JDC Voices Blog
Celebrating Transformative Educational Seminars in Romania
They gathered together at the Great Synagogue of Bucharest, 350 Jews from 31 communities around Romania braving slush and rain to pay tribute to the 10th session of Bereshit, a JDC-sponsored weekend of Jewish learning and text study.
Keeping Passover Spirit Alive in Ukraine
Against the backdrop of a crippling humanitarian crisis in Ukraine, JDC is ensuring that Passover continues uninterrupted for thousands of Jews at Hesed social welfare centers and JDC-supported Jewish Community Center on both sides of the ceasefire line throughout Ukraine.
Q&A: Masha Shumatskaya
When the daily shelling began to be too much to bear last June, 23-year-old Masha Shumatskaya packed up her belongings and left her hometown of Donetsk in eastern Ukraine for the safety of Kharkov.
In Donetsk Under Fire, Caring For Those Who Remain
On a recent morning, Sophia, one of JDC's Hesed social welfare caretakers from Donetsk, was visiting a 97-year-old client of hers near the center of the eastern Ukrainian city when a massive explosion shook the building.
In Eastern Ukraine, Fostering Hope
As Ukraine's crisis continues, marked this past weekend by dozens of deaths in the Sea of Azov coast city of Mariupol, JDC doubled down on its efforts to care for the most vulnerable Jews still living in the conflict-laden eastern part of the country.As indiscriminate artillery fire slammed into a market, schools, homes, and shops in the city, JDC's local Hesed social welfare center, in cooperation with JDC's office in Dnepropetrovsk, engaged in round-the-clock monitoring of the nearly 600 Jews it aids in the city as well as the general Jewish population.
Nous Sommes Juifs
JDC stands together with the hundreds of thousands of people, including world leaders, who gathered in Paris to stand up to terror and demonstrate their solidarity with the French people -- and mourns the loss of all those who were murdered in cold blood by the terrorists.
In Moving Memoir, Connection to JDC
Carol Jean Delmar has written the recently published Serenade, a moving memoir of her parents' love story and their journey from Vienna and Prague to Cuba and the United States as they fled the Nazis. Her father was an opera singer and his musical talent kept him and the author's mother one step ahead of the restrictions and violence against European Jews. Ms. Delmar relied on her father's taped account as well as diligent research and travel to relate her parents' struggles and triumphs as refugees. The book contains detailed documentation of passports and letters, photos, and extensive musical references, but reads more like a novel than a typical work of non-fiction.
Dispatch from Odessa: Winter is Coming
Every Chanukah for the past two decades, a giant menorah has lit up the central square of the Ukrainian port city of Odessa, bringing a little festive cheer to Jewish and non-Jewish locals during the long winter nights.
On the Ground in Ukraine
This week, I returned from Ukraine after a week-long trip visiting JDC's programs, clients, and staff in both Odessa and Kiev. It was the first time I was personally exposed to the crucial work JDC does in the former Soviet Union.
From the CEO: Around the World, Snapshots of Jewish Hope
Jewish tradition is prolific in advice offering. And one of the gems from this lexicon of do's and don'ts comes from the Talmudic tractate Kiddushin.
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