After months of generous hospitality at the Jewish National Fund Nes-Harim campus, JRNU’s ‘Alumim’ Children’s Home and Orphanage of Zhytomyr, Ukraine, is relocating to Chabad’s educational campus in Ashkelon, Southern Israel.
Hundreds of the institution’s refugee children, together with many Zhytomyr community members, that have been staying in Nes-Harim ever since their urgent evacuation from West Ukraine, are currently resettling in the Southern city of Ashkelon. They will integrate into Chabad’s local network of communal and educational institutions and initiatives, headed by Rabbi Mendel Lieberman.
A special welcoming ceremony, attended by dignitaries, community members, and dedicated professional services, welcomed the refugees at the beginning of the new academic year as they arrived. Knesset member, Alexander Kushnir, who joined the event and lives in the city, warmly blessed the new arrivals and spoke about the Israeli commitment to their wellbeing.
“It was a very exciting moment,” says Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm, the Chief Rabbi of Zhytomyr and West Ukraine. “A hundred children and eighteen families are opening a new page. Some are in dormitories, others have already found apartments and a few are in hotels, yet all feel something new and refreshing is happening – a new home surrounded by loving and caring individuals from the warm Chabad community.”
