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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Healthy Living Program Gives Israeli Youth a Fresh Start
Two years ago, Odet, 19, was in the midst of a deep personal crisis. Born and raised in a Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) community in Jerusalem, she was finishing school and looking ahead at the next chapter of her life—one that would imminently lead to marriage and children.
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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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For Family at Tipping Point, A Safety Net—and Hope
For the past two years, the Minevas’ downward spiral has mirrored Bulgaria’s economic decline—and now both have reached a critical tipping point. Mihaela, 40, proud mom of 15-year-old Monica, never imagined her family would plunge into poverty. In 2010, Mihaela’s husband lost his construction business and abandoned the family. The same year, her father lost his small grocery shop and suffered a heart attack.
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Center for Young Adults Takes Israeli Immigrant Full Circle
Mila A., 24, loves her job. Every day she helps immigrants set out on their life’s course at the very same JDC Center for Young Adults where she was once received help on her own challenging journey, which has now come full circle.
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With New Possibilities, Israeli Arab Youth Thrive
Young Israelis in JDC’s Afikim program benefit from both individual mentorship and group workshops that help them gain self-assurance, develop professional skills, and learn real-life problem-solving strategies.
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Back to School Inspires Rwanda’s Youngest to See Far
“If you see far, you will go far,” is the first thing a teen orphan will hear when they climb atop the mountain peak in Rwamagana, Rwanda to join the community of the Agahozo-Shalom Youth Village (ASYV). Home to 500 students from each of Rwanda’s 30 regions, the village is a safe-haven that offers education, family, and hope for the future to young people who had lost everything in the country’s genocide and its aftermath.
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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.