Waiting Patiently

Yevgeny was born in 1947 in Magdeburg, Germany. His father was a Russian military officer, and his mother was a Jewish nurse from Belarus who managed to escape while most of her family—her mother and six sisters—perished in a mass grave during World War II.

After the war, the family remained in Germany near a Soviet military base. Later they moved to the Baltic countries, then to Saratov in Russia, and after several more relocations eventually settled in Krivoy Rog, Ukraine. There Yevgeny began his career building elevators. He also met his wife, Alfiya, and together they raised three daughters. A few years ago, he became a pensioner.

Yevgeny and Alfiya lived in the small village of Lozovatka near Krivoy Rog, where they were the only Jewish family. Their days were filled with the simple rhythms of rural retirement life—repairing the house, tending the garden, raising chickens and their twelve goats, and fishing in a small nearby lake. But the increasingly frequent sounds of shelling were constant reminders that their world was changing, and not for the better.

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Eventually they made the difficult decision to move to Israel. It was not easy to take such a step at the age of 79 and leave everything behind. Most of their belongings they gave away to people in the village, and their old house is now home to refugees from Melitopol, a city currently occupied by the Russian army.

At age 79, Yevgeny and Alfiya made the difficult decision to leave everything behind and start a new life in Israel.

After all the arrangements had been made, and just one day before their planned departure, the war with Iran began and all flights to Israel were canceled. Yevgeny and Alfiya suddenly had nowhere to go. Their former home was already being used by Ukrainian refugees, and traveling to Israel was no longer possible. There was no way back, so they called us and asked if we could bring them to Kishinov. They decided to wait there until the first opportunity to fly to Israel, hoping to arrive in time for an important event in their grandson’s life on March 17.

We hope they will make it in time—that neither war nor any other circumstances will stop them from continuing their journey—and that this new chapter of life in Israel will be filled with special shalom and the blessings of the Almighty.

Their departure reminded us of two Bible verses. In Zechariah 2:6-7 we read: “Flee from the land of the north and escape to Zion.” And as the last Jewish family to leave the village of Lozovatka, their story also brings to mind the promise in Ezekiel 39:28—that none of His people will be left behind in the diaspora.