Anna Lovetsky was born in Odessa, Ukraine. Her father served in the navy and her mother was a saleswoman. “I grew up as an ethnic Jew, as it was written in our identity cards that we were Jewish, but we did not really look upon Judaism as a religion. We also had the memory of the Holocaust that reminded us all the time of our lost Jewish culture.”

In 1995, Anna’s parents, brother and sister made aliyah. Anna stayed in Odessa to finish a Hebrew course and six months later she also made aliyah. With the assistance of a Jewish Agency-supported Student Authority Scholarship, Anna received her BA in art history from Hebrew University. She is now studying for her MA at the university’s Institute of Contemporary Jewry, where she is engaged in research on Jewish communities around the world and Jewish demography.

At the same time, Anna is working for the Jewish Agency in the field of Israel-centered Jewish Zionist education in the former Soviet Union (FSU). “I knew that I wanted to work for a Jewish organization and I felt that the Jewish Agency was the place where I could really contribute my knowledge and talent.”

Anna is involved with the Jewish Agency’s educational programs in the FSU, including summer camps, youth groups, the Heftziba formal Jewish education network, birthright israel and MASA/Israel Journey. “I feel that it is really important to connect Jews from all over the world to Israel. I know that when Jewish young people come to Israel on a birthright israel trip or long-term MASA program, there is something inside of them that connects to Israel and to their people. They then take this back to their communities.”

Anna also works with Russian-speaking émigrés in Germany and the United States
to bring Israel-centered Jewish education programs to their communities. “We want to strengthen Jewish identity and commitment,” says Anna. “Education is the way to do this.”