Growing up in Ukraine, Anna Geminisnovna knew she was Jewish, but she couldn’t point out the State of Israel on a world map.

Yet just a few years after she quite literally “discovered” Israel, 23-year-old Anna is flourishing in Jerusalem at The Jewish Agency’s Ulpan Etzion, where she’s also in love with a young Jewish man of Russian origin.

Ulpan Etzion: Residential Hebrew Study for Academic Young Olim>>, founded in 1949, offers intensive Hebrew study for immigrants to Israel from all over the world who hold college degrees. In the 2017 program year, Ulpan Etzion provided Hebrew-language study and accommodation for 1,365 immigrant men and women aged 22-35, from more than two dozen countries. Campuses are located at the Beit Canada Absorption Center in Jerusalem, Haifa, Ra’anana, Ramle, and Be’er Sheva. This effective model recently expanded to Kibbutz Tzuba, where the rigor of Etzion language studies is combined with the experience of Kibbutz Ulpan. The graduates of Ulpan Etzion go on to further study at institutions of higher learning or into the employment market. 

In the former Soviet Union, Anna’s grandmother changed her last name from Davidovna to Dimitrovna due to the Communist ban on Jewish surnames.

“I did not ask my parents what it meant to be a Jew in Ukraine, or about the holidays,” Anna recalls.

Nevertheless, Anna says she was determined from a very young age to eventually study in Israel.

“I knew that I was Jewish and would have the right to immigrate to Israel,” she says. “I came to The Jewish Agency building in Kiev and said I wanted to come study in Israel. At that moment and in that building, I saw Israel on a map for the first time.”

Anna’s first experience in the Jewish state would be a Taglit-Birthright Israel trip.

“When I returned to Kiev after 10 days, I missed Israel immediately,” she says. “On the day after landing, I told my parents that I wanted to immigrate to Israel because I feel at home there. It’s not easy to say such things to my parents, since I’m their only daughter as well as my grandmother’s youngest granddaughter.”

But to Anna’s surprise, her parents swiftly agreed that she could make Aliyah. She joined a Masa Israel Journey program to get an initial sense of what life would be like in Israel. Many programs in Masa—a project co-founded by The Jewish Agency and the government of Israel which has become the global leader in long-term experiences in Israel for young Jewish adults from around the world—can smooth the path for young Jews who are planning or considering Aliyah, via career opportunities, Hebrew language study, and other issues relevant to potential immigrants. Around 35,000 Masa alumni have continued their Jewish story by moving to Israel, including 90 percent of Masa participants from the FSU.

“I came to Israel alone, with no relatives, and my only family here were the students at Ulpan Etzion in Jerusalem,” Anna says.

Later on, at an event in Jerusalem, Anna met her boyfriend — a physicist whose parents immigrated to Israel from Russia. She says it was “love at first sight.”

“My life has changed,” says Anna. “Being a Jew means being part of a tribe, a family. I remember the first time I visited the Western Wall, how so very excited I was to be there. I asked for success, for a partner, for love, and everything I wanted is now happening. It’s a miracle that I live in Israel and have found love. My emotions are overflowing because I’ve realized what the heart wants, and what it wants is to be here, at Ulpan Etzion.”

Learn more about Ulpan Etzion >

-

This story was originally reported in Hebrew by Nathan Roi for The Jewish Agency for Israel