by Nathan Roi Addressing a packed audience this weekend at the Limmud FSU conference for Russian-speaking young Jewish adults at the Klyasma Resort Center near Moscow, Sofa Landver, Israel’s Minister of Immigrant Absorption, said, “A nuclear holocaust in the Middle East would be a nuclear holocaust the world over.” She elaborated by saying that the special character of Iranian nuclear ambitions Israel threatens not only Israel as the Iranian leadership would wish and the Jewish people in general, but people all over the world. Among those in the audience - Ambassador Dorit Golander, Israel’s ambassador to the Russian Federation; MK Carmel Shama-Hacohen, chair of the Knesset Economics Committee and MK Alex Miller, chair of the Knesset Education and Culture Committee. Following her … Continue Reading
Hillel in Ukraine Rocks With Good Deeds Week
by Dasha Privalko Hillel Ukraine continues to be out front with their support of Good Deeds Day - an international initiative launched in 2007 by the Israel based Ruach Tova nonprofit and supported by The Ted Arison Family Foundation. And in the Ukraine, Good Deeds Day has been taken one step further with the country-wide embracing of Good Deeds Week. Along with the many "traditional" good deeds that Hillel Ukraine has regularly been involved with for the past three years - including visits to orphanages, to hospitals with children suffering from cancer and HIV, senior residences, shelters for abandoned animals and more - this year they have broadened their reach by inspiring Ukrainian university students to not only participate in Hillel projects but to launch their own … Continue Reading
Hillel Kiev Asks, What is Happiness?
At the Lubistok orphanage in Novy Petrivtsy, Ukraine, Good Deeds Week volunteers tried to find an answer for this ordinary, but very complicated, question. Together with volunteers from Hillel Kiev and other Kiev universities, a gallery of paintings was created by young orphans to be sold at a charitable auction, arranged by Hillel in Ukraine and its partners: Aerosvit, Libero, Evening News, ArtHouse, Art-boutique "Alizarin", Ukrainian TV and media, city administrations and donors from eight cities that took part in the action - Dnepro, Donetsk, Kharkov, Kiev, Lvov, Odessa, Sevastopol and Simferopol. All together over 10,000 people were touched by the activities, initiated and facilitated by Hillel Ukraine, and among them several dozen destitute children who reclaimed their trust in … Continue Reading
IFCJ Supports Ohr Avner Clothing Program
Clothing packages were recently delivered to hundreds of Ukrainian children, thanks to donations to The Fellowship’s (IFCJ) Isaiah 58 program. Twice a year, in the winter and summer, children who have been orphaned, come from disadvantaged families, or are physically or mentally disabled receive a voucher, or gift card, valued at $100. This allows them to hand-pick their own new clothes, which is a rare if not impossible luxury for disadvantaged children in the former Soviet Union. The sum distributed is sufficient for a large range of warm clothing that may include outerwear, footwear, underwear, etc. The Fellowship’s Isaiah 58 program provides food, medical care, housing and other basic assistance to poor Jews in the former Soviet Union, and finances a network of safe children's … Continue Reading
After Russian Exodus, Jews Rebuild Communities
by Alina Dain Sharon JointMedia News Service While Saddam Hussein’s forces shelled Israel during the Gulf War, 12-year-old Alex Kalmikov arrived at Ben Gurion Airport from Soviet Georgia. “Three days later we had our first gas mask alarm,” he recalled. In what is considered by many to be the second major Jewish exodus (following the story of Passover), about 2 million Jews left the Soviet Union just before and after its collapse, settling primarily in the United States, Germany and Israel. Moving earlier was Natan Sharansky, a former Soviet prisoner and refusenik who made aliyah in 1986 and is now chairman of the executive at the Jewish Agency for Israel (JAFI). Sharansky said in an interview with JointMedia News Service that for emigrants, leaving the Soviet Union was about the … Continue Reading
Rostov Jewish Community Rebuilds With Focus on Youth
by Tamar Runyan In the city where almost 70 years ago, Nazi forces committed the biggest single atrocity associated with the Holocaust in Russia, the local Jewish community is building programming models aimed at uniting Jewish youth across the country. Rostov-on-Don, near Russia’s southern border with Ukraine, is home to an estimated 10,000 Jews, a far cry from the 27,000 who were murdered during a single massacre in World War II. But while the story of its community mirrors those of other locations whose Jewish populations were decimated by the Nazis, perhaps unique to Rostov is the level of communal involvement of Jewish teenagers and young professionals. It’s the same youthful energy that attracted Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Chaim and Kaila Danzinger to move from their home in California … Continue Reading
The New Year has Started: What’s in it for Giving in Russia?
by Maria Chertok The World Giving Index released by CAF in December 2011 shows that the world has become a more charitable place over the last 12 months - with a 2% increase in the global population ‘helping a stranger’ and a 1% increase in people volunteering. In the same time 1% fewer people have given money to a charity than in 2010. The report - which is compiled by CAF using Gallup polling information on the charitable behaviour of people in 153 nations - is based on three measures. These are ‘giving money’, ‘volunteering time’ and ‘helping a stranger’. The global average of the three giving behaviours in 2011 was 32.4%, compared to 31.6% in 2010. The results for Russia seem positive too: we climbed eight steps on the Index ladder - from 138th place to 130th, while the … Continue Reading
Trends in Institutional Philanthropy in Russia
by Maria Chertok This is my second post based on the recent Russian Donors Forum Report on Institutional Philanthropy in Russia. I am very encouraged by e-mails and phone calls from readers of this blog, and as the report will not be available in English at least for a while, I believe it makes sense to continue my brief notes. In the previous post I summarized the key findings of the survey of foundations, and now would like to briefly go through the key trends that were suggested by the participants of focus groups and interviews carried out by the authors of the report. The number of foundations is growing regardless of the financial crisis. It is interesting that it appears that private foundations - unlike corporate donors or other NGOs - were not impacted by the crises at all. This … Continue Reading
Boards of Trustees: a Blessing or a Curse in Modern Day Russia?
by Polina Philippova Since the beginning of its work in Russia in 1993, CAF has been promoting internationally acknowledged practices, elements and principles in philanthropy and not-for-profit: equal access to funding, competitive distribution, transparency, etc. Many of them have taken deep roots and are widely applied. Some are not doing so well. There is only one that I recommend with caution, and sometimes even reluctance. It is the creation of boards. According to Russian law, only one type of not-for-profit organization - the charitable foundation - is obliged to set up a western-type board with full authority to hire and fire executives, approve strategies and budgets, etc. The remaining legal entities can choose either to have no board, to have a board that just provides advice, or to … Continue Reading
The Shtetl: Medzhybizh Then and Now
by Nathan Roi Rabbi Israel ben Eliezer, better known as the “Baal Shem Tov,” usually abbreviated to “Besht,” was a mystic rabbi who is considered the founder of Hassidism. He was born either in 1698 or 1700 according to different sources, lived in the small Ukrainian village of Medzhybizh and died there in 1760. On the way to Medzhybizh, we pass through a small town called Tolchin: along the road are galvanized tin shacks selling a variety of smoked fish to people who come from all over Ukraine, even as far as Kiev, as the prices are evidently far less. In large basins carp are swimming. Decades ago they would have been destined to end up as gefilte fish on the Sabbath tables of the more affluent Jews in the shtetl. It could well be that the disciples of the Besht could not afford … Continue Reading
English