Ebenezer Operation Exodus - Operation Exodus Shoe Project

This winter we ran a number of shoe projects throughout the fSU here’s one such report from one of our workers based in the Urals.

“In 2010 we again had an opportunity to continue our fruitful collaboration with the Jewish community in Udmurtia. This time we started with the smaller towns of this Republic, where the poorest, i.e. the most needy, Jewish families live.

The first town we visited was Votkinsk. The head of the local Jewish community, Mira, gave us a warm welcome. We had never met before, but she had been informed of our visit in advance. We discussed all the details of the project, including our action plan and the order of our meetings with the children and their parents with the aim of buying winter shoes. In order to have an opportunity to get to know the local Jewish families and have fellowship with them we decided to divide our work in this city into three parts, i.e. three days. As a result, assistance by way of new winter shoes was given to 10 children from 8 needy families. Almost all of the families reached in this town were single-parent ones, where children are, as a rule, brought up by their mothers and (or) grandmothers. We were horrified when we discovered that, in fact, the fathers of these children had simply left them, and many of the parents were divorced. Of course, children brought up by single mothers or grandmothers live in very difficult circumstances. Therefore, the news about the purchase of new shoes was not just a “pleasant surprise” for them, but somewhat of a “miracle”!

One of the neediest families we met in Votkinsk was the family of Kotlyar with two teenage boys. Their father had drowned in a pond some time before. It was a great tragedy for the family. The boys had been brought up by their mother and retired grandmother. The mother has to work hard to make ends meet. It is worth mentioning that there are no well-paid jobs in the small town of Votkinsk! These two brothers came to do the shopping together with their grandmother, Liudmila. They seemed to be very withdrawn and were poorly dressed. Our assistance was, certainly, very timely: when we were buying shoes for the children, it was rather cold, but three days later severe frosts hit this region and there were heavy snowfalls.

All the Jewish families we met while carrying out the Winter Shoes -2010 project were totally new for us: we had never met those people before. So, all of them had for the first time in their lives heard about Ebenezer Fund and its operations. We enjoyed our fellowship and at each of our visits we were sharing about the work of our Fund in detail: about the assistance given to Jewish people – both financial and practical – as they choose to make aliyah, i.e. to return to the their homeland Eretz Israel. All children and their parents were deeply touched by our care and the aid they received. “Toda Raba” – were the words we heard from almost each of the children.

Our next destination was the town of Mojga, where we helped to buy new winter shoes for two boys. Ekaterina, their mother, was very thankful to us for such valuable aid. She shared that she had bought two warm down jackets for her sons shortly before our visit and that she had spent a lot of money on them. As a result, there was not enough money left for new warm shoes for her sons, which meant that they would have to wait for another month - until Ekaterina’s next salary. They would have had to go to school in their autumn boots while it was freezing outside! Thankfully, our assistance was very timely, and warm shoes for the boys were bought shortly before heavy snowfalls.

And again a lot of work was done in Ijevsk, the capital of Udmurtia. During six days, which we spent in this town, we were able to help 16 children from 14 needy Jewish families by way of new winter shoes. According to the tentative arrangements with the leadership of the local Jewish community, the lists of the families in need had been made up by the time we arrived in Ijevsk. So, we contacted all the families in order to set a date and time that would be suitable for them, so that children could come together with their parents. We met each of the families at the appointed time at the shop entrance. It is worth mentioning that our vehicle turned into a small mobile office, as after a purchase had been done we got into it together with the family and continued our fellowship in a relaxed atmosphere. Besides, the parents filled in application forms (necessary for the aid distribution), and we had a good opportunity to continue sharing about the work of our Fund and about different kinds of assistance rendered to potential olim. Some of the families were consulted about aliyah process.

So, among the children we helped in Ijevsk there was a boy, Mihail, from the family of Oleg. This family proved to be in a difficult situation at the moment we met them. It turned out that they had emigrated from Ukraine to Russia and had settled down in Ijevsk shortly before. As for the reason for their moving to another country, they explained that life in Ukraine had become very hard: they could not find jobs and had to struggle to survive. They do not have a dwelling of their own here in Russia and have, therefore, temporarily settled in some of their relatives’ house. However, they realized that life in Russia was not easy either. Thankfully, the local Jewish community helped them a lot, including in obtaining Russian citizenship and finding a job for the head of the family. The problem is that salaries in Ijevsk are very low (as it is known, this region is one of the economically depressed areas of Russia).

All families we met in Ijevsk had never received a similar aid before. All the children, for whom winter shoes were purchased, and their parents are members of the local Jewish community headed by Mark Elyevich Goldin (it was the second time that we had collaborated with him in carrying out Winter Shoes projects). After the project was completed Mark Elyevich wanted to meet us personally. He expressed his heartfelt gratitude to our Fund and a deep appreciation of the assistance given to the members of the Jewish community in Ijevsk, as well as other towns of the Udmurtia ”.

Alexander and Valentina,
Ebenezer regional representatives in Perm and Republic of Udmurtia

We run aid various aid projects during the year throughout the fSU such as the shoe projects as well as handing out food parcels to needy Jewish families. It is is through these vital aid projects that it enables our workers to share about aliyah,. If you would like to make a donation to this valuable part of our work and help a Jewish family or child in desperate need please donate here.