For 70 years, the Soviet Union carried out a ruthless campaign to destroy all vestiges of Jewish life. Synagogues were closed. The Kehilla (Jewish communal organization) was outlawed. Jewish books, music, theater and art were banned.

To survive, millions of Jews had to give up their heritage. Taught to be ashamed and disdainful of their Jewish roots, many Jews tried to identify as Soviets; others tried to cling secretly to our traditions and our people.

Despite their efforts to blend anonymously into Soviet society, many still were barred from certain professions or careers and limited in how far they could advance because their internal passports labeled them as Jews. So great was the continued persecution of Jews that many parents never told their children that they were Jewish.

By 1938, when JDC was forced to leave the Soviet Union, most Soviet Jews had lost virtually all contact with world Jewry. JDC was able to maintain contact with Jewish leaders only in limited ways, through third parties.

Fifty years later, Soviet authorities loosened their control. Hundreds of thousands of Jews seized the freedom so long denied them and emigrated to Israel or other countries. By 2001, almost 1 million had emigrated.

When JDC was allowed to return to the Soviet Union in 1988, we knew we had to act quickly to help Jews who by – choice or by circumstance – remained in the Soviet Union. They too sought to reclaim their freedom. Yet, without our help, they would forever be lost to world Jewry through assimilation over time.

JDC’s imperative was clear. We had to help them rediscover their Jewish traditions and enable them to reclaim their heritage, rebuild their communities and rejoice in the splendor of Jewish life.

By the early 1990s, a second imperative demanded JDC’s response. The Soviet Union had collapsed, and its economy was in ruins. Pensions that once sustained elderly Jews no longer provided sufficient income. Suddenly made destitute, hundreds of thousands of Jewish elderly were barely managing to survive. JDC immediately began to respond to their urgent needs.

Faced with these two equally important goals, we knew that, to succeed, we had to build vibrant, proud and self-sufficient Jewish communities – communities that enable the strong to help the weak and enable Jews to identify their shared needs and address them within a Jewish environment. That’s why all our programs – be they Hesed welfarecCenters, Jewish Community Centers, Hillel Centers or Jewish family camps – are founded on the principles of Jewish communal life.

The rebirth of Jewish culture and community life has been breathtaking and may, one day, be seen as one of the great miracles of Jewish history.

Yet many challenges still confront Jewish communities in the FSU. Throughout the FSU, the economic climate is uncertain and, in some areas, the political situation is unstable. The needs of impoverished Jewish elderly remain constant. Jewish educational and cultural programs have not yet reached hundreds of thousands of unaffiliated Jewish adults and children.

As long as they need us, JDC will be there to offer help and hope.

2005