Judaism gaining ground in Eastern Europe
Duluth News-Tribune – 27 December 2003
… Thirteen years later (which, coincidentally, is the year Jewish boys and girls are bar and bat mitzvahed and become adults), it is remarkable to see how much has been accomplished. Nearly 9,000 children attend Jewish schools in Central and Eastern Europe. More than that travel each year to Jewish summer camps, and yet more attend Friday night services and Sunday school in newly refurbished community centers and synagogues. (Credit must be given to those that have poured tens of millions of dollars into such programs: the JDC, the Claims Conference and the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation.)…
In Argentina's depressed economy, unplanned babies are at the bottom
Jewish Telegraphic Agency – 25 December 2003
… The JDC, which provides many of the welfare services for Argentine Jews, says babies and pregnant mothers are among the most vulnerable of the country's Jews. Approximately 35,000 of Argentina's roughly 200,000 Jews receive JDC support in Argentina; of them, 803 babies under 3 years of age and 98 pregnant women live below the poverty line. Faced with the possibility of undernourishment, these women and their children are the target of a new JDC program called Baby Help. Alejandro Kladniew, the local JDC official, said, "we are focusing on the most vulnerable cases." In Buenos Aires, an entire floor of a local Jewish organization has been remodeled to serve as Baby Help's central offices. The new space serves as a
meeting place for parents, pediatric experts and early-stimulation workshops to benefit babies.
At the Baby Help center, donated clothes, strollers, bassinets and baby tubs fill the room, waiting for poverty- stricken mothers who need them…
Texas Hillel Students heading to Argentina for Spring Break
Jewish Herald Post – 18 December 2003
… Fifteen Jewish students from the University of Texas will spend their Spring Break this March in Argentina as part of Texas Hillel’s Alternative Spring Break Program…is coordinated through the combined efforts of the JDC, which coordinates relief work globally, Texas Hillel and Hillel Buenos Aires… Howard Schultz envisioned an opportunity to create a partnership between two organizations with an eye toward getting young people passionate about service and sensitized to the needs of the worldwide Jewish community…
JDC Aids Jews in Former USSR
Indiana Jewish Post & Opinion – 17 December 2003
When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, hundreds of thousands of elderly Jews were suddenly impoverished. And hundreds of Jewish children were orphaned or abandoned by families too poor to care for them. The JDC, along with its funders from around the world, created the largest care and feeding relief
program carried out for Jews since the displaced persons camps of the late 1940s, post-Holocaust. "Although we focus year-round on the challenges faced by impoverished people in the former Soviet Union, the season of light and hope, Hanukkah and Christmas, is an especially significant time to reflect on our Judeo-Christian partnerships," says Asher Ostrin, director of JDC's program in the former Soviet
Union. "We are especially thankful for the support of Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, JDC board member and president and founder of the International Fellowship of Christians and Jews."…"For the past eight years the Claims Conference has been JDC's major partner in providing these welfare services, especially to those regions that have a substantial number of victims of Nazi persecution," explains JDC's Ostrin. "The
funds come from the proceeds from the sales of unclaimed and heirless restituted Jewish properties in the former East Germany…
Federation system retains status quo in allocating bulk of overseas dollars
Jewish Telegraphic Agency – 10 December 2003
… members of the United Jewish Communities' committee charged with recommending the distribution of funds for Jewish needs overseas decided to maintain the current split in allocations between its two
chief overseas partners. Now, it's up to the federations to implement the committee's decision.
The Overseas Needs Assessment and Distribution Committee, known as ONAD, decided to allocate 144 million -- or 75 percent -- of an expected 187 million to be raised next year for overseas needs to the Jewish Agency for Israel, which runs immigration, absorption and Zionist education programs, according to the UJC. The other 25 percent -- or 43 million -- will go to JDC, which runs Jewish relief and welfare programs abroad, primarily in Israel, the former Soviet Union and Argentina. In addition, the committee called for an extra 20 million to be split evenly between the two groups… Intended to cover two years, the decision is expected to be approved next month by the UJC's board of trustees…
Chanukah outreach event in Prague draws miraculous number of people
JTA - 8 December 2003
…Estimates put the numbers at between 1,500 and 2,000. Organizers were so overwhelmed by the turnout that a second Chanukah celebration was held in order to accommodate the crowds… In the weeks leading up to the event, posters bearing the slogan "Is Chanukah your holiday?" were placed in every subway station in Prague. The event was also carried in national radio and television stations… Yechiel Bar-Chaim, country director for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, which contributed to the event, said he was delighted at its success. "This is one of the most imaginative approaches to Jewish outreach anywhere," he said. "It is really remarkable. The response from the Czech public just demonstrates what a tremendous reservoir of interest there is if only we can find the means to reach these people."
Government policy is undermining Israel's welfare state
Haaretz - 28 November 2003
… Growth in government spending on social welfare was halted in 1996, and cuts in National Insurance Institute allowances to the poor will only worsen the condition of those who heavily rely on those allotments, says the annual report by the Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel. The CSPS yesterday presented its annual report, entitled "The allocation of resources to social services, 2003," to President Moshe Katsav. The institute's report says the Israeli welfare state managed to preserve social cohesion in the past, but that the decisions made by the government and Knesset in the last year on social issues, and expressed in the budget, undermine the fundamental assumptions of the welfare state in Israel…The CSPS was established in 1982 in Jerusalem by the American Joint Distribution Committee and this year's report was edited by Prof. Yaacov Koop, who heads the center.
Making bar/bat mitzvas better
The Jerusalem Post - 27 November 2003
Thirty-one Jewish community leaders from across Central Europe, plus one from Bombay, gathered at the Beit Ballint Jewish community center in Budapest this week for a seminar on preparing boys and girls for bar and bat mitzva. "Bar and bat mitzvas represent a window of opportunity," explained Abby Pitkowsky, Jewish education consultant for the Joint Distribution Committee's global programs, who initiated the program. "It is something that requires some preparation and this seminar is about trying to enrich or deepen that preparation. Why not make the process as attractive and as interesting as
possible?"
MetroWest celebrates 25 years of partnership with Rishon Letzion
New Jersey Jewish News – 20 November 2003
…Perhaps MetroWest's most significant new endeavor in Rishon Letzion is Project Atzmaut, a partnership between MetroWest, Rishon Letzion, and the JDC that works to support and strengthen Ethiopian immigrant families in the city… Project Atzmaut family seminars [including Danny and Rachel Mahary, a young couple with two small children who are being assisted by the program] taught her how to give children proper attention, how to run her house, and how a husband and wife cooperate in modern society. Rachel and Danny are both learning new professions through the project, while Rachel works as a counselor conducting home intervention sessions with other Ethiopian families…
Progress on Falash Mura seen closer as advocates and Israeli officials meet
JTA – 2 November 2003
Increased pressure from American Jewish organizational officials is driving preliminary talks on a new deal to bring thousands of Ethiopian Jews to Israel before famine takes a heavy toll on the community remaining in Ethiopia.… The JDC, one of only two Jewish groups running relief operations in Ethiopia, said it would welcome such a deal. "We would be happy to close down if the Falash Mura issue were resolved," said Amir Shaviv, the JDC’s assistant executive vice president. "We’re there to maintain medical services. If these people were to go to Israel, we wouldn’t need to be there anymore."
Acts of kindness
The Jerusalem Post - 17 October 2003
…In 1993, the JDC opened its first Hesed center to provide welfare and social services to the hundreds of thousands of poverty-stricken Jews in the FSU. Today, 174 centers, serving 250,000 Jews, are operating in nearly 2,800 communities in the region. In Ukraine, the JDC runs 54 Hesed centers, providing such services as homecare, food packages, medical equipment loans, soup kitchens, haircuts, laundry, and community activities. Hesed centers rely heavily on volunteers - Hesed Avot Azriel in Kiev, for example, serves 15,000 people with 190 staffers and 750 volunteers.
Hesed spends an average of $ 250 on services for each survivor annually, says Steven Schwager, compared to tens of thousands spent on survivors in assisted-living facilities the US and Israel. "Twenty dollars a month for these people is the difference between life and death," he said.
A House Call to Pinsk
Jerusalem Post – 30 September 2003
… through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's International Jewish Healthcare Organization (IJHO), it has found partners in the Diaspora, sending medical professionals and their Israeli counterparts to help improve the health care of both Jews and non-Jews in the former Soviet Union (FSU) and Eastern Europe. But instead of performing one-time operations as local doctors observe, they are giving lectures that help the locals advance public health and raise the standards of cardiology, pediatrics, obstetrics, oncology, nephrology, neurology, psychiatry, gastroenterology, internal medicine, ophthalmology, dentistry, medical and nursing administration, rehabilitation and hospice care. "…medical know how is the best thing to provide."
Morocco: More Security For Jews
Baltimore Jewish Times – 19 September 2003
Security is being beefed up at Jewish institutions in Morocco after two Jews were murdered in the kingdom in separate incidents… The community numbers about 5,000 today, down from about 250,000 in 1948. Most of Morocco's Jews are older than 50. Communities in Fez, Rabat and Marrakech, all of which once boasted thousands of Jews living intimately in walled medieval markets, now have only a few hundred members… The JDC, which helps support the Moroccan Jewish community, is "working with the community to take whatever steps are necessary" to maintain Moroccan Jewish life, said JDC's executive vice president, Steven Schwager.
Changing Jewish lives is all in the family
Canadian Jewish News – 18 September 2003
… How could we possibly help all of these people? One step at a time. That's what became crystal clear to me - whether it was delivering a box of food staples on behalf of the Joint Distribution Committee to an elderly woman in a shtetl outside of Kishniev, who could have been my grandmother… Remember, it's not about campaigns, or telethons, or raising money. It's about Jewish lives. If you come out and volunteer, you will make a difference. Your commitment today will change a life tomorrow, and trust me, you'll feel great doing it. It's what Jews do.
$2M donated for Druse welfare and education
The Jerusalem Post – 17 September 2003
… The Everett family of New York has donated $ 2 million to the Joint Distribution Committee, earmarked to improve the welfare and education of the Druse population in Israel … This year's program is expected to
enroll some 1,200 students. Youth and leadership programs will be started … also establish programs for the education and advancement of women, who suffer from a high rate of unemployment.
Groups work to combat food poverty indicated by Israeli nutrition study
Virtual Jerusalem News - 15 September 2003
… The Forum to Address Food Insecurity and Poverty in Israel brings together a number of groups to help match philanthropists with soup kitchens and other organizations that feed those in need. ..The director of the Brookdale Institute, Jack Habib, issued a three-page summary of the research findings. "With the worsening of the economic crisis during the past two years," the summary states, "food poverty has again become an issue." Food poverty is defined as severe food shortages that lead to malnutrition, requiring emergency medical treatment. "There is enough food, but 22 percent of the population doesn’t have enough money to purchase it on a regular basis," Heller says…
Mumbai Jews despondent, but still hopeful
Rediff, India – 10 September 2003
… According to Elijah Jacob, country manager of the JDC, Sharon's visit had helped Jews in connecting with Israelis. "It has also brought us into focus and informed those who were unaware of our existence here," he said. The cancellation of the proposed visit had disappointed the children and youth who had been practicing for a cultural show in honour of Sharon. "The cultural show had been planned to provide a brief glimpse of four classical dances of India, a fashion show displaying the distinct dressing trends of India and a fusion of the Jewish culture and the Indian culture," he said. "Visits like these have proved beneficial to Jews in India and to the entire Jewish diaspora," he said…
Study: 22% Of Israeli Households Go Hungry
The Forward – 5 September 2003
… The study showed that 22% of Israeli households, more than one in five, suffer from inadequate nutrition because of poverty. The study was conducted by the Brookdale Institute, the research arm of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee... Those experiencing nutritional insecurity eat smaller portions, skip meals and, in extreme cases, don't eat for a whole day. Diets can be high in carbohydrates and lacking or almost devoid of meat, dairy products, vegetables and fruit. In Israel, 14% of families are deemed moderately insecure and 8% suffer from severe insecurity…
Life In Vienna
The Jewish Federation of Greater Seattle – August 2003
… I have been living in Vienna since September helping Jewish transmigrants make their way to America. In addition to teaching English full-time, I am consumed with a myriad of other tasks to help prepare these JDC clients for their new lives. Along with the rent for my apartment and a small stipend for food and basic living experiences, I am gaining a sense of self worth as I feel as though I am finally making an impact. …
At European JCC conference, it’s time to shmooze and share
JTA - August 2003
...The idea of associated European JCCs is a fairly recent concept in the movement. The Paris conference came about largely as an initiative of the American Joint Jewish Distribution Committee and the European Council of Jewish Communities. The European conference was important for building links between JCCs across Europe, Bar-Akiva said, but also was a recognition that JCCs are entering a new era with new challenges. That point was emphasized by Alberto Senderey, from the JDC’s Paris office...
Reform Judaism Hit In Siberia
Baltimore Jewish Times – 28 August 2003
…Tuymen is Russia's only flourishing Reform community outside of Moscow, and on this Saturday it rocks all day and into the night. Russia's only restored Reform synagogue is a gorgeously remodeled structure where multiple organizations steer the Progressive wagon for the 2,500 Jews in Siberia's oldest city… Middle-aged women fill the Jewish Cooking Club. Senior citizens revive their childhood memories at the Yiddish club, fix torn attire at the Sewing Club and receive medical treatment and food assistance at the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee's Hesed center…
Honduras gets new synagogue
The Jerusalem Post – 26 August 2003
…In October 1998, Honduras was hit by Hurricane Mitch, which killed some 7,000 people in the country and caused extensive damage. Located adjacent to the Choluteca River, the synagogue's roof collapsed and a Torah scroll was swept away by floodwaters… Shortly thereafter, the congregation launched an appeal… Organizations such as B'nai B'rith International, the Joint Distribution Committee, and the American Jewish World Service all helped out with the drive…The new synagogue will be located on a new site, away from the river… Honduras is home to approximately 250 Jews….
Ethiopians Face Threat of Malaria Epidemic
The Forward August 22, 2003
With an outbreak of malaria sweeping through Ethiopia, American lawmakers are criticizing Israel for failing to open its doors to 18,000 would-be immigrants from the African nation…Some 14,000 Falas Mura who left their villages to live near overcrowded compounds in Addis Ababa and Gondar City are receiving basic food and medical attention from the Joint and the North American Conference on Ethiopian Jewry. But more that 5,000 more, who arrived after 2000 have been denied aid… Joint officials told the Forward that it would assist any of the 5,000 new arrivals, who come to the Joint seeking medical help. "While this is not recognition of their status, it’s the simple human thing to do," said the Joint’s Assistant Executive Vice President, Amir Shaviv.
Ethiopian-Israeli kids turn to music as a way of staying off mean streets
JTA – 14 August 2003
…Sandaka is one of nearly 100 Israelis of Ethiopian background who spent the past year in "Music is the Answer," a special DJ course for at-risk youth sponsored by the JDC. The program focuses on high-school dropouts and teenagers who have been kicked out of school. The program has helped dozens of Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers discover a new way to have fun, learn and express themselves without turning to drugs or crime, administrators say. It's also a way for Israel's black minority to connect with its African origins…
Aliyah from Argentina slows down as the country begins to dig itself out
JTA – 11 August 2003
Despite the beginnings of renewed optimism in Argentina, the effects of the economic meltdown still are clearly evident. The number of Jews taking advantage of an integrated social welfare net provided by the JDC; a local welfare foundation called Tzedaka; the community's central Jewish institution, the AMIA; Chabad-Lubavitch, and the Sephardi community has risen to more than 36,000 from 9,000 in 1999, before the economic collapse. Beneficiaries receive food tickets, medicine, rent money, scholarships and job training. According to JDC statistics, more people are entering the system than leaving it. Last May, the social assistance program received 763 new people, while 451 left it…
Cultural Exchange Helps Classes Broaden Their Borders
Forward – 8 August 2003
Two Jewish day schools — in different countries, speaking different languages — will launch a cross-cultural exchange this fall that administrators hope will lead to a growing friendship between their two communities… The "sister schools," as a press release from the Hebrew Academy described them, decided to start working together after Argentina's economic crisis began several years ago. Last year, Jane Weitzman, chair of the Latin America committee of the JDC, invited Hebrew Academy administrators to see the perilous situation that arose following the country's economic collapse…
Safe at Home in School
Philadelphia Jewish Exponent – 7 August 2003
"To help make schools healthier places for both students and educators, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee established a program called; "Trauma Relief for School Populations: The Principals and Counselors Forum." The trauma relief program is the third in a series of new initiatives coordinated by the JDC that provide services to protect and support Israeli youth…"
The Jerusalem Post – 31 July 2003
A program to provide Baghdad's poorest and most vulnerable Jews with day-to-day assistance was established last week in Iraq by the JDC. The program, which includes financial assistance for nine of the 28 Jews who remain in Baghdad after declining to move to Israel last Friday with the government-sponsored rescue operation "Ezra Mizion" (Help from Zion), includes funding for food, doctor's visits, medication, clothing, and household help… The money, said JDC executive vice president Steven Shweger, is expected to last four to six months…
Israeli Immigrants Learn Tae Kwon Do in Scholarship program
Ohio Jewish Chronicle – 24 July 2003
Israel’s Ethiopian immigrants are known for being shy, quiet and timid. But all that changed for Sharona with her first Tae Kwon Do match… The young competitors are in a scholarship program run by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC). The scholarship was established by the Gunther family in California. Through JDC, the Gunther’s sponsor 10 immigrant girls, mostly from Ethiopia and the Caucasus Mountain region of the former Soviet Union, and an additional 10 Israeli "buddies," who help the young immigrants in their study of Tae Kwon Do and in their efforts to acclimate to Israeli society. The…scholarship is one of a number of sports-related programs used by JDC to support immigrant or at-risk children and youth.
The Jerusalem Post – 18 July 2003
The single-mother demonstrators who this week converged on Jerusalem have yet to prove they are a mature protest movement, but the debate they have stirred may signal the dawn of a new political era… Finally, the blow to the poor … a cut of roughly 40 percent of their allowances… Ben-Gurion University Prof. Ya’akov Kop, head of the Center for Social Policy Studies in Israel, a centrist think tank that favors a balance between economic freedom and social equality, says he knows of no precedent in Israel for such a draconian overnight cut in social benefits. "I agree that the Treasury has to narrow the budget deficit, but they have to find a more humane way," says Kop.
JDC Center for Social Research poll: ‘Most see economy worsening’
Haaretz – 9 July 2003
A majority of Israelis report a continuing decline in their standard of living, according to a recent survey. About one-third of those questioned said their income is totally or almost totally inadequate for their basic needs. Fifty-eight percent of those polled said their standard of living had declined, 30 percent said it had not changed, and 8 percent said it had improved. The poll, conducted by the Center for Social Research in Israel, shows rising fears of unemployment, with 43 percent saying they felt their jobs or those of family members were in jeopardy… Center director Professor Ya’akov Kop concludes this is a sign that "the public believes things can only get worse here…"
UJC not expected to decide on overseas funds next week
Jewish Telegraphic Agency – 8 July 2003
… Of the approximately $188 million allocated for 2003, 75 percent went to the Jewish Agency and 25 percent to JDC… This year, some think the split may shift in the JDC’s favor. "I think most people think that there will be some shift in overall funding from JAFI to JDC," said Barry Shrage, president of Boston’s Combined Jewish Philanthropies and a member of the ONAD committee. "JDC has done a better job of interpreting their needs locally," and engaging local federations and their communities, he said…"
CubaNews – 1 July 2003
…Nestor Szevach, coordinator of Cuba programs for the JDC, is currently the only foreigner authorized by the Castro government to assist Cuba's Jewish community…He and his wife, now live in Havana; together, they supervise the Joint's $90,000 annual Cuba budget. "We're the fifth couple working in Cuba since the Joint started its Cuba program in 1992," he said. "In Argentina, I was director of a community center that took extreme security measures. Here, there are no expressions of anti-Semitism, and all the synagogues keep their doors open…"
