Young Boy Takes His Counselor’s Name During Bris

Last week over 90 Jewish Ukrainian children from underprivileged backgrounds came together from all over the country for an 8-day Yeka winter camp special.

The camp was held in the snow-capped Carpathian mountain range where the boys had the opportunity to strive and grow in their yiddishkeit connecting to their source with Davening, learning classes, Farbrengens and more.

Dennis, 12, from Zaporizhzhia said: “Camp Yeka really means the world to me, the situation now in Ukraine and at home is pretty hard and coming to Yeka gave me an opportunity to connect with my Jewish heritage, it allows me to be proud to be a Jew and forget about my stress and worries and I really love being surrounded by the crazy American counselors.”

Each day the boys enjoyed incredible trips that included skiing, snowboarding, tubing and exciting mountain hikes. For the boys this was a new and unforgettable experience.

Just yesterday, right after camp, one of the Campers who attended camp in the summer had a Bris and chose the name Yosef Yitzchak. When asked why, he said, “My counselor in camp Yossef Yitzhok is my inspiration, he’s someone I look up to so I decided to take his name.”

“For the boys of Ukraine, Yeka is more than just a camp – Yeka is home,” one of the staff members said.

Special thanks to the Directors, especially Minka Borodkin, Levi Berger and Meir Levin to the Head Counselors Aron Kogan and David Izrailov and the entire Yeka family, for driving this shlichus forward making it a possibility.