Traveling to Kiev with JDC

Kiev is a vast city of nearly 3 million. JDC's work feeds impoverished Holocaust survivors and other elderly, and helps families in need. It is also about building a caring community, and we felt an integral part of one during our visit.

by Rebecca Neuwirth, Director, JDC Ambassadors

Before leaving for Kiev, someone told me that the city was beautiful, all orthodox churches and Dostoyevsky. And in JDC reports, I read about the immense poverty and dire living conditions of families with troubled children and the elderly.

Not surprisingly, on the first day of our staff mission in Kiev, it seems all of this is true. A city of contradictions, a vast city, vital, sad, moving, with a future that is very uncertain.

Woman of Valor Brings Hope to Struggling Jewish Families in Uruguay

I am very honored and thankful to have the

chance to restore dignity to so many Jewish

families and to show them that there is always

a Jewish heart and hand to help,” says Miriam,

one of the founding members of the Tzedaka

women’s commission in Montevideo, Uruguay.

Photo: JDC Website

Miriam has been a dedicated volunteer with Montevideo’s Jewish community for years because, she says, “our people should know that there is always a heart and hand to help each other in our time of need.” She spends hours each week giving dignity back to hundreds of poor Jewish families through the Tzedaká Uruguay Foundation (a Jewish social services organization established with help from JDC) where her husband is currently president.

In fact, Miriam is one of the founding members of a Tzedaká women’s commission that supports programs for children and families struggling to rebuild their lives since the country’s economic crisis earlier this decade. These are families like the Grinbergs, whose financial situation became so desperate that the five of them were sleeping between washing machines in the back of their laundromat business.

Preparing Immigrants for Army Service - And A Brighter Future

JDC works with immigrants, ultra-Orthodox, at-

risk youth, and other population groups to help

them smoothly integrate into army service

because the IDF is such a critical rite of passage

for all Israelis.

Photo: JDC Website

When Malash A., 21, an Ethiopian Israeli, received his draft notice from the Israeli Defense Force (IDF) three years ago he was filled with shock and worry. His family had moved from a rural village in Ethiopia to Jerusalem only a few years before and was still struggling to adapt to the cultural realities of life in Israel; his parents did not have the personal experience to advise him through the recruitment process.

Malash's instinct was to wait until his friends received their notice and follow their lead. Little did he know that not showing up to the army base on his assigned recruitment date could land him in jail. That's when JDC stepped in to help, bringing Malash in an army preparedness program that would change the course of his future.

Because civilian life in Israel tends to naturally separate into distinct cultures—with separate neighborhoods, communities, and schools—disadvantaged new immigrants, impoverished Israelis, and others from vulnerable backgrounds have little chance to understand the role of army service in Israeli society. JDC's army preparedness programs aim to fill this critical knowledge gap.