With ICEJ’s help, Lera fulfills her dream of Aliyah
By: Anastasiya Gooding

Thanks to the generosity of Christians worldwide, we made it! In the month of July, the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem brought 283 Jewish immigrants on Aliyah flights to Israel. This means we were able to meet the challenge last month in our ‘Rescue250’ campaign of funding evacuation flights for at least 250 Jews each month while Coronavirus is still impacting the world.

With all the negative reports associated with Corona, it is exciting to share such good news! And in fact, over the past five months the Christian Embassy has managed to bring 1,349 Jewish immigrants on flights to Israel arranged through the Jewish Agency.

We also would like to share with you the touching story of the Mashevskaya family, who came to Israel recently on one of the ICEJ’s Aliyah flights. After Lera Mashevskaya, her husband Ivan, and their three children (Slavik, Adrian and Alice) made Aliyah, they stayed in a special quarantine hotel for two weeks. This gave them time to reflect on the long journey which took them through a family crisis and into their new beginning here in Israel.

When Lera was 13 years old, she went to a Jewish Agency summer camp for Jewish youths in Russia. It was there that for the first time Lera felt like she was really Jewish, and started learning about the history and traditions of her people.

At that moment, a burning desire was kindled in Lera’s heart to go to Israel. But her mother was totally against it. It would take another thirteen years for her dream to start coming true. Her first visit to Israel happened as part of a ten-day Taglit (Birthright) tour of Israel granted to young Diaspora Jews.

“At the time, I had already met my husband Ivan. We soon became the parents of our first son – Slavik”, recounted Lera. “I passionately wanted to make Aliyah, but Ivan would have nothing of it.”

The next time Lera came to Israel was on her 29th birthday. By this time, she and Ivan had two children. But Ivan still had reservations about moving to Israel. Deeply torn but sensing an unmistakable draw to Israel, Lera left the two young ones with her husband and mother, and came for another visit.

“It was very hard, but I wanted to give Israel a real try, on my own”, she confided. “I had a deep love in my heart for this country and longed to move here.”

Lera spent four months in Israel as part of the MASA program which helps young Jews abroad come to Israel to further their university studies. She used the opportunity to receive training in a new profession and was certified as a personal life coach. The skills Lera learned were in high demand back in Russia, and with this new education the family’s circumstances changed.

“Nearly all of my MASA classmates made Aliyah, taking on new Hebrew names and starting to build new lives in the Jewish homeland”, said Lera. “I, on the other hand, had to return to my family in snowy Moscow. But I went to work as a coach in an international company, thanks to my MASA degree. And because of this turn for the better, my husband began to see Israel differently.”

Then in the spring of 2019, with Lera six-months pregnant with her third child, the whole family came to Israel as tourists.

“I showed them my favorite places in my beloved country”, said Lera. “For two weeks, we drove from Acre to Eilat, dipped our legs in the Dead Sea, visited Jerusalem and prayed at the Kotel, and danced on the beaches of Tel Aviv. During this trip, my husband began to really like Israel, but he still was not ready to leave Moscow.”

But finally this spring, the Coronavirus pandemic changed his mind.

“My husband started working online, without visiting the office. Our family spent all our days together, our relationships grew closer and closer”, Lera explained. “My husband realized that he could do his work from anywhere in the world and he agreed to make Aliyah. Finally, my dream came true – on June 16 we flew to Israel!”

Lera and Ivan have come a long way as a couple and now want to help others overcome their differences. So they created the “Family Coaching Project” to coach other couples. Even during their two weeks of quarantine after arriving in Israel, they were counseling other immigrant families in the quarantine hotel.

“We so want to become a family that will be useful for this State and its wonderful people. In response to the love and care that we received, I want to love, give and care for others in response three times over”, Lera concluded.

We are so glad that through the ICEJ, Christians have played a central role in changing the lives of so many Jewish immigrants to Israel – like Lera and her family. And with August now upon us, we want to challenge you once again to partner with us in bringing at least 250 more Jews to Israel this month. You can reserve a place on an Aliyah rescue flight for a Jewish person or family in need.

This is a prophetic and humanitarian mission, and you can help keep the door of Aliyah open even amid the Corona crisis.

Book a seat today for a Jewish family in need of our help! And follow our progress in this urgent Rescue250 campaign! Go to: on.icej.org/rescue250