Join us on May 8 for our JDC Ambassadors luncheon to hear
Will Recant speak more in depth about his work.
The lunch will focus on JDC's efforts in rescue and reconciliation in
conflict zones.
The op-ed piece below,
written by Will Recant, JDC’s International Development Program (IDP) Director
and Assistant Executive Vice President, appeared in the Cleveland Jewish News
after Will spoke at a Jewish Federation of Cleveland event. It’s all about tikkun olam, the philosophy of
caring, and the partnerships that help make it all happen. And for Penny and me, it’s also about the
very soul of JDC’s non-sectarian mission.
WILLIAM RECANT
Special to the CJN
Our rabbis and sages taught us that the Jewish people are to
be a “light unto the nations.” But what does this mean in 2012, especially in a
world wracked by economic instability, war, and natural disasters?
For an organization like the American Jewish Joint
Distribution Committee (JDC) – which every day rescues Jews in danger, alleviates
hunger and hardship among the poorest and most helpless Jews, revitalizes
Jewish communities outside of North America, and helps Israel provide a better
future for its most vulnerable people – it means upholding and continuing our
historic tradition of supporting victims of natural and man-made emergencies
and disasters.
From our earliest years, JDC has shared its expertise and
the very best programs developed in the Jewish world and especially in Israel with others
during their hour of need. A look at JDC’s work in earthquake-ravaged Haiti and post-genocide Rwanda gives a
picture of exactly how we save lives and put people back on the path of
recovery.
Immediately after the massive quake devastated Haiti in January 2010, the Israel Defense Forces
sent a mobile field hospital, the first to arrive and set up camp in Port-au-Prince . Having
worked directly with the IDF field units during past emergencies, JDC knew what
supplies were on hand and what was needed. JDC provided the hospital with
special orthopedic equipment for crush victims and incubators for premature
infants. Seventy-two hours after the quake, the parents of a little baby were
standing around the incubator where their son was lying – the only place in the
country where he could have survived his birth. They warmly named him “Israel ".
Since those first days, JDC's help has reached nearly 300,000
Haitians, including eighth-grader Fabienne and her fellow students at a new, handicapped-accessible
middle school built and opened in the city of Zoranje . This is not to mention the work
being done at JDC’s state-of-the-art rehabilitation clinic at l’Hôpital de
l’Université d’Etat d’Haïti and nearby prosthetic lab.
For 24-year-old Oscar, dreams of being a professional soccer
player or a high-tech mogul might have vanished after losing his right leg
during the quake. But today, Oscar and other quake victims have found hope –
and the ability to walk again – at the clinic. The facility was developed in
cooperation with Israel ’s
Magen David Adom and the Sheba Medical Center
at Tel Hashomer Hospital
In 1994 over 800,000 innocent victims were murdered during a
violent genocide throughout Rwanda .
The Jewish people know and have survived genocide. Following the Holocaust, Yemin
Orde established residential Youth Villages in Israel for Jewish orphans of the
Holocaust. Seven years ago, the idea of taking that model to Rwanda was
conceptualized by Anne Heyman, a Jewish philanthropist who brought the idea to
JDC.
This year – with the support of JDC and its volunteers– the Agahozo Shalom
Youth Village
in Rwanda
will celebrate its first graduating class of 125 students. The village includes
32 group homes, a high school, science and computer labs, land for organic
farming, a reforestation program, a dining hall, counseling and medical
facilities, and recreational fields. This comprehensive living and learning
community provides security, structure, and
unconditional support for these young people and instills in them the values of
tikkun ha’lev and tikkun olam – repair of the heart and repair of the world.
And if those heartening examples were not enough, in 2011
JDC aided the victims of the Japanese earthquake and tsunami by adapting its
renowned post-trauma program — developed for Israeli children during the Second
Lebanon War — to treat Japanese children; worked together with the Turkish
Jewish community to get heaters to those suffering in the cold after the Van
Province earthquake; and distributed blankets and food to Somali refugees in
the Horn of Africa.
For JDC, being a light unto the nations in 2012, as it has
been since our founding in 1914, means putting into action the Talmudic
principle that “to save one life is to save an entire world.” And wherever in
the world we are needed, we perform that duty on behalf of the Jews of
Cleveland, North America , and the world.
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