Planeload of Ukraine Jews Arrives in Israel
Some 226 immigrants from Ukraine, among then dozens of families fleeing fighting in eastern Ukraine, landed in Israel.
The immigrants who arrived on Monday, the seventh day of Hanukkah, are the first in an expected group of over 400 Ukrainians who will arrive before the end of the year. A second flight is scheduled to arrive on Dec. 30.
The flights are sponsored by the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews along with Israel’s Ministry of Immigration and Absorption and in cooperation with The Jewish Agency, the Global Ezra movement and Nativ.
Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman was among those who welcomed the immigrants in a ceremony. He was joined by the minister of immigration and absorption, Sofa Landver; IFCJ’s founder and president, Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein; the chairman of the Jewish Agency, Natan Sharansky; and the director of the global Ezra movement, Danny Elinson.
With Monday’s flight, 5,134 new immigrants from Ukraine have arrived in Israel in 2014, a 174 percent increase over the previous year, according to Landver.
Israel earlier this month implemented special procedures to speed up the immigration process for people with Jewish origins from Ukraine’s conflict zones.
IFCJ said in a statement that it is providing grants of $1,000 for the adults and $500 for children for the Ukrainian refugrees, who have suffered from the dire economic conditions in the country since the start of fighting between Ukrainian troops and pro-Russian separatists.
The support is in addition to the absorption package and benefits that immigrants to Israel receives from the Ministry of Immigration and Absorption.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news. All donations are still being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000 until April 24.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
