Elderly Hesed Client Belies Personal Tragedy by Dancing, Reading, and Inspiring Others

Clients and staff of the Hesed welfare center in Kostanay, Kazakhstan, insist that were Diana able to hear, she would be one of their most active volunteers. Despite her 82 years, she is always one of the first to show up for holiday celebrations at the JDC-supported Hesed, and can be counted on to dance enthusiastically during the various festivities and programs. Diana is also a fixture at the Hesed library. Though she doesn't hold a formal education degree, she visits the library often in search of her favorite books on Jewish traditions. People at the Hesed pay Diana special attention because they know that her smile belies extreme poverty and a particularly hard life.

She was born an only child in 1923 in Donetsk, Ukraine to her mother, Sara. When the war started, her father left for the front. In 1941, under threat, Diana and her mother escaped to the city of Dzerzhinsk, where Sara's brother lived. But conditions were not safe even there; Diana sustained a head wound during a bombing raid and shrapnel lodged in her head could not be removed. At the time, Sara a qualified accountant, was unemployed; she and Diana had so little money that they were forced to sell their clothes outright or exchange them for bread. Soon after, Diana's uncle was moved to Moscow, forcing she and her mother to leave the apartment. They moved to Kostanay, Kazakhstan, where Sara's sisters had been living since being evacuated from Ukraine.

Sara worked a number of different jobs, but none of them became permanent. Diana soon realized that being Jewish was the reason for her mother's employment problems.

As a result of the bombing injury Diana's hearing had been impaired and she was only able to complete eight years of school. For a while, she worked as at the deaf and mute society. But like her mother, Diana, too, also experienced prejudice. "I suffered the same fate as my mother did," she explains. "I was humiliated and mistreated for the same reasons she had – for being Jewish."

On one particular occasion, Diana was fired on grounds of being absent from work. Though she brought medical certification which explained her absence, the director refused to accept it. Determined not to be crushed, Diana brought an action against him and indeed was reinstated at her job, but at a minimal salary. "I am proud of being Jewish, for belonging to the great nation with a great history," she says, in spite of the hardship. She refuses to be ashamed of her heritage. Though she was just a child when World War II began, it left a permanent scar on Diana's life: financial hardship and physical disability. Despite this she is vivacious and full of spirit, participating in Hesed activities and socializing regularly with the other clients. "I am glad that there is a Hesed in Kostanay, which helps those like me, gives us food packages, delivers meals to us, and much more," says the WWII veteran. "It helps us feel we are part of the