JDC in the 2000s
A Family Day celebration gets underway at the Yesod Jewish Community Center in St. Petersburg.
St. Petersburg, Russia, 2009.
JDC’s first cargo of preserved kosher beef is loaded aboard the SS Ashburn.
New York harbor, June 1919
JDC assisted the Argentine Jewish community devastated by the economic collapse and quickly developed a comprehensive emergency program. JDC Open Mailboxes fueled a massive relief response to the 2004 South Asia tsunami and other natural disasters. With the formation of the European Community, JDC worked to connect Jewish communities across Europe and globally.
In Depth
2000s : JDC in the New Millenium—Touching Lives, Transforming Communities
Hillel Club members at a Chanukah celebration
The performers use puppets to entertain at JDC-supported celebrations in eight shtetl communities.
L’viv, Ukraine, 2001.
Tuba Weiner, whose parents were murdered by the Nazis, eats a meal provided through JDC’s network of Hesed welfare centers in the former Soviet Union
JDC’s massive welfare relief efforts—food, medicines, medical care, home care, and winter relief—are a lifeline for destitute, aging Jews throughout the FSU who struggle to survive day to day on eroded pensions.
Tbilisi, Georgia, c.2006.
Volunteer clown entertains children confined to a bomb shelter in Israel during the Second Lebanon War
When residents of northern Israel were caught in the month-long barrage of rocket attacks during the 2006 Lebanon War, JDC, with funding from UJC’s Israel Emergency Campaign, harnessed its infrastructure, partnerships, and expertise to bring vital relief to the region’s most vulnerable: distressed families, the elderly, and the disabled. Many services were delivered through volunteers from JDC’s AMEN program, which engages youth in community volunteer work.
Israel, 2006. Photograph: Idan Peled.
Israeli seniors get a reprieve from the stresses of the Second Lebanon War through a respite in the interior of the country
JDC leveraged existing partnerships and expertise in working with Israeli society to bring critical services to vulnerable citizens in Israel’s north during and after the attacks. In addition to respites, JDC-ESHEL tended to the unique needs of the elderly, providing them with emergency kits, food, medicines, and social contact through existing programs such as Supportive Communities.
Israel, 2006. Photograph: Debbi Cooper.
JDC leaders with the certificate presented to JDC for The Israel Prize for Lifetime Achievement and Special Contribution to Society and the State of Israel
The award—the Jewish State’s highest civilian honor—is presented each year to individuals, and occasionally, institutions that have made outstanding contributions to Israeli society. JDC’s long history of partnership in Israel has engendered volumes of programming to strengthen the nation’s most vulnerable citizens and connect them with resources critical to their integration into Israeli society.
Israel, 2007.
A young girl with a stuffed animal she cares for as part of a kindergarten-based program designed to help Israeli children cope with trauma
This Hibuki program is one of a number of age-appropriate therapeutic programs developed by JDC to help Israel’s children confront their experience of living under fire with the aim of minimizing the impact of the conflict on their healthy growth and development.
Israel, 2008.
Kabbalat Shabbat is celebrated with the recitation of Kiddush and the singing of songs at the Baltics Limmud conference
Since making its way to the Baltics for the first time in 2004—marking the first-ever Limmud conference in Central and Eastern Europe—this grassroots studyfest has drawn growing crowds of participants to Vilnius, Lithuania, each year to teach, learn from one another, and explore their Jewish heritage.
Vilnius, Lithuania, 2007.
A young boy plays with an educational toy at the Baby Help Center in Buenos Aires
Established by JDC and the local community in the aftermath of Argentina’s December 2001 economic collapse, Baby Help (Tinok) responds to the uniquely difficult situation encountered by vulnerable pregnant women and toddlers. Baby Help provides basic needs such as food, milk, vitamins, and diapers; equipment such as strollers and cribs; otherwise unaffordable Jewish circumcision (brit mila) or baby naming (Simchat Bat) ceremonies; and an opportunity for young families to reconnect with the Jewish community through holiday celebrations.
Buenos Aires, Argentina, 2008.
A woman stands amid the physical devastation left by the Russia-Georgia conflict
Leveraging its expertise in emergency relief and its infrastructure in Georgia, JDC mobilized immediately with staff and humanitarian aid following the eruption of the conflict. Working through its Hesed welfare network, including a center in Tbilisi, JDC assisted in the absorption of Jewish refugees and provided immediate assistance including food, water, medicine, clothing, winter relief, and financial help to repair the homes and ease the struggle of the neediest families.
Georgia, 2008.
A Family Day celebration gets underway at the Yesod Jewish Community Center in St. Petersburg
Established in 2006, YESOD is a flagship center of JDC’s efforts to revitalize Jewish life in the FSU. It provides a pluralistic roof for four community organizations and has inspired the development of new educational and cultural initiatives for the city’s Jews.
St. Petersburg, Russia, 2009.
The Tarhankut family joins in reciting the blessing over Shabbat candles at a JDC-sponsored family retreat
Among JDC’s Jewish renewal activity throughout the FSU, each year thousands of people participate in family retreats, where they explore their Jewish identity, learn traditions, and make lasting connections with other young families from their community that are maintained throughout the year via JCC programs.
Ukraine, 2010.
Young leaders from JDC’s Balkan Black Sea Gesher region lighting candles at an annual gathering in Bulgaria
Support from the Harry and Jeanette Weinberg Foundation enables JDC’s regional networking structure in Europe to bring together Jews from countries with similar geographic and cultural backgrounds to exchange ideas, experience Jewish life, and create lasting personal connections to the broader Jewish community.
Bulgaria, 2011.
