JDC Voices

Sitting with Vera, it is her tearful eyes that first grab your attention.

At 62-years-old, her struggles have been endless. But it is her inability to get through the month, the grinding poverty she experiences, that occupies her thoughts.

At Rosh Hashanah, Natalia B., a 63-year-old widow in Sumy, Ukraine, reminds us that people should always live with hope. She says “we must believe in the good in this world, and in miracles.”

At face value, 85-year old Morris, who lives alone in a remote, rundown cottage he built himself in Zhitomer, Ukraine is a mirror of the tragic circumstances of his life.

Besides being major summer hotspots and beautiful locations, the Hamptons and the Berkshires were recently the destinations for two not-to-miss JDC events. The Amagansett-based Next Wave event hosted in the home of the Rosen Family, including JDC Board Members Leslie and Michele Rosen, and husband Stan, and the West Stockbridge-based special event held in the home of JDC Emeritus Board Member Helene Berger informed new audiences about JDC’s present and past relief work.

When you think of the elderly living in senior living facilities, do the words “vibrant” and “exciting” immediately come to mind? If they didn’t before, they will after seeing the New Look at Aging photo exhibition, a collection featuring original, colorful, and compelling photos of active seniors from Israeli photographer Oren Biran.

I’m grateful to JDC for having such an important mission and working hard to help Jews around the world like, once upon a time, my grandmother.

The support of American Jews, at this crucial times are so needed and so greatly appreciated by those of us who understand well the realities – both the challenges and the opportunities – in Hungary right now.

My route to JDC was less direct than others I assume. I came from a very reform Jewish family in Boston area where history and tradition were important but we were not very observant.

This past weekend marked Lag B’Omer, the thirty-third day of the Omer, a light-hearted Jewish holiday that marks a break in the mourning customs associated with the counting of the seven-week period from Passover to Shavuot. Jews traditionally celebrate the holiday with outings, bonfires, weddings, and other community ceremonies.

We left Moscow at the crack of dawn this morning and headed out for a trek to the edge of Siberia to a town called Yekaterinburg. There are about 62,000 Jews in this rural central region of Russia, which comprises about 20% of Russia’s territory. This includes some 11,000 elderly Jews (many of whom are Holocaust survivors) that JDC supports with food, shelter, and medical assistance. JDC is also active in helping organize and sustain the Jewish community, including a variety of youth programs