The Jewish Agency and the Immigration and Absorption Department mourn the untimely loss of Karol Ungar, most recently
Head of the Eastern Aliyah Division.

Karol Ungar was at the forefront of the Jewish Agency’s efforts in facilitating the massive immigration from the Former Soviet Union which changed the face of Israel over the past decade and a half. The hundreds of thousands of well-integrated Israelis who arrived from the FSU in the 1990s may, or may not have heard of Karol Ungar. Yet, it was through Karol’s tenacious work that many of them made it to Israel and built new lives. Karol ran the Transit Station in Budapest directly after the Fall of the Iron Curtain, and was later based in Moscow, directly facilitiating the aliyah of hundreds of thousands more Jews.

Karol’s lifelong friend and colleague, Eli Yitzchaki speaks of Karol’s daring, empathy and initiative. One day, sixty years ago in the small Transylvanian town of Fiene, two Jewish couples who had lost their children in the Holocaust celebrated the births of baby boys - Karol born to the Ungars and Eli born to the Yitzchakis. The boys went to heder and later public school together. Both families made aliyah and settled in Ashdod in the mid- 1960s. Eli followed Karol into the Engineering Corps of the IDF; they both became officers, although Karol suffering a serious injury from a mine, had a few years respite from combat service. They were released from active duty the same year - Karol immediately took over the Transit Station in Budapest, Eli the Station in Bucharest. Eli later joined Karol in the FSU at the peak of the emigration.

Eli, Director of Initial Absorption, relates, “There were three regional wars at that time in the FSU - in Sochomy (Georgia), Dushanbe (Tadjikistan) and in Transniester (Moldova/ Ukraine) - and in each area, we were responsible for evacuating the Jews. Karol displayed untiring devotion to the cause of bringing the FSU Jews to Israel, at times even risking his life to do so.” Since 2005, Karol, based in Jerusalem, served as Director of Jewish Agency Activities in the FSU.

Karol’s untimely death leaves a painful void for his family, friends and colleagues.