To the Rescue: JDC Leads Growing Emergency Relief Effort For Greek Jewish Community

New York, February 28, 2012― As financial conditions worsen for Greek Jews, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), through the support of the Jewish Federations of North America, is leading a growing group of global partners, including Lauder Foundation and Leichtag Family Foundation, to aid the financially-strapped Jewish community. Suffering under the weight of high unemployment, a loss of income, and new taxes, Jews are out of work and seeking assistance. In response, JDC has advocated for a pan-European and pan-Jewish response and has donated, to date, $330,000 for welfare and school scholarships to the Athens Jewish community, which has been the most hard hit. Additionally, JDC will be holding its European regional Gesher young leadership conference in Thessaloniki to ensure young Greek Jews can participate locally.

Jewish Caring and Warmth Carry Family through Moldova’s Harsh Winter

For families like Tatiana’s, who barely make ends 

meet on a monthly income of $70 in the good 

months, JDC is a lifeline.

January brings the heaviest snow in Moldova, so Tatiana, 11, is spending most of her days huddled around the gas stove with her parents, two younger sisters, 9 and 6, and a teenage cousin who lives with them.

The family’s two-room apartment is in an old Soviet-style building that has no electricity or running water, no kitchen or bathroom, and no heat. Thankfully, the local JDC Hesed (welfare center) has supplied coal to tie them over for the long, icy season, and sealed their drafty windows to keep in the heat as long as possible.

Given Second Chance, Israeli Immigrant Turns Her Life Around

"If you just have the willpower, people will help you 

advance in life. Who would have thought I could go 

out and earn a college degree at the age of 44? But 

I am doing it!" said Avigail, who got a second 

chance through JDC's employment training 

program for immigrant and disadvantaged women.

Photo: JDC Website

When Avigail, 44, looks back at the bleak days of her early twenties a shadow seems to come over her. She can hardly believe how far she's come today.

Originally from a village in the Caucasus mountains, Avigail, her seven siblings, and their parents immigrated to Israel in 1978. They were extremely poor and married off each of the children as quickly as they could in hopes of giving them a better life.

By 17 Avigail was living with her husband and his parents, serving under her mother-in- law, as is traditional in Kavkazi families (originating from the Caucasus region). "I was just a kid," Avigail says. "I did not know myself at all but I was expected to serve my mother-in-law's large family and keep everyone pleased. I felt completely invisible."

Young Leader Brings Jewish Inspiration Home to India

“After each JDC leadership program, I come back 

home to Mumbai with added enthusiasm to do 

something in my own community,” says Meirah. 

“And this keeps us growing.”

Hailing from a small and distant Jewish community like India’s, 21-year-old Meirah Bhastekar called JDC’s leadership training programs an opportunity to “discover the global Jewish community and embark upon building an international Jewish identity” with other leaders her age.

Meirah’s own strong Jewish identity began with her family. She fondly recalls Shabbat and holiday services at her grandparents’ home with her cousins, aunts, and uncles. “Being Jewish in a country where almost no one knows who Jews are can be very difficult, but my mom made sure we were always informed and were proud of our culture and tradition.”

And with that pride her family instilled a call to action. “Words like ‘responsibility’ came early to my ears,” she says. Active as a volunteer since 2005 and a graduate of JDC’s youth leadership training sessions, Meirah has been involved in almost every youth program and Jewish Community Center event in Mumbai. She credits her teenage youth group experience with keeping her “connected to my Jewish world” amid the struggles of adolescence and the start of an advertising career.

JDC invited Meirah to take part in a special session of the Buncher Community Leadership Program in Israel designed for the Indian community. She says that in addition to giving her an exhilarating first taste of Israel, “the inspiring program made me look at myself as a Jewish educator.”

Buncher also enhanced Meirah’s commitment to serve her community. She is now secretary of the local Jewish youth movement, which is spearheading a fundraising campaign to aid young people who need help paying for their schooling.

In 2010, Meirah received additional training at JDC’s international Jewish youth camp in Szarvas, Hungary, where she and other leaders from India met counselors from other countries and received key pointers from Jewish educators. Meirah returned from Szarvas “determined to take this experience forward in our community, for our kids’ day camps and youth camps.”

Further enrichment for Meirah and five of her peers came this past January at the Hadracha Training Institute in Turkey. She welcomed this opportunity to explore “an alternative community model that seemed to us the ideal Jewish community”—tightly knit, with a variety of institutions and an abundance of dedicated volunteers.

“After each one of these programs, I come back with added enthusiasm to do something in my own community,” says Meirah. “And this keeps us growing.”

JDC Responds to Extreme Winter Weather in Europe and Former Soviet Union

New York, February 3, 2012― As a wave of dangerous winter weather continues to grip Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has activated its emergency winter response system to supplement the care it already provides to tens of thousands of Jewish elderly and needy children at this time of year. In addition to the heating fuel, blankets, warm jackets, clothes and boots JDC has provided for 20 winters in the past, JDC staff are currently providing extra heating supplies and food to those who cannot leave home and called to check in on those who need additional medical care in some of the hardest hit areas like the Balkans and Ukraine.

"We've been able to mobilize quickly and respond to this latest deep freeze because emergency protocols are inherent to our historic winter relief program. For these Jews, many of whom have no one else to turn to, we are there to ensure an extra lifeline and much-needed sense of community at this time," said JDC CEO Steven Schwager.

In Bulgaria, temperatures hit record lows and Sophie, an elderly Sofia resident, was found by her JDC social worker in her kitchen - the only room in her small apartment with central heating - fully clothed in a winter hat, a heavy sweater, and gloves. JDC provided Sophie with two electric heaters and will cover her electricity bills for January and February ― costs that would consume 60% of her meager monthly pension. This emergency assistance supplements the daily hot meal and medicines Sophie regularly receives from JDC.

Every year, in addition to winter relief, JDC provides a variety of welfare assistance and Jewish community connections to needy and vulnerable Jews throughout Europe and the former Soviet Union.