You Give Nina a Sense of Comfort

(Photo: Yossi Zeliger)

“I felt that finally I was home, and nobody would ever treat me badly simply because I’m Jewish.”

That’s 95-year-old Holocaust survivor Nina talking about her aliyah (immigration to Israel) in 1990 at the beginning of the biggest wave of aliyah from the former Soviet Union. “I love Israel with all my heart.”

As a child, she and her family lived in the Ural Mountains of Russia when World War II began. Many Jewish families evacuated to the Urals when on the run from the Nazis. So, Nina’s immediate family was spared, since they were already in a safe area. But a lot of people in her larger family perished in the Holocaust.

She remembers specifically that her uncle, her mother’s brother, lived in a city in Latvia. The Nazis ordered all Jewish families to come to the central city square to be killed. Then a miracle occurred. As all the Jewish people gathered in the city streets, a local Latvian citizen succeeded in pulling Nina’s uncle from the crowd and saving him, as well as hiding him all the years of the war. Nina says this story gave her hope. “Unfortunately, his family didn’t survive, but this story about good people, who were ready to risk their lives by saving Jews from the Nazis always gives me faith that good will defeat evil.”

And today, she believes that good will win over evil during the current war in Israel. And again, she is thankful for those who are friends of the Jewish people through the good work of IFCJ Canada! We provide Nina with food and lifesaving assistance for which she is so grateful.

“It is more than just financial aid,” says Nina. “You provide a sense of [Comfort] for old people like me. It makes us feel more confident and more secure every month.”

Your gift today will help save lives and provide emergency essentials to those in need during this crisis.

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