Ella Vorobzov: "I Sat on the Plane to Israel, and Couldn't Stop Crying"

When you hear Ella Vorobzov's story, you can't help but be moved. Growing up in the Soviet Union, behind the Iron Curtain, she and her family longed for the moment they could emigrate to the Holy Land for eight years. Today, she lives in Russia once again—not as a hunted child, but as a Chabad emissary working in the area, teaching children Judaism and trying to spread as much light as possible.

"I was born to my parents after ten years of waiting for children," she begins her story. "At that time, like many Jews in the Soviet Union, my parents knew they were Jewish but weren't aware of what it required of them and didn't observe the commandments at all. During their time of waiting for children, my grandmother, my mother's mother, who was a senior surgeon at a hospital, sent them to doctors all over Russia, but they were disappointed again and again. 'You will not have children,' they were told. My parents hoped for a miracle. They had a simple faith as Jews who barely knew the reality of a Creator. They prayed and asked, and indeed the miracle happened. Ten years later, I was born.

"I was born during a time when the Iron Curtain in Russia slightly lifted," Ella explains, "In fact, the Russian government was less strict, and several Jewish families applied for emigration and received visas. Three months after I was born, my parents applied for aliyah to Israel. They had no doubt they would get approval, because that year, everyone who applied—received permission and emigrated. They resigned from their jobs and respectable positions, thinking if they received approval, they would no longer need those posts, and if, Heaven forbid, they didn’t, they would be quickly fired as traitors to the country. Unfortunately, several months after they applied, they received a refusal and were deemed 'refuseniks.' We lived in this state for eight years."

Ella notes that her parents could no longer return to their respected positions. "Dad had to stand on the street for long hours and sell watermelons from a stall," she describes, "Mom was shoveling snow in the yards..."

Ella's father with one of her children

A Miraculous Rescue

It was in the summer of 1981 when Ella was two years old and her parents were attending underground Jewish history studies.

One day, during a class on Shabbat laws at someone's home, it happened. There was a loud knock on the door, and KGB agents burst in, dragging a significant number of the gathered to the police station. Ella's father was among them, and her mother accompanied him. There, at the station, they decided to release all the detainees except for three—the lesson's organizer, the host, and Ella's father, who had been on their radar for a while.

"My mother immediately understood she had to take drastic action; otherwise, she might not see my father for a long time," Ella describes, "so she ran towards the police officers and made a major scene: she started yelling at them: 'What are you doing? Can't you see he is a sick man? Look at how unwell he appears! Call an ambulance immediately! How dare you arrest him? If you take him now, the responsibility for the outcome will be on you!' The officers decided to summon an ambulance, a doctor entered the building, examined my father and immediately determined: 'Straight to the hospital.' The officers had to leave my father, and he was rushed on a stretcher into the ambulance, with my mother by his side. The ambulance traveled for about half an hour, when suddenly, the doctor ordered the driver to stop. 'That's it, you can go home!' – he addressed my astonished parents...

"From that day," says Ella, "for a long period, my father did not leave the house without my mother accompanying him, even to go to the store. They understood they were under close surveillance and were very cautious to always be together. The police didn’t approach him when my mom was around. They didn’t want to deal with her. But once, my father had to go out alone, and my mom stayed home. He went out to ride and was immediately arrested. The great miracle was that my father was sentenced to a jail term of less than a month (records showed he had health issues), whereas the other two detained were sent to 'enjoy' several years in prison.

"Less than a year after this unpleasant story, my parents received compensation beyond measure: my younger brother and only sibling, Daniel, was born in a miracle; he was a true gift from Heaven."

The prison where Ella's father was held

Leaving Russia

In St. Petersburg, Ella managed to study for half a year in first grade. "That year, I was the only declared Jew in school. My teacher was really an anti-Semitic Gentile. I remember clearly several instances where a group of students, me included, would engage in mischief, and the teacher would punish only me.

"On a snowy, wintry day," Ella recalls, "the teacher pointed for me to come closer, singled out one of my shoes, ordered me to take it off, and told me: 'Now throw the shoe out the window and go down to find it in the snow pile.' It was obvious this was just for humiliation."

Ella didn't experience second grade in St. Petersburg. "At the age of eight, we received the long-awaited exit approval completely miraculously and even suddenly," she recounts with emotion. "What was most remarkable is that the much-awaited permission our family had been waiting for over eight long years of refusal came during... Passover, the Festival of Freedom.

"Once we received the permission, we had one month to leave Russia, or we would lose the given opportunity. By the way, our aliyah date was also very significant—Eighteenth of Iyar, Lag B'Omer.

"We all immigrated, including my grandparents and even my great-grandmother, who celebrated her 91st birthday in the middle of aliyah day, between the sky and earth. I’ll never forget how, on the plane before landing, my grandmother and mother’s eyes filled with tears of joy, and I, too, began to cry with the general excitement."

Ella notes that after landing in Israel, they were directed to the Ramot Tamar Hotel located in the Ezrat Torah neighborhood in Jerusalem. "We stayed a full month in the hotel, along with a few other families who had migrated with us and the hotel's other guests. My parents sent me to the Beit Yaakov Ezrat Torah school. I will never forget that time: I was the first-ever new immigrant at the school, from 'there', beyond the other side of the Iron Curtain, which was still considered locked back in those days, and I received an indescribable welcome: daily, during breaks between lessons, the students would organize enthusiastic dances, lift me on their shoulders, raise me while seated on a chair, and dance around me with genuine excitement. Initially, I was really embarrassed, but quickly got swept up in the general excitement.

"I simply enjoyed getting up in the morning, going every day to school and receiving so much attention; I enjoyed every moment. It was a fitting compensation for the 'positive' treatment I experienced during several months of first grade studies at my previous school, in Leningrad."

Ella's family a year after aliyah

A Life of Mission

As Ella grew up, the Iron Curtain fell, and she started traveling to Russia to train at camps and teach at schools. "I felt it was truly a mission, that I was fortunate to give Jewish children in Russia what I couldn’t openly receive as a child," she explains.

In 1999, she married her husband, who also immigrated from the Soviet Union as a young child and comes from a similar background. "When our eldest son was one year old, we embarked on our mission and became Chabad emissaries," Ella recounts. "It wasn’t a surprising decision because it was clear to us both that we would become emissaries in Russia. After all, we know the language and understand the mentality. On the other hand, it was quite difficult for my parents when we embarked on a mission and traveled far from home because my younger brother was in yeshiva, and they were left alone. I am deeply thankful to them for not only allowing me to go but for supporting and encouraging me to do so."

Ella adds: "Many of those who brought us closer in Leningrad were emissaries and devoted followers of the Lubavitcher Rebbe. Now we are here on the Rebbe's mission in Moscow. Our goal is to continue spreading light in conditions completely different from those in which I grew up as a child. My brother, Daniel, has come full circle and is now serving with his family as emissaries in St. Petersburg, formerly Leningrad."

Ella in first grade

Today, Ella teaches in the upper grades of the community school. In addition, in recent years, she has been involved in publishing children's and youth books as part of a project initiated by the emissary and Chief Rabbi of Russia, Rabbi Berel Lazar. "These books have comprehensive Jewish content, like Shabbat, Israeli festivals, and more. My husband, Rabbi Yosef, manages the department of strict kosher supervision of the Chief Rabbinate of Russia under the Russian Rabbi, Rabbi Lazar.

"In recent years, I have been publishing, together with my friend Hannah Auercman, a Chabad emissary in Florida, a popular book series called 'Kids on Mission.' In each book, a child narrates firsthand experiences from their mission life in the country where they reside. The children are real, as are the experiences they describe. The language is fluent, and the photos are authentic and breathtakingly beautiful.

"Occasionally," Ella adds, "when feasible, I travel to different cities in Russia and even neighboring countries and share my personal story with local women, those who know so well the background I am talking about. I strive to empower them and convey the message: today, we live in a completely different time. Today every Jew in Russia has all the possibilities of returning to their roots, learning openly, keeping and observing. Let us acknowledge this, take advantage of all the opportunities, and ascend higher and higher."