Korean Christians donate more than $1 million to Jewish Agency to help immigration and absorption
Jewish Agency also planning Passover seder dinners for Ukrainian refugees in Eastern Europe
The Jewish Agency for Israel hosted a few delegations of Korean Christians in Israel this week and received a donation of $1 million to renovate an absorption center for Ethiopian immigrants in Beersheva and another donation of $400,000 which will help Jews make aliyah from Ethiopia and Ukraine.
The visit by these delegations of Korean Christians come after two years of pandemic-related restrictions which prevented such trips.
Eun Soo Seol, also known as Pastor Joshua, heads One New Man Family and was appointed by the Jewish Agency of Israel as the Asian Christian representative four years ago. Seol told ALL ISRAEL NEWS that his organization decided a few years ago to support Israel’s immigration and absorption efforts.
“I don’t necessarily say we chose this, but God chose it for us,” Seol said. “I believe that during my many visits to Israel, God called us to support aliyah. I wanted to do something practical, to help in a real way. I want to make sure we were doing something that Israel wanted to receive.”
According to the Jewish Agency, the Russia-Ukraine war has sparked a sudden immigration from both countries. So far, more than 11,500 Jews have come to Israel as immigrants from both Ukraine and Russia.
“As our operations continue, we expect this number to keep growing based on the volume of calls to the Jewish Agency hotline,” the organization said. “To date, the hotline has received over 32,000 calls from Ukraine, 35,300 from Russia and Belarus, and 3,900 from the rest of the former Soviet Union.”
The agency is operating 18 facilities at five different border crossings to facilitate Ukrainian refugees. They are able to house 1,500 refugees at transit facilities in Ukraine, Poland, Romania, Hungary and Moldova while their paperwork is processed for immigration to Israel.
With the Passover holiday coming up on Friday, the Jewish Agency is organizing seders for 300 refugees in Eastern Europe, with the help of UJA Federation of New York, and has sent a delivery of one ton of food that is kosher for Passover to the Chief Rabbi of Poland to use for these activities.
The All Israel News Staff is a team of journalists in Israel.
