By Vera Schwarcz

I did not know what to expect after the fabulous free concert of chamber music at the Jerusalem Theater one recent night. I had met Eleonora Shifrin only two hours earlier. I had heard about her special commitment to helping wounded Israeli soldiers before. I also knew that she had been an activist for the Russian aliya out of the Soviet Union and that she was a beloved and respected fundraiser, especially among Russian-speaking Jews in the U.S.

I was not prepared for the elegant and articulate woman who picked me up in a simple, battered car. Before the concert, we traded stories about growing up in Communist countries, and about our children. I also learned a bit about the dangerous and important work that Eleonora and her husband had done to map labor camps and prisons all over the USSR.

After the concert, Eleonora was going to visit a wounded soldier. I agreed to go along. We drove from Jerusalem to Tel Ha Shomer — Israel’s renowned center for orthopedic rehabilitation near Tel Aviv. This was the night that one of the most seriously wounded soldiers from the last Gaza war was to be released from the hospital with a massive send-off party. I had no idea about the astonishing impact that Eleonora’s fundraising activities had upon the wounded soldiers and their families.

As we walked into Tel Ha Shomer’s new building, Eleonora greeted a young man who had lost one eye in the next-to-the-last Gaza war. She explained to me earlier that the victims of terror and “lightly” wounded soldiers are often among the poor in Israel. During their long periods of hospitalization and recovery, their families have very little means of support.

Eleonora discovered that Russian Jews living in the U.S. wanted to help, but were suspicious of state-sponsored “charities” that use hard-earned funds for dinners and travel. She and her fellow Jews from the former Soviet Union wanted to connect directly with those in need in Israel. As a result, literally every check Eleonora receives goes directly to a specific wounded soldier or terror victim.

As we entered the hospital, she pulled out of her bag a large manila envelope. In it were more than a dozen envelopes marked with a handwritten name. Eleonora handed the first envelope to a young man who had lost his eye and was still in the midst of rehabilitation. As she did, she engaged him in a warm conversation about his studies, his family, and his plans.

We moved on to an atrium where a large crowd of about 200 people were enjoying music and dancing. Many in wheelchairs greeted Eleonora with delight, as they moved as best they could to the sound of Israeli pop songs. Eleonora continued to make her way around the room, chatting amiably as she handed out envelopes.

I made my way to the front of the atrium where Ohad Ben Yishai, the severely wounded soldier who was being released that night, was standing and swaying to the music with his parents and fiancee. According to Eleonora, Ohad had been a member of the IDF’s elite Egoz unit. He suffered a severe shrapnel wound to the head while engaged in the Gaza war’s bloodiest battle, that took the lives of 13 of his fellow soldiers. Not expected to live, he spent weeks in a coma. When he regained consciousness, he was unable to talk, walk, lift his head or remember much of his life. Last night, we all witnessed the open miracle. As the rabbi of the hospital put it on the evening Ohad was being released – the evening of Rosh Hodesh Adar (the first of the Hebrew month of Adar), the wounded soldier was living proof of the saying “Ani Hashem Rofecha”— “I am God, your Healer.”

Ohad’s father spoke movingly about the long journey to this miracle, and about the nurses, doctors, friends and family who made it possible. He described two different seas that mark Israel’s eastern landscape: the Sea of Galilee (Kinneret) that takes water from the Jordan Valley and spreads lushness and nourishment all around; and the Sea of Salts (the so called “dead” sea) takes from the same Jordan River but does not give back as generously. Speaking to those gathered, as well as to the “family” of Jews living in the land of Israel, he thanked them for being like the Kinneret — a source of nourishment for the body and soul of his family, and for each other.

And this is what Eleonora Shifrin does day in, day out. After decades of hard work on behalf of Russian olim and scrupulous documentation of the atrocities of the Soviet regime, she has found another urgent calling: linking Jews from abroad to their wounded brothers and sisters in Israel.

Though the hour was late, Eleonora and I continued to walk the floors of Tel Ha Shomer giving out envelopes. The dignity of each of our encounters underscored the principle that motivates Eleonora and all those who support her cause: All Jews are one family.

Before the night was over, I too wrote a check made out to Nenale Endalu, a  wounded Ethiopian soldier trying to finish his college education, who needs access to a movie camera for his work. It was a modest contribution, like those of many others. We are simply helping each other.

Eleonora Shifrin will speak in West Hartford, Thurdsay, March 31, 7:30 p.m., at the home of Dr. Vera Schwarcz, 42 Seneca Rd. The public is invited.

Vera Schwarcz is emerita professor of History and East Asian Studies, Wesleyan University. Now retired, she splits her time between her homes in West Hartford and Israel.

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CAP: Eleonora Shifrin