People need people

My inspiring colleague Oksana and I spoke at the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County earlier this month. The New Jersey Jewish News did a nice piece about our briefing there.

JDC officials describe Ukraine relief effort

by Debra Rubin
NJJN Bureau Chief/Middlesex

May 20, 2014

Despite months of turmoil, Ukraine’s Jews have continued to receive lifesaving medicine, food, and other vital services through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

“During the last five months we have never interrupted our services,” said JDC Ukraine Government Affairs director Oksana Galkevich.

Galkevich and JDC colleague Dov Ben-Shimon appeared May 2 at a leadership briefing at the South River offices of Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County. At the meeting, it was announced that the federation had made an emergency $11,700 donation to JDC, a federation partner, for its Ukrainian efforts.

Federation executive director Gerrie Bamira said the donation was made to “ensure the uninterrupted delivery of vital services to poor and isolated elderly Jews as well as at-risk children and their families. This ongoing partnership and relief effort is possible because of the generous donors in Jewish Middlesex.” 

Galkevich said JDC representatives have braved sniper fire, crossed dangerous checkpoints, and devoted countless extra hours to ensure the health and safety of Ukraine’s 300,000-350,000 Jews, 17,000 of whom live in Crimea, the area taken over by Russia in March.

The Kharkov native, who came to the United States to update her organization’s community partners, said that support has been stepped up at its hesed welfare and community centers in affected areas of the country. Security and food and medicine deliveries had been increased, additional counseling services provided, and a round-the-clock emergency phone chain had been set up to monitor clients. Additionally, situation rooms throughout the nation have been established to provide constant updates on the local situation even as contingency plans have been prepared in case of emergency. 

JDC operates 32 hesed centers in Ukraine, including three in Crimea, and serves Jews in more than 1,000 locations. 

“People are scared, and when they need someone to talk to they call or come to our hesed centers,” said Galkevich. “We thought with all the disorder, people would not come to the centers, but we were wrong. People need people. Our social workers try to comfort them.” 

Particularly vulnerable are the elderly who live on meager monthly government pensions and are suffering because of Ukraine’s devalued currency and sharp spike in prices for goods and services. She said many are survivors of the Holocaust and the privations of the communist regime.

“People literally have to make a choice between heart medication and a carton of eggs,” said Galkevich. “The JDC has such deep infrastructure, we were able to help every single person” who approached the centers, said Galkevich.

The aid given to the Jewish community has produced a situation rife with irony. Ben-Shimon, JDC’s director of strategic partnerships, said Jews tend to live longer than non-Jewish Ukrainians because of the food, medical, and homecare services made possible through the JDC and its partners in the North American federation system, but “they live longer, lonelier lives” because in many cases, their children have left the country.

And while there is “no institutional anti-Semitism on the state level or government level,” said Galkevich, widespread violence has left the community frightened.

“So far the Jews have not been targeted,” she said, but downtown Kiev “is in ruins” with cobblestones ripped from the streets for use as weapons. In Odessa, with 40,000 Jews — and where JDC serves 7,000 clients — a flare-up of violence between pro-Ukraine and pro-Russian factions has had a chilling effect on the population. 

Galkevich said JDC staff members are committed to continue serving their clients. She told the story of Irina, a homecare worker in Kiev who stayed at the home of one of her clients, a disabled Holocaust survivor terrified of spending the night alone.

Realizing she had another elderly client nearby who depended on her for meals, Irina cooked enough for both women. Between bursts of sniper gunfire from rooftops, Irina ran back and forth from one apartment to the other. 

In Sevastopol, a city with about 5,000 Jews on the Crimean peninsula, the hesed center remained the only “fully functioning” Jewish organization after the Russian invasion. Galkevich said its director gave every worker traveling to a client a signed letter explaining they were doing humanitarian work for the center. 

In a testament to its reputation, when the letters were shown to Russian soldiers turning away vehicles at roadblocks, many would say, “Ah, hesed — you can go through.”



 http://www.njjewishnews.com/article/22989/jdc-officials-describe-ukraine-relief-effort#.U30IDPldWyU

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Get involved

I spoke the other day at an event in Philadelphia and talked about what's happening in the Jewish world. There were some terrific questions, both during the event and afterwards. Someone came up to me at the end and asked me "how can I get more involved in what the Joint is doing?"

So ... good question. Here are some initial thoughts ....

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Three thoughts on the Jewish World

I gave a presentation the other night to a leadership group in Boston. We talked about the Jewish world and some of the mission-locations they’d visited and discussed. Cuba, Hungary, Argentina and Ukraine.

And yes, every situation is different. But still … there were three themes that looked “the same” for me.

First, everywhere you go, it’s always the vulnerable who suffer first and hardest. Doesn’t matter where. Whenever there’s trouble, or conflict, or crisis. Could be in Israel, or Ukraine or any number of places.

Second, exit strategies and phase downs aren’t linear processes. We talked about how the Joint is phasing down in certain programs and countries. But we also talked about a readiness to scale back up, if the need arises or the economics worsen.

And third, communities change not just in quantity but also in quality. When a community consolidates (say, into major cities) that may look like a “shrinkage.” But if the end result of that transition is where we can build leadership programs, JCCs, Sunday Schools and other immersive experiences … then it's not the same thing. When communities consolidate geographically we're looking at economies of scale. When it's easier to build these programs because we have more density and easier logistics.

And that's a positive.

How much stuff costs

I had a conversation with a colleague the other day from a nearby Jewish federation about "how much things cost" for JDC services around the world.

Bearing in mind that costs differ from community to community, and equivalencies aren't as simple as you'd hope ... here nonetheless are some basic illustrative 'unit costs' that give you a good sense of the kind of tzedaka (charity) opportunities you can have when you make a donation.

$180 sends an Israeli with a disability to an independent living skills workshop, like computer skills, healthy living, household management.

$300 send an at-risk Israeli kid to a business entrepeneurship program, helping ease his or her transition into society and keeping them safe and off the streets.

$1000 sends one kid to the Szarvas summer camp in Hungary, changing lives and renewing Jewish community across Europe.

$1750 can cover the cost of an elderly client with food, medicine, home care and winter relief in the former Soviet Union.

$2150 can allow an Israeli woman to take part in a 'Woman of Valor' Employment program, shifting her from economic dependence to independence, and changing the face of Israeli society.

If you're looking for a way to make a difference - a real, powerful, personal difference - in one person's life, consider these ideas when you go to make a gift.
And if you've already made that gift, directly to the Joint or through your federation, then know how grateful we are - on behalf of the people above, and all those whose lives you've enriched, empowered and rescued.

The limits of my language are the limits of my world*

I’ve spent a significant amount of time in various partnership cities.

These are places where we help build strong relationships between North American Jewish Federation communities with a community in Israel, or Europe, or the former Soviet Union. There are layers and layers of relationship models – schools, JCCs, projects, programs, personal ties – that deepen each year. They enhance Jewish identity and connectivity for everyone involved.

The basic components of these partnerships are unique to the communities. At some point we’ll get some ideas together about the best practices – feel free to send me some ideas and I’ll start sharing them too. But two ideas keep coming back to me.

First, when we build partnerships in, for example, a Russian-speaking country, one of the best ways to deepen that connection Stateside is to have a Russian “ulpan” for the leadership. You don’t have to learn the language to fluency, but even a basic grasp of a few common words makes a huge impact on your audience and friends when you travel there.
Think about what happens when you go to a foreign country and you can say a few words of their language when you walk around. Same thing here.

Second, there’s a single common language that we share in our communities.
It’s Hebrew.
In practically every country I've ever visited in my work in the Joint, I've met with someone from the local leadership who speaks Hebrew. You name it, they speak Hebrew there.
If we want to deepen these partnerships – and strengthen the Jewish identity on both sides – learning Hebrew is one of the best, most effective and most powerful ways to do it.

And hamevin yevin.

*Ludwig Wittgenstein.

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Teens

I love meeting with teen groups. You can spend time with a Jewish federation teen philanthropy group and come out feeling optimistic about the future of Jewish community leadership.

Yesterday I presented some programs to the “Jteam” teen philanthropy initiative at the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex County in NJ. 

Programs like “Better Together” in Ashkelon, working to empower the weakest and most vulnerable populations. At-risk children, weaker immigrants, difficult socioeconomic backgrounds. Programs like the Elderly Food Program for Jews in the former Soviet Union, saving tens of thousands of lives every day.

But … here’s the catch. Would we continue these programs without the teens’ funding? Absolutely. So why are we asking?

For two reasons.

First … because every dollar makes an impact. A one thousand dollar donation, on average, can save one elderly Jew in the former Soviet Union. Enough extra food, medicine and homecare to give life for a year. So the lesson that saving one life is like saving the entire world really has meaning.

But second – and just as important – because conversations with teen philanthropy groups aren't just about the vulnerable, the poor, the weak at all. They’re about us.

They’re about the future of our Jewish communities, how we think about philanthropy and continuity.

They’re about the kind of leadership we want to see in twenty years time … and how we prepare them today.

The dilemma we like to have

I spent a day this week with the Jewish Federation of the Lehigh Valley, meeting with senior leadership and their Board. We talked about the Jewish world, Ukraine, the work we do together and how we tell our stories.

One issue came up that struck me, and I want to spend a moment on it here.

Sitting at dinner with some lovely, inspiring leaders of the federation, I discussed “success” and our exit strategy. I've looked at exit strategies before – it’s a critical component of how we look at our work around the world. It means that we’re aiming for local empowerment. Local capacity. Local leadership. 

So we don’t run religious services in Cuba, we don’t run major JCCs in many Russian-speaking countries, we don’t manage Heseds with American or Israeli staff. 

More and more programs are indigenous. Leadership is locally-trained (or, even better, internationally-trained in incredible places like our Szarvas Camp in Hungary).

But there’s one challenge we have to face.

We want to empower local leadership … so we have to let them strive, and grapple … and even fail.

But on the other hand – we have amazing models of Jewish communal leadership here in North America. We know, in our federations and Jewish communal structures, how to train leaders. We know how to solicit gifts. We know how to articulate our work. And we want to share these ideas.

So this dilemma – reduce our role while sharing (and encouraging) best practices – is a good one to have. These are the kind of challenges we should encourage.


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Food packages

When I came to the Joint almost ten years ago, the big issue was the transition from food packages to smart cards. Food packages were critical in the first years when the Joint came back to the former Soviet countries. And tens of thousands of elderly Jews were receiving them.

But there was a problem.

In the food packages, the maximum number of items we could give you was 18. And it was really basic stuff, for the most part: oil, pasta, kasha, that kind of thing. Not luxuries. 

So the smart card system came into being ... in Argentina.

We were facing a situation in the winter of 2001-2002 in which tens of thousands of Argentinian Jews were suddenly thrust into poverty and dependent on the Joint for food. Many of these were the 'new poor' – men and women, many in nice middle-class suits and dresses, lining up for food packages at Jewish institutions. 36,000 clients receiving food from the Joint. Because of our Jewish federations and donors.

My colleagues told me that we were receiving reports of anti-Semitic attacks, of Jews being beaten up and attacked for their packages. None of it was true. It turned out that these reports weren't true. But they taught us something very interesting. That the food packages carry a price - and not just a logistic price; a price for overhead and our shipping and handling. They taught us that there's a price for dignity and self-respect.

These "new Poor" Jews didn't like that price. To line up and ask for food can be demeaning. It can take away your self-respect. Which is why rumors – false rumors – were spread about anti-Semitic attacks, because so many people there hated the food package system.

So the food card system - the 'coto' card - began. And as it spread, we noticed some fascinating side effects .... people had more choice, more dignity. It wasn't just about food. It was about hope.

Which is why the last few weeks in Kiev and Crimea have been so interesting. Because, in the name of security for our clients and keeping homebound and less-mobile clients secure, we've had to increase the food package system because so many of the older clients are too scared, or unable, to go shopping with the cards. In other words, we're going back to our history for a slightly less efficient - but more caring - method of taking care of food needs.

So, the other day, I was looking through some archival notes and I came across this photo ...

It's a photo of JDC staff in Munich, Germany, loading matza and food packages for transportation to DP (Displaced Persons) Camps in Europe, 1949. 

Because some things haven't changed: a global commitment to providing food for those in need, backed by our federations and donors.


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Cosmonauts and women

I was in Westport the other day, giving a briefing to the Jewish federation on Russia and Ukraine and the work we do together. 

And a random factoid came up, which I want to bring up here. 

We were talking about Saratov, the unofficial second capital of the Volga region of Russia. I made a joke about Yuri Gagarin, Russia’s first cosmonaut, who not only came from Saratov but also landed his Soyuz capsule there (the joke was that he wanted to go home to his mom and dad for dinner*). 

But the other point that lots of Russians have told me was that “Saratov has the most beautiful women in Russia.”

So … I checked with some colleagues and research notes on this issue. And if you ever wanted “proof” (such as it is) for how long-lasting some impressions can be in these areas … here’s a good example. 

The story that beautiful women are from Saratov comes from 1247, when the conquering Tartars (yes, the same ones we’re now talking about in Crimea) ordered all the beautiful women of Russia to go to Saratov.

You could legitimately claim that things may have changed slightly in the last 700 years.
But then you’d be grappling with the weight of history. 

*it was funny. You had to be there.

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Wars of nations are fought to change maps. But wars of poverty are fought to map change

I was giving a briefing last night here in Boston on the situation in Ukraine and, specifically, on the increased costs of our operations there. If we have to keep Hesed case workers longer hours, have them sleep over in the homes of immobile clients and increase security ... these items add to the budget. But more importantly, there's a huge issue of food costs that's looming for our Hesed programs and our clients.

As inflation, hoarding and shortages hits the food supply, we've noticed a 15-30% increase in the cost of basic food items in the past couple of weeks. The problem is that if you're a Jewish pensioner living in Ukraine, then your pension barely covers the minimal amount you were buying beforehand. As it was, you've been forced to make horrible choices between food and medicine, or limit the amount of decent produce you could buy. But now ... even a slight fluctuation in food costs will make life impossible.

Explaining this with stories is important. But there's a clear visual image that brings this home:

Even before this latest crisis, the state-run social services haven't been adjusted to keep pace with the deteriorating local economies. So you saw rising costs, growing unemployment, and ongoing currency fluctuations. If you're living in Ukraine, or Russia, or many of the countries in which we serve - you won't earn enough in your pension to cover even your basic expenses.

Want to know why life expectancy in these countries is so short, and why health is so poor? Start with that chart.

Want to know how to make a difference? Help us help the poorest, neediest Jews in the world through your Jewish federation or with a direct donation.


(The quote is by Muhammed Ali)

Partners

My terrific colleague Galit Sagie and I spent several hours in the Jewish Federation of Northern New Jersey yesterday giving briefings on Israel and Ukraine. 

We talked about Haredi employment, and Arab-Israeli women. She told amazing stories about empowering youth-at-risk and Ethiopian-Israeli pre-k kids. What's important is that all these "margins" end up making a huge core of Israeli society: you can't have a "Start Up Nation" if too many Israelis are left out.

Now, you may think that there’s not much of a connection between what's going on in Ukraine and Israel. And yet … there's a deep connection between what we do around the world. We have a global commitment that defines us, that gives us a sense of mission and identity, and that helps us give meaning to our work.

Sitting with those federation donors and leaders – some of whom, my colleague Jodi told me, are in their Circle of Partners (donors who have generously given for 25 years or longer) – you realize what the connection is.
It’s us.
It’s our donors and federations who define our values and what we’re trying to achieve.

And for them – for you – we’re grateful. 

History doesn't repeat itself, but it occasionally rhymes

For the nerdy-history-minded among us ... this is a particularly auspicious time to be talking about Crimea. 160 years ago, it was during the Crimean War that modern military medicine was created - hygiene, battlefield sanitation and the like - due in no small part to the efforts of Florence Nightingale. It was during that war that modern battlefield logistics (telegraphs and railroads) were introduced. And sixty years ago this week, according to most reports, Khruschev handed over Crimea in a strange fit of drunken exuberance to Ukraine from Russia.

I was discussing several of these points (plus, you know, the actual work we're doing on the ground with the help of our donors and federations) with colleagues at the Jewish Federation of Greater Metrowest, NJ, this morning. But I couldn't help checking my facebook feed during some downtime ... and saw this comment from my inspiring colleague Ofer Glanz, our Director for the Former Soviet Union. "Flying to Odessa. German soldiers doing their way to Odessa; The Russian army is in Crimea. Yes it is 2014"

Below is the photo Ofer took on the plane. History always repeats itself, Marx said, first as tragedy and then as farce. But William Faulkner said it better: "The past isn't dead. In fact, it's not even past."

Strangers on the Ground

I was listening in to my colleagues Alan Gill and Ofer Glanz speaking on a phone-conference this afternoon with the Jewish Federations of North America. There were some excellent speakers from our colleagues in NCSJ, ORT and the Jewish Agency.

In addition to some excellent insights into the situation and the latest developments, Alan said something critical that was also mentioned by my colleague Misha from JAFI. “We wouldn't have been in Kiev a week ago when violence struck if we hadn't been there the week before,” he said.

The core funding that we receive from our federations is critical. The key is that we’re there and we’re going to be there.

We have seven Hesed (welfare distribution) centers in  southern Ukraine, three of which are in Crimea, serving 13,000 elderly Jews and some 2,000 children-at-risk. The job right now is to ensure ongoing operations, keep our clients and operations secure (as well as our amazing and dedicated staff), and to plan for possible future scenarios.

But without core federation funding, as Mark Levin (NCSJ) and Misha Galperin (JAFI) pointed out on the call, we’d be “strangers on the ground” without credibility.

So, if you’re a federation donor, know this: it’s because of your support that we’ve been able to do so much so far. And we’re grateful for that.



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Storytelling (continued)

I was running a seminar the other week in Miami and gave some examples of how I like to present “the story” of elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union.

I’ve used perfume (the “Red Moscow” perfume, used ubiquitously across the former Soviet Union and frequently used by our elderly women clients), bricks from old buildings, food packages, smart debit cards, alert watches, and more … the idea being that a visual, sensory trigger is far more powerful than just telling a story with photos and a narrative.

But the other day I met a Jewish federation donor who told me that some eight years ago she was with me on a home visit to a Khrushyovka (a low-cost concrete-paneled five-story building from the 1960s, seen all over the former Soviet Union).

She remembered the name of our client, an elderly woman who receives food and medicine and a care giver through our Hesed (welfare distribution) system. She remembered the room in which we sat, and how she felt when she was there and when we walked out. 

Why? Because at one point, during the visit, I held her hand and had her run her fingers and palm along the crumbling wall to feel the rot and decay. She said that she never forgot the feeling of the wall … and that was why she never forgot the visit to the woman whose life was saved by Hesed, the Joint and our federations.

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Getting ready for the #JFNAGA

I'm heading to Jerusalem to take part in the annual General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. It's one of my favorite events of the year ... seriously. And there are a couple of good reasons for it:

(1) there are some really awesome people going. People I admire, people I find inspiring, and people I want to see.

(2) it's in Israel. Any excuse, frankly, is a good excuse to go.

and (3) a lot of what I like most in the federation world is there. The GA is the focal point for much of the discussions, the stories, the agenda of what we talk about when we talk about American Jewish community life. If we didn't have it, we'd have to create it.

I should be spending most of my time giving briefings and presentations. But if you're there, come say hello.

Storytelling

I’m on my way to Argentina to staff a Strategic Partnerships Mission. But one meeting from last week was particularly important, and I wanted to write a few thoughts down while it’s still fresh.

I had the privilege and opportunity to run a “storytelling” presentation to a group from National Young Leadership Cabinet, of the Jewish Federations of North America. We were some 30 people in the room, and I spoke for some 45 minutes about how I put stories together, how I make my “case” to an audience, and – maybe most importantly for many people – how I overcome “stage fright” and stand up in front of a crowd.

And in the discussion we had, I made a point that I want to bring up here. Good storytelling is like good presentations, and good public speaking, and good solicitations … it’s all about the audience, and the audience’s needs. It’s not about you. And it’s not about how awesome and great you are, and the work that you do.
It’s about how awesome and great the audience is, for connecting with you. It’s about how you are implementing their values and their ideals.

And even more importantly: the best kind of storytelling is the passionate, dedicated type. 

Formal, long-winded, reading-from-a-text … that stuff is a killer. If you don’t love what you’re doing, and you don’t find what you’re doing particularly interesting – everyone’s going to see it, and hear it in your voice, and pick up on your body language, within seconds. 

But if you love it, and you’re passionate about it, and you love the audience … you’ll help them change the world.

Turf (2)

Over a drink the other day with a colleague from another large international Jewish organization (love you guys) we had a great conversation about all the people we know.

On the one hand ... there are a lot of wonderful, inspiring and committed Jewish communal supporters out there. On the other hand ... our world is very small, and very well-connected. And we often end up all talking to the same - small - number of people.

So how do we see this from our perspective? I think that philanthropy, especially major gifts philanthropy, is cumulative - not exclusive. I don't know many JDC supporters who "only" give to the Joint. They give because they love, because we share and implement their values ... and those values are wide-ranging enough to include more than one cause. If you give to your local Jewish federation, to a great Israeli charity, to your synagogue, to something that works in an international setting ... I think you'd probably have the values and vision to like what the Joint is doing.

The challenge - the "enemy" - in what we do isn't the other organizations. It's the whole concept of "non-giving."

If you don't get it, if you don't give to your federation, or to some other great organizations ... I know you won't give to us either.

If you love it, you'll get it. And you'll keep giving it.

Silos

I had a lovely lunch with a colleague from a large Jewish federation the other day and the topic turned, inevitably, to what I think has become one of the major topics of federation conversations in the last few years: silos.

For the uninitiated, the silo effect is what happens when all you do is look up from your silo and see the sky above, but nothing around you,with no horizontal interaction. It’s been a common complaint in non-profits in general, and the more I travel around Jewish federations, the more I hear it too. Campaign doesn’t talk to Planning, CRC doesn’t talk to Campaign, Israel & Overseas have completely different messages from local agencies. Everyone’s working from a different playbook, and everyone’s playing a different game.

Silos really hurt our annual campaigns. They make us look inefficient, unwieldy, irrelevant. They make donors uneasy because they think (rightly) that we’re not coordinated and we don’t know what we’re talking about. And silos damage the core concept of what Jewish federations stand for – that only with a strong, coordinated, community-based response can we meet the challenges we face.

So what can we do about it? 

I have a couple of thoughts, which I’m happy to share below (and have raised in discussions with various colleagues). But I’d love to hear what you think too. Message me, tweet me, or, you know, pick up the phone and call me. Always a good thing.

We can overcome silos by:

*  Teaching Planning and Allocations teams to present donor-friendly presentations and tag along to Campaign solicitations as “content.”

*  Embedding Campaign solicitors in Allocations meetings.

* Creating long-term rotation tracks for leadership and professionals that include different aspects of skill-set acquisition. 

*  Encouraging every Jewish communal professional to read a daily newspaper, the JTA feed, the Forward, and more, so we can have conversations on the basis of knowledge.

*  Building training and seminar days into the annual campaign structure on the Jewish world, Jewish values, thematics of our work. 

* Building mentorship programs across federation teams.

Most importantly (in my opinion, at least) … we need to continually think of ways to shake people out of their silos by reminding them of the passion, the commitment and the dedication that brought them in to this game. We build community. We save lives. We connect. 

There’s a reason we do what we do. 

And it’s worth reminding ourselves of this from time to time.

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Szarvas - 2013

I'm speaking this evening at the Jewish Federation of Monmouth County about Hungary and the revival of Jewish life there. There's no better example than Szarvas .... just received this terrific video about their "Donate Your Day" event there this week ...

How Good and Pleasant

Vera Goffman, Head of JDC's Hesed Minsk Choir, sings with the Campaign Chairs and Directors Mission of the Jewish Federations of North American (JFNA), July 2013, in Minsk. In the audience are Shoah (Holocaust) survivors and Righteous Among the Nations.

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