Program Stories

“God heard my prayers and saved us. Every time they tried to break down the door, I chanted the ‘Shema Yisrael’ (Hear, O Israel) prayer, and God heard me.”

Can you believe Faina’s neighbour physically carries her to take cover when terrorist rockets fall? “I can’t walk by myself, so my neighbour carries me out on his back every time during the siren,” Faina says.

Emma lives in Ashdod, in one of the heavily bombarded areas of southern Israel. She’s lived there for 23 years since her family made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) from Siberia.

92-year-old Dalia cannot walk on her own and needs 24/7 care. She also has difficulty speaking but managed to let us know that she made aliyah (immigrated to Israel) to her biblical homeland years ago from Iraq.

“What I most want to say, so that the whole world will know, is that our small nation is going through very hard times. And what happened to us this time has never happened before.”

Amnon, 77, has lived in Kibbutz Kfar Aza since 1978, an Israeli community near the border with Gaza that was targeted by Hamas on October 7.

87-year-old Victoria lives in isolation in Netivot, a town near the Gaza strip. Because of this, the Fellowship’s assistance is critical to her well-being.

“We were all stunned when the crisis began. No one expected this to happen.” That’s what 89-year-old Moisey tells Fellowship volunteers who visit him with emergency supplies in his home in war-torn Ukraine.

“I was born in 1931 in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. I was the only child,” says 92-year-old Yuliana, recalling happier days. “My parents had a special touching and trusting relationship.”

80-year-old Lydia has lived a hard life. A widow for many years since making aliyah (immigrating to Israel), she has provided round-the-clock care for her disabled child for more than 50 years.

The only one of nine siblings to have survived the Holocaust, 85-year-old Sibo has known times of darkness—and yet she has survived.

86-year-old Holocaust survivor Natalya has lived a long life thanks to God’s miracles.