Coronavirus: ICEJ aids Holocaust survivors and sponsors Aliyah flights

“We are working within the rules set by the Health Ministry to help Israelis as much as we can in this troubling time confronting the whole world,” said ICEJ President Dr. Jürgen Bühler. “We know it is in difficult moments like these when our efforts to bless and comfort Israel count the most.”

Staff members from the ICEJ have packed and delivered hundreds of food boxes to not only those regularly cared for in Jerusalem by its team of nurses, but also to hundreds more elderly citizens in Haifa, including Holocaust survivors that have been confined to their home as a health precaution.

The care, done in partnership with Yad Yad Ezer L’Haver, goes above just delivering food boxes, as daily care and medical checks are also included in the visits. The efforts were recently praised by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu last week in briefings on the coronavirus. 

In the upcoming week, ICEJ together with Latet and Ezrat Avot will continue to pack and deliver food boxes to the front doors of hundreds more of Israel's elderly citizens. 

“While the government’s measures to fight the coronavirus is impacting the whole country, I am glad we are still able to help Israel pull through this crisis in a number of ways,” said Dr. Bühler. “This includes packing and delivering food boxes to senior citizens, caring for Holocaust survivors, and bringing Jews home from Russia and Ethiopia at this very moment.”

On Sunday a flight of Russian immigrants, sponsored by the ICEJ, arrived in Israel, and marks the 30th anniversary of the ICEJ’s sponsorship of Jewish families making Aliyah from the former Soviet Union. Unfortunately upon arriving in their new homeland, the new arrivals were expected to immediately enter quarantine in accordance with the government's coronavirus regulations. 

Flights of 72 Ethiopian Jews, also sponsored by ICECJ are scheduled to land Tuesday morning from Addis Ababa. Also expected to head straight into quarantine upon their arrival, the group will abide that two week  period in Beit Alfa absorption center with gift baskets of food and learning materials provided by the organization for both them, and other new Ethiopian immigrants, as apart of their integration process.