How a Threadbare Blanket Saved Her Life

The Fellowship  |  January 8, 2018

Elderly Jewish woman in a matching purple beanie and sweater sitting on a patterned chair.

Severe poverty is not new to Rosa. As a young girl in Ukraine, she and her mother had to flee as the Nazis invaded their small town. From an empty shack in Azerbaijan, Rosa’s mother sewed dresses to make money for food, and Rosa worked on a farm after school.

Rosa told us that she was given a small blanket 23 winters ago because she could not afford one. “This blanket has saved my life,” she cried.

Now living in Jerusalem, Rosa showed us the 23-year-old threadbare blanket and told us that she still fears not having enough food or freezing during the winter months in her apartment.

Rosa can barely get around and is unable to walk up or down the stairs in her building. She feels alone and trapped, frail and unable to care for herself.

But the good news is that because of the help of compassionate Fellowship friends like you, Rosa now has a heater and several new blankets to fend off the cold, and also receives food and homecare that give her the dignity she deserves.

There are tens of thousands of elderly impoverished Jews like Rosa – in Israel, the former Soviet Union, and around the world – who do not have the basic essentials to survive the biting cold of winter.

Without the hope and provision of The Fellowship, many of these precious souls would not survive.

Your gift could be as impactful as Rosa’s 23-year-old blanket and provide comfort and care for those who have suffered far too much already.

Please join in this ministry effort of Operation Winter Warmth. You can provide the blessing for an elderly Jew like Rosa who is struggling to survive this winter.

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