JDC Expeditions: Adventure in the Far East

Only a few spots left. For more information, please contact Sam Amiel at sama@jdc.org.il 

Learn more at the JDC website. 

In Argentina, Building First-Rate Jewish Leaders through Learning Fest

People of all ages come to Limmud Argentina
bursting with creativity and enthusiasm; they
leave inspired to continue their Jewish journey
by deepening their study in their home communities
Photo: JDC Website

Fernando R. is not a typical bank general manager. Nor was he a typical psychoanalyst, or human resources professional, or business consultant before that. That’s because in addition to the tremendous passion he brings to every endeavor, he also applies the unique skills he acquired through participating in JDC’s leadership and professional training programs in Argentina’s Jewish community.

Fernando recalls fondly his first Jewish experience: the special feeling of watching the lighting of Shabbat candles at the Hebraica JCC in Buenos Aires. “To me, during my youth, to be a Jew meant participating in Jewish youth group, celebrating Kabbalat Shabbat, and spending Jewish holidays with my family.” He trained as a madrich (counselor) and then became a teacher at the madrich school. But his true “aha moment” as a Jewish leader came after he took part in the Program for Directors of Jewish Organizations at Leatid, JDC’s educational and professional training hub for Jewish professionals and community leaders in Latin America.

“Many of the subjects I learned at Leatid—strategy development and planning, setting goals and benchmarks—together with Jewish education, helped me not only in my career as a Jewish community professional, but also in my later life as a businessman.” At the graduation of the two-year program, he made a pledge to maintain and recreate Jewish life for others. “Everyday I try to make sure my actions honor that commitment.”

His promise took him from serving as a community director to becoming Leatid’s president, and then led him to join the founding group for Limmud Argentina, which he chairs today.

Limmud, meaning learning in Hebrew, is a pluralistic grassroots initiative; a conference and event series that brings Jews of all ages together to learn, often in an “unconventional” venue (i.e., not a synagogue or Jewish Community Center). Since it’s inception in the UK in 1980, this completely volunteer-organized program has spread to 50 countries around the globe with thousands of people participating in hundreds of events. They are all bound by a singular philosophy: “everyone is a student and everyone can be a teacher.”

Fernando was excited by the volunteer-driven, team-oriented nature of Limmud, which he hoped would diversify the engagement opportunities available for young people in his Jewish community. “Building something from the start was very exciting,” he recalls.

In the four years he’s been involved in the event, Fernando has seen Limmud blossom. He’s watched Jewish learning take myriad forms as participants engaged in vigorous biblical text study alongside lively discussions about history, the state of their community, and Judaism’s relevance to problems of everyday life. People of all ages come bursting with creativity and enthusiasm; they leave inspired to continue their Jewish journey by deepening their study in their home communities.

The June 26 Limmud Argentina event welcomed participants from throughout the country, as well as Chile and Uruguay. Its success has inspired the creation of new offshoots in the region, which is exciting because while all Limmuds worldwide are connected to each other, each also reflects its own community.

Fernando remains passionate about the Limmud model: “We are building a space of prestige that encourages participants to replicate it in other places based on the same values.” In creating this very special learning initiative, Fernando has made good on his promise of many years ago. He has helped craft a special Jewish learning environment that will continue to play an important part in shaping his community’s Jewish leaders of tomorrow.

Helping the Helpers: Assisting Primary Caregivers Program

Family members of elderly patients in hospitals are often overwhelmed as they suddenly become the primary caregiver for their previously independent loved ones. As Shlomo and Sara's story reveals, they are often unaware of existing services that can help them. JDC's Assisting Primary Caregivers program provides support, information and assistance from the very start.

Shlomo, married and the father of two children, was functioning independently in his elderly years. Recently, his health condition deteriorated, leading to a prolonged hospitalization. Today, although cognitively well, he needs a great deal of assistance for all basic tasks. Sara, his wife spent many hours at his bedside and struggles to care for him. She was told how to hire a caretaker by hospital staff. But given the stress of the moment she was unable to digest this information. Ultimately she felt confused rather than assisted.

Fortunately Sara had the opportunity to attend an Assisting Primary Caregivers support group. During the session, she shared her great difficulty in dealing with her new situation, both on a practical level, and on an emotional level – the difficulty in accepting her new role as caregiver. She expressed these emotions to the group. The other participants expressed their empathy, and the facilitators helped legitimize the anger she felt, helping her see that much of it stemmed from a sense of helplessness and lack of control.

After the group Sara received detailed information and a full explanation about getting a license for a foreign caregiver - information that she was now ready to absorb and act upon.

The Assisting Primary Caregivers program aims to lighten the burden that falls on family members caring for elderly patients, and provide them with resources and support to cope with and care for their elderly family member. The program trains staff at Sheba Hospital to provide primary caregivers with support and information at the critical junction of hospitalization through regular support groups in the hospital. It also provides primary caregivers with online information and resources via a website.

Community Gives Hungry Brothers in Tashkent Aid and Hope

Andrey and Artom battle hunger daily, but they
“look forward to the holidays when the food package
we receive from the Jewish community for Rosh
Hashanah arrives. It’s the only time all year we
eat dates and cookies.”
Photo:  JDC Website

For many children, chewing gum is a common, sweet treat. For the Samaras boys, Andrey, 11, and Artyom, 9, it’s what fastens sheets of plastic to their window to protect them from Tashkent’s howling winter winds or 110 degree heatwave temperatures.

They live on the edge of town, at the end of a long dirt road where wild donkeys, geese, and mule carts drawn by elderly women dodge gaping potholes and large rocks. Andrey and Artyom share a two-room shack with their mother, Lyudmila, a recovering alcoholic. The boys’ stepfather occasionally stops by unannounced; when he’s in a good mood, he leaves a few hundred Uzbeks—less than 20 cents—for food.

The foundation of the Samaras’ mud and straw hut is eroding; the walls are crumbling and in complete decay. The makeshift roof is held on by rocks, bricks, and plastic. There is no electricity or running water.

“We’re too busy taking care of the daily chores and trying to stay alive to think about doing kid stuff,” says Artyom. “We never notice that we don’t have a television, a bathroom, an outhouse, a refrigerator, heat, or enough food in the cupboard.”

The only help these brothers have in the world comes from JDC’s partnership with the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ). The Samaras family relies on the supermarket food card from the IFCJ-JDC Partnership for Children in the Former Soviet Union to purchase groceries each month and is provided otherwise unaffordable basic necessities—sets of toiletries, sheets, school uniforms and supplies. The free medical consultations made possible by the Partnership are especially critical for Artyom, a 4th-grader who is battling failing eyesight, abdominal pains from a developmental defect, as well as an anxiety disorder.

Though the family’s most immediate challenge is surviving day to day, the IFCJ-JDC Partnership also ensures through JDC’s Jewish Family Service model of case management that the Samaras receive assistance that goes beyond the material and engages them in local Jewish activities. The boys’ haven 15 kilometers from home is the JDC supported Tashkent Jewish Community Center, where Andrey and Artyom visit for help with their homework, to celebrate Jewish holidays, and to participate with their mom in Jewish family retreats—a rare opportunity for them to learn and share Jewish experiences with other families.

JDC’s Israeli Children’s Post-Trauma Program Expanded to Japan

Tokyo, September 6, 2011 ― For “Yuriko,” a Japanese mother struggling to help her child overcome fears about another tsunami like the one that hit the island in March, solutions seem hard to come by. But now, through an American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) post-trauma program using a huggable plush dog named “Hibuki,” Japanese children and their families will take a step toward healing. Pioneered during the Second Lebanon War to help Israeli children overcome stress and anxiety from rocket attacks, the Hibuki program has recently been expanded to Japan by JDC experts who visited tsunami-affected regions and trained Japanese teachers, nurses and other professionals to use the sad eyed, long armed stuffed animal to “hug” children and talk through their worries.

“Our work in Israel and in places like Haiti and South Asia has demonstrated that treating trauma, especially in children affected by war or natural disaster, is a vital step towards recovery,” said Judy Amit, Global Director of JDC’s International Development Program and a clinical psychologist. “By utilizing Japan’s history of doll-play and by helping our Japanese partners tweak the Hibuki program to mesh with local cultural norms, we are working together to ensure that children here find solace in the wake of tragedy.”

The Hibuki program — whose training in Japan was carried out by JDC’s Dr. Flora Mor and Dr. Shai Hen-Gal— is based on the principle that children who actively face their stress can alleviate fears and better adapt to life after a trauma. The child is told that his/her Hibuki is scared and suffering. By working with the stuffed animal, the child transfers his/her own fears onto the doll and in fact, through the doll, helps "treat" him/herself.

To date, 50,000 Israeli children have been treated using this method and Tel Aviv University professor Avi Sadeh, in a study on the program, has noted the high rates of reduction in post-traumatic responses and distress in children. The Hibuki treatment method was developed by JDC, the Israeli Ministry of Education - Psychological Counseling Service, and the Department of Psychology at Tel Aviv University.

“There is no doubt that the Israeli presence and their experience is echoing loudly and powerfully, especially highlighting the need to implement this method in kindergartens in Japan. The JDC team showed professionalism, creativity and extraordinary adaptability, harnessing the experience gained in Israel for coping with stress and trauma to help us, here on the other side of the world. I'm full of respect and appreciation,” said Dr. Michiko Hara, founder of the Japanese Puppet Therapy Association, whose conference the JDC experts attended and participated in while in Japan.

In addition to the Hibuki program, JDC and the Jewish Community of Japan’s comprehensive and immediate response to the earthquake/tsunami has included the provision of critical emergency assistance, such as food, water, medical aid, hygiene products, blankets and tents. JDC has also furnished two schools and provided school supplies to children in the most-devastated prefectures. JDC also supported the establishment of Israel Defense Force (IDF) field hospital in Minamisanriko. To learn more, visit JDC’s Japan Relief page.

JDC’s long history of working in and with Japan includes: the rebuilding of a school in Kosovo with Japan after the 1999 conflict; working in Kobe until 1941 supporting Jewish refugees fleeing Hitler's Europe; and supporting Jewish refugees in Yokohama between 1918-20, most of whom were fleeing Russia.

JDC's non-sectarian disaster relief programs are funded by special appeals of the Jewish Federations of North America and tens of thousands of individual donors to JDC. JDC coordinates its disaster relief activities with the U.S. Department of State, USAID, Interaction, the Israel Foreign Ministry, MASHAV, Israeli relief agencies, and the United Nations. JDC gained substantial disaster expertise in Haiti in 2010 as well as in Sri Lanka, Chile, Thailand, Turkey, Indonesia, India, New Zealand and Maldives following the Indian Ocean Tsunami of 2004

Happy Birthday Ralph Goldman!

Check out this wonderful birthday tribute to Ralph in celebration of his 97th birthday.

Learn about the Ralph I. Goldman Fellowship here: http://jdc.org/ralph