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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A Helping Hand Transforms Jewish Teen in Tbilisi
Liah, 16, is in 11th grade and already knows she wants to be a defense lawyer. She is eager to help people, because she knows firsthand a stranger’s assistance can mean the difference between life and death.
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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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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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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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At End of Hard Road, Jewish Caring Brings Hope
At the end of a long dirt road departing from Gori, a small war-ravaged town in Georgia’s countryside, Lela, 22, awaits her visitors excitedly. She has put on her nice blouse, only necklace, and brightest smile. For this young woman who suffers from partial paralysis and spends the majority of her days in her crumbling home, this visit is the highlight of her week.
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Caring for Ukraine’s Elderly Starts with a Warm Home
Anya’s home smells of freshly baked sweets and is abuzz with a cheerful mix of Russian, Yiddish, and Ukrainian. Each week, this 70-year-old hostess opens her living room to a group of fellow elderly Jews who have been convening here for over a decade with the support of JDC’s Warm Homes program.
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Jewish Life in St. Petersburg: A New Story
For the past two years, Masha Aryeva, 39, has been the Director of the Yesod Jewish Community Center (JCC)—the first-rate, central hub of Jewish life in the cosmopolitan city of St. Petersburg, Russia.
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Bringing a Sweet New Year to Families in the Crimea
Olga grew up under communism, when religious practices were outlawed and Jewish life was hushed for decades. She never learned any Jewish history or traditions in her home as a child; when she became a mom, she had none to pass on to her daughters.
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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.