A long journey to Israel from Vysoky

Sergey and Maria Mashchenko and their 10 year old son David, a Subbotnik Jewish family from Vysoky, Russia, have made the journey to their new life in Israel. It was a journey of dedication, commitment and an indomitable spirit. After a brief stop in an absorption center, they have already found an apartment, and will be moving in imminently. This was an aliyah of deep determination, and there’s no sign of that determination stopping now that they are here in Israel. 

 

It’s likely because of the incredibly long wait and challenges they had to make for their Aliyah to happen. Now they want to do everything as quickly as possible.

 

The Subbotnik Jews were peasants in southern Russia who embraced Jewish practice and converted to Judaism more than 200 years ago under the Czarist regime. They were referred to by the term “Subbotniks” because of their love of the Subbota, which is Russian for Sabbath. There are still an estimated 15,000 Subbotnik Jews living primarily in southern Russia and in Siberia, most of whom wish to return to the traditions of their ancestors and emigrate to Israel.

 

At first, years ago, the Mashchenkos were very active and met with Victor, Shavei Israel’s representative working with the Subbotniks in Russia. Despite several visits and phone calls, they didn’t provide their documents and then suddenly disappeared due to family concerns. 

 

Then, even when groups of Subbotniks were being brought to Israel, no progress had been made by the Mashchenkos and it seemed that they had likely changed their mind about making aliyah.

 

Until one day in March 2023 Sergey suddenly called and said that he managed to settle all matters with his family. But then a new matter came to light. After checking all the documents it became clear that they had Maria’s father – who is a Subbotnik from Vysoky and lived with her mother when she gave birth both to her and to her brother Alexander, only legally married her mother after they were born.

 

Though no one was questioning her parentage, it unfortunately wasn’t acceptable to Israeli authorities, and she was told she needed to take a genetic test to confirm paternity.

 

The whole process of confirming paternity takes a lot of time, a lot of bureaucratic interactions, and also costs quite a bit of money. Many families would give up on the idea of undergoing this process, or it would simply cause unreasonable delays. But they were determined. Starting April 2023, Sergey and Maria persistently and systematically began the process.

 

Once it was clear they planned to pursue this to the end, Shavei Israel supported and helped them in every possible way in this difficult process. By the end of September, right before the holidays, they received the result of the DNA study and the results were transferred to the Israeli consulate in Moscow. At that point it seemed highly unlikely that they could get everything sorted on time, because…after the tragic and horrific events of October 7, all genetic specialists were busy for a long time with the consequences of the Hamas terrorist attack.

 

But by some miracle, at the end of October, Sergei, Maria, and Maria’s brother Alexander successfully passed the consular check and received the visas for aliyah!

 

They planned their repatriation for mid-January and, with the help of the Jewish Agency, received the tickets for their flights.

 

The whole process was extremely complicated, they needed a lot of documents, plus it was very difficult for their elderly father to travel the long way from the village to the consulate in Moscow to take the DNA test. And then of course there was all the waiting!

 

However, after this unbelievable journey they have finally made it Home!