayers and support!

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