A new home in Ashkelon for Ukrainian children
After Six Months at the KKL-JNF Centre in Nes Harim, children from Ukraine are moving to Ashkelon.
Photo: Yoav Lin -KKL
In March, Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael – Jewish National Fund welcomed 100 Jewish children from the Alumim children’s home in Zhitomir, Western Ukraine, to the KKL-JNF Nes Harim Field Centre.
The children, aged 2-18, were evacuated from Zhitomir and, after an escape that took several hours to the Romanian border, were brought to Israel in a complex operation involving the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews.
During their stay at the field centre, KKL-JNF provided the children with varied activities, educational content, and tours throughout the country. The KKL-JNF staff made it its mission to make the children’s stay at the centre a pleasant one after the children were forced to leave Ukraine due to the war. This week, the children will move to a residence in Ashkelon, along with the staff of the Alumim children’s home.
Lena Valsinka, a mother who stayed with her children until today in Nes Harim: “After all the madness we went through when the war started, arriving and staying in Nes Harim simply gave us air to breathe. It’s not taken for granted at all, and I want to thank everyone who helped us absorb here and maintain a routine where we lived as normally as possible. We miss home a lot, of course, but we found amazing people here in Israel who made us feel at home, and I’m very happy about that.”
This is not the only contribution of KKL-JNF to the Jewish people of Ukraine since the outbreak of hostilities. Since the beginning of the war, KKL-JNF has used its resources to provide humanitarian aid for the Ukrainian Jewish population, collaborating with other Jewish organisations in purchasing food, medicine and hygiene products, finding residence for refugees, arranging social activities, and taking care of security and logistics.
Photo: Yoav Lin -KKL
Recently, KKL-JNF aided in evacuating the residents of a holocaust survivors’ nursing home in Kyiv during the bombing of the city. The evacuation process has been complex due to the poor health of many residents. Under the care of trained staff, the residents were taken to a safe location.
With the help of its office in the Czech Republic, KKL-JNF provided aid at the Ukraine-Slovakian border by bringing Jewish refugees to safe places. In Hungary, KKL-JNF aided dozens of Jewish families in finding residence in hotels and apartments and in providing personal humanitarian support, including financial support in organising a Passover Seder for hundreds of participants. Through the Hungarian branch of the Hashomer Hatzair movement, KKL-JNF purchased generators, tents and additional humanitarian aid passed to the movement’s activists throughout the country.
KKL-JNF CEO Amnon Ben Ami said: “In solidarity with our people who are in danger, and as part of its Zionist mission, KKL-JNF does everything to aid the Jews of Ukraine, the Jewish refugees at the borders, and to their acceptance in Israel. Providing children who had to flee Ukraine with a warm and loving home is a great privilege for us. We will keep providing aid to our diaspora brothers and sisters.”
KKL-JNF has been working for decades to strengthen the connection with the Jewish diaspora and bring Jews to Israel. During the 90s and the 80s, KKL-JNF aided in the integration of Jews from the Soviet Union and Ethiopia in Israel, and in the previous decade, it helped bring Jews from North America and France to Israel. In collaboration with the Israeli Ministry of Aliyah and Integration, The Jewish Agency and other Zionist organisations such as Nefesh B’Nefesh, KKL-JNF has aided in bringing over a million Jews to Israel.
