In the days leading up to the Jewish New Year, young Ukrainian-Israeli soldiers were reunited in Moldova with their families, who traveled to the country from war-torn Ukraine.

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Ukranian woman who fought the Nazis was rescued from the war zone at the age of 97, reuniting with her son in Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

Millions of Ukrainians have been displaced since the Russian invasion of Ukraine on February 24, with thousands of Ukrainians immigrating to Israel. 

Among the refugees is Holocaust survivor Jenya Bernstein, Ynet reported.

Only a week before Bernstein’s arrival, her son Alex and his family made Aliyah, and he regretted not being able to convince his mother to join him.

Determined to rescue her from the intensifying situation, he managed to do so with the help of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, according to Ynet. Now mother and son are reunited safely in Israel.

“This war reminds me of World War II, and I didn’t believe that I’d be in a similar situation again in my life,” Bernstein told Ynet.

“In the beginning, we didn’t really hear the bombing until they got close to the area I live in. Then I realized that my life would be in danger once again and I may not make it out alive.”

After her mother was murdered by Nazi occupiers in eastern Ukraine, Bernstein and her sisters fled to Russia, where they joined the Red Army in fighting the Nazis, according to Ynet.

Bernstein is expecting to celebrate her 98th birthday in June, making her the oldest of the new arrivals from Ukraine.

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The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has been extremely effective at alleviating poverty among Israel’s poorest citizens.

By World Israel News Staff

Despite Israel’s well-earned reputation as the world’s “start-up nation,” with billion-dollar IPOs and tech innovation at the forefront of the Jewish State’s exports, a staggering amount of Israelis are poor.

According to Israel’s Social Security Institute, almost 2 million Israelis — more than one in five — live under the poverty line.

But one NGO, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews, has been extremely effective at alleviating poverty among Israel’s poorest citizens.

Led by Yael Eckstein, the daughter of the Fellowship’s founder Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, the organization reported that it raised a whopping $118 million for poor Israelis in 2019 alone.

Eckstein, who was born and bred in Skokie, Illinois, made Aliyah several years ago and is now based in Jerusalem.

She started from the ground up at the organization, working in the mailroom and working her way up to positions with greater responsibility.

“We followed a very non-traditional path when it came to transitioning” leadership of the organization, Eckstein told the Washington Times.

“I didn’t go to courses and different things for the transition. My father never sat down with me and opened the books and said, ‘this is what you need to know, my daughter, in order to lead the organization.’”

Instead, after her father’s untimely death in 2019, she took the reigns of the organization and spearheaded a campaign that raised more than $100 million for Israel’s poorest citizens.

“I think Yael is filling her father’s shoes so wonderfully,” Eli Beer, president of United Hatzalah of Israel, told the Times.

“She has taken on the role with such passion and dedication, and she has brought in many new supporters and partnerships with amazing organizations.”

Founded in 1983, the organization positions itself as a facilitator of a “spiritual opportunity” for donors.

The Fellowship’s site quotes God’s promise in Genesis 12:3 to “bless those who bless Israel” as an encouragement to donors.

Eckstein cited the $500 monthly stipend for retirees in the Jewish state, explaining that the amount wasn’t enough for elderly people, including Holocaust survivors and IDF veterans, to live comfortably.

“Those are the people that we’re targeting specifically,” she said.

“We’re bringing them food, we’re finding elderly who meet that criteria, we’re coming to them and saying the Fellowship is going to bring you food every single week for the rest of your life.”

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The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews sponsored a flight bringing new immigrants from the South American country.

By Paul Shindman, World Israel News

A charter flight from Peru brought a group of new immigrants to Israel hoping to make a new life after enduring the pandemic and social unrest there, the news website Iton Gadol reported Monday.

The 37 members of Peru’s Jewish community landed at Tel Aviv’s Ben Gurion Airport on Friday after switching planes in Madrid where they were joined by a Spanish Jew who also made aliyah, or immigrated, to Israel.

“We were required to stay at home as a result of the closure. From the window of our house we can see the riots happening outside,” said a 20-year-old Peruvian jew who plans to join the IDF after arriving in Israel.

The flight also carried eight Israelis who had been stranded in Peru when its borders closed due to the pandemic and failed to make it to an El Al rescue flight in March. A dozen Israelis similarly stranded in Spain took advantage as well.

“A month ago, some families from Peru contacted me, very distressed because the health system and the economy are collapsed in that country,” said Nadin Hakas, the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ) representative in Uruguay.

“Some of the families had completed their aliyah process, others were Israeli citizens – Peru residents and stranded tourists – who wanted to return, but they all had in common that they could not reach Israel because the Peruvian borders were closed since the beginning of March,” Hakas told Iton Gadol.

Hakas said the flight was indeed a rescue mission.

“We had cases of people with illnesses who were not receiving medication, and we were even contacted by the children of an older couple who went to Peru to visit family, and the second time that their return flight to Israel was canceled the man had a heart attack and died. ”

A previous attempt on June 3 using the South American airline Latam failed when the company declared bankruptcy. However, IFCJ worked with the Spanish Embassy in Lima to charter a flight to Spain with almost 300 people, including the Peruvians, Israelis and over 200 Spanish citizens and other Europeans who were trying to return home.

In Madrid, 58 passengers switched to a special charter flight arranged by IFCJ because there are no scheduled flights between Spain and Israel due to the pandemic.

“The joy and relief of these people upon landing in Israel is indescribable, thus ending, in many cases, a real nightmare,” Hakas said.

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The number of Russian immigrants marked the most dramatic increase, a rise of 46.6 percent from 2018. But the number of French immigrants dropped dramatically.

By World Israel News Staff 

Immigration to Israel increased in 2018 by 6.6 percent over the previous year, according to figures released Tuesday by Israel’s Central Bureau of Statistics. Immigration from Russia and the Ukraine showed the biggest increase. But French immigration dropped despite special efforts made to attract French Jews.

The number of French immigrants plummeted 23.5 percent from 2017. In 2018, 2,415 French Jews made Israel their home compared to a peak of 6,628 in 2015. It accounts for 8.7 percent of total immigration to Israel last year.

In November 2018, then-Diaspora Affairs Minister Naftali Bennett launched a new project, called “Feel at Home.”

The program was publicized as aiming to provide a focused response to the specific needs of young new immigrants from France, with the stated objective of increasing and easing their integration into Israeli society.

However, while Israel hoped for larger numbers of French immigrants, particularly given the rise of anti-Semitism in that country, French Jews have opted for other places, including Canada, Australia and England.

The former Soviet republics account for two-thirds of Jews who made Israel their home during the past year. That immigration saw a spike of 46.6 percent in 2018 over 2017.

U.S. immigrants made up 9 percent of the total.

Israel encourages Diaspora Jews to move to Israel as part of a national mission to increase the percentage of world Jewry in Israel.

The concern of rising anti-Semitism in a number of countries, including the U.K. and France and even the U.S. and Canada has triggered a willingness by more Diaspora Jews to consider immigration to Israel.

Immigrants can receive assistance from the Israeli government. There are also private groups that offer help.

The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews assists “needy Jews” who want to move to Israel. The nonprofit says that it helps newcomers from “all over the world — Russia, Argentina, India, Muslim countries, and elsewhere — to escape anti-Semitism and extreme poverty, and to realize the dream of living in their biblical homeland.”

In the U.S., the group Nefesh B’Nefesh has gained a reputation for reviving immigration from the U.S. through outreach, education and by smoothing the bureaucratic process associated with moving to Israel.

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