Aliyah from the Ukraine continues

Refugees from Donetks now in our shelter

Winter, with its snow and icy cold northern wind, has been with us for quite a while now. At night the temperature drops to -17 degrees Celsius! It will be ‘somewhat warmer’ during the coming days, but more snow is on the way!

The previous week Victor and I went to Odessa where we visited both the Jewish community and Tikva, where Michael Brodman (grandson of David Brodman) shelters and cares for orphans. And we paid a visit to Rabbi Abraham Wolf, who has to take care of an additional 200 Jewish refugees from the East, of whom many hope to make Aliyah soon. This added responsibility is very costly, and we’ve been requested to assist financially.

We’ve noticed a ‘bewilderment‘, caused by the situation that escalated into war, in our discussions with the many Jewish refugees. 75 year old Klara fled with her daughter Anja and grandchild from Lugansk. She never expected that, after the Second World War, she would have to endure this too.

Klara Wayman

They’ve been in Odessa since the end of August, and will make Aliyah on Monday, December 22nd. They hoped to collect some belongings from Lugansk, but we strongly discouraged it because soldiers from both sides and civilians are being killed.

There is continuous movement at our hiding place in Kiev, due to the coming and going of individual Jewish people, and families, who are either on their way to the embassy or staying overnight before their departure to Israel. And there are the refugees who stay for up to a month, until their departure.

According to our planning, another 19 trips to the embassy and airport remain until the end of the year. On Monday, December 22nd, more than 200 olim, half of whom are refugees from the east, will depart from Kiev. The Jewish Agency requested the aliyah organisations, among them Christians for Israel, to hire larger busses in order to transport the refugees from Kharkov and Dnepropetrovsk to the airport in Kiev.

We can transport a total of 28 immigrants, or olim, to Kiev in our small busses. On December 29 the final flight with Jewish olim will depart, and many refugees are leaving for Israel permanently. Rita, responsible for the Jewish Agency in the province of Vinnitsa, jokingly says: “many of the clients you ‘caught’ this year, have left”.

We are thankful for every Jew, regardless of their age, who can still leave the Ukraine for Israel. At the end of November we brought 13 Jewish refugees from a tiny village, 280 kilometres from Kiev, to the embassy in Kiev. They all hope to make Aliyah in the near future.

6 Dutch volunteers will be assisting the local Ukrainian Christians in packing and distributing 1,600 food parcels between 13 and 20 December. And we hope that we will shortly have 2 to 3 fellow workers who can visit the Jews in the eastern part of the country.

In order to extend our work, we urgently require 3 busses. The need, in a nutshell, remains high and the costs, especially, for transport, shelter and accompaniment of the Jewish refugees continue to increase! Please help us to continue doing this wonderful work. The Lord is bringing His people Home. And you can be involved in this!

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