Five teenage boys who escaped the first week of Russia’s 2022 invasion celebrated their bar mitzvahs this week in Ashkelon, three years after an around-the-clock rescue brought the entire Alumim children’s home from war-torn Zhitomyr to Israel.
The festive ceremony, held at a Chabad community center in the coastal city, honored three youths from the original orphanage and two classmates whose families joined the tight-knit group after arriving in Israel. Hundreds of city residents, donors and community leaders attended.
Rabbi Shlomo Wilhelm – chief rabbi of Zhitomyr and western Ukraine and director of Alumim – said the day felt “nothing short of miraculous.”
“Seeing them speak Hebrew, feel at home and smile – it’s anything but a given after what they endured,” Wilhelm told The Jerusalem Post.
“Each child crossed Ukraine under fire, some without papers. To watch them put on tefillin this morning was the greatest answer to those who wanted to destroy.”
Flight from Zhitomyr
Alumim, founded by Chabad-Lubavitch in 2000 for orphans and children from broken homes, housed some 140 youngsters when Russian forces swept through northern Ukraine in late February 2022. In a 48-hour operation documented worldwide, Wilhelm and staff buses sped west under shelling, crossed into neighboring countries and eventually boarded charter flights to Israel.
The group first stayed at a youth village in Nes Harim outside Jerusalem before moving south to Ashkelon, where Chabad emissaries led by Rabbi Mendel Liberman integrated the children into local schools.
At dawn on Tuesday, the bar-mitzvah boys donned new blue-and-white tallitot and laid tefillin, accompanied by classmates singing traditional melodies. That evening a se’udat mitzvah drew Welfare Minister Ya’akov Margi, who left a stormy Knesset session to greet them.
Each honoree received a personal set of tefillin, prayer books and gifts donated by supporters. The loudest applause came when one pupil, who had completed a Talmud tractate during the past year, was awarded a framed certificate for his achievement.
Liberman told guests the occasion echoed the upcoming Shavuot holiday. “Just as the Israelites accepted the Torah at Sinai, these children embrace it here in Ashkelon – with joy and hope,” he said.
Rebuilding community
Roughly 60 Ukrainian families connected to the orphanage have since settled in Ashkelon. Parents have found jobs; younger siblings attend Chabad schools. Yet Wilhelm still shuttles monthly between Israel and Ukraine to support community members who could not leave.
“Every child has a world inside,” he said. “Their perseverance is our answer to hate. We will keep building their future – in Zhitomyr, in Ashkelon, wherever Jews have to start again.”
Tuesday’s festivities ended with prayers for peace in both Ukraine and Israel – two countries that, for these war-displaced children, will always be intertwined.