Alina Gerlovin Spaulding: A Face Among the Refugees

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“Every day is a privilege to wake up to have the life I do,” readily offers Alina Gerlovin Spaulding, this year's speaker at Connections women's brunch on Sunday, January 31.

She knows what it is like to be persecuted, with no future in sight, unable to practice her Judaism. Ms. Spaulding also knows, firsthand, the value of the Jewish Federation.

Alina was born in the Ukraine in 1979. While her family was originally privileged, due to her father's athletic prowess, an injury threw their family into the crowded field of persecuted Jews in the former Soviet Union.

It was the US Jewish community that saved them, and she has never forgotten that. When she was five, her family and thousands like hers were rescued and relocated to the United States and Israel. This was only the beginning of Alina's Jewish journey.

“We didn't know where we were going,” explains Alina about her family's round-the-world relocation. After months as a refugee, Alina and her family arrived in New Jersey and were connected with a local Jewish adoptive family through the Jewish Federation. They readily embraced them into their regular Jewish traditions and helped Alina's father find work.

Her mother didn't “know how to do Judaism,” so Alina's involvement in BBYO and her travels to Poland on the March of the Living were Alina's seminal Jewish moments.

“‘There but for the grace of G-d go I’ is the only way I can describe the impact of these Jewish experiences for me,” Alina explains.

Alina now works at the American Hebrew Academy, the only US pluralistic Jewish boarding school with students from all over the world. “This place has particular resonance for me,” Alina explains. “When my family and I were being relocated, no one ever asked, ‘What stream of Judaism are you?’ They simply asked, ‘Are you Jewish? Are you in need?’ That is all they needed to know to help.”

Her story is our story. Our Jewish Federation and dozens across the country helped Alina, her family and thousands of other former Soviet Union Jews escape persecution and find homes in the US, in Israel and in Judaism.

Come hear Alina's moving story at Connections on Sunday, January 31 and... Dare to Dream! Register Now!