Hallmark Jewish Renewal in the Heart of Eastern Europe

Discover the new chapter of a two-millennia-old story about Bulgaria, where JDC is helping this once-thriving Jewish community, nearly silenced by war and communism, create a remarkable renaissance.

JDC/PRESENTENSE NAMES FIRST MOSCOW FELLOWS

MOSCOW, January 24, 2012― The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and PresenTense have announced 13 young Jewish entrepreneurs as its first group of Moscow-based Kaet Fellows. From a high tech expert to a small town rabbi, these Russian social innovators will enter a 5-month incubator where they will transform their ideas for addressing community challenges into sustainable local ventures. Such ventures will include those focusing on Jewish education, emergency medical training, the needs of Jewish seniors, volunteerism, Jewish art and culture, among other topic areas.

“One of the cornerstones of our work in the former Soviet Union over the last 20 years has been to build the next generation of Jewish leadership and we’re very proud that together with PresenTense our first class of fellows will bring a new level of innovation and creativity to a Jewish community yearning for new ways to connect and grow,” said JDC CEO Steven Schwager.

The Kaet Fellowship is made up of seven interconnected modules. Fellows participate in a holistic program including professional mentors, personal coaches, and a curriculum based in cutting-edge business and entrepreneurship theory. At the end of the program Fellows participate in launch night, the culmination of the Fellows' hard work - a final celebration of innovation when the entrepreneurs pitch and present their ventures to their local community.

“PresenTense is incredibly excited, and honored, to work with the JDC and join in its historic effort to renew and empower the Jewish community in the former Soviet Union. The energy and excitement we've seen on the ground in Moscow has convinced us that the former Soviet Union is emerging as a major power center for the renewal of the Jewish People worldwide, and we are especially excited to connect Russian Jewish social entrepreneurs and volunteers to our community around the world,” said Ariel Beery, co-founder of PresenTense. “We're especially excited to walk in the footsteps of our hero, Ralph Goldman, in developing a deep partnership with the Moscovite Jewish community for mutual growth and benefit.”

The first class of JDC/PresenTense fellows include:

Yohanan Kosenko - 27, a rabbi, will create a database of a Jewish cemetery in Moscow as a way of telling the story of the community by involving the younger generation in telling the story of their grandparents.

Kira Belelyubskaya and Evgenia Mazurova – 45 and 34, both local Hesed employees, will develop a program that educates families with elderly relatives on the challenges facing aging people and create new intergenerational connections.

Ekaterina Moreyno and Olga Belozerskaya – 41 and 43, a professional athlete and a museum professional respectively, will build a program to provide robust first aid training, a field severely lacking in Russia, at a local Jewish organization. Will utilize Israeli medical technology and ensure the Jews of Russia can help in emergency situations.

Olga Dukor – 29, a journalism professional, will create and utilize photo exhibits as a way of helping people explore Judaism and Jewish life in Moscow.

Olga Fomenko – 52, a Hebrew teacher with a long career in the music industry, will develop an initiative that links Jewish people seeking volunteer opportunities with Moscow Jewish organizations seeking such help.

Arkady Baranovsky - 34, and author, will develop a theater group for released Jewish inmates. Currently has a project running in a first stage but is looking for expansion

Ksenia Nalogina – 21, a student, will build a religious Shabbat living space close to synagogues for young visitors to Moscow (possibly a hostel).

Evgeny Kerbel – 35, founder of a headhunting firm, will create a recruitment agency for Israelis in Moscow.

Inessa Sinkevich – 34, head of a Jewish kindergarten, will develop an internet portal organizing activities for Jewish moms.

Sergey Novikov – 29, a high tech expert, will establish a school of Jewish art and music, conducting educational activities for children.

Olga Lovinsky – 33, owner of a jewelry distribution business, will organize large-scale book and toy exchange and garage sales for Jewish families with children.

About PresenTense

PresenTense is upgrading the Jewish people's operating system by growing the next generation of social entrepreneurs. We build Community around expressing and sharing new ideas, enable Creativity to refine those ideas, and train Pioneers to launch their ideas into successful ventures. PresenTense is currently operating in 12 different communities worldwide, and in the past 5 years helped launch over 150 new ventures shaping the future of the Jewish people.

Enterprising Community Leader Mirrors the New Dynamism of Turkey’s Young Jews

JDC in Turkey offers a myriad of opportunities for 

young Jews to become involved—or more involved

—in the local community, and for those who are 

interested, to play key roles in its future 

development.

Photo: Jamie Rosenberg (via JDC website)

"Our community is small, but our potential is enormous. If given the right opportunities, there is nothing we can't do." That's what 29-year-old volunteer organizer Lisi says about her peer-run Jewish leadership group in Istanbul, Turkey.

Judging from the growing numbers of previously unaffiliated young Jews that she's successfully recruited into the club, Lisi's enthusiasm is producing great results.

Lisi's story is not so different from many of her contemporaries', not just in Turkey but in many parts of the world. She grew up loving Shabbat celebrations at her grandparents' house, going to Jewish school, and taking part in youth group. But by the time she graduated from university her Jewish circle was shrinking while her world and her horizons were steadily growing. At the same time, questions about her Jewish identity and whether she had the tools she needed to command her future began to arise.

"I learned about the local young leadership group and was curious about the professional opportunities that it offered. I didn't even know it was Jewish at first; it was a nice surprise." Like many of JDC's leadership programs for young Jews, the group's seminars combined Jewish learning with professional skill development.

In Turkey, JDC offers a myriad of opportunities for young Jews to become involved—or more involved—in the local community, and for those who are interested, to play key roles in its future development. Programs include training seminars such as Buncher Community Leadership, which helps strengthen Jewish identity and provides mentoring for young leaders; the Leatid Center for Jewish Leadership, which works with seasoned and senior Jewish professionals to hone their management and community development skills; and Jewish education and networking for young adults through Gesher regional programs. Additionally, the Hadracha Training Institute seminars for senior youth leaders, where Lisi says she garnered important know-how, are creating role models and facilitators for the Turkish Jewish community and other communities in the region.

Three years later, Lisi has become one of the group's leading organizers, and she's implementing the very strategy that got her interested to involve a whole new cohort. "Reaching people and attracting them into the community is the hardest thing to do," explains Lisi, a successful account manager for an international fashion brand. "But our network is growing because we know our target group and what resonates with them: 20- to 30-year-olds who are thinking about their careers."

The global recession hit Turkey particularly hard and recent university graduates unable to find work are turning to the Jewish community for help. "We give them opportunities, help them build skills in communications and management, and facilitate networking. We offer young people experiences they can't turn down."

Seeing positive results, Lisi and her friends started thinking more broadly about what kinds of activities young Turkish Jews might enjoy. They organized the group's first heritage trip outside of Turkey, to Spain, which attracted over 100 participants. The following year the group traveled to Prague and to Rome, and by then participation had doubled in size.

"Part of the aim of each tour is to meet young Jews wherever we go. It seems like it is getting more difficult for Jews to find each other, because we are getting separated from one another as there are more challenges in life and more advantages outside of our communities. We are finding each other through this group and building a synergy by inviting new young people to every program."

With each success, Lisi's motivation redoubles. Looking ahead she is optimistic. "We've brought people together and we enjoy being together. Now the next step needs to make us even better!" she insists. "We are looking to organize bigger programs, setting new sights to attract even more people to our world."

JDC Israel - People with Disabilities and Sustainable Environment

A great video from JDC Israel about the opportunities for people with disabilities in Israel in the environmental field.

Community’s Caring Warms Winter Chill for FSU Elderly



Perel relies on Hesed year-round
for food and other support.
Photo: JDC Website

 Perel Geller dreads the Ukrainian winter, when plunging temperatures and long months of snowfall compound her daily hardship. At the age of 80, she has gotten used to living alone in a tiny shack without utilities; but it is getting harder to endure the below-freezing gusts on her already demoralizing walks to a shared outhouse. Her only bit of relief is the winter assistance she receives from JDC’s Hesed network.

Distributed once a year in advance of the season, JDC’s winter relief packages—warm blankets, clothing, and heating fuel—made the harsh winter months bearable for more than 27,000 impoverished Jews across the former Soviet Union last year; people like Perel whose well-being depends on services from JDC’s Hesed social welfare centers. A beneficiary of Hesed Shlomo in Zhitomir since 1997, today Perel also receives a food card with which to purchase groceries, medicines and medical consultations, as well as personal hygiene and laundry service, and she participates in local JDC-supported Day Center activities with other Jewish elderly. These vital acts of loving kindess (hesed) let Perel know she is not alone, especially after so many years of suffering.

Born in July 1930, Perel endured repeated evacuations and much privation during World War II. Her father, a laborer, joined the Soviet Army when the war began, while Perel, her mother, and her two siblings fled first to Stalingrad, then to the Volga region, and finally to Kyrgizia. There, 11-year-old Perel had to work with her mother on a collective farm to help support her family. Forced to share a tiny apartment lacking heat and utilities with other families, the Gellers were constantly sick. But despite physical and emotional hardship as well as the family’s repeated displacement during the war, Perel managed to save her mother’s Hebrew prayerbooks—relics she treasures to this day.

When the Gellers returned to Zhitomir following its liberation in 1944 (where they were soon joined by Perel’s father) their home had been given to others and their family was reduced to living in and were a windowless, one-room apartment. The small stove they installed for cooking and a bit of heat caused them endless, terrible headaches.

Overcoming tremendous obstacles, Perel completed medical school and worked for years as an obstetrician. But her siblings soon moved from Zhitomir, leaving her to care for their increasingly infirm parents. Since their death, Perel has been suffering from a variety of medical conditions all alone—save for Hesed.

“Thanks to them I can live in dignity, feeling I am part of a caring community that has not forgotten me.”

State-of-the-Art School Gives Haiti’s Children New Beginning

The Zoranje middle school is restoring a modicum 

of normalcy for children whose lives were 

devastated by Haiti's January 2010 earthquake.

Photo: JDC website

Fabienne S. says her favorite school subject is English because, "I love the language of the people who come from other places to Haiti. I want to be able to communicate with them."

Now that she's attending 8th grade at the Ecole Nouvelle Zoranje school that JDC recently helped build and open in partnership with Prodev Foundation, she'll be able to do just that.*

The state-of-the-art, handicap-accessible campus includes kindergarten, elementary, and middle schools. Thirty-seven teachers work with a student body of 650 kids, 25-30% of whom are considered internally displaced people in Haiti following the earthquake. The school follows the national education curriculum but also offers modern teaching methods, extracurricular activities like arts, music, science, sports, and of course, Fabienne's favorite subject.

Fabienne will be learning English in part through a special program called Teach the World Online, a volunteer-based initiative that uses Skype to connect kids in classrooms around the globe with native English-speaker teachers. Volunteers and students alike find it incredibly exciting to meet each other over the internet and get to know each others' different 'worlds.'

Lucien S., Fabienne's Social Studies teacher, says the Zoranje school is special "because the administration understands the reality in Haiti and does a lot to help the children get a good education. The school is adaptive to the conditions in the country."

Even before the January 2010 earthquake—one of recent history's worst natural disasters—Haiti was considered the poorest country in the western hemisphere. The quake killed over 300,000 people and left an estimated 1.3 million people homeless. Two years on, some 634,000 people live in displaced persons camps. 50% of the population is under the age of 21 and the country has a reported 60% illiteracy rate. Educating this large number of young people to ensure the country's hopeful future is not easy, but Zoranje is a promising start.

The school is based in a town of approximately 5,000 people, 30 minutes outside of Port-au-Prince, Haiti's capital. JDC equipped the school with a water well, tank, and pump. JDC also built a Mother and Child Clinic as part of the Zoranje campus, which will serve as a health education center, teaching the kids and the community about basic hygiene and disease prevention. The clinic will be operated by another JDC partner, Zanmi Lasante/Partners in Health, and will offer basic medical services, vaccinations, and HIV/AIDS prevention; as well as family planning, pre-natal services to expectant mothers, and care for babies and toddlers.

The Zoranje school is meant to be a model that will be replicated in other parts of Haiti in the future. The experience and expertise gained here will offer lessons to expanding the network of schools—and changing the reality of education in Haiti.

As Fabienne's teacher points out, "education is a good investment in Haiti because it will help Haiti have more responsible citizens who can contribute to its development. Investing in the education of Haiti's children is the answer to many of this country's problems."

Fabienne is eager to become a doctor and knows Zoranje is an important first step, especially considering where she came from. Before moving to this community with her parents and five older siblings, Fabienne lived in Cité Soleil, an extremely poor and densely populated area in Port-au-Prince, often referred to as "the slums." She used to spend three hours every day just getting to and from school, leaving little time for homework.

Today, her daily reality is starkly different—and a lot more promising. With a huge smile she says, "Thank you for allowing me and so many kids who were unable to go to school previously come to Zoranje."

* The state-of-the-art, handicap-accessible middle school in Zoranje was built and opened by JDC in partnership with Bonita Trust

Disabilities Inclusion Champion Pioneers Groundbreaking Israel Initiative

Jay Ruderman visits the Zusman Center for 

Independent Living in Jerusalem, a program of 

Israel Unlimited in which the Ruderman Family 

Foundation is a founding partner.

Jay Ruderman is a longtime advocate for the inclusion of people with disabilities in his native Boston and his current home, the State of Israel. Through his leadership of the Ruderman Family Foundation, he promotes the rights of people with disabilities in the Jewish community and works to strengthen the relationship between Israeli leaders and American Jews.

The Ruderman Family Foundation partnered with JDC and the Israeli Government in 2009 to create Israel Unlimited—a national initiative to meet the needs of Israel's 700,000 adults with disabilities (17.9% of the population) and improve their ability to live independently and integrate into Israeli society.

More than halfway into the program, Jay discusses its successes, challenges, and his steadfast vision for the future.

JDC: Israel Unlimited runs extensive community services for people with physical, sensory, emotional, and cognitive disabilities, as well as individuals with chronic health problems that cause functional impairment. What initially inspired your activism for people with disabilities?

JR: Originally the Ruderman Foundation made a commitment to Jewish day school education in Boston, but very quickly we realized that children with special needs did not share in the opportunity. We became concerned with this was an issue of fairness: Why should some children have the advantage of a Jewish education but others—sometimes in the same family—be denied it?

Ironically, after a few years of working on the issue, it became that much more personal to me when one of my nephews was diagnosed with autism.

JDC: Given your prominent work on inclusion issues in the US, how did you get involved in the work in Israel?

JR: We wanted to go from impacting a major Jewish community in the United States to being able to effect change on a national level in Israel.

We partnered with the Joint [JDC], which is an extremely professional organization and committed to making sure funders get the most impact for their philanthropic dollars. We were lucky to have the opportunity to found an initiative as partners and take the lead on the inclusion issue in Israel.

JDC: How did the innovative Israel Unlimited partnership emerge and who was involved? What do you see as JDC's role in the program?

JR: Our Foundation approached this initiative as an investment for which we provided participation as an entrepreneurial partner. JDC offered the expertise and research on the needs in Israel, and also brought in the government to bring the program's innovation and inclusivity to a new level. The Joint's expertise was required to make the partnership with the Israeli government work.

Israel Unlimited marks the first time that a private foundation has sat at a table with the Joint and the Israeli government in the field of disabilities.

Our Foundation is very entrepreneurial in the way we approach raising awareness and changing public attitudes, which we see as integral to the program being really successful. Our investment was matched and will most likely be expanded from an initial four-year financial commitment to a program continuously operated by the government that grows and evolves to meet the needs of the community.

Today the Board of Israel Unlimited includes a wide variety of stakeholders, including the Treasury Department, which ensures that the model programs are integrated within governmental policy and sustained by the government when the developmental stage is over.

JDC: As an advocate you've frequently said, "Government needs to give a little [to people with disabilities] to get a lot." What do you see as the government's role in ensuring inclusion of people with disabilities?

JR: Society tends to see first the disability and then the person. And though society wants to provide special services for people with disabilities, they are very costly. Government needs to step in and find the funds because equal opportunity is what we should be about as a people.

People with disabilities have to deal with discrimination as well as a financial impact. It is up to us to be a better society and include them in all aspects of life, including education, employment, and health care.

JDC: How have you seen the program grow and develop since its start?

JR: We are at the half-way point now and Israel Unlimited has taken on a variety of innovative projects, from Supportive Communities that give people the care they need to live independently in their own homes to special accessible Ulpans (Hebrew language learning programs for new immigrants) that allow people to really engage in Israeli society.

We have learned from different ministries that the Israeli government approaches groups of people by the type of disability that they have, which often leaves wide gaps for people with multiple disabilities or those whose issues are not well defined.

We've been able to see a better picture of what the needs are, and what the opportunities could be. Whatever isn't yet being addressed by the government is a space for something new and innovative.

Investing in the Joint is investing in knowledge, history, and an institution with the power to work with Israel's government to make society better. Our Foundation believes strongly in the relationship we have developed with the Joint. That's why we made the investment. Now other funders are showing interest in this area, and it is very exciting to imagine how the initiative can grow.

Many of the benefits probably won't be known until well into the future but the potential is tremendous.

JDC: Israel Unlimited works to integrate and enable people with disabilities to live rich, fulfilled, and independent lives. What success story has particularly stuck with you?

JR: Through the Centers for Independent Living, the confidence and the self-esteem that people gain from being linked into a network, a job market, a social scene, is transformational. People who were previously prisoners in their homes come out into the world!

I remember being in a neighborhood in the south of Israel where I was going to pay a visit to a homebound person in a walk-up. We saw some kids playing in the street and asked them if they knew the person and they said, "no." When neighbors don't even know you're there, when there's no one to bring you medicine or help you fix a broken faucet—let alone offer you human contact or friendship—that's when you are truly invisible.

But people with disabilities make up 18% of Israeli society. They should be included…and we're seeing tremendous progress in that direction.

JDC: When you speak generally about the trend of people with disabilities and employment, you reference the 'win-win-win' between employers, people with disabilities, and the government: "Many employers have seen their relatively small investment repaid in spades, with loyal and dependable workers who in many cases outpace those employees without disabilities. It is truly a win-win-win: Employers get good workers, individuals achieve independence and a new measure of confidence, and the government, over time, sees more tax revenue and less dependence on disability benefits." What such example have you seen in the field?

JR: In our work in Boston, we were initially focused on young kids but with time we began to think about what was happening to them after they graduated. Young people with disabilities in their 20s often must confront loneliness and limited or no job opportunities. So we partnered with our local Federation (CJP - Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston), Jewish Vocational Services, and Hebrew Senior Life (a provider of senior housing and services), and decided we would take a new approach.

Rather than providing general skills training, we asked our employment partner, Hebrew Senior Life, what skills they needed in new workers. We then began training 20-somethings with disabilities in those specific skills so that we could place them in viable employment there. The program has just begun, but we expect that there will be many new jobs created for people with disabilities, and perhaps almost as important, interactions between the elderly and the employees that will be mutually gratifying.

JDC: Back in Israel, Israel Unlimited is already helping thousands of people with disabilities and their families live independently in their homes, become activists for accessibility and community involvement, provide support services for their disabled peers, and much more. What are your goals for the partnership's remaining year and a half?

JR: I see the initiative as a work in progress. The pilot projects have spread throughout the country and we can look at different levels of success: how much government money comes in, what other funders come in, and what new avenues for partnership have emerged. I focus on the funding community because that's what I know and because other funders can help expand the impact.

Our efforts are entrepreneurial, which makes philanthropy exciting. We are investing and we are privileged to be involved in changing our society for the better.

JDC: ADVANCE 2011: The Ruderman Jewish Special Needs Conference just took place and you've expressed great excitement about being "the incubator for ideas that will lead to better and more effective services." Who was the conference for and what kind of exchanges did it facilitate?

JR: ADVANCE brought together funders, experts from the field of disability, and community leaders to share information and learn from each other, and transform the way communities serve the needs of adults and children with disabilities.

We are facing an overwhelming challenge with this issue, in terms of cost, complexity, etc. We will have no real impact if we operate individually. ADVANCE brought together major funders and partners, including CJP, the Joint, JFN, and JFNA, because we all need to work together to have a greater social impact.

JDC's Work Comes To A Close In Algeria

From Steve Schwager, CEO:

According to some scholars, Jewish life in Algeria probably dates back nearly 2,600 years, to the time of the destruction of the First Temple in Jerusalem in 586 B.C.E. So Penny and I feel that it is of special importance to note that this past July, the last Jew in Algeria assisted by JDC, Mrs. Esther Azoulay, passed away.

Her passing brings JDC's direct program involvement in that troubled country to a close after a period of 60 years. And how did that work begin?

JDC’s connection started with its support for the Refugee Welfare Committee, which was established in Algeria in 1943 in order to bring assistance to European Jews who found asylum there during WWII. Later, when the State of Israel came into being, JDC also supported the aliyah of Jews from Algeria. However, in 1953, the Federation of Jewish Communities of Algeria felt that JDC should expand its programs for the Jews of Algeria in both the social and cultural arenas, and a JDC office was finally opened in Algiers in 1957.

JDC provided assistance in many areas: home visits to the needy, support for the development of educational institutions, medical care, cash assistance, and food packages, including matzot for Pesach. By 1959, 4,000 Jews were benefiting from JDC’s aid. In addition, JDC helped strengthen Jewish life in Algeria by supporting the construction of a rabbinical school and Jewish summer camps.

Even prior to 1962, when Algeria achieved its independence, Jews in Algeria had been facing hostility from certain segments of both the local French and Arab population. And once the French departed, Algerian rule was marked by militant Arab nationalism, growing Islamization, and virulent anti-Zionism. By the end of 1963, the 120,000-member community had dwindled to some 3,000-4,000 Jews.

In 1964, Mr. Choucroun, President of the Jewish community of Saïda, sent the following letter to Dr. Franco Levi, the JDC representative in Algeria:

At the time when I am preparing to leave Algeria, I would like to say once again how much I am grateful to the organization you represent and for your good deeds. You saved people in distress … thanks to your actions, children and elderly smiled at life. There do not remain any more poor people in Saïda.

The story of the final desecration/destruction of the last remaining synagogue in Algiers in 1988 makes stomach-churning reading even today. The damage done was so extensive that the synagogue, now in ruins, had to be permanently closed. By the end of the eighties, only 94 Jews remained in the country.

In the mid-1990’s the assassination of two Jews in Algiers marked the end of an era.

JDC remained a pillar of strength, providing assistance to those who needed help even as the community continued to shrink.

Since 1985, Line Meller, then living in Algiers, served as JDC’s liaison with the remaining Jews of Algeria.On our behalf she helped to assure the welfare of a small number of aged and impoverished Jews, who continued to receive cash assistance from JDC until they passed away.

Although JDC could not redeem these unfortunate Jews from their suffering since they did not want to emigrate, the work that JDC did kept them alive. JDC enabled Line Meller to light a candle in a black hole of darkness.

In 2010, Mr. Messaoud Chetrit, 82-years-old and the last Jewish man still living in Oran, passed away. A delegation of Jews came from France to ensure that he was buried according to the traditional Jewish ritual in the very cemetery of Oran where he had been the final caretaker.

And that brings us to the last Jew in Algeria assisted by JDC, Mrs. Azoulay, who had a very difficult life. In 1992, her case came to the attention of JDC, which from that point on provided her with regular cash assistance. Over a period of two decades, this JDC aid enabled Mrs. Azoulay to pay for all the medical care she needed for her multiple ailments. But perhaps what she treasured most about this JDC connection was the reassurance it gave her that she had not been forgotten by her people.

Among her last words to JDC was this postcard, sent to Yechiel Bar-Chaim in JDC’s Paris office:

January 10, 2011

Dear Mr. Bar-Chaim,

I received the magazines and the greetings card that you sent me together with the wishes of all JDC Paris staff. I was very touched. I had tears in my eyes. Fortunately, there are people like you who have compassion for others.

I wish you and the JDC Paris staff good health, peace in the world and everything you wish.

I send you my love and thank you again.

Esther Azoulay