Special Report: JDC World Welfare Program

From places as diverse as Casablanca and Warsaw, Lvov and Budapest, Jewish communities and welfare professionals share a commitment to caring for Jews in need. But they are often isolated in their work, forced by necessity to focus on their specific social service issues or cut off geographically from connections to other communities.

Through JDC's World Welfare Program, they now have the possibility to see their local challenges through a more global lens. Linked as part of a network that crosses national boundaries, they are able to share innovations, knowledge and experiences. Uniquely, though, World Welfare enables them to strengthen the services they provide to their neediest clients at home while also impacting the lives of Jews worldwide.

JDC World Welfare brokers partnerships through programs such as the Sela Forum, which nurtures cooperation among Central and Eastern European welfare directors. JDC also works closely with the European Council of Jewish Communities to encourage community exchanges between Western and Eastern Europe, and builds connections with European social service organizations.

In 2002, World Welfare brought Jewish communities together to focus on issues of safety and dignity for their needy members. The neighboring communities of Poland and Ukraine grappled over challenges facing aging survivors, while representatives from Casablanca visited St. Petersburg to assess the suitability of adapting for Morocco the local Hesed Welfare Center's rehabilitative equipment production center. Through a World Welfare/JDC-ESHEL/UJA Federation partnership, professionals from Hungary, Israel and Poland met in New York to explore topics in Jewish hospice and end of life care.

In over 50 sites throughout Israel, World Welfare-together with JDC-ESHEL and local organizations - has replicated the former Soviet Union "warm homes" program to meet the special needs of vulnerable elderly immigrants. Over the past year, "warm homes," which offer home-based gatherings for light meals and much-needed social contact, were expanded to include the Caucasus community in Shederot and Acco and Argentinean immigrants in Afula and Carmiel.

No longer isolated, Jewish welfare professionals now share in the strength of a global network nurtured by the JDC World Welfare Program. That cooperation continues to improve the lives of needy Jews not only in their local communities, but ultimately, throughout the Jewish world.