EMERGENCY UKRAINIAN OLIM ABSORPTION UPDATE, SHISHI SHABBAT YISRAELI
01.03.2022
In the past two months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel has absorbed over 15,000 new Olim, mostly from Ukraine and Russia but also from Belarus and other Russian-speaking countries.
Another 10,000 Russian-speaking Jews have registered for Aliya and will be arriving in Israel shortly.
As described earlier, our national network of young Russian-speaking volunteers are on the frontline in every city, assisting the new Olim in their hotels and elsewhere with their everyday needs.
Rita Agapova, our first full-time Volunteer Coordinator has helped streamlined this volunteer work in Jerusalem, sending caring Russian-speaking volunteers each day to attend to personal and bureaucratic needs in the hotels, to the donated items warehouses, to the Ministry of Interior/Consul Centers that have been set up to process documentation and directly helping hundreds of people each week, also in Tel Aviv and Beersheva, in collaboration with the local municipalities.
We are raising funds to hire additional Volunteer Coordinators in cities with big concentrations of new Olim.
And most excitingly, a team of high-tech professionals has created a national web-based CRM platform (Olim.live) to give Olim direct access to the Volunteers in our database, by entering their location and types of needs, and to expand our growing network of volunteers. We are also linking up the new Olim with the cultural and social absorption activities of Shishi Shabbat Yisraeli in their cities (local hikes, lectures, workshops, Shabbat and holiday hosting, Friday-Shabbat retreats, and much more).
Many new Olim participated in our events before Pesach and home hospitality with Russian-speaking hosts for the Pesach Seder (details in next newsletter!)
We are doing all we can to help our newest Olim feel that they are home, as they begin their new lives in Israel, finding apartments, jobs, learning Hebrew, and addressing their most human needs, both practical and communal.
In the past two months since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel has absorbed over 15,000 new Olim, mostly from Ukraine and Russia but also from Belarus and other Russian-speaking countries.
Another 10,000 Russian-speaking Jews have registered for Aliya and will be arriving in Israel shortly.
As described earlier, our national network of young Russian-speaking volunteers are on the frontline in every city, assisting the new Olim in their hotels and elsewhere with their everyday needs.
Rita Agapova, our first full-time Volunteer Coordinator has helped streamlined this volunteer work in Jerusalem, sending caring Russian-speaking volunteers each day to attend to personal and bureaucratic needs in the hotels, to the donated items warehouses, to the Ministry of Interior/Consul Centers that have been set up to process documentation and directly helping hundreds of people each week, also in Tel Aviv and Beersheva, in collaboration with the local municipalities.
We are raising funds to hire additional Volunteer Coordinators in cities with big concentrations of new Olim.
And most excitingly, a team of high-tech professionals has created a national web-based CRM platform (Olim.live) to give Olim direct access to the Volunteers in our database, by entering their location and types of needs, and to expand our growing network of volunteers. We are also linking up the new Olim with the cultural and social absorption activities of Shishi Shabbat Yisraeli in their cities (local hikes, lectures, workshops, Shabbat and holiday hosting, Friday-Shabbat retreats, and much more).
Many new Olim participated in our events before Pesach and home hospitality with Russian-speaking hosts for the Pesach Seder (details in next newsletter!)
We are doing all we can to help our newest Olim feel that they are home, as they begin their new lives in Israel, finding apartments, jobs, learning Hebrew, and addressing their most human needs, both practical and communal.
