Former JDC professional becomes Jewish Activist in Germany

Rimma is a woman with a dream: she wants to transform the lives of Germany's 200,000-person Russian-speaking Jewish community. Since moving to Munich from Kiev, Ukraine in 2001, Rimma has been pioneering efforts to realize her goal.

Born in 1942 in Kazakhstan, Rimma returned with her family to their hometown of Kiev after it was liberated in 1944. Though the War was over, rampant anti-Semitism continued to plague the region, and when Rimma graduated from high school in 1959, it was very difficult for Jews to enter university. She worked for some years before being accepted to study, and then earned an undergraduate degree in biology and a master's degree in oncology. Rimma went on to work at the Oncology Institute in Kiev for nearly thirty years, until the elimination of government subsidies caused her and scores of thousands of others to be laid off. She soon found employment with an American tourism company, where she stayed until a friend told her about JDC. Early in 1998, Rimma was hired as a Coordinator of Medical and Social Programs (Welfare) for JDC in Kiev.

In her first weeks on the job, Rimma attended an annual conference of volunteer doctors and staff – from JDC's network of Hesed social welfare centers – who provide direct services to the elderly. A concert of Jewish music at the close of the conference had a great impact on her. "I broke down crying hearing those tunes," said Rimma. "I was returned to my childhood when all of my relatives used to get together and someone would play the accordion while we sang Jewish melodies." It was a fortuitous beginning for Rimma and JDC.

Rimma spent the next 3 ? years helping to run JDC's medical programs in Ukraine. She only regrets not finding more time to finish a care-giving seminar at the JDC-sponsored William S. Rosenwald Institute for Jewish Communal and Welfare Workers in St. Petersburg, Russia. Now living in Munich, where she moved in 2001 to be closer to her daughter in Vienna, Rimma completed a similar workshop run by the Central Committee of German Jews. She and other Russian participants were provided materials in Russian from JDC's institute in St. Petersburg.

Ironically, hundreds of miles from home, Rimma's native language is what has brought her in close touch with Germany's Jewish community. When she first arrived in Munich, she suffered from allergies and was treated by a doctor who also consulted at a Jewish old age home, where 35% of the clientele were Russian immigrants. The home had a great need for a Russian-speaking liaison to better serve these clients. Rimma jumped at the opportunity, becoming the home's first Russian volunteer. But she did not stop there: as of last year, Rimma had developed a network of 50 Russian-speaking volunteers who logged 2,000 man hours, and currently coordinates 90 volunteers. Many of those who enlisted were former beneficiaries or volunteers of the Hesed network in the FSU.

Last June Rimma accepted a paid position at the Department of Acculturation, which provides support services for new immigrants to Germany. She explains that the majority of these newcomers are educated, but approximately 70% are also elderly, which is presenting a challenge for the community. "Many of them have children in Israel, America, and elsewhere, so the families are broken," Rimma says, "or the younger members of families are busy learning the language, trying to integrate into the society, and looking for jobs." So, though these elderly are being provided full social services from the German government, they have little to no contact with the outside world.

Inspired by her work in Kiev, Rimma adapted JDC's "Warm Home" program to the needs of Munich's Jewish community. The program, which originated in the FSU, provides lonely and isolated elderly a much-needed nutritious meal, company, and the opportunity to celebrate holidays. "Here there isn't a need for food like in the FSU, but a real need for companionship," notes Rimma, who recently arranged the first gathering for twelve elderly at the residence of a homebound woman. The group, which meets every other Friday, discusses Jewish tradition (using a book from JDC Kiev) and often enjoys the melodious voice of a participant who sings to them. "At first they were reluctant to speak about religion because it had a bad connotation in their minds," explains Rimma, "but they started slowly, with light Jewish education and customs, and now they are very into it. They remember now what they lived as children and it all comes back."

The Warm Home participants are not just clients; they are volunteers. They regularly visit the old age home and other isolated elderly not yet involved in the Warm Home program. One such volunteer, an 80-year-old man who undergoes dialysis treatment three times per week, plays piano and sings for residents at the old age home. Another volunteer is blind; he is a historian and speaks perfect German, so he accompanies Russian-speaking elderly to their medical and other appointments as a translator, and in turn receives help from other volunteers.

Rimma is on the verge of opening the second Warm Home. "Reaching Jews here is difficult because there is no database that tracks them," she explains. Since the Holocaust, "lists" or "inventories" of people are forbidden in Germany. And though the Department of Acculturation knows who arrives to the country, Rimma cannot access this information. The conundrum: she relies on word-of-mouth to reach isolated elderly.

But Rimma is determined to put what JDC has taught her to good use. "It would be helpful if my German colleagues from our department were invited to visit a Hesed in the FSU," she says. "They would learn incredible amounts about how to work with youth, elderly, and all of the programs that JDC is running so successfully in that region." Rimma explains that many lonely elderly Jews live in the Munich periphery because that is where their children found jobs. "It would be important for the local Jewish leaders here to see programs Hesed centers provide to isolated elderly in Ukraine."

In addition, Rimma is trying to organize a seminar, modeled after JDC's hospice care seminar in the FSU, to hone the skills of all individuals taking care of sick and elderly at home in Germany. Such an activity, she suggests, would also "help to bridge the gap between German Jews and the immigrant Russian population because they would unite around the common experience of helping ill and aging loved ones." She has already enlisted two Russian-speaking doctors as lecturers.

Rimma insists that JDC's expertise could help to resettle the Russian-speaking community in Germany. "I didn't have Yiddishkeit as a child or as an adult, until I began working at JDC!" credits Rimma. "And though I probably would have volunteered in this community regardless, I would not have known about programming, Jewish education, social work, welfare, or anything else I learned from working at JDC." Her greatest wish is for her colleagues at the Department of Acculturation to have the same exposure to JDC's work. "That is my real dream."