JDC
She is also the first woman to hold the position in the history of the 106-year-old social-service agency.
Nearly 9,000 elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union who receive life-saving services got packages of food and traditional holiday items.
The devastating effects of COVID-19 that have ravaged Western Europe and the United States have so far spared Jewish communities in Eastern Europe, even as Russia is now in its crosshairs.
It also continued its three-decade-old tradition of distributing matzah to needy Jewish elderly in parts of the former Soviet Union.
Jewish community members will partake in festivals, workshops and demonstrations, and give gift baskets of food to friends and neighbors.
In Eastern Europe, the revival of Jewish life is on full display.
“I was a teenager when I first found out I was Jewish,” said b’nai mitzvah participant Ilia Buzunov. “From that moment, my life was completely changed, and today, six years later, I am a proud Jew, doing what I love—working to make my community better every day.”
More than 8,500 poor, elderly Jews in former Soviet Union are receiving honey and other holiday fare, delivered by local volunteers and Hesed social-welfare centers.
“We can expect more deaths to be recorded,” said Bahamian Prime Minister Hubert Minnis after Hurricane Dorian. “Our priority is search, rescue and recovery.”
The three-day program was the largest of its kind for Jews across the former Soviet Union, with participants from Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Moldova, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan and Georgia.
Some 25 tons of matzah is being distributed to vulnerable populations in the former Soviet Union; Passover aid is on its way to Jews in Egypt.
As winter weather batters populations worldwide, JDC calls for aid efforts
Thousands of impoverished Jews overseas remain in need of critically important relief, ranging from coal to coats.
