The 300 volunteers arrived on busses from Tel Aviv,
Haifa, Jerusalem and Beersheva at the Army bases around Israel to work in
12-hour shifts, sorting and packing medical equipment and field rations. They
all fled Russia and Ukraine to avoid war, only to find it in their new home.
“I feel that it’s really important for each and every
one of us to do what we can to support our soldiers,” explained Yulia Smenanko,
who arrived in Israel in 2022.
“I grew up in Crimea, and when Russia invaded, I lost
my homeland. Many of my friends are on the front, fighting in Kyiv, Dnieper,
Luhansk and Lviv. For over a year and a half, they’ve been fighting for their
homeland, for their lives, for the right to live in peace and freedom, and for
the right to live without fear of tomorrow. Now that I’m in Israel and settled
in my new home, I feel that I have to do the same.”
Anastasia Strokova (19) also arrived in Israel shortly
after Russia invaded Ukraine. Strokova said she’s volunteering because, “I can’t
bear to sit still while animals are trying to destroy my home for the second
time.”
The teenagers and young adults are helping Israel’s
war effort through Shishi Shabbat Yisraeli (SSY), a non-profit working to
support Russian-speaking immigrant families and facilitate their integration
into Israeli society.
“When I arrived in Israel, I very much wanted to join
the Army, but I received an automatic exemption because of my age,” said 25 years
old Moscow native Levi Zak. “Now I’m volunteering with Shishi Shabbat Yisraeli
because I want my nation to win this war.”
Hamas’ attack on Israelis living in Gaza area touched
home of thousands of new immigrants from the former Soviet Union, many of whom
only recently escaped their own nightmares of war, explained Ilya Lipetsker,
SSY’s director of operations.
“Unfortunately, many of them are too familiar with
these scenes,” Lipetsker said. “They’ve suffered the throes of war, and
bombardments and seen loved ones die. They, more than anyone else, can truly
sympathize with the soldiers and families of the bereaved, and the justice of
Israel’s mission. They are giving all they have to help, and much more.”
SSY has opened six drop-off points and volunteer-run
operations centers where supplies are collected and packaged, based on lists
updated daily in collaboration with the Israel Defence Forces. Every day, SSY
also dispatches five buses filled with volunteers to help with the sorting and
packing.
Tatiana Mazor (38), who manages one of SSY’s drop-off
points, has been accepting hundreds of kilograms of donated items daily and
offering a genuine smile and thank you to every donor.
In September 2022, she and her family fled her native
Odessa, which was being heavily bombarded by the Russians, and she is
passionate about the importance of citizens and immigrants doing all they can
to support Israel’s soldiers.
“Israel’s victory over Hamas is vital not only to
Israel’s security but also to the security of the entire Middle East and the
world itself. Not everyone is capable of being a soldier; personally, I’ve
never held a weapon and never intend to. But that doesn’t mean that I can’t
help on the home front. Every volunteer is another soldier on the home front,”
Mazor insisted.
Before the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Israel was
steadily absorbing around 1,200 Russian-speaking immigrants each month, but
that number has risen sharply since the Russian invasion began in February
2022.
Approximately 70,000 immigrants have arrived from
former Soviet countries, including young children, senior citizens,
adolescents, and mothers who left their husbands and sons behind on the
battlefield.
ANI/TPS
