Around the world with JDC Short Term Service Programs

JDC is working to connect young, North American Jews to the global Jewish community through Short-Term Service Programs for college students and young adults.

Participants engage in meaningful volunteer projects directly connected to JDC’s global programs that give them the opportunity to take action to meet challenges facing Jewish communities abroad, gain insight into global Jewish needs, connect with local Jewish peers and explore notions of global Jewish identity and collective responsibility. Participants return home feeling a real responsibility to care for their Jewish “family” overseas, and prepared to take action on behalf of the community they visited.

Read about their experiences on the official blog, JDC: In Service.

Pictures from recent trips:

Students from Hillel at University of Maryland Baltimore County with their peers at the Hillel in Odessa, Ukraine. 

Students from Hillels at the University of Texas at Austin, the University of Houston, and the University of North Texas after painting the synagogue in Basavilbaso, Argentina

Students from Hillel at Penn State University celebrate the re-opening of the childrens’ playroom at the JCC in Tallinn, Estonia.

By the end of 2010, nearly 800 North American Jewish young adults will have experienced a JDC Short-Term Service Program and served in communities around the globe, from Israel, to Kazakhstan, to Argentina, to Rwanda.

For more information on JDC’s service programs, visit www.JDC.org/serve.