In the cruelest of ironies, many of those who fled Ukraine for Israel when Russia invaded in February 2022 found themselves embroiled in another bitter war on a different continent 18 months later.
This is exactly what happened to the 40 or so Ukrainian child refugees aged 13-14 who, when Russia invaded their country, sought safety in Israel. Having secured a place in the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village, one of 46 youth villages in the country, their parents decided it was better for them here.
The village was founded in 1948 by Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, Inc., and the Jewish Agency as a refuge for children evading the turmoil of the War of Independence. Today, the educational community serves as a sanctuary for hundreds of children from around the world, including many who recently fled from war-torn Ukraine.
Ukraine-Russia and Israel-Hamas: Helping children deal with the horrors of war
On Oct. 7, these children once again found themselves having to deal with the horrors of war when Hamas launched its heinous attack on southern Israel – only this time, they didn’t have their families around them or anywhere else to go.
While the village itself wasn’t directly affected by the terrifying sirens and rocket attacks that blighted so much of the country, tragically, they suffered some heavy losses on October 7 and thereafter.
Two former students – Nitzan Goldenberg, 28; and father of three St.-Sgt.-Maj. Alik Pozniakov, 37 – were murdered by the Hamas terrorists on Oct. 7. Goldenberg was killed at the Supernova music festival, while Pozniakov was one of 61 police officers killed during the weekend’s fighting.
Maj. (res.) Roman Bronstein, 46, another graduate of Hadassah Neurim, also fell in battle on December 10 in the southern Gaza Strip, a month before Capt. Nir Binyamin, 29, the son of village educators, was killed in the explosion in the central Gaza Strip that took the lives of 21 IDF soldiers.
The sculpture that stands in the memorial garden now bears the names of these victims, alongside all the other fallen heroes of Hadassah Village.
A number of Neurim’s staff members, including their CEO and maintenance and boarding school managers, were called up on Oct. 7 for reserve duty in the IDF.
While they went off to war, others held the fort back home.
Liat Aharon, Neurim’s operations manager, for example, who was on vacation in Eilat at the time of the attack, quickly switched to “operation mode” to “deal with what happened and to feel helpful.”
She oversaw the absorption of some 60 displaced children from Kfar Silver, a youth village near the southern city of Ashkelon that was severely affected by the atrocities.
These kids, who arrived with little more than the clothes on their backs, were swiftly absorbed by Neurim, which had spare capacity to house them, as the Israeli children who lived there had gone home for the Sukkot holidays and Simchat Torah.
The displaced children stayed until Homefront Command deemed it safe for them to return to Kfar Silver at the end of November.
Despite the war, very few overseas students in Hadassah Neurim have left Israel, instead continuing with their lives in the village, where things have largely returned to normal.
TRADITIONALLY, YOUTH villages in Israel were seen as a last resort for troubled Israeli children who otherwise would leave school with poor matriculation (bagrut) certificates and very little in the way of prospects and opportunities.
Hadassah Neurim Youth Village is doing all it can to dispel this image, however, by providing every student, from both inside and outside Israel, with an equal, if not a better, chance to attain good qualifications and, with them, a head start in life.
This hard work and dedication to each child have paid off, as the number of students who graduate with a full matriculation certificate from both the high school and the NAALE program (the international program that enables Jewish teenagers to complete their high school education in Israel for free) has risen exponentially since 2018, when that figure stood at 28%.
This year, it is predicted that the number will rise to 70% for high school graduates and 90% for NAALE students – impressive numbers from all viewpoints.
Situated on a clifftop near Beit Yanai Beach, the village not only provides a solid academic grounding for the children, but it also provides a nurturing, calm, and relaxing environment for all residents, whose number includes teachers, administrators, and counselors.
Those students and staff members who gave the Magazine an insight into village life highlighted the opportunities each student has to achieve his or her potential.
The village, which runs a wide range of school programs and after-school activities, is divided into three main sections: boarding school; high school; and the agricultural farm.
After a warm welcome by CEO Ami Magen, operations manager Liat Aharon, and spokeswoman Shiri Wallerstein, we visited the boarding school, the largest in Israel, where around 350 teenagers ages 14-20 live and study.
According to Hadassah Neurim’s website, “The boarding school is a social and cultural meeting place for young people from different regions of the country, different socioeconomic backgrounds, and different religions. Emphasis at the school is placed on the calendar, and Israeli social, religious, and cultural events are noted. Boarding school life is combined with group activities, classes, educational enrichment, lectures, shows, and more.”
FIRST, WE were introduced to Slava Novak, the coordinator of olim (new immigrants), and two Ukrainian boys – 16-year-old Ivan Biloshavin, who came to Israel as a refugee after the war in Ukraine started, and David Topozov, 17, from Odesa, who arrived the year before, in 2021.
Novak, a quiet, unassuming Ukrainian-born Israeli, is like a father to the children who arrived from abroad. He told us how many of those who came to Israel as Ukrainian refugees in 2022 arrived with little more than a single plastic bag. A team of counselors has been on hand to deal with their problems, which have since been exacerbated by the war in Gaza. Fleeing a war in one country only to land in a country where another war breaks out the following year has led to feelings of confusion for many.
The pleas of their anguished parents to “come home” only added to their woes, resulting in some 40 children leaving Israel after Oct. 7.
Fortunately, as Hadassah Neurim is situated in central Israel, one of the safer parts of the country, things returned to normal fairly quickly after Oct. 7. However, this didn’t stop many of the parents from worrying, largely because of the inaccurate Russian media reports upon which most Ukrainians rely.
While these children were away from Israel, their teachers set up Zoom lessons for them so they didn’t fall behind with their studies, although most of them have now returned to the village, where they have been able to rejoin the many programs on offer.
One program that is extremely popular is the Athletics Excellence Program through which Biloshavin and Topozov have developed a love of hammer throw, a sport in which competitors throw an iron ball attached to a wire with a handle at the end, called a “hammer.” Through the program, the teenagers have been afforded the opportunity to train professionally under the guidance of experienced athletes. Both have achieved remarkable success in this sport and are the current Israeli champions in their respective age groups.
The boys demonstrated their athletic prowess under the watchful eye of Israeli national hammer-throw champion and athletic director Jenya Zabolotni, who herself grew up in Hadassah Neurim and still lives there with her husband and two children. The couple are both sports champions.
This energetic display was followed by a display of an altogether different kind, involving children with very different, yet no less impressive skills: robotics.
The Hadassah Neurim Youth Village robotics team has achieved success in the international arena, thanks to their hard work and dedication. The first group of students from the village to enter the world of competitive robotics secured a place in the national competition with their first robot. Remarkably, they fought off dozens of Israeli high schools to secure a place in the international competition in Texas, which they won in the category of Schools Entering for the First Time.
Since then, Neurim’s robotics teams have been consistently successful: “For four years in a row, with the help of wonderful volunteer mentors and professional guides, the team members maintain a high level, and their position entitles [them] to participate in the world competition in the US, [where they have] achieved impressive results,” boasted Einat Reich, chairwoman of the Hadassah Neurim Youth Village.
When we met, the team was keen to show us their latest invention with a gripping demonstration. Seeing their creation come to life clearly gave them a sense of “personal fulfillment,” an attribute that the village tries to instill in all its residents.
With this in mind, Hadassah Neurim has always provided a home for stray and abandoned dogs and injured wildlife, which play a significant role in village life.
The Youth Village Dog Kennel in the heart of the village bolsters the self-confidence of the children and helps them become more responsible and productive members of society.
The kennel – headed by professional dog trainer Nadav Abu – takes in rescued and abandoned dogs that are then rehabilitated with the help of the students. Together, they work as a team to increase the dogs’ chances of finding a permanent home.
When we visited the kennel, two four-legged brothers that had been displaced by the war – Toto, a Beagle; and George, an Italian Shepherd – were living there. While George had found a permanent home, Abu was working hard to find one for Toto, whose boundless energy was making it harder for him to place the dog.
Nevertheless, both animals seemed happy and well-adjusted, benefiting from the love and affection showered on them by the dedicated staff and students.
The students also benefit greatly from the kennel. “Through their work with the dogs, the student trainees experience a process of personal empowerment, development, and strengthening of leadership and self-confidence, dealing with difficulties and frustration, a process of giving and receiving, dealing with separation and more,” states the Hadassah Neurim website.
Hadassah Neurim also has an animal sanctuary for rescued and abandoned wild and domestic animals, which serves as a “model for mutual care based on basic principles of proper animal care to nurture both their physical and mental well-being,” states the website. Those animals that are capable of rehabilitation are released back into the wild or put up for adoption, while those that are incapable remain at the village.
DUE TO the village’s magical cliff-top location on the Mediterranean shores, surfing has become a popular activity among boarding school students. The Youth Surfing Center, which opened in 2014 for the exclusive use of Hadassah Neurim children, recently paired with the youth organization Hagal Sheli (My Wave), whose mission is as follows: “By facing the unique forces of the sea and overcoming the challenge of surfing, the participants are instilled with the self-confidence and sense of achievement necessary to propel them through equivalent life challenges.”
Through its Swords of Iron Emergency Campaign, Hagal Sheli has provided group therapy using surfing to survivors of the Supernova music festival massacre on Oct. 7.
It has also been instrumental in helping children from Hadassah Neurim cope with stress with the opening of its sixth surfing center in the youth village in December 2022. The village was seen as a “natural and significant partner… since it places its greatest focus on using the ocean’s resource for the purposes of informal education.”
Not only can students enjoy the surfing center’s special atmosphere, but they can also work toward receiving their assisted guide certificates from the Israeli Surfers’ Organization, and then join the club’s training team during vacations and weekends.
The surf center also holds lectures on surfing, yoga classes, and other topics aimed at improving the students’ life skills and empowering them through the connection to sports and nature.
Indeed, preparing the students in all areas for life outside of the village is something that is given the utmost priority.
The graduate mentor program run by the Jewish Agency is another vehicle through which this is achieved by matching high school students from the village with adult volunteers. All volunteers, many of whom are leaders in industry and hi-tech, must undergo a rigorous selection process, including interviews, to ensure that they are suitable for the role.
Mutual respect, trust, and commitment on both sides are essential ingredients in the success of the program.
With no family support network to fall back on, many students require ongoing financial and emotional assistance after they graduate. Village staff member Neta Daskal is responsible for providing this, guiding these young adults as they transition into the next stage of their lives, whether it be the army or National Service. “I see myself as a good friend or big sister,” Daskal told us when we met at the end of our visit.
This ongoing support is offered to all graduates until they turn 26 and continues on an ad hoc basis according to each person’s needs. No one is left to struggle alone, Daskal assured us: “We feel a sense of pride in each and every one of the village graduates and are here for [them] at every stage of life.”
Not all students leave the village at 18, however. Some stay on after high school (12th grade) to complete an engineering degree, thus enabling them to attain good positions in various units of the IDF, including the Intelligence Corps, Air Force, and the tank development unit.
Although it was impossible for us to explore every corner of the village in the short time we were there, it was clear that Hadassah Neurim is a very special place. “Neurim is like family; once it gets into you, you stay,” said robotics tutor Hannah Cohen.
As one member of her team stated proudly, “It doesn’t matter where you come from, you can always achieve your goal.”