‘Thank God There Is The Fellowship’
The Fellowship | August 29, 2023
Born in 1937 to a Jewish family in Poland, Faina grew up on the run. First escaping to Belarus, then fleeing the Nazi invasion there, finding themselves in far-off Uzbekistan, Faina’s family lost members as the war progressed.
First her father was sent to the front. Then her brother, only 14, was sent, as well. Isaac, her beloved big brother, would die in the trenches in 1944, still a boy. And Faina’s father would survive, although he lost a leg in battle.
The war years were tough for Faina and her mother. They experienced the loss of her aunt—her mother’s sister—to illness, and then her two young cousins disappeared, as well, never to be seen again. Faina’s mother somehow kept the girl alive, despite little food and much sickness—Faina nearly died from malaria, and the disease’s effects still haunt her all these decades later.
Faina never married, so—now having made aliyah to Israel, her biblical homeland—she is all alone. But, despite not having the money to afford medicine or food, and despite her loneliness, this Holocaust survivor has found hope because of Fellowship friends around the world who provide regular food deliveries, medical care, home visits, and the necessities for Jewish holidays.
When a volunteer recently paid Faina a visit with a food box for the High Holy Days, this sweet woman said, “Thank God there is The Fellowship—I wish all of you not only happiness, but health.”