TheUnion of Councils for the Jews in the Former Soviet Union(UCSJ) has developed a program to localize and survey killing sites, including non-invasive fieldwork started in 2012 together with Ukrainian and British scientists. Since the beginning of the war, JDC has: The Jewish Agency for Israel continues to coordinate mass relief efforts and enable Aliyah for the Jewish community in Ukraine. The Joint is a Jewish relief organization based in New York City. The JDC has also always received massive amounts of funds from the German government as early as 1990 through the Claims Conference for the treatment of Holocaust survivors. The apartment was very small and not fully equipped. In a way, we do everything the JDC used to do 20 years ago. The Jewish Confederation of Ukraine is an association of national, regional, and local Ukrainian organizations that strengthen and support Jewish Ukrainian relations. The newspaper says that total losses to the economy, both direct and indirect, have already reached over $560 billion, and that around 60% of small- and medium-sized businesses are currently closed or suspended. Chabad-Lubavitch has established a relief fund and a $1 million RaiseThon campaign. The reception centers are also hosting third country nationals from India, Africa, and Central Asian Republics, among them students and families. At this moment HIAS is working to support three Jewish communities at the forefront of the response to this crisis. My heart is with Ukraine, and Im doing what I can to help, Joy Sisisky, new Federation CEO, will be 2nd woman leader in orgs history. In each place we are helping with the logistics of transportation, accommodation, and determining where refugees can head next. The first Sheptytsky Medal was awarded to James Temerty, founder of the Ukrainian Jewish Encounter.

Now JDC is busy raising funds for Ukraine emergency relief efforts. SIM cards for mobile phones are distributed for free at the refugee reception center near the Medyka, Poland border crossing with Ukraine, March 3, 2022. Take into account that 20 years ago there were thousands of survivors in every city. All Rights Reserved. One of JDCs flagship programs in recent years is JDC Entwine, its leadership program. It seems that the furniture was collected by donations. The JCU was set up by four umbrella organizations: the Union of Jewish Religious Organizations of Ukraine, the Society for Jewish Culture/Jewish Council of Ukraine, the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities-VAAD of Ukraine, and the Kiev City Jewish Community. Jewish Federations host half-hour webinars twice a week, on Mondays and Thursdays, to update audiences about the rapidly evolving situation in Ukraine. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) continues to help Jews in need across Ukraine. To volunteer for this program (please note that only those who speak Russian and/or Ukrainian are being selected at this time), click here. [12] In 2018, the 4th medal was awarded to Ronald Lauder, President of the World Jewish Congress. Some small events took place in person in some locations.

HIAS is also working with the Jewish Community of Bratislava in Slovakia and the Jewish Community of Moldova. There are less and less local activities, the Jewish content for holidays disappeared, budgets have been cut, and current CEO Ariel Zwang hasnt visited the FSU since she was chosen to run the huge and important Jewish organization. ORT has five schools and two affiliated schools in Ukraine serving more than 8,000 students. He explained that the JDC, as an American organization, came with an American mentality and decided to build Jewish community centers, JCCs, like those that exist in North America. The leader added that the JDC budget became more and more focused on Holocaust survivors only. Ukrainian-born Ana Sazanov is now the head of the Jewish Federation in Columbia, South Carolina, and is taking part in the volunteer program. Russian spokesperson Maria Zakharova stated, Ill say something that the politicians in Israel who are now inflating their information campaign are unlikely to want to hear. In order to protect Jewish mass graves VAAD has been pressuring Ukrainian public authorities to comply with their legal obligations. In addition to those who are leaving the country, we know from our colleagues at Right to Protection (R2P), the Ukrainian refugee organization HIAS helped to create, that there are at least as many internally displaced people within Ukraine. We have long helped traumatized refugee communities get the mental health treatment they need, worked with displaced communities to set up systems and norms that avoid gender-based violence and coordinated with Jewish communities and broad civil society coalitions to deal with large scale resettlement on a temporary or if need be permanent basis. See here for an opinion piece published by the Jerusalem Institute for Strategy and Security on why Israel needs to adjust its Ukrainian policy.

In the past two years all of these budgets have been canceled.. We are the JDC in the FSU., Another Jewish leader we spoke to this week said that the JDC used to employ tens of local workers in his city. Read here about Max Szepka, who has been volunteering at a Jewish Agency Aliyah center in Budapest and aiding Jewish refugees alongside his friends from Ukraine. The list mainly comprised Israeli diplomats and embassy security, but also included Rishon Lezion Deputy Mayor Maksim Babitzky, who led a humanitarian aid delegation to the border in early March. Often we say two Jews, three opinions, four organizations, five strategies but in this case and helping immigrants has never been the same central organizing principle for European Jews as it has for American Jews everyone is working together. It is estimated that as many as 200,000 Jews in Ukraine could invoke the Law of Return to settle in Israel. Jewish Community Working Together at the Ukraine-Poland Border, Right to Protection's Quick Pivot to a War Footing, UNHCR: 100 Million Now Displaced, 27 Million Refugees Worldwide, Global Humanitarian Community Failing Ukrainian Women and Girls, DONATE TO SUPPORT HIAS' UKRAINE CRISIS RESPONSE. Holocaust survivors are disappearing.

Following that conversation, Zelensky tweeted that he and Bennett spoke about countering the aggressor and about the critical situation in Mariupol. According to the Prime Ministers Office, Bennett asked Putin to examine a humanitarian corridor from Mariupol, Ukraine. If we compare winter 2014-2015 to winter of 2022, there are many differences, but one of the major ones is that the JDC senior management hasnt sent anyone to Ukraine. Federations continue to run the volunteer hub in support of refugees fleeing Ukraine. The unity and coordination among different European Jewish communities in this operation is impressive. JDC has its own funds, of which only $4.6m. for the 2022 budget from the German government and $4.5m. The scene inside the Przemysl, Poland train station, the first stop inside Poland on the rail route from Ukraine, March 3, 2022. They had two children, one of them with special needs. A Jewish cemetery in Hlukhiv in northeastern Ukraine was bombed last Sunday by Russian forces, according to Ukraine's Minister of Culture and Information Oleksander Tkacjenko.

LATEST DEVELOPMENTS, ISRAEL An executive who lives in the US when Jews are in danger in Ukraine, and wont visit the Ukraine, is not running the JDC that was.. Fri, July 22 2022 She is Jewish, he is not they lived temporarily in a tiny apartment that is half an hours drive from the city center. And in this piece, CNN describes how Poland, once a place from where Jews escaped, is now welcoming thousands of Jewish refugees. The IFCJ is one of the organizations that could pick up some of the slack left by the JDC.

Sign up for updates and breaking news from HIAS. (For background on the crisis, as well as for information on the Jewish community in Ukraine, see here). Alan Shipnuck's new book blows open life of golf great Phil Mickelson, Joc Pederson joins Team Israel for 2023 World Baseball Classic, Swastikas etched on cars in Berkeley probed as hate crime.

The philanthropy news you need to stay up to date, delivered daily in a must-read newsletter. ORT schools and educational programs in the country remain closed, but online classes are being offered to students and a number of Seders took place virtually during the Passover holidays. In addition, the JDC contributes millions of dollars in disaster relief and development assistance to non-Jewish communities.. Yet thousands of Jews moved there and lived in modern-day refugee camps created by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, known in the Jewish world simply as the Joint.

Its not that all of these Jews are members of Chabad or even religious; on the contrary, many of them are assimilated Jews, a local Jewish community member affiliated with Chabad said. Meanwhile Bennett has partially begun again to act as a mediator between Russia and Ukraine. Project Kesher supports Jewish women and girls in Eastern European countries, and is fundraising for those in Ukraine and those seeking to flee cities under attack. is invested in the FSU Jewish communities. I visited nearby initial reception centers in huge warehouse buildings. The comments were made during call by Putin to Bennett to congratulate him on Israels 74th Independence Day. MEMBERS OF THE Dnipro, Ukraine Jewish community in 2015 receiving help from the JDC. I just returned from a week-long HIAS mission to the Polish-Ukrainian border where my colleagues and I went to see the situation firsthand, meet with local partners, and gather information to help plan our ongoing response. The explanation they give is COVID-19 restrictions, the lay leader said. From what I see, the JDC is running the operation remotely from Kiev and is just leaving a few employees on ground because otherwise they wouldnt be able to function.. The Jewish Agency for Israel announced it has opened six aliyah processing stations along Ukrainian border crossings with Poland, Moldova, Romania and Hungary. Find out more about ShulCloud. [2], The mission of the JCU is to unite the Jews of Ukraine, to help the Jewish communities in the country and to support the State of Israel. Because of his Jewish family. It was formerly established in April 1999 at a meeting attended by representatives of 294 Jewish groups and organizations. The Kyiv Independent newspaper is reporting that as of late April, the Russian military has destroyed 30% of Ukraines infrastructure, causing $100 billion worth of damage. As hard as it was to witness the impact of war on so many, I was utterly amazed at the mobilization of the European Jewish Community in the face of this unfolding humanitarian catastrophe. As EU and NATO members, Poland and Slovakia have more security, but Moldova has been particularly worried about becoming collateral damage or even being targeted next in the event of a successful Russian conquest of Ukraine. In 2013, the JCU established a tradition of awarding the Metropolitan Andrey Sheptytsky Medal to prominent figures who contributed to the development of Jewish-Ukrainian relations. It has a mission on the ground currently in Moldova, and is sending money to Jewish organizations in the countries that have been accepting Ukrainian refugees, as well as to their partner organization within Ukraine.