Ukrainian survivors welcomed at Haifa Home

New building has first residents

After long bureaucratic delays, the elevator was finally installed in the Christian Embassy’s new residential building. The building still needs some work, but several Holocaust survivors from Ukraine have already moved in.

When war erupted in Ukraine last winter, Maya and Anatoly had no plans to leave their home of many decades. But as the battle grew closer and trenches were dug around their property, they knew it was time to go. That evening, an organization which had helped them for years called to urge them to pack and be ready to leave by morning.

After passing many roadblocks to reach Kharkiv, they were put on a bus to Moldova, where their documents were processed before they flew to Israel. Their son was already living in Haifa, so they joined his family there. But soon, Maya and Anatoly became the first residents in our new apartment building!

“We feel so loved and welcomed,” Maya repeated several times. “They take wonderful care of us, and we are so happy to be here.”

Another new resident is Natalia, whose family fled Odessa when the Germans invaded Ukraine in World War II. She still remembers the constant fear. When the family returned to Odessa, her father became a ship captain – a rare position for a Jew in Soviet days. Natalia later married, but today she is a widow.

When Russia first attacked Ukraine, the Odessa port was seen as a prime target, but Natalia never imagined leaving. “I told myself I would stay no matter what”, she said. Yet, the constant fear in war returned, and with few nearby bomb shelters for civilians, she decided to escape to Israel.

With tears flowing, Natalia told us she felt like her father helped her make it to Israel, because he had such a difficult life but always found ways to reassure the family. She is so grateful for the care she receives at the Haifa Home, but adds it is not easy starting over at her age.

“All my friends, my whole life is in Ukraine”, Natalia confides. “I’m not sure if I can really make Israel my home. Let’s see what time brings.”

Shela and Lena, new residents from Ukraine go shopping in IKEA

Fun time buying new furniture

While our residents need physical and emotional care, they also need good beds to sleep in and comfortable chairs to sit. Shela and Lena, also new residents from Ukraine, had great fun when our team took them to the local IKEA to find some new furniture.

They had never seen such a huge store and felt like children in a toy shop. They especially enjoyed scooting around the showrooms on motorized carts.

Meanwhile, Arnold had to find a good mattress for him and his disabled wife Allah, who stays mostly in bed. Simcha, our physiotherapist, happily showed him how to try out a mattress in an Israeli store.

New staff made for their jobs

Tanja, who recently joined the Haifa Home staff, is really fit for her job. She made Aliyah from Ukraine herself in 1999, speaks the language fluently, and knows the challenges of moving to Israel. She is helping our new survivors from Ukraine navigate all the immigration paperwork and taking them to see doctors.

“I see my task as to help them with the important and the small things”, Tanja said. “Sometimes, I am just sitting with them and listening, so they do not feel alone. I want them to feel they are home and have family who care.”

We also just added Ella to our Christian volunteer team. Because her parents came from different Soviet republics, she speaks both Russian and Romanian, and then learned Hebrew while studying in Israel over recent years. Seeking the Lord for her next step, she applied to be an assistant nurse on our Haifa team, and it turns out she is well suited for the job. Ella will be responsible for all our new Russian-speaking residents.

New staff made for their jobs

Tanja, who recently joined the Haifa Home staff, is really fit for her job. She made Aliyah from Ukraine herself in 1999, speaks the language fluently, and knows the challenges of moving to Israel. She is helping our new survivors from Ukraine navigate all the immigration paperwork and taking them to see doctors.

“I see my task as to help them with the important and the small things”, Tanja said. “Sometimes, I am just sitting with them and listening, so they do not feel alone. I want them to feel they are home and have family who care.”

We also just added Ella to our Christian volunteer team. Because her parents came from different Soviet republics, she speaks both Russian and Romanian, and then learned Hebrew while studying in Israel over recent years. Seeking the Lord for her next step, she applied to be an assistant nurse on our Haifa team, and it turns out she is well suited for the job. Ella will be responsible for all our new Russian-speaking residents.

Please meet Naomi

Naomi is an amazing lady on the Haifa Home staff. A child of Holocaust survivors herself, she is already past retirement age and only works part-time, but she is always available for the residents – morning, noon and night.

Born in Poland after the Second World War, Naomi experienced antisemitism in high school when classmates called her a “dirty Jew”. At age 15, she made her way to Israel with a Jewish youth movement. Over time, her divorced parents and brother all made Aliyah as well.

“My parents taught me from a young age to be independent and not let anything hinder me”, she said. But it was not easy, as her grandparents all perished in the Holocaust, and her parents never talked about what happened to them.

“They never told us anything”, she lamented. “Only when I was already married, I found a picture of my mother when she was young with a group of beautiful young women. When I asked who they were, she burst out crying. They were a group of girls in Auschwitz chosen for special abuse by the Nazis.”

When her father was old, one day Naomi discovered big scars on his back. When she asked what had happened, he reluctantly told her about surviving the infamous Babi Yar massacre in Kyiv, where over 33,000 Jews were murdered by the Nazis in one weekend. He was shot in the back and fell into the ravine with other bodies falling on top. But partisans managed to dig him out alive and he spent the rest of the war hiding in the forests.

“What I try to do with the residents is to give them love, but at the same time they give me love”, assured Naomi. “It is very important for me to give to others because I did not experience love, warmth, and hugs in my own life. So, I give it to our residents, and I receive the love from them I always craved.”

Naomi also spends a lot of time teaching her ten grandchildren about the Holocaust and bringing them to the Haifa Home. “It’s so important for me that they know this past, and that what we have today in Israel is only because of what the past generations went through”, she concluded.

Like Naomi, we have compelling reasons to care for these Holocaust survivors and are privileged to still have a chance to impact their lives. Thank you for considering a generous gift towards the work of the ICEJ’s Haifa Home for Holocaust survivors.

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