“We decided to repatriate because of the full-scale war that has started in Ukraine. The living conditions are very difficult now, especially for children. And the situation in the east of Ukraine is getting worse every month, and it is not known how it will all end. We are mentally tired of all this horror of war, and our children, Ilya and Sofia, are simply exhausted!”
“When my wife and I understood that we needed to save ourselves and take the children away from here, we decided that we needed to go to Israel. After all, I am Jewish on my father’s side and have the right to repatriate to Israel. And, we recently learned that our children fall under the fourth generation, and if we do not take them there before they come of age, they will lose the right to repatriate.”
“We were told this information at a meeting organized by the Jewish community of our city. Jewish families were invited there, we were given food packages, and representatives of Ezra were also at this meeting. We had the opportunity to approach and talk to them about repatriation to Israel. My wife and I approached their table. We were so timid, because at that moment we were still unsure whether it was necessary to do this, how to organize it, where to start, whether there were enough documents for verification, where to look for them. But they spoke to us politely and we received answers to our questions. And they also offered us the opportunity to go to a consular check without obligation to consult with the consul on the documents. We happily agreed. Ezra’s employees included us in a separate list. We filled out forms, we were signed up for an appointment and Ezra’s driver took us to Kyiv for an interview with the consul.”
“The thing is that I understood that my documents for my father, proving his Jewishness, were not enough. It was unrealistic to get everything necessary, because my father lived in Russia, he had been divorced from my mother a long time ago, so I do not know anything about him. I only know that he had another family there.”
“A miracle happened during the consular check! For some reason, the consul treated us very warmly. He entered his database and found my father’s documents. It turned out that his children from another wife had recently repatriated from Russia and all the documents were scanned and entered in the database. Thus, I received a complete set, thanks to which my family could repatriate to Israel! The consul then asked us if we wanted to get visas for permanent residence in Israel and we answered that we did.”
“My wife and I were happy that this happened, and it became confirmation that our decision was the right one. We felt that Israel was accepting us!”
“We will try to adapt to the new life as soon as possible. We want the children to have a happy future. We plan to work, the children will study, we really believe that everything will be much better than here!”
“We were supported by Ezra very much! Thanks to Ezra, we went to the consular check, I don’t know if we would have decided to do it on our own. It’s possible that we would still be staying here under shelling and not have done anything. We were consulted, we were taken to the consulate and brought back. We were helped to get police clearance certificates. We were also given financial assistance. We were taken to Vinnitsa, then we went to Moldova, and from there to Israel.”
“We are very grateful for your work! Thanks to you, we are now going to Israel! After all, it was difficult for us to decide on this step, but you supported, inspired, helped financially, helped with transportation! Thank you and once again, thank you!”