Two sisters, 2,000 miles and decades of separation, together at last in Israel

Usually we say that when children make Aliyah, their parents follow them. In the case of Inna and Tatiana, two sisters in their 60’s,  it is quite the opposite, as they have made Aliyah this week on an chartered “Evacuation Flight” and their children and grandchildren are now planning to follow.

Inna and Tatiana were always together, growing up in a Jewish family in Uzbekistan and being less than 2 years apart, meant that they were inseparable.

When they became women and got married, life took them to live in different cities in Uzbekistan and later, to live 2,000 miles apart as Inna moved to Ulyanovsk, a city on the Volga river in Russia and Tatiana moved to Crimea, experiencing the hardships as a result of the hostilities between Ukraine and Russia in recent years.

Despite this physical separation, they remained in many ways inseparable. They spoke on the phone almost every day of their lives and made sure to once a year cross those 2,000 miles to visit each other. Over the years they raised children, rejoiced over the birth of grandchildren, divorced and in recent years, nursed their sick mother and also sadly, buried her.  

Inna thought about Aliyah for years, but as she was mostly entrusted with caring for their sick mother, she felt she couldn’t go. A couple of years ago, Inna convinced Tatiana to come with her on a short vacation to Israel. They traveled and spent time with their relatives that live in Acco.

They both fell in love with Israel and started planning their Aliyah, of course, together. They thought their dream was destroyed by Corona but thanks to the evacuation flights from Moscow, were overjoyed that it could now come true. After the 14 days quarantine, they will live near their friends in Acco.

Whereas many olim dread spending 14 days in quarantine, closed up in one small hotel room, Inna and Tatiana are very much looking forward to it. After all, these two inseparable sisters have so much to talk about.

We are now working with their children to help them plan their Aliyah.

Inna and Tatiana