Project Spotlight: Winter Warmth in Jerusalem

IFCJ Canada  |  February 13, 2026

Last week, Fellowship volunteers in Jerusalem visited beneficiaries in their homes to deliver aid as part of this year’s ongoing Winter Warmth operation. The food boxes also included warm blankets to help them through the cold—and often lonely—winter nights in the Holy Land. Beneficiaries welcomed staff into their homes and shared their stories of aliyah (immigration to Israel)before Fellowship Freedom Flights were available, as well as experiences of anti-Semitism that had become normalized in the places where they grew up.

93-year-old Hannah is a Holocaust survivor from Algeria, which at the time was a French colony. She shared a single room with her brother, grandmother, and mother until the advancing Nazis reached Algeria. Jews were not allowed on the streets after six in the evening. Hannah remembers selling bread on the street before curfew—made with flour her mother was paid in—to make ends meet.

Hannah may have lived in Israel longer than any of our beneficiaries. She made aliyah in 1948, just months before Israel was established. The journey was risky: the region was still under British control, and if immigrants were caught, they would be sent back. Years later, Hannah married and had six children. As Israel was developing, food shortages and rationing were a regular part of daily life.

“I was very young mother, I didn’t know anything about life, but I had to manage. There were food coupons, and I had many mouths to feed. I worked everywhere I could—cleaning, cooking and ironing.  Still, I made sure my children were always cared for,” said Hannah.

With the monthly support she receives from IFCJ Canada, Hannah has never gone hungry, as she feared she might so many times throughout her life.

Staff also met 84-year-old Esther from Morocco, who made aliyah in 1967 during the Six-Day War. Esther never knew her biological parents and was taken in by a woman in her town who raised orphaned children. Life for Jews in Morocco was extremely difficult. Arab mobs went door to door searching for them. Esther remembers hiding in closets during these raids.

As a young mother of four, Esther made aliyah when her youngest child was just over a month old. At the time, the ongoing Six-Day War saw Israel liberate eastern Jerusalem from Jordanian forces. Esther remembers dreaming of Jerusalem and how the Holy Land was central to her identity. Being there means everything to her, as does the assistance she receives from IFCJ Canada. After her husband’s passing, Esther no longer must choose between food and caring for her fragile health.

“I want to say to the people who donate and help—you are doing a very great mitzvah (good deed), in this world and in the next. You give from your hearts. May God protect you; may you know no illness. Those who give—there is nothing better in the world than that,” said Esther.

“But those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary; they will walk and not be faint” (Isaiah 40:31).