Named for the Hebrew word for “kindness, compassion or benevolence,” JDC’s welfare centers in the former Soviet Union (FSU) embody the "charitable deeds" and "acts of loving kindness" encapsulated in this term. The Hesed welfare program (or simply Hesed, as the system has come to be known) is JDC's unique, community-based relief approach in the FSU, which was first implemented in 1993 in St. Petersburg in response to the stark needs of impoverished, elderly Jews. Promoting Jewish communal development was an integral part of this effort; hence the program was deliberately designed to cultivate self-sufficiency and build a cadre of trained Jewish professionals and volunteers. The network of Hesed centers subsequently established by JDC in tandem with the local Jewish populations provides a wide range of social services throughout the length and breadth of the FSU. The centers operate on three basic principles: total community involvement, volunteerism, and service provision in an atmosphere of Yiddishkeit. Hesed’s unique form of caring was recognized by the Russian Academy of Languages, which adopted the word “hesed” as a new Russian word meaning “the provision of social services with special compassion.”