Metsuda Young Leadership Initiative Expands to Caucasus
Ask Nadezhda Kulikova what she learned from attending JDC’s Metsuda program in Pyatigorsk, Russia, and she’ll tell you the four-day youth leadership development seminar “broke” her.
Feature Stories
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Developing Tomorrow’s Jewish Leaders
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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.
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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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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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Volunteer Takes Her Jewish Spirit From Durham to Duisburg and Beyond
Sarah Goldenstein, 25, never imagined she’d go from teaching Sunday school in her home state of North Carolina to helping build Jewish community among Russian immigrants in Germany, but that’s exactly what she’s been doing for the past two years as a Jewish Service Corps fellow through JDC’s Entwine initiative for inspired young Jews.
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Inspired Volunteer Engages Young Jews in Moldova
Julia Shoymaru, 18, is Deputy Director of Haverim, a JDC young leadership program in Chisinau (Kishinev), Moldova. She is the group’s proudest advocate, because this is where she found her home, her identity, and her voice.
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Nourishing Jewish Connection Across Asia’s Communities
Stacy Palestrant is originally from Phoenix, Arizona where she grew up affiliated with the Jewish Conservative movement. But for the past four and a half years she and her family have lived in Beijing, China, where they are equally involved in both the local Chabad and the “unaffiliated” community, Kehilat Beijing. Her daughters, ages 5 and 3, speak fluent Chinese, Hebrew, and English; and she believes that just as being proficient in multiple languages helps people traveling from one country to the next, fluency in diverse forms of Jewish expression holds advantages for Jews traversing different communities.
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In Turbulent Times, Community Brings Young Balkan Jews Respite
Eric, 26, echoes the frustration of his generation as they confront an uncertain future in their native Greece and neighboring euro zone countries. “Our economic and political situation is really difficult. People are struggling and they are angry,” he said. “My parents have been hit hard and now I need to help support my family, which puts a completely new pressure and perspective on what I can do next.”
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From Argentina to Mexico, A Jewish Leader’s Light Burns Bright
“Judaism is a spark in my heart and I feel committed to bringing it to others,” says Dr. Daniel Fainstein, a proud Jewish leader in Mexico who is the Dean and a Professor of Jewish Studies and Education at the Hebrew University of Mexico, Latin America’s only Jewish academic college.
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Passover Inspires Volunteerism in Belarus
Marina is an only child. She shares a rundown two-room flat in Minsk, Belarus with her parents, both of whom are disabled and struggle to subsist on a monthly pension. The Jewish community has been this family’s lifeline since Marina was a young girl. In addition to providing her with basic food and medicines, JDC has enabled Marina to attend Jewish camp, participate in Hillel activities, and attend myriad programs at the local JDC-supported Jewish Community Center (JCC).