Wave Of Fear, Wave Of Aid
Jewish Week – December 31 2004
Jewish aid agencies were overwhelmed this week as money poured in from across the community in response to the tragedy of biblical proportions unfolding in Southeast and South Asia, where tidal waves have claimed the lives of more than 70,000 people… A spokesman for the JDC, Josh Berkman… added that "a healthy percentage of contributions are coming from the New York area, where people know what it’s like to need help." Berkman said the agency was in the process of identifying agencies for whom to purchase food, water, clothing and shelter materials...
Bolstering European Jewish Volunteers
Baltimore Jewish Times – December 31 2004
After the dual destructions wrought by the Holocaust and communism, Eastern European Jewish communal life was little more than a memory 15 years ago. But last week in Krakow, Poland, the region's Jewish community got a shot in the arm as Jewish volunteers and professionals gathered for the first pan-European conference for Jewish community volunteers. The conference brought together 70 participants from 11 countries in Eastern and Western Europe, the United States and Israel. Co-sponsored by JDC, the European Council of Jewish Communities and the Polish Social Welfare Commission, the conference, known as the Volunteer International Program, is the first of its kind, uniting community members from developed and developing countries to share ideas for Jewish communal service...
Aid Agencies Go to Work as Tasks Continue to Mount
The New York Times – December 28 2004
Relief organizations from around the globe struggled Monday to deploy emergency supplies and personnel to South Asia, even as the list of communities scarred by the disaster continued to balloon. Never before, aid officials said, had they been asked to respond to a disaster that simultaneously struck such a broad swath of the world. Relief efforts are under way in at least seven countries on two continents… Agencies Accepting Aid Dollars: JDC...
Georgia's 'Joint' committee celebrates
The Messenger – December 17 2004
...a series of events dedicated to the 90th anniversary of JDC's work around the world…a Jewish Book Festival was opened where a book on the JDC was presented… Tbilisi's First International Youth Festival of Jewish Arts was held bringing together youth from Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan and Israel. In Georgia JDC has been functioning for 12 years and has facilitated the establishment of the charity centers in Tbilisi, Batumi, Kutaisi, Gori, Rustavi and Oni...
'Gift of Hope' for Displaced, Orphaned Sudanese Children From Israel and American Jewish Groups
AScribe Newswire – December 15 2004
At a news conference held today in Manhattan, Israeli Consul General Arye Mekel; Ruth Messinger, president and executive director of American Jewish World Service; and Will Recant of the JDC who oversees the Jewish Coalition for Disaster Relief were among Jewish leaders to announce an educational initiative, Sudan Refugee Children's Education Project in Chad, for orphaned and vulnerable Sudanese children..
Hannukah marks rebirth of Czech Jewish life
The Jerusalem Post – December 12 2004
A dozen children with disabilities singing folk songs and playing lutes, a five-table porcelain exhibition and 200 VIPs, mostly non-Jewish, packed into the small room of a Jewish community center to mark Hanukka..." "This event means the Jews of Teplice are back!" ... along with contributions from the JDC, ...was able to reopen community headquarters that were closed for more than four decades, and started a senior citizens club on the premises...
Judge Heller New Head Of Global Jewish Group
Baltimore Jewish Times – December 10 2004
Baltimore's own Ellen M. Heller is poised to become president of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, the American Jewish communal arm for outreach throughout the world… "On the bench, my time to do activities outside of the court was limited, but I think from the very beginning JDC was an organization I wanted to make a commitment to," said the Baltimore-born Ms. Heller, who officially will become president when the organization's board votes next Monday, Dec. 13. "That's primarily because of its mission of assisting Jews in distress throughout the world..."
How to care for parents
The Jerusalem Post– November 28 2004
...Dr. Ephraim Jaul, head of the geriatric nursing department at Jerusalem's Herzog Memorial Hospital, learned of the shortage of practical information when taking care of his own aging parents… Hebrew-language book, Hazaken Hasiudi (The Geriatric Nursing Patient), just published by ESHEL (The Israel Association for Planning and Development of Services for the Elderly) of the JDC...
The Jews Who Came Out of the Cold
Reform Judaism – Winter 2004
...Irkutsk is home to nearly 600,000 residents, including 3,000 Jews. Jewish community life is rich here. Youngsters through seniors enjoy study groups as well as computer, knitting, and sewing clubs. The JDC’s Hesed welfare network—which provides food packages, medicine, meals-on-wheels, soup kitchens, medical equipment and home care—keeps the community healthy in an improving but still catch-up Russian economy...
Nobel laureate comes to aid of women in Ethiopia
St. Louis Post-Dispatch – November 21 2004
The 95-year-old Nobel laureate - who held court in the biology department at Washington University for three decades before returning to her native Italy and becoming a senator for life - is working to revolutionize the lives of more than 200 women in Africa… In Ethiopia, where the Fondazione Levi-Montalcini began its African philanthropy, about $285,000 has been committed to educate 60 women, nine of whom graduated this summer, said Manlio Dell'Ariccia, the country director for Ethiopia at the JDC. He has partnered with Levi-Montalcini to implement her work in Ethiopia...
Some Jews in former Soviet Union suffer because of 'fortunate geography'
JTA – September 10 2004
...The Izyaeva family is one of 64 Jewish refugee families helped by Hesed Bencion, the JDC-supported Jewish welfare agency in Pyatigorsk. All of these people escaped the terrible violence that exploded 10 years ago in Dagestan and Chechnya. They are "the poorest of the poor," according to the director of the Hesed, Larissa Ildatova…They have "compelled immigrant" status, and are not eligible for state compensation...
Apply for Wolf Cleveland-JDC International Fellowship
Cleveland Jewish News – November 18 2004
The Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland and the JDC are seeking applicants for the Roslyn Z. Wolf Cleveland-JDC International Fellows program. One fellow will be chosen annually to spend a year abroad helping an isolated or re-emerging Jewish community develop programs to educate youth, care for the elderly and train future leaders...
Goldman, Cardin honored
Cleveland Jewish News – November 18 2004
Two legendary and beloved Jewish communal leaders received special honors at the UJC GA in Cleveland. The Jewish Communal Service Association of North America paid tribute at a G.A. breakfast to Ralph Goldman, executive vice president emeritus of the JDC, in honor of his 90th birthday and lifetime of service to world Jewry...
The GA Without A Buzz
The Jewish Week – November 19 2004
...Surely the most electrifying presentation came from Alina Gerlovin Spaulding, 31, of Greensboro, N.C., who told of coming to the U.S. as a baby from the former Soviet Union with her parents, and how the JDC and other Jewish agencies helped the family, from resettlement to urgent medical attention for her father. A riveting speaker with a powerful story, Spaulding expressed her gratitude to the Jewish community for her life, underscoring the many and varied good works of the social service agencies that make up the federation system...
Bosnian Jews Seek Normal Life
Baltimore Jewish Times– November 13 2004
...The war is over, but Bosnian Jews still feel a sense of commitment to help their fellow citizens as they strive to rebuild their country... Aided by the JDC and other international bodies, the Jewish community and La Benevolencija continue to sponsor programs that help needy members of society at large as well as local Jews. These include …used clothing to toiletries to a recent shipment of nearly 22,000 pairs of reading glasses…A home care program… to more than 600 needy elderly people in Sarajevo, of all ethnicities. Also in collaboration with the JDC, La Benevolencija established a training program to help local people set up small businesses.
American Jewish charity celebrates 90th anniversary with exhibit in Moscow
Associated Press – November 10 2004
The JDC, an American Jewish charity, is marking its 90th anniversary with a photo exhibit documenting its work in Russia and the former Soviet Union… The exhibit, at Moscow's House of Photography, includes photos of JDC officials and the people they helped: children orphaned during the pogroms that raged during and after the war, emaciated victims of the famine that swept through parts of the region in the 1920s, impoverished families trying to scrape by after having their possessions confiscated by the Soviet government... Today, the JDC feeds about 100,000 elderly people in Russia and 240,000 in the former Soviet Union, JDC President Eugene Ribicoff said... "We try to reach people wherever they are," Ribicoff said.
Knesset celebrates 90 years of JDC in Israel
The Jerusalem Post– November 9 2004
In 90 years of operations in Israel, the JDC has invested $2 billion in welfare and education projects, the group informed the Knesset Finance Committee on Tuesday. The JDC's anniversary was marked in on Tuesday in the Knesset, where it was decided to launch a joint cooperation panel with MKs from the Finance Committee to help advance projects with the JDC… Finance Committee chairman Avraham Herschson (Likud) said the JDC has "always been there" in all times of Jewish troubles...
Bombed Istanbul Shul Reopens
Jewish Times– October 14 2004
...The closing of Neve Shalom, the spiritual heart of the community, in the attack's aftermath meant Istanbul's Jews had to go for the last 10 months without a venue large enough to hold weddings, Bar Mitzvahs and other events... Community officials said the synagogue's rebuilding and reopening were also a chance for Turkey's Jews to connect with the wider Jewish world, with a large part of the reconstruction funds for the synagogue provided by the JDC and by the Maryland-based Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation...
Why Should We Care About Sudan?
National Jewish Post & Opinion – September 15 2004
Why do Jews care about Sudan? It sounds like a strange question, yet we hear it all the time. While the JDC is occupied with relief efforts, and the American Jewish World Service and U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum are coordinating efforts to raise awareness about this travesty,
others are asking "why?"... Jewish tradition commands: "You shall not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor." In our global village, we are all neighbors...
After Deadly School Siege in Russia, Jews Lending Survivors Helping Hand
FJC– September 15 2004
In the aftermath of the deadly terrorist attack at a Russian school, Jews in Russia and around the world offered their help to survivors of the tragedy…The JDC, for its part, will send a team of Israeli post-trauma experts to Beslan and will also send a group to the city to evaluate the situation. "It is vital to show the support of American Jewry for all those who were victims of the massacre in Russia, regardless of their race or religion," Steven Schwager, the JDC's executive vice president, said in a statement. The JDC is also collecting donations to help the victims...
At 70, Jewish Autonomous Region Gets a Face-lift
The Forward– September 10 2004
...The occasion for the makeover was a weeklong celebration, beginning September 6, marking the 70th anniversary of the creation of the Jewish Autonomous Region. It was in 1934 that Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin announced the creation of a Jewish national homeland in this forlorn district of the Russian Far East, 5,000 miles from Moscow along the northern border of China. Today, after a rocky history of tyranny and repression, the city is a tidy, well-kept municipality of some 70,000 residents, of whom about 4,000-5,000 are Jewish… Plans for the celebration included speeches, a concert, the unveiling of a new statue of the Yiddish writer Sholom Aleichem and a visit by a 15-member delegation of the JDC, which played a role in the region's establishment in the 1930s...
In southern Russian City, Jewish Groups are Happy Together
JTA– September 9 2004
...In the center of this capital city of southern Russia, stands a historic 130-year-old wooden synagogue that remained open throughout the 70-plus years of Soviet communism… The synagogue is unique in another way: Unlike in most cities in the former Soviet Union, where competing Jewish organizations vie for the same population and funding sources, Jewish groups in Rostov work together under one synagogue's roof. The Hesed welfare agency, funded by the JDC, maintains its offices in the basement, while upstairs is the city's Jewish congregation, part of the Chabad-sponsored Federation of Jewish Communities of Russia, known as FEOR...
Katsav Hosts Conference on Bridging Social Gaps
The Jerusalem Post– September 7 2004
...The third annual Socio-Economic seminar, held jointly by President Moshe Katsav and the Taub Center, took place at Beit Hanassi in Jerusalem on Monday, bringing together experts and government officials to discuss ways of combating Israelis' increasing poverty. Founded and funded by the Joint Distribution Committee, the Taub Center … Their overall conclusion was that the government has no clear-cut policy on its what its role should be in addressing the problem. According to Taub Center speakers Arnon Gafni and Zvi Zusman, the latter a former Bank of Israel deputy governor, instead of narrowing the chasm between the haves and have- nots, the Israeli economy creates more poverty and gaps. Economic growth does not reduce these differences and Zusman said, "In Israel, work does not liberate people from poverty." Industry, Trade and Labor Minister Ehud Olmert concurred...
Serbian Gypsies and Jews In Dispute Over Cemetery
The New York Times – August 22 2004
...In Nis, a city of about 300,000 people, only 36 consider themselves part of the Jewish population, according to local leaders… They contend that the cemetery is more than just a graveyard. It is testimony, they say, to the presence of several thousand Jews who lived in this community for more than 300 years, a population destroyed by the Holocaust… Late in July, a Jewish-American charity, the JDC, donated $20,000 for clearance of the half of the graveyard that remains intact but buried under rubbish. Since then, a Gypsy charity, the Kosova Roma Refugee Foundation, working with the Jewish group, has begun removing refuse from the site....
At Risk in Odessa: Young Jews Getting Aid Where Elderly Were Focus
FJC – August 20 2004
..."This is a new focus for us," says Scott Richman, JDC's New York-based director for Russia. "From the time we opened our first Hesed" welfare agency in 1993 up until last December, "JDC programs in the former Soviet Union were exclusively focused on the disabled and the elderly." …At the time, JDC decision-makers felt that the elderly poor were the most vulnerable among more than 1 million Jews in need in the former Soviet Union… A needs assessment was conducted … the first Children's Initiative programs were established in Russia and Ukraine last December, offering clothing, medical care, psychological help and home repairs to at-risk children and their families… In some places, like Odessa's Beitenu, in addition to these very basic, life-sustaining services, centralized after-school programs offer arts and crafts, Hebrew and English lessons, computer facilities and hot meals....
