Short Distance Between Belief and Deeds

The Christians for Israel official delegation visited First Home in the Homeland project in kibbutz Revivim (Negev desert) on May 24, 2017. This particular day (28th of Iyar month) is a national holiday in Israel, Yom Yerushalayim – 50 years from the reunification of Jerusalem. Every newcomer and kibbutz member who shared his or her story received one more question: what is Jerusalem for you?

Members of the board of Christians for Israel met with the participants of the First Home "from the four corners of the world". All of them have different backgrounds and arrived to Israel in different periods of time. The "oldest" participant made aliyah 22 years ago, and the "freshest" – only 8 days ago! Now they will join First Home and study Hebrew for five months, five days a week, five hours a day!

Likhosherst Kirill and Yulia with their son Mark from Dnipro, Ukraine just finished a year in the kibbutz and decided to stay here after the program. Yulia is a professional actor and singer, she performed a musical presentation for the members of the delegation.

Rachel Hopkins made aliyah from Boston, USA two years ago together with her husband and three children. They live in the Retamim village in the Negev, became parents of one more child and are going to build a house in the Negev!

Igor and Tatiana Shafran made aliyah from Baku, Azerbaijan in 2016. (99% of the population in Azerbaijan is Muslim). From the big city of Baku they arrived to a small remote community in the Negev desert. First they wanted to move to a big city but now they love kibbutz and want to live here.

Steven and Rachel Karr made aliyah in May 2017 from London, United Kingdom together with their daughter Sapir. They were the freshest olim on this meeting and they will start their Hebrew courses in June.
"We wanted to show to our children, that there is a very short distance between belief and deeds", - says Rachel Hopkins. "Just when we started dating one of the points before creating a family was – if both of us are ready to move to Israel one day" - Steven Karr shared with us.

"From being a total minority in a Muslim country we arrived to a First Home", - says Tatiana Shafran.

At the end of the meeting Elena Kovarsky, director of the First Home in the Homeland program, announced that one more place joined the project. It is a settlement in Samaria called Hinanit. But be patient, you will read about it in the next article!

We are always happy to receive guests and hope to see you again – in the First Home in the Homeland!

Orly Wolstein
'First Home in the Homeland'
Projectmanager Jewish Agency for Israel

Please support the First Home in the Homeland - Project. Any amount is welcome!
Assisting a family in the "First Home" program costs € 230 euro / US $ 250 a month.

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