Building Community Through Volunteers in Jewish Mumbai
Tahl Mayer, JDC Entwine’s 2012-2013 Jewish Service Corps Fellow in Mumbai, India has joined the local Jewish Community Center (JCC) to spearhead a new youth leadership and engagement initiative.
Feature Stories
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Rekindling Jewish Life in Lithuania, One Family at a Time
Liora, 15, first came to the Ilan Youth Club at Vilnius’s Jewish Community Center (JCC) when she was only 7 years old, and initially she felt completely lost. She observed a circle of people passing a box full of spices, praying over wine, and putting their hands up to a candle while staring at their fingertips. Liora had no idea she was witnessing her first Havdallah ceremony.
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Homecare Worker Goes the Extra Mile to Rescue the Elderly
Some 24,000 of JDC’s 160,000 elderly Hesed beneficiaries live in villages located hundreds—even thousands—of miles from the nearest city, with rudimentary heating in rundown homes open to the cold and damp. Many have no indoor plumbing; some still get their drinking water from wells. Once hardy, these now fragile elderly brave the elements several times a day just to fill basic human needs.
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Employment Initiative in Israel Helps Single Mom STRIVE
One year ago, Shelly M. felt like she’d hit rock bottom. A 32-year-old single mother of two children, 7 and 5, she was living in public housing and relying on a government-issued food card to feed her young daughters. Shelly hadn’t worked in two years and was drowning in debt.
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Creative Arts Program in Israel Helps At-Risk Kids Thrive
At his elementary school, Sammy is just one of many students from struggling homes—recent immigrants from the Caucuses, single-parent families, parents with chronic illnesses or addictions, victims of second- or third-generation poverty, and more recently, migrant workers.
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For Holocaust Survivor, Hesed Alleviates Struggle of Daily Life
Varlen, 82, can still remember the power of the Nazi’s boot kicking his side before he was sent into forced labor for the German war machine. He was only 13, but his experiences in German-occupied Kiev transformed his adolescence into a daily battle for survival that he still recounts in vivid detail.
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In Caracas, a Jewish Community at a Crossroads
Facing a moment of significant change and challenges, the Jewish community of Venezuela is being steered through today’s realities by its dedicated leaders, with steadfast support from JDC.
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For Elderly Moroccan Jews, Residence Offers Refuge and Community
“It is very important that we are not alone. We are in a Jewish and secure place,” explains Messod, an elderly resident at the Levine Community Residence built by JDC in Morocco. “I feel safe here, and if I need anything, I know I can get help.”
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Young Leader Uses Art to Promote Jewish Culture in St. Petersburg
Born and raised in St. Petersburg, Russia in the years after the fall of Communism, Masha Sergeeva, 21, grew up with limited understanding of—or pride in—her Jewish identity. That’s all changed now.
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A Struggling Ethiopian-Israeli Family's Hopes Renewed
"This family has gone from dependency to self-sufficiency—and is now able to help others." That's how their mentor described Danny and Tseganesh Bruk of Rishon LeZion, recent graduates of a three-year JDC empowerment program for Ethiopian-Israelis.