“You give hope”

“One of my early childhood memories before WWII – I remember running to my little brother’s kindergarten to pick him up. I was barefoot and happy…”

Genya’s voice trails off, and breaks. That memory, from more than eighty years ago, is one of the last happy memories this 87-year-old has.

When the war began, Jews in her native Belarus were rounded up and murdered… including Genya’s father. “They told him to dig a big hole,” she tells us, “in which they just buried him alive.”

Yes, these are the memories Genya carried with her, through years of anti-Semitism in the Soviet Union, to her golden years in Israel as a widow suffering from a weakened heart and diabetes.

But despite these memories of hardship and hurt, Genya also has hope because of Fellowship friends like you. “I am so happy to get attention and assistance from The Fellowship,” Genya says, telling us of the monthly food card she receives, as well as food boxes for Jewish holidays, and even a walker to help her move around more freely. Despite telling us that “life never was easy,” because of you, Genya smiles gratefully for her “great life.”