“My decision to come to Israel on the Na’aleh program when I was 15 was completely spontaneous. I didn’t think about the consequences. But I have been given so many incredible opportunities in this country and I have so many aspirations for my life here.”

Growing up in Yekaterinburg, Russia, in southern Siberia, Alona Poupesheva, 25, was completely assimilated. It was only a chance reading of a Jewish Agency ad announcing the Na’aleh program for teenagers to go to Israel on their own that set Alona’s life on a completely different course. More