Project Spotlight: Aliyah

IFCJ Canada  |  January 10, 2025

As harsh antiSemitism gets worse around the world, our aliyah efforts are all the more important. Thank you for helping bring families, like Joey’s, home to Israel!

Fearing Her Future in France

“Stinking Jew!”

That’s what Joey, who’s just 12 years old, heard her peers call her one day on the playground in her neighbourhood in France that she used to enjoy going to.

The group of 16-year-olds ganged up on Joey and told her: “Jews aren’t allowed on this playground.”

Young Joey wasn’t the only one treated so terribly. Her parents say that ever since the brutal Hamas attacks on October 7, 2023, they noticed their neighbour suddenly stopped talking to them. Only later did they learn it was because they are Jewish.

Joey’s parents and her five siblings have been living in France all their lives, but the parents tell us they’ve always dreamed of living in Israel. “We are very Zionist, and for us Israel has always been a place where we would like to be. During the last year, and especially since October 7, we have been living in fear. I have six children, and I fear for their future,” says the mother, Sarah.

The family says they wouldn’t have been able to make it to their biblical homeland without The Fellowship. “I simply have no words to describe our great happiness and gratitude for everything The Fellowship has done for us,” says Sarah.