By: Ester Heinzmann, ICEJ-Germany

Over one million Russian-speaking Jews have immigrated to Israel since the Iron Curtain fell in 1989, but there are hundreds of thousands of Jews still left in the former Soviet republics. This summer, as the war keeps raging in nearby Ukraine, several hundred Jewish youths are preparing for their own move to Israel by attending Aliyah summer camps being held in the Baltic states with the help of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem.

The series of summer camps are being run by the Jewish Agency For Israel with support from the ICEJ. One Aliyah camp opened in late June in Latvia with 101 Jewish participants from ages 7 to 17. Among them were 30 young Ukrainian Jews dislocated by the war, with the rest coming from the Baltic states.

Another summer camp just concluded in Vilnius, Lithuania, with 141 Jewish youths taking part, including 133 Ukrainian Jews.

A third camp will be held back in Latvia in August, while two more Aliyah youth camps are scheduled in major Russian-speaking cities elsewhere. In total, over 1,000 Jewish children and teens are expected to take part in these summer camps.

In the Aliyah youth camps, the youngsters are not only learning more about Israel as their future home, they also are reconnecting to their Jewish faith, which was officially supressed during Soviet times.

The camps provide special Aliyah preparation seminars where trained staff and volunteers encourage and advise on the various aspects of immigrating to Israel.

There is also a lot of fun for the Jewish children and teenagers, including swimming, volleyball and foam parties. The youths also learn Israeli folk dances as Middle Eastern music echoes through the surrounding forests. This all produces lots of smiles and laughter. In addition, the children take part in traditional Shabbat observances on Friday evenings, like candle lighting and kiddush.

At the recent Aliyah camp in the Latvian seaside resort of Saulkrasti, the Jewish youngsters stayed in an idyllic vacation complex, and everyone quickly made new friends. Located at the edge of an impressive nature reserve, the camp offered a variety of programs. Amid the hot summer weather, a dip in the Baltic Sea was most refreshing.

The camp counsellors shared insights about Israel, the innovative Start-Up Nation and a haven of refuge for the Jewish people. As the Russia-Ukraine war drags on not so far away, the youngsters had time and ample reason to reflect on what a move to Israel will mean for them.

The young campers also learn about special Aliyah youth programs run by JAFI which offer them the opportunity to complete their high school education in Israel and/or study at top universities in the country. JAFI’s investment in these SELA and NAALE programs has borne great fruit, as more than 30,000 Jewish teenagers have graduated from these programs over the past 30 years. Most then choose to remain in Israel for good, with their parents and siblings soon following.

Currently, there are 700 Jewish youths expected to enter the SELA program and another 700 in NAALE over the coming year. Many make the decision to join at these Aliyah summer camps, proving how valuable they can be.

At the same time, the Christian Embassy also is sponsoring Aliyah flights from the Baltic states and the numbers along this route are strong at 178 Jewish newcomers so far this year. This includes not only Jews from Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia, but also Russian and Ukrainian Jews using this route to reach Israel.

Overall, more than 86,000 Jewish immigrants from the former Soviet republics have arrived in Israel since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, and the ICEJ is there sponsoring Aliyah flights along these other routes as well.

These can often seem like mere statistical numbers, but every one of them has decided to take a big step in their lives and each one brings their own unique potential to the nation of Israel. Indeed, God has not lost sight of a single one: “Then they shall know that I am the Lord their God, who sent them into captivity among the nations, but also brought them back to their land, and left none of them captive any longer.” (Ezekiel 39:28) So, please help support these summer youth camps and all our other Aliyah efforts to bring Jewish families home to Israel.

*Photo credits: The Jewish Agency for Israel