Our job is to be with the orphans in these difficult moments they are going through.
Obviously it was much calmer to stay in Israel, but how can you leave them?
How can you sleep like that at night? "Michal Kastiel wonders, and her voice conveys peace even from the war in Ukraine.
"As of Thursday morning, we are reorganizing in light of the developments. In accordance with the instructions from the morning before to stay at home, I am with the girls at home. My husband Eli went to the Defense Ministry with the heads of the Tikva community and the security company.
I am in close telephone contact with all the orphans, correspond in parallel in three languages and feel that I am with them one hundred percent.
We are now packing and waiting for guidance on whether and where we will turn.
Ukraine appears to have surrendered to the Russian invasion without resistance as it did in Crimea, Donetsk and Denbes.
We are sober, but there is really no panic, "Michal informs me, a few hours after a war was declared in Ukraine.
She landed in Odessa from Israel earlier this week, when the sights of the shells and fire were still a horror script.
A few hours into the war, the script became a reality when 18 civilians were reported killed in a missile attack on the city.
A week earlier, they had been urgently returned to Israel by the Ministry of Education, which had evacuated all Israeli teaching emissaries from Ukraine.
Michal (35) and Batsheva Warner (26) are employees of the Ministry of Education, and were sent on his behalf to teach in the schools of the orphanage.
Despite the war warnings, they did not want to be cut off from their students.
The Ministry of Education made it clear to them that not returning to Israel means dismissal.
They returned to Israel with the aim of resigning, giving up tenure in the Ministry of Education and returning at all costs to the children and youth they accompany there.
After a media struggle, the heads of "Tikva" managed to reach an agreement with the Ministry of Education.
Michal and Batsheva were not forced to resign, but were taken to the IDF and returned to Odessa, along with 30 huge packages laden with food and clothing for the children of the orphanage.
Residents of Ukraine abandon, Photo: Getty Images)
In an exclusive interview, they talk about the brave choice to return to the battlefield. "They must not feel abandoned." For a moment it never occurred to us to give up and stay in the country, "says Batsheva, who a year and a half ago began her mission in Odessa.
During the week we had to return to Israel, we kept thinking about when we would return to Odessa.
I saw before my eyes our students who remained there.
I teach in seventh and eighth grades, and there are some girls for whom I have become a significant figure even beyond school.
I have a commitment to them.
Some of the children in the orphanage come from very difficult backgrounds.
We have, for example, a child whose parents would leave him on the porch at night, even when the temperature dropped well below zero.
One night he jumped on the neighbors' porch, and they contacted the orphanage.
It's hard to think about what these children are going through, so they must not feel, God forbid, abandoned again. "
"How can you leave them?"
"We are not stupid. We knew that the situation was unsafe and that the invasion was a matter of time. But there is a very big human mission here, so we put all fears aside," explains Michal Kastiel, who has been working at Tikva schools for seven years and volunteers with orphans. The graduates.
"A mother can not run away from her children when she feels a little unprotected. There are children and young people who during our years in Odessa have become our children for all intents and purposes, and we are committed to protecting them. Even so, they went through many difficult experiences, abuse and abandonment. "It gave them a feeling that they were being left to die alone."
Documentation of the destruction in Ukraine from the Russian attacks
The "Hope" institutions in Odessa are an empire of educational endeavors and kindness, established 30 years ago by Rabbi Shlomo Baksht.
They include three orphanages - for children up to the age of 7, for girls and boys - and also dormitories for orphanage graduates.
Today, 300 children, teenagers and young Jews live in these settings.
Under Ukrainian law it is forbidden to take minor orphans outside the borders of the country, so "Hope" has established a warm home for them and an educational framework in Ukraine.
In addition to the accommodation, the community operates five schools, kindergartens and a university, intended for orphanage children and other Jewish children from around Odessa.
All of these institutions are operated and run by ten Israeli families, under the direction of Rabbi Shlomo Bekshet.
More than 1,000 graduates of the various "Tikva" institutions currently live in Israel, some studying in yeshivas or universities, some serving in the army and others having already established their home in Israel.
All are accompanied by the Israeli branch of the organization.
"There is no wedding without us," some of the children come to the orphanage straight from the delivery room, since they were born to mothers who are addicted to drugs or alcohol and live in poverty that does not allow them to raise a child.
I had the privilege of visiting the orphanage in Odessa in 2014, and documenting for the film the difficult places the children come from and the exciting workings of the orphanage (a film for the "system" program by Mickey Haimovich, network).
The poverty in Ukraine is not similar to what we know in the country.
Michal and Batsheva Warner, Photo: Yehoshua Yosef
These are families that sometimes live in buildings that are not connected to electricity, where windows are devoid of glass;
Children who sleep on cardboard surfaces, whose only way for their parents to keep them warm in the extreme cold is to water them with vodka.
Some children come to the orphanage at a later age, after the parents have been imprisoned or died and they are left alone.
For example, Ola (pseudonym) came to the orphanage at the age of 13 after her mother, who came out of prison and went into it many times, died of an overdose, and her alcoholic father was unable to raise her.
"She came with a lot of anger and shame, lacking basic life skills, like how to eat and how to dress," Michal describes.
Michal taught her Hebrew, and managed to reach her heart until Ola became a housewife.
Every Saturday she was hosted there, and also came for mid-week visits.
When Ola graduated from high school she wanted to work immediately, as it was important for her to send money to her father and brother, but Michal managed to persuade her to continue her higher education.
She is currently 21 years old, studying computers at the university with the funding and guidance of "Tikva" and living in the dormitories of the orphanage graduates.
She has the key to the Castiel family home, and she knows she is welcome at all times.
At the same time, "Tikva" helped her family, and her brothers are expected to join the orphanage soon.
Ola herself will set up her own home in the coming weeks.
Two years ago, Ola's soul was linked to the souls of Sergei (pseudonym), also a graduate of the orphanage who came from a complex background.
Like Ola, Sergei is a member of the Castiel family, and Eli, Michal's husband, accompanies him closely.
Sergei has already completed a degree in computers, and today he earns a handsome salary as a programmer.
Eli and Michal are supposed to accompany Ola and Sergei to the canopy as adoptive parents.
"When Ola heard that we had to return to Israel, she announced that there would be no wedding without us. Now that we have returned, she is relieved and happy. We spoke right before the flight and immediately at the moment of landing," says Michal.
Half a year ago they accompanied another couple.
The bride, Vika (pseudonym), arrived at the orphanage at the age of 11 after her mother died of an overdose and her father abandoned her and her brother.
"Vika was a very hard nut to crack. I taught her, and in every lesson she would explode on me. But slowly a connection was made," Michal describes.
Michal also handed her the key to the house and hosted her regularly on Saturdays and holidays, and mostly opened her heart to her.
Vika found a partner from Odessa, who is also connected to the community.
"Of all the biological family left to Wicca, it was important to her that at least her brother attend the wedding. He informed her he could not, but we still sent him money and booked him a hotel. Just before the canopy a guy who looked like a human shadow entered the hall, and sat down. Who decided at the last minute to surprise and arrive. I heard him whisper to Vika: 'Look what came out of you and what came out of me. You get married like a princess, and I'm thrown in the trash.
Residents near the ruins in Kharkiv, Photo: IP
At the time we also offered Vika's brother to move to the orphanage, but he was relatively old, and refused.
"The orphanage really manages to break the cycle of poverty, crime and addictions, acquire an education and a profession and start a healthy family. It is difficult. It requires close guidance. It is much more difficult to accompany adults. Young children need a warm home and pampering and educational activities, but adults face life. The real ones out there, which are much more complex and demanding. ”For example, they have never seen what a normal relationship is.
We are there to calm them down in the first quarrel, to say it is normal for a quarrel.
We are there to accompany them to the canopy and also to the delivery room.
They have no parents to do it.
I have already been privileged to accompany two births of orphanage graduates.
For us it is a lifelong mission.
These children will continue to be our children for life. "" There is a contingency plan. "Michal is a biological mother of two girls, ages 12 and 8. Eli, her husband, works as a pedagogical principal in Tikva's schools. It also includes Shabbat and holidays, where they sometimes also host 30 people around the Shabbat table in their home. Batsheva is a mother of two children, ages 4 and one. Rent a house with a larger living room, "says Batsheva." And today we host dozens of students every Saturday.
In 'Hope' there is such a feeling that everything you do is something else that helps save children.
It just gives a different meaning to the smallest thing you do. "Are your parents not worried? Michal:" They are worried.
It's hard for my mother.
After we left the isolation we stayed with the parents on Saturday.
I sat with my mother and told her our story, of the children of this community and its graduates, this story that cannot be interrupted, that cannot be run away from.
And now is the test time.
Did we flee to protected Israel or were we left with them in trouble?
If we go, how will we go back and look them in the eye?
How do we pretend to be an example to them and educate?
And she understood.
Because everyone understands.
Mothers in Israel send their children into battle even in a situation of real life danger.
What calms them down?
That they are partners in the mutual guarantee.
In the end, it's the same here.
If we, as Jews, do not become their father and mother and stand with them hand in hand, in a hug, precisely in this difficult situation, who will do it? ".
Destruction in the Ukrainian city of Chugov, photo: AFP
Batsheva: "Obviously our parents are worried too. It was difficult to reassure them over the phone, but when they met us in Israel on Saturday and saw that we were healthy and whole, and especially calm - it reassured them as well. My sister is here on a mission, but not on behalf of the Ministry of Education. "From Israel it sounds much scarier. In the end, the Tikva community radiates a lot of peace and security to all its members. There is a contingency plan for every situation. Our parents understood that it is an orderly and secure community that is well prepared for all scenarios, including evacuation of the orphanage." It took place during 2014, when the riots also spread to Odessa, and towards May 1 there were warnings of fear of harming Jews.
"In 2014, we evacuated all the children of the orphanage and all the members of the community," Rabbi Baksht said in a phone call from Ukraine.
"We rented a summer camp 130 km from Odessa and stayed there for a few days, until the winds calmed down.
Our direction is to stay here in Odessa.
We'll only leave if we have to.
We are really well prepared for any scenario,
And are in contact with private and government security agencies.
It's good for us here, and we hope we can continue in this important enterprise. "
On Thursday morning, when the cannons began to roar, Rabbi Baksht updated that "the staff of the orphanage, including psychologists, are already in the middle of the activity to prepare the children for a possible evacuation." Right now our decision is to stay put and be near an available shelter.
There were explosions in the morning throughout the city and also at noon, but not in the city centers.
Apparently military targets are being bombed.
Right now the roads are congested and there are roadblocks, and it is much more dangerous to be on the road and get stuck without being able to move.
So right now we decided to stay here.
But as soon as there is a window of opportunity for a safe evacuation, we will go out together in an orderly and secure manner. "
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