Irv and I believe it is particularly meaningful that JDC sponsors Passover seders around the world each year to ensure that our global Jewish family will remember the holiday and cherish the freedom that allows us to celebrate it. Below is a special Passover story that took place in Egypt a few weeks ago, written by JDC Country Director Ami Bergman.
The Jewish community in Egypt has enjoyed a glorious history for many centuries—one filled with a rich and varied social and economic culture. But political and economic changes have resulted in the community dwindling to a shadow of its former self. Today the community numbers 60 people, half living in Alexandria and half in Cairo. There are only three men in Alexandria and the rest are elderly women. Cairo has no Jewish men at all.
JDC provides financial support to the community’s neediest and assistance for health costs. We also continue to reinforce the connection between Egypt’s remaining Jewish community and our Jewish heritage. So that they may fully partake in the Passover holiday, for example, JDC provides them with traditional Kosher for Passover foods, including matzot, wine, matzo meal, and cookies.
For the past few years, the President of the Cairo community has requested that JDC send people to conduct the seder. Mrs. Carmen Weinstein, the current President, has often urged me to join the community for Pesach. And this was the year I chose to say yes.
This decision was not an easy one: Pesach is traditionally a family holiday and I am blessed and privileged to always spend it with my children, their spouses, my wife’s family, and my grandchildren. After much thought, my wife and I decided that this year we would leave our personal family in Israel and join our larger Jewish JDC family in Cairo, Egypt.
I reminded myself that the sons of our forefather Jacob had no idea what fate had in store for them when they traveled to Egypt. As my wife, our son Dror, and I embarked on our adventure, we, too, were uncertain as to what awaited us. But as it is written, we “went down to Egypt.”
The Tribes of Israel left Egypt and wandered through the desert for 40 years; we flew to Cairo in 40 minutes—one minute of flight for every year of wandering. The Almighty, in His master plan, knew that He had to keep us in the desert for two generations. The children of Israel needed this time to remove the shackles of slavery and to grow and develop as free men and women, free to determine their own destinies. And their destiny enabled me, with no small degree of irony, to leisurely travel back from Israel to Egypt to celebrate that very Exodus with the remaining Jews in Egypt.
The contrasts in the two cities were enormous and palpable. We left Jerusalem wearing jackets on a cool, spring evening and arrived to a hot, oppressive Cairo. We left Israel in the early hours of the morning when there were few cars on the road. In vivid contrast, Cairo was teeming at 4:00 am. The streets are packed at all hours of the day and night. Old cars and taxis that were long ago taken off the road in other countries here block every street and corner.
But the most striking contrast was the strange feeling we had at the seder when we read in the Haggadah: “Thank you for taking us out of Egypt.” It seemed irrational and surreal, for this year I sat in Egypt reciting this. Moreover, the Haggadah regales the punishments and plagues that God forced on Egypt and here I am sitting in Cairo, retelling the story surrounded by local Egyptians. Ah, I thought to myself, JDC presents us with such special challenges…interesting and exciting ones!
The United States Ambassador to Egypt, Margaret Scopey, participated in the seder as an honored guest. Other guests included staff members of the United States Embassy in Egypt, Jews who are serving in other diplomatic corps, students attending Egyptian universities, and tourists. Of course everyone must inform the community of their participation ahead of time in order to conform to strict security measures.
The seder was scheduled to begin at 7:00 pm in the courtyard of Cairo’s Sha’ar Shamayim Synagogue. The food was cooked and the tables were set. The matzot and wine, charoset, gefilte fish, and other foods that JDC had sent were ready to be enjoyed. And the community had prepared local delicacies.
The guests began to arrive. Eighty place settings were arranged, but people kept coming…. More tables and chairs were added to accommodate the 100 participants.
I was very excited to begin: This was the first time that I had the responsibility and the privilege of conducting a seder for a group—and in the Sephardic tradition, no less, when I only knew the Ashkenazi niggun (tune). We conducted the seder in Hebrew, with a bit of Arabic and a little English. I reflected that there are moments in life when you remember those who preceded you, nurtured you, and guided you…and I thought of my father z”l. I silently thanked him for teaching me to follow the Jewish tradition. And with warm memories of him, I began to lead the seder.
I began by explaining how remarkable it was that in Cairo—the capital of Egypt—we are recalling the exodus of our people out of this very land 4,000 years ago to the land of Israel. I gave a brief explanation, reminding everyone that we are commanded to retell the story every year, and I encouraged open participation during the seder.
I heard my own voice with some disbelief, but I continued. I invited the guests to take part in reading from the Hagaddah—some in Hebrew, some in French, and many in English. When paragraphs were read in Hebrew, I translated into English so that everyone would appreciate the text.
The hall overflowed with people, whose faces and smiles reflected the concentration they expended to hear every word. I felt deeply proud and very grateful.
For close to a century, JDC has strengthened the common bonds of our “Jewish Family” on so many levels and in many countries around the globe. I am privileged to contribute to the process and receive pleasure ten-fold in JDC’s noble effort. And I will never forget the seder that I led in the land of Egypt.
April 27, 2009
Ukraine Bar Mitzva
From The Jerusalem Post
By Anne Joseph
April 16, 2009 - jpost.com
Jake's journey to 'the land of the shtetl' has made him acutely aware of what freedom means.
A trip to Ukraine doesn't exactly spring to mind as a typical destination for a mother-and-son bonding experience. Described by Vladimir Putin as a country "on the verge of bankruptcy," the issue of its gas supply is still an unresolved source of major tension with Russia. According to historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz, approximately 60 percent of Ukrainian Jews were killed during the Holocaust and those that did survive endured repression by the Soviet regime. However, this "land of the shtetl" was once the largest center of Jewish cultural and spiritual life (Ben G. Frank), a country which bore several leaders of the Zionist movement and some of the greatest Jewish writers after whom many of Israel's city streets are named.
In spite of its outward lack of allure, in mid-March Jake, my 13-year-old son, and I headed off to Dnepropetrovsk in southeast Ukraine as part of a small delegation with the charity World Jewish Relief - the leading overseas aid arm of the UK Jewish community. Leaving the cozy confines of his typical north London teenage existence, Jake was to be the first young person to participate in WJR's inaugural "interactive" trip, getting involved with the Jewish community and its projects.
Jake had chosen to twin his bar mitzva last year with a boy from Ukraine and I had felt that the trip would be an opportunity for him to gain some insight into a country and a way of living different from his own. "Visiting is integral to see what we do," explained Paul Stein, head of fund-raising and communications for WJR and co-traveler. "Then people are better placed to talk about what they've seen and learned to others."
Although the journey would certainly be "an experience that not many people my age will have gone through," Jake was unsure what to expect. What would he gain from it? Would it make him see himself differently, I wondered. The journey required some knowledge of Ukraine's turbulent past so that he could appreciate its present and imagine its future. But how can such a past be presented to a teenager so that he could understand the present?
"On one level it's about... the power of imagination... In the 'now' driven world of contemporary culture, the past is often a difficult place of mystery and it takes imagination to be able to visualize," says Jeremy Leigh, travel writer and director of Jewish Journeys, a Jerusalem-based educational initiative that develops trips to places of Jewish interest. But he says that for most of the teenagers that he works with, the past is not a problem. The use of music, literature and photographs can all help make it tangible.
With a Jewish population of 50,000-55,000, Dnepropetrovsk is the largest Jewish community in Ukraine after Kiev. According to WJR, 40% of the population are pensioners, many of whom struggle to survive on their government pension and require extra assistance. Children are another vulnerable group whose families have little money and little access to primary health care. Together the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and WJR provide welfare services for the community as well as programs to promote Jewish renewal in Ukraine.
The JDC is responsible for carrying out WJR's particular projects as well as its own. Jewish community centers (JCC) help towards renewal and self sustainability and heseds (welfare centers) provide food, medication (there is no free state health care) and home care to those in need. The long-term aim of both organizations is that the Ukrainian Jewish community will eventually become self sufficient.
Dnepropetrovsk had been a "closed city" until the early 1990s; there had been travel and residency restrictions as it had been home to some of the key centers of the nuclear, arms and space industries of the Soviet Union. The city opened after Ukrainian independence in 1991 and, according to Anya Birman, missions manager for the JDC and our translator, it suddenly became quite "exotic" for its residents as the face of the city altered; foreigners and businesspeople traveled in and out and "suddenly we saw different people."
Driving from the airport, I wondered how Jake, with his Western eyes, would view his new surroundings. Bare trees lined the pothole ridden roads, on which "you don't drive more than five seconds without a bump," he observed. Drab, gray concrete communist style tower blocks still remain, and trams rattled unconvincingly through the wide streets next to swanky SUVs, a sign of relative new wealth. For many years eastern Ukraine produced much iron, steel and coal and for a time "Dnepropetrovsk was the economic capital of Ukraine," explained Amir Ben-Zvi, JDC representative for eastern Ukraine.
Casinos seem to appear on every street corner, often conveniently located next to a bank. McDonalds and billboards advertising clothes, perfumes and electronic equipment are evident, despite this being a country where the impact of the global recession is severe. Salaries have been frozen or cut, food prices are increasing rapidly and three banks have closed.
Some 350,000-500,000 Jews live in Ukraine out of a total population of 48 million, Stein explained at a short briefing before our visit to Dnepropetrovsk's JCC. In 1941 the Nazis invaded and killings occurred on a massive scale; in Dnepropetrovsk alone 11,000 Jews were killed in a day. Although many Jews left following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jewish life has since been revitalized. But the current economic crisis has brought new challenges to the area. Decreasing demand for its main exports has resulted in factory closures and growing unemployment.
According to Ben-Zvi, anti-Semitism is always present, lurking "under the surface." He cited an incident where Jews had been spat at in the street, but an overriding concern is that blame for the crisis may be directed at the Jews as some had been factory owners forced to shut their doors.
With this bleak history in mind we were completely unprepared for the immense sense of celebration as we entered the JCC, located inside the grounds of the one remaining synagogue (there used to be 42). It was Purim and the entire building was buzzing with preparations. We had been allocated roles in the Purimspiel as foreign visitors asked to impress King Ahasuerus, played by a boy who didn't seem too wowed by our offerings of British food and weather. We helped the children choose their costumes, and before we knew it Jake, managing to abandon any teenage awkwardness, and I were participating in a rendition of "Hallelujah" with an exceptional vocal group.
The following morning we were taken to a large, well-stocked Spar supermarket where we shopped for 84-year-old Rosa Altman and her daughter, Irina, using a Smartcard, a means tested system which has replaced the traditional food package. This revolutionary program has transformed lives, providing dignity to the 6,000 people it serves. Set up for those in need of extra assistance the card tries "to substitute the state system because [what's received] is not very much," Birman explained. "When the pilot plan was launched in late 2005, it took off."
Before shopping, users can go to an ATM in the store to check the amount on their card (money is transferred at the beginning of the month). The supermarket chain, which has 14 stores, provides an extra 5% discount on the purchases. A record of what has been bought is then immediately transferred to the bank and the hesed. There are only three items prohibited - pork, tobacco and alcohol - and any attempt to buy them (and there have been) are blocked at the cash register.
Speaking in a combination of broken Yiddish and Ukrainian during our home visit, Altman's deep gratitude toward the workers at the hesed was repeated by many of the people we met. A former accountant, Altman is now practically housebound and receives help with laundry, cooking, cleaning and shopping. Irina lay in a bed behind a curtain throughout our visit to her small, dark, cluttered three-room apartment. Suffering from severe mental health problems, she does not speak to anyone apart from her mother and spends most of her time in bed. Altman recalled how, growing up in a religious family, the holidays were difficult to celebrate, remembering that "we were afraid. They were very hard years and we just tried to survive how we could." After singing a nigun and opening her mishloah manot she insisted that we join her in her Purim meal.
Purim was also in full swing in the next apartment that we visited. The bleak exterior of the building looked identical to Altman's block, including the same dark, damp stairwell, but we walked into an atmosphere of happiness and the sound of an accordion playing. Gathered around a table groaning with freshly made hamentashen and homemade wine were a dozen older members of the community in appropriate Purim attire, a group who meet regularly. Suddenly Jake was surrounded by 12 grandparents, encouraging him to eat and take part in a game of forfeits.
In the shtetl where she had lived as a child, said one of the women, Purim had to be celebrated covertly to ensure that non-Jews did not know what was happening. Anya described a big table with food placed in the center of the settlement and her escape to Russia in 1938. It was here, as a young child, that she met her husband as they lived in a shared apartment with many other families seeking safety.
During lunch at the hesed, Birman spoke about her experience of life after communism.
She was 17 when the Berlin Wall came down. "I was on the cusp of adulthood. At the time the big debate between my friends and me was whether we would stay here in Ukraine or leave and go to Israel; it was the question on everyone's lips." Anya decided to stay, feeling that she had a responsibility to be a part of the Jewish community and ensure a strong Jewish life for future generations in Dnepropetrovsk. "I love Israel but my family is here... and as Jews we can now look forward to the future."
She recalled being bundled off to a special annual dinner at her grandparents where all the family was present. There was no explanation as to what this dinner was and why it was significant. It was only in later years - in fact once she joined the JDC - that she understood the occasion to be Seder night. Although she knew she was Jewish, any form of practice had been forbidden.
She sees the contrast between her own upbringing and that of her 11-year-old daughter who feels none of the constraints that Birman had growing up in communist Ukraine. She wears her Jewish identity with pride and likes the fact that her mother works for the JDC. She is keen to help those less fortunate than herself and often gives Birman items of her own to donate to the Hesed.
Birman is convinced that a thriving Diaspora is beneficial to Israel; an opinion echoed by Sharon, Ben-Zvi's wife, who also works for the Joint. As an Israeli, she grew up believing that all Jews from the former Soviet Union should make aliya. However, from her experience of living and working in Ukraine for the last three years, she now sees the situation differently.
Birman agrees. "Almost every Jew living in the former Soviet Union today, including myself, maintains a tight connection to Israel through relatives or friends who made aliya. We feel obliged to educate our non-Jewish environment about the reality of the country to combat the anti-Israel Soviet stereotypes, which are still shared by so many."
Having seen community welfare and sustainability in action, we ended our journey at Metsuda: a community leadership program. Eighty applicants between 18 and 27 are closely observed throughout the week's course, but only 30 are selected to continue.
Held at Lesnoy, a countryside retreat in the forest 65 to 70 kilometers outside the city, the course is now in its seventh year. We arrived to tinny music playing on outside loudspeakers, a throwback to former communist days, but inside the atmosphere was less Soviet and more reminiscent of my time, at 18, on Machon Lemadrichei Hutz La'aretz, a leadership course in Jerusalem.
"Metsuda is important mainly because we 'catch' active potential leaders from their communities and enroll them into volunteerism and leadership in a way that will engage them with community life, before they disappear into their private lives forever,' says Ben-Zvi. "It builds up their Jewish and self-identity, providing them with the tools and energy to take action in the community. In addition, in a place lacking in youth movements, Metsuda has become the place for youth from all over the region, where they can be attached to something bigger than the ordinary, where they can... meet people like them who want to change the world they live in."
Dasha, 20, a Metsuda graduate and session leader, agrees. "The program literally cultivates the future of the community."
Katya, 26, another trainer and course graduate, started a youth club in Kharkov which now has 500 active participants. Set up as part of Metsuda's community project - the second stage in the qualifying process - she feels "people should give back" to their communities by volunteering and that fund-raising is a necessity. Jewish renewal, she believes, is one of the main challenges facing young Ukrainian Jews.
Jake's journey to "the land of the shtetl" has made him acutely aware of what freedom means. Having heard stories from people "who had to hide their Judaism made me feel fortunate that I experience religious freedom as they could not." Although a keen member of his youth movement, he feels that "the experience has expanded my Jewish identity. I've learned that Jewish suffering isn't just about the Holocaust... that there are other aspects of oppression."
As I write this there is news of fresh unrest in Ukraine and concern regarding the country's stability. But Jake is full of positive youthful attitude. He witnessed the spectrum of a community committed to addressing its current problems while daring to be optimistic about its uncertain future.
Source: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=3&cid=1239710702444&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
By Anne Joseph
April 16, 2009 - jpost.com
Jake's journey to 'the land of the shtetl' has made him acutely aware of what freedom means.
A trip to Ukraine doesn't exactly spring to mind as a typical destination for a mother-and-son bonding experience. Described by Vladimir Putin as a country "on the verge of bankruptcy," the issue of its gas supply is still an unresolved source of major tension with Russia. According to historian Lucy S. Dawidowicz, approximately 60 percent of Ukrainian Jews were killed during the Holocaust and those that did survive endured repression by the Soviet regime. However, this "land of the shtetl" was once the largest center of Jewish cultural and spiritual life (Ben G. Frank), a country which bore several leaders of the Zionist movement and some of the greatest Jewish writers after whom many of Israel's city streets are named.
In spite of its outward lack of allure, in mid-March Jake, my 13-year-old son, and I headed off to Dnepropetrovsk in southeast Ukraine as part of a small delegation with the charity World Jewish Relief - the leading overseas aid arm of the UK Jewish community. Leaving the cozy confines of his typical north London teenage existence, Jake was to be the first young person to participate in WJR's inaugural "interactive" trip, getting involved with the Jewish community and its projects.
Jake had chosen to twin his bar mitzva last year with a boy from Ukraine and I had felt that the trip would be an opportunity for him to gain some insight into a country and a way of living different from his own. "Visiting is integral to see what we do," explained Paul Stein, head of fund-raising and communications for WJR and co-traveler. "Then people are better placed to talk about what they've seen and learned to others."
Although the journey would certainly be "an experience that not many people my age will have gone through," Jake was unsure what to expect. What would he gain from it? Would it make him see himself differently, I wondered. The journey required some knowledge of Ukraine's turbulent past so that he could appreciate its present and imagine its future. But how can such a past be presented to a teenager so that he could understand the present?
"On one level it's about... the power of imagination... In the 'now' driven world of contemporary culture, the past is often a difficult place of mystery and it takes imagination to be able to visualize," says Jeremy Leigh, travel writer and director of Jewish Journeys, a Jerusalem-based educational initiative that develops trips to places of Jewish interest. But he says that for most of the teenagers that he works with, the past is not a problem. The use of music, literature and photographs can all help make it tangible.
With a Jewish population of 50,000-55,000, Dnepropetrovsk is the largest Jewish community in Ukraine after Kiev. According to WJR, 40% of the population are pensioners, many of whom struggle to survive on their government pension and require extra assistance. Children are another vulnerable group whose families have little money and little access to primary health care. Together the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and WJR provide welfare services for the community as well as programs to promote Jewish renewal in Ukraine.
The JDC is responsible for carrying out WJR's particular projects as well as its own. Jewish community centers (JCC) help towards renewal and self sustainability and heseds (welfare centers) provide food, medication (there is no free state health care) and home care to those in need. The long-term aim of both organizations is that the Ukrainian Jewish community will eventually become self sufficient.
Dnepropetrovsk had been a "closed city" until the early 1990s; there had been travel and residency restrictions as it had been home to some of the key centers of the nuclear, arms and space industries of the Soviet Union. The city opened after Ukrainian independence in 1991 and, according to Anya Birman, missions manager for the JDC and our translator, it suddenly became quite "exotic" for its residents as the face of the city altered; foreigners and businesspeople traveled in and out and "suddenly we saw different people."
Driving from the airport, I wondered how Jake, with his Western eyes, would view his new surroundings. Bare trees lined the pothole ridden roads, on which "you don't drive more than five seconds without a bump," he observed. Drab, gray concrete communist style tower blocks still remain, and trams rattled unconvincingly through the wide streets next to swanky SUVs, a sign of relative new wealth. For many years eastern Ukraine produced much iron, steel and coal and for a time "Dnepropetrovsk was the economic capital of Ukraine," explained Amir Ben-Zvi, JDC representative for eastern Ukraine.
Casinos seem to appear on every street corner, often conveniently located next to a bank. McDonalds and billboards advertising clothes, perfumes and electronic equipment are evident, despite this being a country where the impact of the global recession is severe. Salaries have been frozen or cut, food prices are increasing rapidly and three banks have closed.
Some 350,000-500,000 Jews live in Ukraine out of a total population of 48 million, Stein explained at a short briefing before our visit to Dnepropetrovsk's JCC. In 1941 the Nazis invaded and killings occurred on a massive scale; in Dnepropetrovsk alone 11,000 Jews were killed in a day. Although many Jews left following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Jewish life has since been revitalized. But the current economic crisis has brought new challenges to the area. Decreasing demand for its main exports has resulted in factory closures and growing unemployment.
According to Ben-Zvi, anti-Semitism is always present, lurking "under the surface." He cited an incident where Jews had been spat at in the street, but an overriding concern is that blame for the crisis may be directed at the Jews as some had been factory owners forced to shut their doors.
With this bleak history in mind we were completely unprepared for the immense sense of celebration as we entered the JCC, located inside the grounds of the one remaining synagogue (there used to be 42). It was Purim and the entire building was buzzing with preparations. We had been allocated roles in the Purimspiel as foreign visitors asked to impress King Ahasuerus, played by a boy who didn't seem too wowed by our offerings of British food and weather. We helped the children choose their costumes, and before we knew it Jake, managing to abandon any teenage awkwardness, and I were participating in a rendition of "Hallelujah" with an exceptional vocal group.
The following morning we were taken to a large, well-stocked Spar supermarket where we shopped for 84-year-old Rosa Altman and her daughter, Irina, using a Smartcard, a means tested system which has replaced the traditional food package. This revolutionary program has transformed lives, providing dignity to the 6,000 people it serves. Set up for those in need of extra assistance the card tries "to substitute the state system because [what's received] is not very much," Birman explained. "When the pilot plan was launched in late 2005, it took off."
Before shopping, users can go to an ATM in the store to check the amount on their card (money is transferred at the beginning of the month). The supermarket chain, which has 14 stores, provides an extra 5% discount on the purchases. A record of what has been bought is then immediately transferred to the bank and the hesed. There are only three items prohibited - pork, tobacco and alcohol - and any attempt to buy them (and there have been) are blocked at the cash register.
Speaking in a combination of broken Yiddish and Ukrainian during our home visit, Altman's deep gratitude toward the workers at the hesed was repeated by many of the people we met. A former accountant, Altman is now practically housebound and receives help with laundry, cooking, cleaning and shopping. Irina lay in a bed behind a curtain throughout our visit to her small, dark, cluttered three-room apartment. Suffering from severe mental health problems, she does not speak to anyone apart from her mother and spends most of her time in bed. Altman recalled how, growing up in a religious family, the holidays were difficult to celebrate, remembering that "we were afraid. They were very hard years and we just tried to survive how we could." After singing a nigun and opening her mishloah manot she insisted that we join her in her Purim meal.
Purim was also in full swing in the next apartment that we visited. The bleak exterior of the building looked identical to Altman's block, including the same dark, damp stairwell, but we walked into an atmosphere of happiness and the sound of an accordion playing. Gathered around a table groaning with freshly made hamentashen and homemade wine were a dozen older members of the community in appropriate Purim attire, a group who meet regularly. Suddenly Jake was surrounded by 12 grandparents, encouraging him to eat and take part in a game of forfeits.
In the shtetl where she had lived as a child, said one of the women, Purim had to be celebrated covertly to ensure that non-Jews did not know what was happening. Anya described a big table with food placed in the center of the settlement and her escape to Russia in 1938. It was here, as a young child, that she met her husband as they lived in a shared apartment with many other families seeking safety.
During lunch at the hesed, Birman spoke about her experience of life after communism.
She was 17 when the Berlin Wall came down. "I was on the cusp of adulthood. At the time the big debate between my friends and me was whether we would stay here in Ukraine or leave and go to Israel; it was the question on everyone's lips." Anya decided to stay, feeling that she had a responsibility to be a part of the Jewish community and ensure a strong Jewish life for future generations in Dnepropetrovsk. "I love Israel but my family is here... and as Jews we can now look forward to the future."
She recalled being bundled off to a special annual dinner at her grandparents where all the family was present. There was no explanation as to what this dinner was and why it was significant. It was only in later years - in fact once she joined the JDC - that she understood the occasion to be Seder night. Although she knew she was Jewish, any form of practice had been forbidden.
She sees the contrast between her own upbringing and that of her 11-year-old daughter who feels none of the constraints that Birman had growing up in communist Ukraine. She wears her Jewish identity with pride and likes the fact that her mother works for the JDC. She is keen to help those less fortunate than herself and often gives Birman items of her own to donate to the Hesed.
Birman is convinced that a thriving Diaspora is beneficial to Israel; an opinion echoed by Sharon, Ben-Zvi's wife, who also works for the Joint. As an Israeli, she grew up believing that all Jews from the former Soviet Union should make aliya. However, from her experience of living and working in Ukraine for the last three years, she now sees the situation differently.
Birman agrees. "Almost every Jew living in the former Soviet Union today, including myself, maintains a tight connection to Israel through relatives or friends who made aliya. We feel obliged to educate our non-Jewish environment about the reality of the country to combat the anti-Israel Soviet stereotypes, which are still shared by so many."
Having seen community welfare and sustainability in action, we ended our journey at Metsuda: a community leadership program. Eighty applicants between 18 and 27 are closely observed throughout the week's course, but only 30 are selected to continue.
Held at Lesnoy, a countryside retreat in the forest 65 to 70 kilometers outside the city, the course is now in its seventh year. We arrived to tinny music playing on outside loudspeakers, a throwback to former communist days, but inside the atmosphere was less Soviet and more reminiscent of my time, at 18, on Machon Lemadrichei Hutz La'aretz, a leadership course in Jerusalem.
"Metsuda is important mainly because we 'catch' active potential leaders from their communities and enroll them into volunteerism and leadership in a way that will engage them with community life, before they disappear into their private lives forever,' says Ben-Zvi. "It builds up their Jewish and self-identity, providing them with the tools and energy to take action in the community. In addition, in a place lacking in youth movements, Metsuda has become the place for youth from all over the region, where they can be attached to something bigger than the ordinary, where they can... meet people like them who want to change the world they live in."
Dasha, 20, a Metsuda graduate and session leader, agrees. "The program literally cultivates the future of the community."
Katya, 26, another trainer and course graduate, started a youth club in Kharkov which now has 500 active participants. Set up as part of Metsuda's community project - the second stage in the qualifying process - she feels "people should give back" to their communities by volunteering and that fund-raising is a necessity. Jewish renewal, she believes, is one of the main challenges facing young Ukrainian Jews.
Jake's journey to "the land of the shtetl" has made him acutely aware of what freedom means. Having heard stories from people "who had to hide their Judaism made me feel fortunate that I experience religious freedom as they could not." Although a keen member of his youth movement, he feels that "the experience has expanded my Jewish identity. I've learned that Jewish suffering isn't just about the Holocaust... that there are other aspects of oppression."
As I write this there is news of fresh unrest in Ukraine and concern regarding the country's stability. But Jake is full of positive youthful attitude. He witnessed the spectrum of a community committed to addressing its current problems while daring to be optimistic about its uncertain future.
Source: http://www.jpost.com/servlet/Satellite?apage=3&cid=1239710702444&pagename=JPost%2FJPArticle%2FShowFull
April 24, 2009
UPDATE FROM JERUSALEM
A briefing from Arnon Mantver, Director of JDC-Israel
Shalom all,
As we continue to develop programs for Israel's neediest, we find ourselves in the interesting but not unfamiliar environment of a type of intercession of the Israeli government. The new government is deep into planning, setting its agenda and priorities, and establishing and coordinating between the various Ministries – new and old. We continue to maintain contacts with the senior professionals we work with and have worked with in the past, many of whom are remaining or returning to top level positions. It's a challenging period of time in terms of our partnership with the government but a challenge which brings with it much opportunity.
The Children of the Holocaust…
I was very moved by the fascinating and poignant items which can be discovered in AJJDC's priceless archives. On Yom Hashoah, I had the honor of presenting Rabbi Lau, former chief Rabbi of Israel, with a personal gift from AJJDC's archives. During research carried out at the AJJDC Archives about the life of the venerable Joe Schwartz, documents were discovered which bear witness to JDC's heroic transfer of some 1,000 orphaned children, former inmates of Buchenwald, to Israel against the initial resistance of the U.N. Refugee organization. Found among the list of rescued children were Rabbi Lau and Nobel prize winner Eli Weisel.
Yesterday, as Rabbi Lau choked up upon seeing photos of himself as an 8 year old boy leaving Buchenwald, my pride in serving on behalf of the Joint was very personal. Rabbi Lau was my teacher in high school, officiated at my wedding and knows that I owe my existence to a righteous gentile who hid my mother and sister in an underground hole for three years. Decades later, we are here, serving the country and the people of Israel, as the result of and in the continuing tradition of JDC caring for Jews all around the globe.
…are the Survivors of Today
Today, we are still helping those 1,000 children – and hundreds of thousands like them – who are now part of Israel's growing aged population. Almost a quarter of a million elderly Holocaust survivors currently reside in Israel, many of whom require a variety of specialized services.
JDC-Eshel secures critically needed subsidies for survivors which enable them to live and thrive in Supportive Communities for the elderly; provides dental care, via dental clinics in the community and a mobile clinic which reaches homebound elderly survivors; and developed and supports Witness Theatre programs in 17 locations which enables survivors to impart their Holocaust experiences to youngsters in a therapeutic manner. Just recently, a Witness Theater presentation was held for the first time in the U.S. at the Boca Raton Federation, as the result of the efforts and support of our own JDC Board member, Rani Garfinkle.
Recently, the Ministry of Finance requested that we develop and carry out a plan to help survivors who have not managed to take full advantage of all their rights and grants from various pools of funding earmarked for survivors. JDC-Eshel will be using specially-trained staff to work one-on-one with survivors to gather data and documents, fill out forms, and get all which they are entitled to.
Unemployment and Under-Employment
Israel is being hit with massive waves of lay-offs. Everyday brings news of tens to hundreds of workers being fired from their jobs. From an unemployment rate of under 6% in November 2008, we have now jumped to over 6.8% in a very short period of time. This represents some 200,000 Israelis who are out of jobs. The government is struggling to address this alarming phenomenon, while JDC-Tevet continues to focus on those who are completely outside the world of work and on the working poor.
Two major pieces of data drive JDC-Tevet's programs:
1) 750,000 able-bodied Israeli adults don't work and have not regularly participated in the workforce in the past.
2) 950,000 Israelis are part of families which live in poverty despite the fact that at least one of the parents works.
Our response is twofold. First, we develop and disseminate employment programs geared toward the major populations which comprise the 750,000: Immigrants, Disabled, Haredim, Minorities and Young Adults with no family support. Second, we are developing programs to help unstable workers retain their jobs and assist low-level workers in advancing to higher positions. Putting people into the workforce in jobs where they earn a reasonable living wage is the single greatest weapon in the ongoing fight against poverty in Israel.
Regards from Jerusalem,
Arnon
Shalom all,
As we continue to develop programs for Israel's neediest, we find ourselves in the interesting but not unfamiliar environment of a type of intercession of the Israeli government. The new government is deep into planning, setting its agenda and priorities, and establishing and coordinating between the various Ministries – new and old. We continue to maintain contacts with the senior professionals we work with and have worked with in the past, many of whom are remaining or returning to top level positions. It's a challenging period of time in terms of our partnership with the government but a challenge which brings with it much opportunity.
The Children of the Holocaust…
I was very moved by the fascinating and poignant items which can be discovered in AJJDC's priceless archives. On Yom Hashoah, I had the honor of presenting Rabbi Lau, former chief Rabbi of Israel, with a personal gift from AJJDC's archives. During research carried out at the AJJDC Archives about the life of the venerable Joe Schwartz, documents were discovered which bear witness to JDC's heroic transfer of some 1,000 orphaned children, former inmates of Buchenwald, to Israel against the initial resistance of the U.N. Refugee organization. Found among the list of rescued children were Rabbi Lau and Nobel prize winner Eli Weisel.
Yesterday, as Rabbi Lau choked up upon seeing photos of himself as an 8 year old boy leaving Buchenwald, my pride in serving on behalf of the Joint was very personal. Rabbi Lau was my teacher in high school, officiated at my wedding and knows that I owe my existence to a righteous gentile who hid my mother and sister in an underground hole for three years. Decades later, we are here, serving the country and the people of Israel, as the result of and in the continuing tradition of JDC caring for Jews all around the globe.
…are the Survivors of Today
Today, we are still helping those 1,000 children – and hundreds of thousands like them – who are now part of Israel's growing aged population. Almost a quarter of a million elderly Holocaust survivors currently reside in Israel, many of whom require a variety of specialized services.
JDC-Eshel secures critically needed subsidies for survivors which enable them to live and thrive in Supportive Communities for the elderly; provides dental care, via dental clinics in the community and a mobile clinic which reaches homebound elderly survivors; and developed and supports Witness Theatre programs in 17 locations which enables survivors to impart their Holocaust experiences to youngsters in a therapeutic manner. Just recently, a Witness Theater presentation was held for the first time in the U.S. at the Boca Raton Federation, as the result of the efforts and support of our own JDC Board member, Rani Garfinkle.
Recently, the Ministry of Finance requested that we develop and carry out a plan to help survivors who have not managed to take full advantage of all their rights and grants from various pools of funding earmarked for survivors. JDC-Eshel will be using specially-trained staff to work one-on-one with survivors to gather data and documents, fill out forms, and get all which they are entitled to.
Unemployment and Under-Employment
Israel is being hit with massive waves of lay-offs. Everyday brings news of tens to hundreds of workers being fired from their jobs. From an unemployment rate of under 6% in November 2008, we have now jumped to over 6.8% in a very short period of time. This represents some 200,000 Israelis who are out of jobs. The government is struggling to address this alarming phenomenon, while JDC-Tevet continues to focus on those who are completely outside the world of work and on the working poor.
Two major pieces of data drive JDC-Tevet's programs:
1) 750,000 able-bodied Israeli adults don't work and have not regularly participated in the workforce in the past.
2) 950,000 Israelis are part of families which live in poverty despite the fact that at least one of the parents works.
Our response is twofold. First, we develop and disseminate employment programs geared toward the major populations which comprise the 750,000: Immigrants, Disabled, Haredim, Minorities and Young Adults with no family support. Second, we are developing programs to help unstable workers retain their jobs and assist low-level workers in advancing to higher positions. Putting people into the workforce in jobs where they earn a reasonable living wage is the single greatest weapon in the ongoing fight against poverty in Israel.
Regards from Jerusalem,
Arnon
April 22, 2009
JDC Ambassadors Circle Global Symposium - May 19, 2009
JDC AMBASSADORS CIRCLE
GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM
CRISIS AND HOPE IN THE JEWISH WORLD
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New York City
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New York City
Join us for a full day of exclusive briefings on the status of Jewish communities and JDC's work around the world. This is a unique opportunity to meet and hear from JDC's top professional staff working to make a difference.
Featured Highlights:Israel's Threat from Within: Major challenges Israel faces today and how JDC is working to address them tomorrow
JDC at War: How JDC operates during war situations - rescue operations, relief distribution and more
Lunch with JDC Country Representatives: An opportunity to learn more in-depth about JDC's work around the world
Briefing from a CNN (and JDC) Hero: Dr. Rick Hodes will join us to speak about his work in Ethiopia
Couvert: $100 per person
Reservations are required to attend. To RSVP or for more information, contact ambassadors@jdc.org or (212) 885-0876.
April 21, 2009
Witness Theater – Tell in Order to Live
A therapeutic and educational project for Holocaust survivors and high school students
Over a third of elderly Israelis are classified as holocaust survivors, yet despite this, few Israelis know about their personal stories and the stories of their families. Survivors often feel like they lack a safe space in which they can share and without being able to share, much of the trauma goes untreated and their tales of survival become lost.
Israel’s adolescent population, many of whom are the grandchildren, nieces and nephews of survivors, are under-educated about the Holocaust. Rather than seeing the Holocaust as something that happened to them and their families, many see it as some sort of distant historical event that has very little impact upon their own reality. These stories, shared as part of the Witness Theater and coming from those who lived them serve as a means to bring these two generations together.
Begun in 2003, Witness Theater is an 18-24 month-long process where survivors and teens from a variety of backgrounds meet in theatrical workshops that utilize drama-based therapies, special improvisational and role-playing games to relive the survivors’ stories, allowing them to revisit their tension and anxiety about their pasts in a safe space. This process continues through the writing of a play based on survivor stories, rehearsal and performances before the community, where students and survivors together dramatize these personal memories.
Through reenactment, survivors are able to process and confront painful memories while youth participants gain an understanding of the Holocaust at an emotionally visceral level.
Currently, there are Witness Theater groups in 22 locations across Israel and because of the educational opportunities inherent in the program plans are being considered for the integration of the program into the Israeli school system country-wide.
Witness Theater
Igniting the next generation to be the memorial candle
Official website (in Hebrew): www.edut.org.il
Over a third of elderly Israelis are classified as holocaust survivors, yet despite this, few Israelis know about their personal stories and the stories of their families. Survivors often feel like they lack a safe space in which they can share and without being able to share, much of the trauma goes untreated and their tales of survival become lost.
Israel’s adolescent population, many of whom are the grandchildren, nieces and nephews of survivors, are under-educated about the Holocaust. Rather than seeing the Holocaust as something that happened to them and their families, many see it as some sort of distant historical event that has very little impact upon their own reality. These stories, shared as part of the Witness Theater and coming from those who lived them serve as a means to bring these two generations together.
Begun in 2003, Witness Theater is an 18-24 month-long process where survivors and teens from a variety of backgrounds meet in theatrical workshops that utilize drama-based therapies, special improvisational and role-playing games to relive the survivors’ stories, allowing them to revisit their tension and anxiety about their pasts in a safe space. This process continues through the writing of a play based on survivor stories, rehearsal and performances before the community, where students and survivors together dramatize these personal memories.
Through reenactment, survivors are able to process and confront painful memories while youth participants gain an understanding of the Holocaust at an emotionally visceral level.
Currently, there are Witness Theater groups in 22 locations across Israel and because of the educational opportunities inherent in the program plans are being considered for the integration of the program into the Israeli school system country-wide.
Witness Theater
Igniting the next generation to be the memorial candle
Official website (in Hebrew): www.edut.org.il
April 20, 2009
JDC COMMEMORATES HOLOCAUST REMEMBRANCE DAY- APRIL 21 - IN 70 COUNTRIES
On April 21, 2009, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) invites Jews and non-Jews around the world to join with them in a moment of silent meditation at Noon EST to reflect on the persecution and murder of nearly six million Jews and five million non-Jews throughout Europe during World War II. In the 70 countries where JDC provides services and programs, thousands of staff members, clients, friends and supporters will take this time to commemorate Holocaust Remembrance Day.
The day honors victims, as well as survivors, along with those who showed resistance and heroism. The date of Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the anniversary of the start of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
With the rise of Hitler’s Nazi regime, JDC supported heroic efforts that enabled 110,000 Jews to leave Germany prior to 1939 and hastened the escape of even more Jews to Allied territory throughout the war. From the outbreak of World War II through 1944, JDC made it possible for more than 81,000 Jews to emigrate from Nazi-occupied Europe to safety.
By 1947, more than 200,000 Jewish survivors of the Nazi horrors crowded into hastily set up displaced persons (DP) camps throughout Germany, Austria, and Italy. JDC funds were directed at restoring communal life in the camps with medical facilities, schools, synagogues and cultural activities. Even today, JDC continues to support Holocaust survivors, and it provides vital services to 168,000 Jewish seniors in the former Soviet Union alone.
Since 1914, JDC has given global expression to the principle that all Jews are responsible for one another. Working today in over 70 countries, JDC acts on behalf of North America’s Jewish communities and others to rescue Jews in danger, provide relief to those in distress, revitalize overseas Jewish communities and help Israel overcome the social challenges of its most vulnerable citizens. JDC also provides non-sectarian emergency relief and long-term development assistance worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.jdc.org./
The day honors victims, as well as survivors, along with those who showed resistance and heroism. The date of Holocaust Remembrance Day corresponds to the 27th day of the Hebrew month of Nisan, the anniversary of the start of the 1943 Warsaw Ghetto uprising.
With the rise of Hitler’s Nazi regime, JDC supported heroic efforts that enabled 110,000 Jews to leave Germany prior to 1939 and hastened the escape of even more Jews to Allied territory throughout the war. From the outbreak of World War II through 1944, JDC made it possible for more than 81,000 Jews to emigrate from Nazi-occupied Europe to safety.
By 1947, more than 200,000 Jewish survivors of the Nazi horrors crowded into hastily set up displaced persons (DP) camps throughout Germany, Austria, and Italy. JDC funds were directed at restoring communal life in the camps with medical facilities, schools, synagogues and cultural activities. Even today, JDC continues to support Holocaust survivors, and it provides vital services to 168,000 Jewish seniors in the former Soviet Union alone.
Since 1914, JDC has given global expression to the principle that all Jews are responsible for one another. Working today in over 70 countries, JDC acts on behalf of North America’s Jewish communities and others to rescue Jews in danger, provide relief to those in distress, revitalize overseas Jewish communities and help Israel overcome the social challenges of its most vulnerable citizens. JDC also provides non-sectarian emergency relief and long-term development assistance worldwide. For more information, please visit http://www.jdc.org./
April 17, 2009
Students to perform Holocaust scenes in Witness Theater west of Boca Raton
High school students to retell survivors' stories as part of Witness Theater
By Lois K. Solomon
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 28, 2009
In a dramatic performance Sunday, Michael Jeifa, a Holocaust survivor, will share the most devastating moment of his terrifying teenage years.
When he was 16, his family was arrested in Paris during World War II because his father worked as a tailor at a time when Jews were not allowed to have businesses. He never saw his mother again; his father died in a concentration camp. Jeifa went into hiding in the Alps.
"It was the day that destroyed my life," said Jeifa, 82, a retired insurance company officer from Boyton Beach.
Jeifa will recount the day as part of Witness Theater, a performance of local survivors' stories Sunday and Monday at the Kay Auditorium west of Boca Raton. As Jeifa and 11 other survivors describe their experiences, high school students will act them out.
About eight years ago, students and survivors in Israel created a similar performing partnership, designed to help the survivors heal as they educate the public with their testimonies. The local Witness Theater performance is the first of its kind in the United States. It's sponsored by the Jewish Education Commission, a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.
"The emphasis is on the kids as much as the survivors," said Caren Neile, director of the South Florida Storytelling Project and the theater's team leader. "There is nothing like getting to know a survivor who was actually there."
The students have met with the survivors weekly since October and got to know them as they honed their performing skills.
"I used to plug my ears in Hebrew school when the teachers would mention the Holocaust," said Katie Mogell, 17, a student participant. "This experience has been an emotional roller coaster. In every class, someone was in tears. All the survivors touched my heart; I love and care for them so much."
Witness Theater came to Boca Raton through philanthropist Rani Garfinkle, who saw a video of the Israeli version at a gathering of the Joint Distribution Committee, which raises money for Jews around the world.
Garfinkle hopes the performance benefits not only the audience but also the participants.
"It's therapeutic for the survivors and instructive for the youngsters," she said. "When you sit on a stage with survivors and get to know them, there's an immediacy that you don't get by watching a movie."
Link: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/bocaraton/sfl-flpwitness0328pnmar28,0,5387017.story
By Lois K. Solomon
South Florida Sun-Sentinel
March 28, 2009
In a dramatic performance Sunday, Michael Jeifa, a Holocaust survivor, will share the most devastating moment of his terrifying teenage years.
When he was 16, his family was arrested in Paris during World War II because his father worked as a tailor at a time when Jews were not allowed to have businesses. He never saw his mother again; his father died in a concentration camp. Jeifa went into hiding in the Alps.
"It was the day that destroyed my life," said Jeifa, 82, a retired insurance company officer from Boyton Beach.
Jeifa will recount the day as part of Witness Theater, a performance of local survivors' stories Sunday and Monday at the Kay Auditorium west of Boca Raton. As Jeifa and 11 other survivors describe their experiences, high school students will act them out.
About eight years ago, students and survivors in Israel created a similar performing partnership, designed to help the survivors heal as they educate the public with their testimonies. The local Witness Theater performance is the first of its kind in the United States. It's sponsored by the Jewish Education Commission, a beneficiary agency of the Jewish Federation of South Palm Beach County.
"The emphasis is on the kids as much as the survivors," said Caren Neile, director of the South Florida Storytelling Project and the theater's team leader. "There is nothing like getting to know a survivor who was actually there."
The students have met with the survivors weekly since October and got to know them as they honed their performing skills.
"I used to plug my ears in Hebrew school when the teachers would mention the Holocaust," said Katie Mogell, 17, a student participant. "This experience has been an emotional roller coaster. In every class, someone was in tears. All the survivors touched my heart; I love and care for them so much."
Witness Theater came to Boca Raton through philanthropist Rani Garfinkle, who saw a video of the Israeli version at a gathering of the Joint Distribution Committee, which raises money for Jews around the world.
Garfinkle hopes the performance benefits not only the audience but also the participants.
"It's therapeutic for the survivors and instructive for the youngsters," she said. "When you sit on a stage with survivors and get to know them, there's an immediacy that you don't get by watching a movie."
Link: http://www.sun-sentinel.com/community/news/bocaraton/sfl-flpwitness0328pnmar28,0,5387017.story
April 13, 2009
Bringing Wells and Wellness to Residents of Rural Ethiopia
Azanaw Musaw Tegegne, an eighth grader, says that before JDC installed the fresh water tap in his village in Gondar, Ethiopia, most people drank water from a nearby stream. Like hundreds of villages around rural Ethiopia, Gondar’s Gabriel kebele (area similar to a neighborhood) had no access to potable water for drinking, bathing, or cooking during the region’s extended dry seasons and draughts.Ethiopia is one of the poorest countries in the world. In rural parts of country, only 11 percent of the population has access to clean water while just 7 percent has access to adequate sanitation facilities. During the rainy season, the population’s water supply is procured from nearby springs, streams, and shallow wells. When the dry season comes, these water sources dry up, forcing villagers to collect water from sub-standard, often polluted, wells and streams.
The health hazards are enormous: 90 percent of all preventable diseases such as malaria, cholera, yellow fever, hepatitis, typhoid and diarrhea can be attributed to underdeveloped and ill-protected water supplies. Waterborne diseases claim the lives of hundreds of thousands of Ethiopians each year.
Limited access to safe drinking water not only results in poor health, but also causes serious developmental problems. Collecting water is back-breaking work that drains precious energy and restricts involvement in productive activities and community affairs for many women and children in every village. On average, rural villagers spend four to six hours per day collecting water from sources that can be as far as 10 kilometers from their homes.
Over the last 25 years, JDC has built dozens of potable water wells throughout Gondar and the surrounding countryside with guidance from the Ethiopian Water Works Construction Authority and the local government in Gondar. Funding for this effort has come from international NGOs, as well as private donors and foundations. The Ground Water Development program has produced hand dug wells, protected springs, taps, micro-dams, and latrines.
JDC originally built wells in areas that served large numbers of Jews (the Felas Mura population awaiting immigration to Israel) but also supplied water to the non-Jewish villagers. By 2008, as JDC constructed a dozen wells across Gondar through its International Development Program (JDC-IDP), new water projects served 100 percent non-Jewish populations.
As JDC-IDP’s larger goal is to provide assistance that will leave communities stronger and self-sustaining in the long run, each project engages and is facilitated by local village water committees, who solicit local manpower for some labor and materials used in the construction process. JDC-IDP also provides the villagers with training on the importance of drinking the clean water and encourages behavioral change to improve overall health. Whenever possible, in addition to building the wells, JDC-IDP constructs communal latrines to facilitate a safe, sanitary human waste disposal system (as open air toilets are widely known to contaminate the town’s clean drinking water). Community education and involvement contributes tremendously to the success and long-term sustainability of these projects.
With safe, fresh, local water sources for drinking, cooking and sanitation available in his village for the first time, Azanaw Musaw Tegegne no longer needs to travel great distances to collect water. Freed of this chore, he will now be able to finish eighth grade at the newly built JDC-IDP school in his hometown of Gabriel, Gondar—one of 10 schools JDC-IDP has built in the region in the past 18 months.
That last fact is important, as Ethiopia has an adult literacy rate of barely 36 percent. Azanaw will be one of the just 23 percent of teenage boys and 13 percent of teenage girls enrolled in secondary schools. (Only 55 percent of all boys and 47 percent of all girls are enrolled in primary schools; 38 percent will not reach the fifth grade.)
Committed to making a difference in the development of Ethiopia’s educational system and securing a future for some of the most vulnerable people on the globe, JDC-IDP has been repairing and building schools for some of the poorest Ethiopian children across the Northern Gondar region since 2000.
At a celebration in appreciation for JDC-IDP’s donation of a hand water pump to one local village, the Chairman of the Gondar City Council, Asmamaw Yosuf, said, “Really, you have reached at the [root] of the problem. The people have no words to appreciate your donation. [We have] seen the enthusiastic dances praising to your organization.”
April 8, 2009
Road to Ukrainian Stardom Begins in JDC-Supported Community Center
For those who were able to attend to the First JDC Ambassadors Global Symposium in December, 2008, Oksana Galkevich, JDC Representative, Kharkov, Ukraine, shared this story during our lunch with JDC Country representatives.
Jews and non-Jews alike across Ukraine tuned in this year to watch “Ukrainian Stars Factory”—a version of American Idol—to cheer on its only Jewish contestant, Vladimir Goodkov.
Vladimir hails from Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine, which boasts a renewed and thriving Jewish community. Yet it was only three years ago that the young star, now 21, first came to the JDC-supported Beith Dan Jewish Community Center at his friend’s urging. Once there, the Center’s diverse programs enticed Vladimir to return time and again. Through the JCC’s Jewish Youth Association, funded by JDC, he participated in the “Vocal Studio Aviv” program and quickly became a favorite performer at Kharkov cultural festivals and Jewish holiday events.
While studying at the Kharkov State Polytechnic University and pursuing his musical ambitions, Vladimir also discovered his love of leadership and service to the Jewish community. He volunteered for several madrich (counselor) and leadership training programs and worked in the community as an advisor to its youth and a caring companion to its elderly. As a student in the JDC-facilitated School for Future Jewish Leaders—a training program begun by a graduate of the JDC-supported “Metsuda” Jewish Young Leadership Program—Vladimir gained both management skills and honed his natural leadership abilities through implementation of several of his own creative projects for the community.
When Vladimir went off to compete on the national televised reality show, he did not forget his roots or hometown. He brazenly declared himself a Jew, despite the growing threat of anti-Semitism that has increasingly been surfacing in Ukraine. And the young star went further: Vladimir demonstrated his pride in his Jewish identity by choosing to celebrate his Judaism publicly as one of his prizes during the the competition. Successful performances during the course of the competition won Vladimir the chance to have one wish granted—anything he wanted, including a concert in Cannes or his own CD release. But instead of the riches and glory, Vladimir asked to have his friends from the Jewish Youth Association brought to the studios so they could celebrate Shabbat dinner with him and his co-contestants. Aired on Ukrainian national television, the dinner featured Vladimir making the traditional blessing over the wine and challah and encouraging his friends to talk about an event in their lives that made them who they are today.
For Vladimir, the answer was simple. “The way I am now—enthusiastic, not afraid to say anything—is thanks to the people, the community that I became part of,” he said.
Young Vladimir went on to win the entire competition, distinguishing himself as a rising music star in Ukraine. And in the process, he sent a clear message that fame can be used not just for personal gain, but for good.
Jews and non-Jews alike across Ukraine tuned in this year to watch “Ukrainian Stars Factory”—a version of American Idol—to cheer on its only Jewish contestant, Vladimir Goodkov.Vladimir hails from Kharkov, the second largest city in Ukraine, which boasts a renewed and thriving Jewish community. Yet it was only three years ago that the young star, now 21, first came to the JDC-supported Beith Dan Jewish Community Center at his friend’s urging. Once there, the Center’s diverse programs enticed Vladimir to return time and again. Through the JCC’s Jewish Youth Association, funded by JDC, he participated in the “Vocal Studio Aviv” program and quickly became a favorite performer at Kharkov cultural festivals and Jewish holiday events.
While studying at the Kharkov State Polytechnic University and pursuing his musical ambitions, Vladimir also discovered his love of leadership and service to the Jewish community. He volunteered for several madrich (counselor) and leadership training programs and worked in the community as an advisor to its youth and a caring companion to its elderly. As a student in the JDC-facilitated School for Future Jewish Leaders—a training program begun by a graduate of the JDC-supported “Metsuda” Jewish Young Leadership Program—Vladimir gained both management skills and honed his natural leadership abilities through implementation of several of his own creative projects for the community.
When Vladimir went off to compete on the national televised reality show, he did not forget his roots or hometown. He brazenly declared himself a Jew, despite the growing threat of anti-Semitism that has increasingly been surfacing in Ukraine. And the young star went further: Vladimir demonstrated his pride in his Jewish identity by choosing to celebrate his Judaism publicly as one of his prizes during the the competition. Successful performances during the course of the competition won Vladimir the chance to have one wish granted—anything he wanted, including a concert in Cannes or his own CD release. But instead of the riches and glory, Vladimir asked to have his friends from the Jewish Youth Association brought to the studios so they could celebrate Shabbat dinner with him and his co-contestants. Aired on Ukrainian national television, the dinner featured Vladimir making the traditional blessing over the wine and challah and encouraging his friends to talk about an event in their lives that made them who they are today.
For Vladimir, the answer was simple. “The way I am now—enthusiastic, not afraid to say anything—is thanks to the people, the community that I became part of,” he said.
Young Vladimir went on to win the entire competition, distinguishing himself as a rising music star in Ukraine. And in the process, he sent a clear message that fame can be used not just for personal gain, but for good.
April 6, 2009
Exclusive JDC Educational Opportunity...
JDC AMBASSADORS CIRCLE
GLOBAL SYMPOSIUM
CRISIS AND HOPE IN THE JEWISH WORLD
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New York City
Tuesday, May 19, 2009
New York City
Join us for a full day of exclusive briefings on the status of Jewish communities and JDC's work around the world. This is a unique opportunity to meet and hear from JDC's top professional staff working to make a difference.
Featured Highlights:
Israel's Threat from Within: Major challenges Israel faces today and how JDC is working to address them tomorrow
JDC at War: How JDC operates during war situations - rescue operations, relief distribution and more
Lunch with JDC Country Representatives: An opportunity to learn more in-depth about JDC's work around the world
Briefing from a CNN (and JDC) Hero: Dr. Rick Hodes will join us to speak about his work in Ethiopia
Couvert: $100 per person
Reservations are required to attend. To RSVP or for more information, contact ambassadors@jdc.org or (212) 885-0876.
April 2, 2009
Step by Step: Women Lead Havana’s Jewish Renaissance
Today the JDC Ambassadors Circle embarks on their first mission together, travelling to Cuba to connect and learn about this small but dynamic Jewish community. Mission participants will meet with community leaders, celebrate Shabbat and experience the vibrancy of Cuban life and culture.
We want to share the following story with you that illustrates the community's immense dedication to Jewish life in this small island nation and how JDC is helping to ensure their continued success.
When Marlen Fernandez Barroto was born 37 years ago to a peasant family in Havana, it was anything but predictable that she would become a central figure in the island’s Jewish community of 1,500 members. Growing up during Fidel Castro’s Revolution, religion was nowhere to be found in Marlen’s home, though she says, “My mother always told me that I was curious about religion from a young age.”
It was after her marriage 19 years ago to David, the son of Polish immigrants, that Judaism “slowly began to course through my veins,” Marlen passionately proclaims. An invitation to attend Rosh Hashanah services was their entree into organized religion—but it was through the JDC-supported Sunday school that Marlen took on an active role in rebuilding Jewish community life in the island’s capital.
“This school is the base, along with the family, of our children’s Jewish development,” she says. Each week when Marlen brought David’s children (from his first marriage) to the school, where they would learn about Jewish holidays and traditions, she helped out by watching the students’ younger siblings. From there, Marlen began teaching first grade. She has had ongoing training in Jewish education and liturgy from JDC professionals—couples who have spent two-year stints in Cuba since 1994 as the island’s only on-the-ground Jewish community professionals. Today Marlen takes much pride in watching her former students grow into young adults who she has since prepared for their b’nei mitzvah.
As Marlen was helping to shape the youngest Jewish minds, the youth in the early 1990s were connecting with the Jewish tradition through Israeli folk dance—and she was right there with them. “With dance we also learned Judaism; it was a mixture of joy, instruction, and a place to spend some time,” she says. Having somewhere to go to connect with like-minded people and to dance—an art so central to Cuban culture—was a welcome diversion in Cuba during the last decade of the 20th century, when the collapse of the Soviet Union also took with it the economic lifeline Cuba had long enjoyed from the Soviet regime.
“We were a small group that grew, both in number and in name—Emuna (faith),” shares Marlen. She danced with this young troupe until age 33, when she was inspired to spearhead an extension for adults, Darkeinu (our path/way)—which she still directs—“for those of us who got too old to keep dancing with our children!” she adds, with good humor. Today, JDC supports the island’s seven rikudim groups as well as national Israeli dance festivals every two to three years. “Our rikudim groups are the pride and joy of the community.”
With Marlen’s increased exposure to diverse Jewish activities in Havana, she seamlessly takes on yet another leadership role. Most recently, as President of the Association of Jewish Women in Cuba, she organized an event in honor of International Women’s Day (March 8th) that brought together more than 120 women to discuss issues such as womens’ rights, domestic violence, and health and wellness. The group even created what Marlen refers to as “a modest financial assistance program for the neediest women in the community,” which has particular merit in a Communist society where salaries hover at $20/month even for professionals.
“It is so important to gather these women and maintain a connection and resource for them because they are the ones who bring Judaism into the family and maintain it,” notes Marlen of the 480-plus member women’s association. The active involvement of the group, which meets quarterly, is also indicative of the increasingly central role women are playing in reviving Cuba’s small Jewish community. “They are the ones who guide their children onto a Jewish path; they are the teachers and they help conduct the religious services; they bake challah every Friday; and they are camp counselors and heads of our organizations,” she says, noting that the community’s President, Adela Dworin, is also a woman.
Whether on the bima leading Kabbalat Shabbat services, conducting a rikudim rehearsal, teaching at the Sunday school, or looking on with pride as her youngest son leads the community in Kiddush or Havdalah ceremonies, it is clear that Marlen is one of the leading ladies—and critical pillars—of this resurgent, island community.
We want to share the following story with you that illustrates the community's immense dedication to Jewish life in this small island nation and how JDC is helping to ensure their continued success.
When Marlen Fernandez Barroto was born 37 years ago to a peasant family in Havana, it was anything but predictable that she would become a central figure in the island’s Jewish community of 1,500 members. Growing up during Fidel Castro’s Revolution, religion was nowhere to be found in Marlen’s home, though she says, “My mother always told me that I was curious about religion from a young age.”It was after her marriage 19 years ago to David, the son of Polish immigrants, that Judaism “slowly began to course through my veins,” Marlen passionately proclaims. An invitation to attend Rosh Hashanah services was their entree into organized religion—but it was through the JDC-supported Sunday school that Marlen took on an active role in rebuilding Jewish community life in the island’s capital.
“This school is the base, along with the family, of our children’s Jewish development,” she says. Each week when Marlen brought David’s children (from his first marriage) to the school, where they would learn about Jewish holidays and traditions, she helped out by watching the students’ younger siblings. From there, Marlen began teaching first grade. She has had ongoing training in Jewish education and liturgy from JDC professionals—couples who have spent two-year stints in Cuba since 1994 as the island’s only on-the-ground Jewish community professionals. Today Marlen takes much pride in watching her former students grow into young adults who she has since prepared for their b’nei mitzvah.
As Marlen was helping to shape the youngest Jewish minds, the youth in the early 1990s were connecting with the Jewish tradition through Israeli folk dance—and she was right there with them. “With dance we also learned Judaism; it was a mixture of joy, instruction, and a place to spend some time,” she says. Having somewhere to go to connect with like-minded people and to dance—an art so central to Cuban culture—was a welcome diversion in Cuba during the last decade of the 20th century, when the collapse of the Soviet Union also took with it the economic lifeline Cuba had long enjoyed from the Soviet regime.
“We were a small group that grew, both in number and in name—Emuna (faith),” shares Marlen. She danced with this young troupe until age 33, when she was inspired to spearhead an extension for adults, Darkeinu (our path/way)—which she still directs—“for those of us who got too old to keep dancing with our children!” she adds, with good humor. Today, JDC supports the island’s seven rikudim groups as well as national Israeli dance festivals every two to three years. “Our rikudim groups are the pride and joy of the community.”
With Marlen’s increased exposure to diverse Jewish activities in Havana, she seamlessly takes on yet another leadership role. Most recently, as President of the Association of Jewish Women in Cuba, she organized an event in honor of International Women’s Day (March 8th) that brought together more than 120 women to discuss issues such as womens’ rights, domestic violence, and health and wellness. The group even created what Marlen refers to as “a modest financial assistance program for the neediest women in the community,” which has particular merit in a Communist society where salaries hover at $20/month even for professionals.
“It is so important to gather these women and maintain a connection and resource for them because they are the ones who bring Judaism into the family and maintain it,” notes Marlen of the 480-plus member women’s association. The active involvement of the group, which meets quarterly, is also indicative of the increasingly central role women are playing in reviving Cuba’s small Jewish community. “They are the ones who guide their children onto a Jewish path; they are the teachers and they help conduct the religious services; they bake challah every Friday; and they are camp counselors and heads of our organizations,” she says, noting that the community’s President, Adela Dworin, is also a woman.
Whether on the bima leading Kabbalat Shabbat services, conducting a rikudim rehearsal, teaching at the Sunday school, or looking on with pride as her youngest son leads the community in Kiddush or Havdalah ceremonies, it is clear that Marlen is one of the leading ladies—and critical pillars—of this resurgent, island community.
April 1, 2009
Briefing from Steve Schwager, Executive Vice President and CEO, JDC
During the Hebrew month of Nissan, our Jewish communal activities slow down somewhat as we focus our personal lives on preparing for Passover. I have used some of the quiet time in the office to review the contributions that JDC’s current long-term volunteers are making to JDC’s activities around the globe.
Our foremost volunteer service opportunity is the Ralph I. Goldman (RIG) Fellowship. Each year, after an intense competition, JDC’s RIG Fellowship Committee, currently chaired by Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, selects an outstanding young Jewish leader to be the Ralph I. Goldman fellow and offers him/her a year of diverse work assignments throughout the JDC world. The current RIG fellow, Andrea Siegel, is in Israel working with JDC Israel and Eshel, which is JDC's partnership with the Israeli government to plan and develop services for the aged in Israel.
I share a portion of Andrea’s recent report with you so that you understand the complex nature—and importance—of the projects we assign our volunteers.
My primary project is an initiative on Spiritual Care (temicha ruchanit, Israel’s rough equivalent to pastoral care/counseling), one of Eshel’s responses to the Brookdale Institute’s findings that depression and poor levels of well-being plague a significant percentage of Israel’s elderly.
Spiritual Care is that aspect of support that attends to people’s sense of the transcendent in the midst of physical and/or emotional pain. Although religious support can be an element of Spiritual Care, it is not a necessary component. In the scientific literature on Spiritual Care, the term “religious” refers to a person’s identification with and belief in a specific group tradition—its tenets, leadership figures (rabbi, imam, priest, etc.), mythology, and rituals; “spiritual,” on the other hand, refers to a person’s own quest as an individual—questions one may have about life’s purpose, an appreciation of beauty, ideas about end-of-life ethics and the afterlife, the desire to be recognized in the eyes of another person, and/or the struggle to make sense out of trauma.
Here in Israel, given the religious-secular divide, any attempt to treat the person and not only the disease—that is, to twin the investigation into a patient’s physical pain symptoms with an investigation into his or her psycho-social-spiritual suffering—is extraordinarily fraught. For many of the religious, the wide definition of “spiritual” can be interpreted as an affront to orthodoxy. For many of the secular, anything “spiritual” can seem to be a cover for a back-door conversion or “kiruv” agenda. Add to the religious-secular divide the communal divides between adherents of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, etc.—and the situation gets even more complicated. Add to all of this the fact that even candidates for the officially-recognized rabbinic profession here receive no training in pastoral care—and it becomes clear that there is much work to be done.
Yet why should Eshel and JDC get involved in trying to further the development of the Spiritual Care field here in Israel?
Essentially, the answer lies in Eshel’s desire to make its institutions—senior daycare centers, “supportive communities,” and old-age homes—as life-affirming as possible for participants. There are numerous studies in the international published literature that support the contention that elders (and their families) who experience higher levels of spiritual well-being also report higher levels of physical well-being. In the United States (as well as in places such as Hong Kong, England, and Australia), Spiritual Care is an already-recognized competency field for nurses, social workers, psychologists, and other medical professionals who often work side by side with chaplains as part of a patient’s overall care team. Much of the work being done today in the United States, for instance, is aimed at teaching medical professionals how to conduct spiritual care assessments of a patient, how to bring an element of concerted presence into their bedside manner, and how to recognize when a patient needs the expert-level intervention of a chaplain.
Eshel would like Israel to join the international community’s efforts to make advances in this realm of healthcare, for the benefit of all of Israel’s citizens and particularly for the vulnerable elderly sector. Furthermore, as a few different organizations with the stated goal of training Israel’s equivalent of chaplains have recently sprung up here, Eshel wants to ensure that the spiritual needs of the elderly are included on the list of competency requirements in the developing field of chaplaincy.
Under Yaakov Kabilou’s guidance at Eshel, I put together a two-year plan designed to begin changing the public conversation in Israel about end-of-life, palliative, and spiritual support for the aging. The plan includes creating an orientation group on the concept of Spiritual Care for medical professionals who work in Eshel’s old-age homes and senior daycare centers; placing newly-trained Spiritual Care workers in a few of these institutions; printing a Hebrew Spiritual Care anthology of articles compiled from international journals in the fields of social work, psychology, religion, and medicine (with an emphasis on geriatrics); organizing day conferences for members of target professions in Israel; and publishing a quarterly Hebrew newsletter on Spiritual Care.
In creating this two-year plan, I have had the opportunity to visit Israeli hospitals and speak with physicians who are in ongoing dialogue with Eshel, to meet leaders of aging-sector services in municipal government and local NGOs, to attend training forums for senior daycare center managers and palliative care medical professionals at Eshel’s Tel Hashomer Training Center, and to exchange ideas over email and phone with major chaplaincy experts in the United States. While we wait for our funders to respond to the two-year Spiritual Care proposal, Yaakov has asked me to conduct a related needs-assessment survey of Eshel’s old-age homes and senior daycare centers in the Jerusalem area.
In addition to this primary project at Eshel, I am currently engaged in some smaller ones—all sharing points of contact with the Spiritual Care initiative. For instance, I am about to start leading a weekly Hebrew poetry-reading group for seniors with mild dementia at a daycare center in Tel Aviv, and I am collecting examples of English-language educational materials that Eshel may consider adapting for Israeli family caregivers.
As you can see, Andrea is engaged in a very intricate project which could have a major impact on Israeli society and how it cares for its elderly. Each of our other long-term volunteers—JDC’s Jewish Service Corps—is equally active in helping the respective communities in which they are placed. Irv and I believe that JDC should engage and empower more young volunteers, and so it is imperative that we seek out and create more service opportunities for young American Jews.
Our foremost volunteer service opportunity is the Ralph I. Goldman (RIG) Fellowship. Each year, after an intense competition, JDC’s RIG Fellowship Committee, currently chaired by Dr. Deborah Lipstadt, selects an outstanding young Jewish leader to be the Ralph I. Goldman fellow and offers him/her a year of diverse work assignments throughout the JDC world. The current RIG fellow, Andrea Siegel, is in Israel working with JDC Israel and Eshel, which is JDC's partnership with the Israeli government to plan and develop services for the aged in Israel.
I share a portion of Andrea’s recent report with you so that you understand the complex nature—and importance—of the projects we assign our volunteers.
My primary project is an initiative on Spiritual Care (temicha ruchanit, Israel’s rough equivalent to pastoral care/counseling), one of Eshel’s responses to the Brookdale Institute’s findings that depression and poor levels of well-being plague a significant percentage of Israel’s elderly.
Spiritual Care is that aspect of support that attends to people’s sense of the transcendent in the midst of physical and/or emotional pain. Although religious support can be an element of Spiritual Care, it is not a necessary component. In the scientific literature on Spiritual Care, the term “religious” refers to a person’s identification with and belief in a specific group tradition—its tenets, leadership figures (rabbi, imam, priest, etc.), mythology, and rituals; “spiritual,” on the other hand, refers to a person’s own quest as an individual—questions one may have about life’s purpose, an appreciation of beauty, ideas about end-of-life ethics and the afterlife, the desire to be recognized in the eyes of another person, and/or the struggle to make sense out of trauma.
Here in Israel, given the religious-secular divide, any attempt to treat the person and not only the disease—that is, to twin the investigation into a patient’s physical pain symptoms with an investigation into his or her psycho-social-spiritual suffering—is extraordinarily fraught. For many of the religious, the wide definition of “spiritual” can be interpreted as an affront to orthodoxy. For many of the secular, anything “spiritual” can seem to be a cover for a back-door conversion or “kiruv” agenda. Add to the religious-secular divide the communal divides between adherents of Judaism, Islam, Christianity, etc.—and the situation gets even more complicated. Add to all of this the fact that even candidates for the officially-recognized rabbinic profession here receive no training in pastoral care—and it becomes clear that there is much work to be done.
Yet why should Eshel and JDC get involved in trying to further the development of the Spiritual Care field here in Israel?
Essentially, the answer lies in Eshel’s desire to make its institutions—senior daycare centers, “supportive communities,” and old-age homes—as life-affirming as possible for participants. There are numerous studies in the international published literature that support the contention that elders (and their families) who experience higher levels of spiritual well-being also report higher levels of physical well-being. In the United States (as well as in places such as Hong Kong, England, and Australia), Spiritual Care is an already-recognized competency field for nurses, social workers, psychologists, and other medical professionals who often work side by side with chaplains as part of a patient’s overall care team. Much of the work being done today in the United States, for instance, is aimed at teaching medical professionals how to conduct spiritual care assessments of a patient, how to bring an element of concerted presence into their bedside manner, and how to recognize when a patient needs the expert-level intervention of a chaplain.
Eshel would like Israel to join the international community’s efforts to make advances in this realm of healthcare, for the benefit of all of Israel’s citizens and particularly for the vulnerable elderly sector. Furthermore, as a few different organizations with the stated goal of training Israel’s equivalent of chaplains have recently sprung up here, Eshel wants to ensure that the spiritual needs of the elderly are included on the list of competency requirements in the developing field of chaplaincy.
Under Yaakov Kabilou’s guidance at Eshel, I put together a two-year plan designed to begin changing the public conversation in Israel about end-of-life, palliative, and spiritual support for the aging. The plan includes creating an orientation group on the concept of Spiritual Care for medical professionals who work in Eshel’s old-age homes and senior daycare centers; placing newly-trained Spiritual Care workers in a few of these institutions; printing a Hebrew Spiritual Care anthology of articles compiled from international journals in the fields of social work, psychology, religion, and medicine (with an emphasis on geriatrics); organizing day conferences for members of target professions in Israel; and publishing a quarterly Hebrew newsletter on Spiritual Care.
In creating this two-year plan, I have had the opportunity to visit Israeli hospitals and speak with physicians who are in ongoing dialogue with Eshel, to meet leaders of aging-sector services in municipal government and local NGOs, to attend training forums for senior daycare center managers and palliative care medical professionals at Eshel’s Tel Hashomer Training Center, and to exchange ideas over email and phone with major chaplaincy experts in the United States. While we wait for our funders to respond to the two-year Spiritual Care proposal, Yaakov has asked me to conduct a related needs-assessment survey of Eshel’s old-age homes and senior daycare centers in the Jerusalem area.
In addition to this primary project at Eshel, I am currently engaged in some smaller ones—all sharing points of contact with the Spiritual Care initiative. For instance, I am about to start leading a weekly Hebrew poetry-reading group for seniors with mild dementia at a daycare center in Tel Aviv, and I am collecting examples of English-language educational materials that Eshel may consider adapting for Israeli family caregivers.
As you can see, Andrea is engaged in a very intricate project which could have a major impact on Israeli society and how it cares for its elderly. Each of our other long-term volunteers—JDC’s Jewish Service Corps—is equally active in helping the respective communities in which they are placed. Irv and I believe that JDC should engage and empower more young volunteers, and so it is imperative that we seek out and create more service opportunities for young American Jews.
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