- July 14, 2026
- 7:26 pm
- Israel
A group of young people from Jewish communities in Ukraine came to Israel as part of the “Taglit” program. One of the important stages of the journey was Jerusalem, where the guests were met by JRCJ — the Jewish community of Jerusalem, also known as the “Nachalatenu” community.
As reported on July 13, 2026, in a JRCJ publication, the Ukrainian group was accompanied during the trip by Israeli soldiers Shlomo and Meir — participants in the community’s youth project. This was not a one-time appearance by IDF representatives, but ongoing communication between young people from Ukrainian Jewish communities and their Israeli peers serving in the military.
After a busy program, the group’s last stop was Kfar Chabad. Rabbi Aba Dovid conducted a tour for the participants, talked about the history of the settlement, and showed how the life of Chabad Hasidim is organized in modern Israel. JRCJ emphasizes that the community regularly hosts such groups, introduces guests to Jerusalem, and shares Jewish knowledge with them.
For NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency, this story is important not only as a report on another educational trip. It shows how Israel’s connection with Jewish communities in Ukraine is created through personal communication, joint Shabbat, acquaintance with the country’s life, and meetings with people whose biographies are directly connected with Ukraine.
Not just a tour of Israel
“Taglit”, also known as Birthright Israel, is an educational journey that connects Jewish history with the life of the modern State of Israel. On the official website of the program, the participation of Israeli peers is specifically emphasized — a format called mifgash, meaning meeting.
Thanks to this format, participants from other countries travel not only with guides and group leaders. They are joined by young Israelis who talk about their daily lives, studies, family, work, and military service.
The official FAQ section of Birthright Israel describes the standard trip as a ten-day program that includes flights, accommodation, group transportation, most meals, and organized tours.
However, the current JRCJ publication does not specify the exact start and end dates of the trip, the number of participants, the full itinerary, and the cities in Ukraine they represented. Therefore, these details cannot be added without separate confirmation.
The community’s message reliably states the following:
- Shlomo and Meir are participants in the JRCJ youth project;
- both were chosen to accompany the group as young Israeli soldiers;
- they were with the Ukrainian participants throughout the trip;
- the group spent Shabbat in Jerusalem;
- the last stop of the program was Kfar Chabad;
- the tour in Kfar Chabad was conducted by Rabbi Aba Dovid.
The surnames of Shlomo and Meir, the IDF units they serve in, and other personal information are not disclosed in the open publication.
Why the participation of IDF soldiers is of special significance
The presence of Israeli soldiers in the group should not be perceived as a military component of the trip. It is part of the “Taglit” idea: to show Israel through the people who live in the country now, face its challenges, and bear responsibility for its security.
Birthright Israel explains that the mifgash is designed for a multi-day joint journey and dialogue between young Jews from different countries and their Israeli peers. The goal is not to hold one official meeting but to create personal connections that allow participants to better understand each other’s lives.
For young people from Ukraine, such communication takes on additional significance. They come from a country that continues to live under the conditions of a full-scale war and meet with young Israelis for whom military service, reserve duty, alarms, and security issues have also become part of everyday life.
Who hosted the group in Jerusalem
JRCJ — the Jewish community of Jerusalem, also known as the “Nachalatenu” community.
The community was formed in the summer of 2019. Its center became the “Nachalat Yaakov” synagogue in the Nachalat Shiv’a neighborhood. The synagogue building was constructed in the 1860s and became one of the first Ashkenazi prayer houses to appear outside the walls of the Old City of Jerusalem. The history of the community’s creation was told by the “Jewish Magazine”.
Rabbi Aba Dovid names the community’s address: Ma’alot Nachalat Shiv’a, 5, in the very center of Jerusalem. According to him, the community’s activities are built not only around prayers. A significant place is occupied by classes, lectures, holidays, excursions, youth events, and communication among people with similar life experiences. He talked more about this in an interview with the “770” charitable foundation.
The founder and spiritual leader of the community is Rabbi Ishaya, or Shaya, Gisser. Aba Dovid works as a rabbi and program director: he is responsible for events, holidays, excursions, and the development of educational programs.
Therefore, hosting the group from Ukraine cannot be considered a random or exclusively protocol meeting. Working with youth and educational groups is one of the community’s ongoing activities.
Ishaya Gisser: Odessa, Kyiv, and Jerusalem
JRCJ’s connection with Ukraine is primarily through the biography of Rabbi Ishaya Gisser.
According to a biographical reference in the “Jewish Magazine”, Ishaya Gisser was born in 1961, graduated from Odessa school No. 117, and in 1983 repatriated to Israel.
From 1990 to December 1998, he served as the rabbi of Odessa from the Chabad movement. During his work, a circle of students formed around him, many of whom later became leaders of Jewish communities.
Gisser’s thesis was dedicated to Ukrainian-Jewish relations during the wars of Bohdan Khmelnytsky. After working in Odessa, he collaborated with the Steinsaltz Institute and was a spiritual mentor of the Jewish community in Kyiv.
Therefore, the Ukrainian direction for the spiritual leader of “Nachalatenu” is not an external international topic. A significant part of his life and community activities is connected with Odessa, Kyiv, and the development of Jewish education in Ukraine.
Aba Dovid: from Mykolaiv to Jerusalem
The biography of Rabbi Aba Dovid is also directly connected with Ukraine.
In his detailed interview, it is stated that he was born in Mykolaiv in a secular Jewish family. His mother first brought him to the synagogue on Rosh Hashanah when he was five years old. Later in his life appeared matzah on Passover, Hanukkah events, and education in a Jewish school.
It was in the Jewish school, according to Aba Dovid, that he discovered the world of tradition, about which he previously knew almost nothing. At 13 years old, after the family’s move to Israel, he entered a yeshiva.
Later, Aba Dovid spent about seven years with his wife on shlichut — a religious-educational mission — in Moscow. After moving to Israel, he continued to work in the field of informal Jewish education and in the international youth project EnerJew.
During the pandemic, a significant part of educational work moved online. Then Aba Dovid concluded that young people especially need live meetings. He joined the community led by Shaya Gisser and began to develop a separate youth direction.
Gradually, this activity spread to programs for children, adults, and the elderly. Now Aba Dovid is responsible for the community’s educational content, excursions, and youth events.
Thus, the tour for the guests was conducted by a person who was himself born in Ukraine, studied in a Jewish school in Mykolaiv, repatriated to Israel as a teenager, and dedicated his further life to Jewish education.
Why the trip ended in Kfar Chabad
Kfar Chabad was founded in 1949 at the initiative of the sixth Lubavitcher Rebbe — Rabbi Yosef Yitzchak Schneersohn.
As reported by Chabad.org in the historical reference about Kfar Chabad, the first residents of the settlement were mainly recent immigrants from the Soviet Union who survived World War II and Stalinist persecutions.
Kfar Chabad is located in the central part of Israel. It houses synagogues, yeshivas, schools, and other educational institutions of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement. The settlement is considered one of the main centers of the movement in Israel.
Therefore, participants were shown not a museum reconstruction or a closed historical object. They saw a real Israeli settlement where the Hasidic tradition continues to exist within the modern life of the country.
In the current story, the connection with Chabad is traced on several levels.
Ishaya Gisser was almost ten years the rabbi of Odessa from the Chabad movement.
Aba Dovid works in the Hasidic educational environment and personally conducted the tour of Kfar Chabad.
The last stop allowed participants to see the result of the resettlement to Israel of Jews who preserved tradition under Soviet conditions.
However, it would be wrong to present the entire journey exclusively as a Chabad event. The basis of the trip remained the “Taglit” program — introducing young people from Jewish communities in Ukraine to Israel, its history, society, and Israeli peers.
JRCJ does not claim to have formed the Ukrainian group or organized the entire international route. Its role was to host participants in Jerusalem, work with them during Shabbat, involve Shlomo and Meir, and conduct the final tour.
What is known about the cooperation between STARS Ukraine and “Taglit”
In the JRCJ publication about the current group, STARS Ukraine, Sachlav, or a specific Ukrainian organization that formed the participants is not directly named. Therefore, attributing this trip to these structures without additional communication from the organizers is not possible.
However, cooperation between STARS Ukraine and Birthright Israel does exist.
April 2 of the year, the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS reported on a separate nine-day trip to Israel for 30 young Jews — students and professionals from Ukraine. The program was organized by STARS Ukraine in collaboration with Birthright Israel, and the tour operator was the company Sachlav. The full message is published on the website of the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS.
During that trip, participants visited historical and holy places, listened to lectures, and participated in educational activities. The head of STARS Ukraine and the rabbi of the Kyiv community KEDEM Pinchas Vyshedsky noted that the journey helped participants strengthen their connection with Judaism, Jewish life, the people, and the Land of Israel.
The project was also participated in by the international structure STARS led by Rabbi Avi Kassel, JRNU headed by Rabbi Shlomo Peles, and YAHAD led by Rabbi Mendy Vilansky.
The STARS program itself is primarily intended for students and young professionals aged 18 to 28. It includes meetings twice a month lasting about an hour and a half, lectures on history, current events, and Judaism, as well as informal events and annual seminars in Ukraine and Israel.
According to the Federation of Jewish Communities of the CIS, the program operates in more than 60 cities. It is supported by the president of the Federation Lev Leviev and Brazilian philanthropist Elio Horn, and the administration involves the “Or Avner” foundation and Chabad-Lubavitch structures.
These facts show that trips of young Jews from Ukraine to Israel are part of ongoing educational work. But the current group should be described only based on the JRCJ message, not mixing it with a separate trip of 30 participants that took place in the spring of 2025.
The connection that arises between people
In this story, there are no official negotiations, intergovernmental agreements, or loud diplomatic statements.
There are young Jews from Ukraine who came to get acquainted with Israel.
There are Shlomo and Meir — Israeli soldiers who traveled the route with them and communicated with the guests as peers.
There is the Jerusalem community led by a former rabbi of Odessa and a spiritual mentor of the Kyiv community.
There is a rabbi born in Mykolaiv who repatriated to Israel as a teenager.
And there is Kfar Chabad, created in 1949 by Jews who came from the Soviet Union and started a new life in the young State of Israel.
NANews — Israel News | Nikk.Agency views this trip as an example of a genuine Israeli-Ukrainian connection, which is built not only through state institutions. It arises during joint travels, conversations, Shabbats, excursions, and meetings of young people capable of seeing in each other a part of a common Jewish history.
The organizers have not yet disclosed the surnames of Shlomo and Meir, the units they serve in, the number of participants in the current group, the full list of Ukrainian communities, and the exact calendar dates of the trip.
However, the confirmed information is enough to see the main thing: young people from Jewish communities in Ukraine came to Israel under the “Taglit” program, met with JRCJ in Jerusalem, traveled with Israeli soldiers, and completed the program by getting acquainted with the life of Kfar Chabad.
The trip is over, but the human connection for which such programs are conducted continues to develop.