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Writer's pictureMarla Gamoran

Russians, Bedouins, Young and Old

Updated: Jun 28

Zev and Alla Fayngold have spent much of their volunteer time in Yerucham interviewing Russian residents of the town and capturing their stories.

As the Volunteer in the Negev program comes to a close, Zev shares how they have been wrapping up and documenting these amazing stories. What a legacy to leave for all.


Following are Zev’s accounts of two very full days in Yerucham and beyond!


May 11, 2015 Yerucham

“We were writing the summary of our experience in interviewing and video-taping the Yeruham children of Russian Veterans. The immigrant generation – parents and grandparents of this new generation of Israelis – had escaped the Nazis by fleeing through the many torched routes of disasters and near death experiences, including surviving the Leningrad blockade.


In the afternoon we joined with local Yerucham’s Russian community and took the bus to Tel-Aviv for the Gala concert on Dizengoff Plaza, which commemorates the 70 year anniversary of Victory Day – “that Victory Day with tears in the eyes” – this is a line from the famous war time song – among the millions of soldiers kills in WWII – there were 200 thousand Jewish soldiers killed.


May 12, 2015

We worked in the morning on our summary Presentation.

Afterwards, we all went to Golden Age Center where we exercised together, had tea and toured the facility, and an art program. We received gifts from a local artist (Toda raba!) and talked with local patients about their life experience. Of course, I continued to take photographs!


We returned to the Veteran’s Museum with Howard Schneider from our group so that he could take photographs. We helped him with translating the Russian explanations of the the museum’s exhibits and photos.


Later in the day, we went with an Israeli tour group from Jerusalem to Bedouins “village” – had tea and hear stories about the Bedouin life-style.

We had the opportunity to meet with Simon Rosilio – the City of Yercham’s head of education to discuss many of the educational challenges of Yeruham.

Finally, we spoke with Avi Gamoran (Skilled Volunteers for Israel’s Executive Director’s cousin!) and Aviel , his friend from local Hesder Yeshiva, about their experience to combine IDF and Torah.


We all were very much impressed by those young people.

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