By GIL HOFFMAN

Fourteen-year-old Olga Lomov has never been to the United States but 
she already has family there, thanks to the United Jewish Federation 
of Pittsburgh.

Lomov, who made aliyah to Israel from Russia six years ago, is a 
resident of the Children’s Village in Karmiel, Pittsburgh’s sister 
city in the Jewish Agency’s Partnership 2000 program.

The Children’s Village provides foster families for children like Olga 
who are unable to live in their homes for a variety of reasons, while 
the UJF connects them with Pittsburgh families who “adopt them” by 
sponsoring and keeping in touch with them.

Olga was adopted by the Tissenbaum family, who she met for the first 
time in person on May 3 when the Federation’s spring community mission 
to Israel visited the village.

“They are a very sweet family,” Olga said after the encounter. “It’s 
wonderful to have family in the US to teach me American traditions and 
culture. Having an adopted family in Pittsburgh also helps my English. 
I have never been to America, but I have seen Pittsburgh in the videos 
that they sent me.”

Charlene Tissenbaum said that she and her children refer to Olga as 
part of their family.

“Having an adopted daughter in Karmiel is amazing, because it creates 
a strong connection between our family in Pittsburgh and the Land of 
Israel,” Tissenbaum said. “I have three kids in Pittsburgh, plus Olga, 
our adopted daughter.”

Olga is one of just 27 children who have been adopted by Pittsburgh 
families out of the 270 children living at the village. The neediest 
are being adopted first. Several people who visited the village on the 
mission expressed an interest in adopting a child.

“These are kids who had no one and we are providing personal 
connections with people in the Diaspora who care about them and who 
want their children to connect with Israelis,” said Brian Eglash, 
UJF’s Campaign and Resource Development Director.

Each of the 20 couples in the Children’s Village volunteers to adopt 
11 children aged 5-15, who live with them and their own children while 
attending schools in Karmiel. The couples’ job is to conduct a normal, 
everyday family lifestyle that will act as a model for the children in 
their future lives.

“They eat and sleep with the families, so they will see what a family 
is like and they will know how to have one when they grow up,” said 
Razi Shoshani, who has directed the Children’s Village for 15 years. 
“We help them and succeed with them. For the kids, it’s something 
wonderful.”

Anat and Moshe Shomriya heard about the Children’s Village from a 
newspaper advertisement five years ago and since then, they have 
helped raise many children along with their three biological kids. On 
a tour of the Shomriya home, the Garfinkel and Gottleib families of 
Pittsburgh saw rooms full of bunk beds and smiling pictures of the 
children alongside their birthdays on the wall near a long dining room 
table set for dinner.

Essie Garfinkel described the Children’s Village as “fabulous.” Carole 
Gottleib said upon leaving the Shomriya home that she had decided to 
adopt a child at the village.

“I think it would be great,” Gottleib said.

In addition to the adoptions, the Jewish community of Pittsburgh has 
helped the Children’s Village by refurbishing homes at the village for 
graduates of the program who have entered the Israeli army. The Solow 
Endowment Fund made a grant to establish the soldiers’ homes, which 
are staffed by a housemother and equipped with cable television.

“There were a growing number of soldiers who had nowhere to go when 
they were released from the army on weekends,” Eglash said. “They 
couldn’t go back to their families because they didn’t have families, 
had been abused or their parents were drug addicts. Now the soldiers 
have a wonderful home for them to go to on the weekends.”

Teenagers between 15 and 18 live together as an independent group in 
homes on the campus of the village while attending high schools in 
Karmiel and helping the younger children. Families in Karmiel that 
live outside the village volunteer to host the children on free 
weekends and holidays.

The village provides after school tutoring and leisure activities, and 
there is a petting zoo at the village where the children learn how to 
take care of animals. A large staff of social workers, psychologists 
and occupational therapists are available at the village to help the 
children, many of whom have suffered traumatic experiences.

To help the children get to and from their schools, activities and 
doctors appointments in Karmiel, the Pittsburgh Jewish community 
donated a van that replaced a bus that broke down after reaching 
600,000 kilometers (272,727 miles).

The van was donated thanks to a large contribution by Gladys Burstein 
of Pittsburgh in memory of her late husband Robert. Evan and Jerry 
Segal made a large donation to provide resources toward enrichment the 
lives of the children via extracurricular activities and tutors.

Eglash said that part of the beauty of the Children’s Village is that 
the kids are not sheltered from the general community of Karmiel. The 
village was founded in 1978. UJF started supporting it seven years 
ago, but the relationship has advanced significantly over the past two 
years.

“We have some really nice connections with this village and we are 
thrilled to do it,” Eglash said. “It’s a wonderful experience and an 
incredible place and we are happy to have connected our philanthropy 
with their needs.”