Jewish Renewal
Jewish youth celebrate in a community bar and bat mitzvah celebration.
Ulan Ude, Siberia, Russia, July 2007.
For over a century, JDC has responded to both material and cultural needs, bound by the inextricable link between the physical and spiritual in Jewish tradition. From the interwar period to the Displaced Persons camps following World War II, JDC’s work included reestablishing Jewish schools and enhancing Jewish cultural activities and religious observances through the provision of Torah scrolls, books, and holiday supplies. It aided the rabbis and yeshiva students who fled from Lithuania to Japan and then Shanghai to escape the Holocaust, later ensuring that their schools could be reestablished in Israel. It helped support those who kept the embers of Jewish life glowing behind the Iron Curtain, fostering the renewal of Jewish life in the post-Communist world and in distant communities through Jewish camps, JCCs, schools, youth groups, and other initiatives.
Refugees supported by JDC study at a Vilnius synagogue
With the 1939 Nazi invasion of Poland, thousands of Jews fled to Vilna, which had been transferred to Soviet control.
Vilnius, Lithuania, 1940.
New mothers with babies in the JDC-created medical center for refugees in the Cyprus detention camps
The British diverted to Cyprus ships that were carrying Jewish refugees to Palestine in violation of the British blockade.
Xylotymbou, Cyprus, c.1947. Photograph: Al Taylor.
Young DPs (displaced persons) celebrating Lag B'Omer at the Hochland camp near Munich
Germany, 1949. Photograph: Al Taylor.
One of over 100 chuppot (Jewish wedding canopies) produced and dispatched by JDC to Displaced Persons camps in the U.S. Zone from the end of World War II in 1945 through late 1949
The words “Joint – Product of the Land of Israel” in Hebrew and “AJJDC” in English appear in the lower left-hand corner.
1945-1949.
Title page of the “Survivors Talmud”
The “Survivors Talmud” was a joint project between the U.S. Army Command and JDC to print 700 sets of the Talmud in postwar Germany. The project was completed in July 1950. In its work in the Displaced Persons camps, JDC addressed both spiritual and material needs.
Germany, 1950.
English reader created for Soviet transmigrant children
Vocabulary words, arranged alphabetically, include Jewish ritual objects and holidays in an effort to prepare Soviet Jews for a new world in the West and also to expose them to Jewish life. JDC provided for hundreds of thousands of Soviet émigrés in Vienna and Rome while they waited to immigrate.
Ladispoli, Italy, April 1988.
Kessim (religious leaders) mark a synagogue opening
This synagogue, in the village of Gomenge, was one of five synagogues built in Gondar with JDC aid.
Gomenge, Ethiopia, 1988. Photograph: Donald M. Robinson.
Cantor Joseph Malovany, JDC's Chief Executive Officer Ralph Goldman, and Conductor Konstantin Krimetic after a concert of Jewish music
This was the first public performance of its kind in Russia in decades. Performances by world-renowned cantors and choirs brought by JDC stood as potent symbols of Jewish renewal.
Moscow, Russia, May 1989.
A colorful drawing done by a ten-year-old in Moscow
This is one of several drawings created by children attending the JDC-sponsored Moscow Jewish Art School, part of the first generation to receive a Jewish education in the former Soviet Union.
Moscow, Russia, 1990.
A JDC Jewish Service Corps volunteer sings Hebrew songs with Jewish children
Thane, India, 1990. Photograph: Leon Morris.
Passover Hagaddah in Hebrew with Russian translation, published by JDC in 1991
The fall of Communism and the dissolution of the former Soviet Union galvanized JDC in efforts to rebuild and reinvigorate Jewish communities throughout the region, and to assist Soviet Jewry in rediscovering its Jewish heritage.
1991.
Children singing together at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation/JDC International Summer Camp
Summer camps play a role in nurturing Jewish identity and future leaders among the first post-Communist generation.
Szarvas, Hungary, 1995. Photograph: Roy Mittelman.
Students proudly display their Hebrew-language workbooks at a Jewish community school
Sofia, Bulgaria, December 1996. Photograph: Roy Mittelman.
Children from Djerba's centuries-old Jewish community line up outside a JDC-supported school
Djerba, Tunisia, May 2005. Photograph: Chrystie Sherman.
Jewish youth celebrate in a community bar and bat mitzvah celebration
Ulan Ude, Siberia, Russia, July 2007.
A Family Day celebration gets underway at the Yesod Jewish Community Center
St. Petersburg, Russia, March 2009.
Cuban youth make havdalah, marking the end of Shabbat, at the Patronato Synagogue
Havana, Cuba, January 2009. Photograph: Julian Voloj.
