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

If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email, sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

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.

Distance

My colleague Oksana and I spoke the other day at the Jewish Federation of Greater Middlesex about the situation in Ukraine.

One thing really struck me - she made a comment about how long it took her to get here. "I crossed seven time zones to get here from Ukraine," she said.

"But from one end of the former Soviet Union to the other, it's eleven time zones. And we're working in both ends ... and in all the space in the middle. Even in the farthest reaches - we've reached deeper. Even if there's one Jew, alone, the last in his or her town or village. No one gets left alone."

It's not the first time we've talked about time in our work in the Joint.
Just one example: the timezone in Crimea has switched from Ukraine-time to (Moscow's) Russia-time (an hour different). But cellphones keep reverting back to Ukrainian time.

In the meantime, no matter what the timezone may be, the work continues.

Ukraine

My colleague Ofer Glanz reports ...

 " With increasing unrest and violence in Eastern and Southern Ukraine, I want to brief you on our continuing emergency efforts in those areas of the country. Rest assured that our remarkable colleagues — from JDC staff to Hesed employees to homecare workers — are tirelessly working around the clock to ensure the well-being of our clients and Jewish communities where they live and work.

      During this critical time, we have:

• activated our emergency contact system, communicating with clients on a 24-hour basis to assess their needs and address them immediately;
• established situation rooms around the country that are regularly reporting in on changes on the ground;
• constantly adjusted our contingency plans to reflect these changes.

Above all, we are providing stepped-up support with extra food, medicine, homecare, and counseling, just as we have done since this crisis began.

In Odessa — which is the site of ongoing violence and 46 deaths last week — our Hesed social welfare center cares for approximately 7,000 Jews (out of the city’s 40,000 person Jewish population). Services for the elderly and poor have continued uninterrupted during this chaotic time. For other JDC-supported Jewish institutions and programs around the city — including the flagship Beit Grand JCC and our Metsudsa young leadership training program — some workshops and classes have been cancelled for security concerns.

In Eastern Ukraine — where continued unrest and fear have gripped the local population — JDC serves more than 6,000 Jews in the cities of Donetsk, Lugansk, Mariupol, Kramatorsk, and Sloviansk. Our staff in these cities continue to provide increased services and support, constantly adjusting to an ever-changing and concerning situation. " 

Ukraine and the hardships

JDC's President Penny Blumenstein wrote a good letter to the New York Times the other day about the situation in Ukraine. You can read it here. What I think was most striking was her comment that the economic side of the crisis is a whole other area that people aren't thinking about.

My colleagues in Ukraine continue their inspiring and life-saving work. Some of the general macro-economic updates are worth noting here:

-          Since the beginning of February through the beginning of April 2014, the price for 95 octane gas has increased by 20%.

-          Price surveys for the 25 most frequently purchased medicines (in Kiev) have increased in a range of 7% - 71% since mid-January and the end of March.

-          A survey of the mostly purchased food stuffs shows the following increases:  (cooking) oil - 22%; rice - 20%; chicken - 43%; flour - 20%; beets - 23%; cabbage - 55%; potatoes - 19%; sour cream - 25%; milk, cheese and eggs - 7%; sugar and tea - 12%.

-          Increases in energy costs are being reported.

-          Layoffs and redundancies throughout Ukraine are growing.

You can find more information and backstories here and you can sign up in the top right-hand box on this page to get the blog delivered direct to your email.

About last week

I spent a lot of time last week answering questions from colleagues and friends about the situation in Ukraine.

Specifically, the “leaflets” issue in Donetsk. Concerned colleagues in Jewish federations, JDC supporters and donors wanted to know the truth, what could be done, and what was being done to stand up to these awful things.

So … we know a lot more about the truth of these issues. And people closer (geographically) and more politically outspoken than me have and will continue to give their views on what’s been done and what can be done. But I want to make one point, that I don’t think anyone has expressed yet. Gratitude.

Remember that whole phrase, “never again”? How we promised to not let our guard down when Jews were endangered, or suffering? Remember that commitment we share that we leave no one behind?

We saw that commitment this last week.
Vigilance, sensitivity, alert appreciation for the rights of Jews in a far-off place.

Every now and then, people will say to you, Jews today don’t care about Jews in faraway places. They won’t stand up anymore if something bad happens. There’s too much alienation now.

Remind them of last week. It ain't so.


If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email, sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

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.


If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email, sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

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)

As you think and act, so your world becomes.

My colleague Ofer Glanz, our director of operations in the former Soviet Union, just returned from a visit to southern Ukraine. In his report was this beautiful story ... so important to all those of us who have seen our Hesed programs distributing food and medicine and home care support to tens of thousands of elderly clients in Ukraine alone. 

Ofer says ...


... Many of the Jewish community's leaders in Crimea fled the area the minute the Russians moved in. The only single fully functioning Jewish organization in Sevastopol today is the Hesed. The Hesed director - Alla Krasnovid continues to operate the Hesed, offering not only material support but also emotional support to the Jewish community by calling people, supporting them in different ways and ensuring some level of
stability at "ground zero" of this crisis.

... There is apparently a new addition to the Russian language vocabulary - "Hesed" - in Sevastopol. The Hesed director -Alla gave everyone who is traveling to clients a printed letter, signed by her, stating the fact that whoever holds this letter is performing humanitarian work at the service of the local Hesed.

This letter is presented at road blocks manned by Russian soldiers who are prohibiting access to some parts of the city or accessing some roads. Well, some soldiers see the letter and then comes the following response: "ah - Hesed? Yes you can go through...."

(The quote is by T. Scott McCleod)

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.



If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email, sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

Ukraine

My amazing colleague Oksana Galkevitch reports from Ukraine on the situation and JDC's response ...

The best question about Ukraine you’re going to see all month …

Is there a single Ukraine?

From the Economist

Is the modern Ukraine one nation?

The question is not meant to be provocative. But it is worth asking, since Ukraine is deeply divided on its international destiny: roughly speaking, does it belong more closely to the European Union or to Russia? Political divides cut Ukraine into eastern and western halves. The last two presidential elections have split neatly along these lines. In both of them, Viktor Yanukovych, the president, won the vast majority of votes in the eastern half of the country. He lost (after a re-vote when the first vote was considered rigged) in 2004, but won in 2010. The maps of the two elections by region look remarkably similar, so it stands to reason that the number of swing voters was relatively small.

It also so happens that the linguistic divisions of Ukraine run along nearly the exact same lines. The west and north are predominantly Ukrianian-speaking, the east and south predominantly Russian-speaking.

In 2012, a new law upgraded Russian to the status of a regional language in those regions where it is most widely spoken. Ukrainian remains the only national language, but Russian now plays a greater role at the local level. As we noted at the time, Ukraine is not simply divided into “Russians” who speak Russian and “Ukrainians” who speak Ukrainian. In the days of the Soviet Union, each Soviet citizen had an official “nationality” in their passport, alongside Soviet citizenship. There are former Russians by nationality who ended up in the borders of the independent Ukraine. But to mess up the picture somewhat, there are also ethnic “Ukrainians” who prefer Russian, whatever that means. (There are no other obvious outer markers of nationality—it’s not as though Russians and Ukrainians differ visibly.)  And complicating the picture further still, many people are happily bilingual: some people speak Ukrainian at home but Russian at work, or speak Ukrainian but mostly read and watch television in Russian (in which there are more options, given Russia’s presence next door).

Inevitably, politicians try to play with language to their own advantage. Mr Yanukovych is from the east, his political power base is there, and despite his efforts to please nationalists by speaking up for the language, he still makes mistakes in Ukrainian. Yulia Timoshenko, his defeated rival in that election (and now in jail), has spent years mastering Ukrainian, and she called the 2012 law upgrading Russian a “crime against the state”. Debate over it started a fistfight in Ukraine’s parliament. 

Language has become a proxy for other battles, not only over Europe versus Russia, but over history. Some Ukrainian nationalists, understandably resentful of Soviet-Russian domination, eagerly joined the 1941 Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. So Ukrainian nationalism—including the linguistic kind—provokes nervousness and resentment among some Russian-speakers. One Russian-Ukrainian professor told me that his family celebrate New Year on Moscow time and feel like strangers in western Ukraine. He predicts either federalism (German- or American-style, with a weakened national government) or partition (hopefully peaceful, like Czechoslovakia’s). He says he can live with federalism—so long as he never has to watch parades honouring the old SS “Halichna” division made up mostly of Ukrainians.

Ukraine’s very name means “borderland”. Its de facto sovereignty has remained contested since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. Your columnist will never forget finding himself in Lviv (a heart of nationalism, in western Ukraine) on August 24th 1998: it was Ukraine’s sixth-ever independence day, and locals solemnly gathered in front of the statue of Taras Shevchenko, the national poet. Grey-haired men and women held flags to their hearts and bowed their heads, eyes closed, as they stood in tightly formed groups and sang patriotic hymns. This was not a people who took independence for granted, the holiday an excuse to skip work and barbecue. Independence denied was very much a living memory.

Nonetheless, some Russian-speaking Ukrainians still feel that the symbols of Ukrainian nationalism were hastily contrived, and therefore artificial. The role of Ukrainian as sole national language—a role that it never enjoyed in any political unit until 1991—is Exhibit A in their case against nationalism as a manipulated, divisive force.

In a perfect world, everyone would live in the country they choose. Perhaps a partition would be better for many in the current Ukraine. But in practice, partition is far less often a “velvet divorce” of equals as in Czechoslovakia, and more often like the bloody division of Yugoslavia: mixed towns become battlefields and neighbouring powers intervene in their own interests. In this case, the enormous neighbouring power of Russia is unlikely to be able to avoid meddling in any peaceful Ukrainian split. Sergei Glazyev, an adviser to Russia’s president, Vladimir Putin, has already speculated publicly that Russia might feel honour-bound to support Russian-speakers in a partition—fanning the flames.

There clearly is a genuine Ukrainian nationalism, and Russian attempts to portray it as “fake” are self-serving. But though there is a Ukrainian nation, it does not live cleanly within the borders of the modern state called Ukraine. This is a tragedy for all those whom the status quo does not satisfy, and that is looking like a lot of Ukrainians at the moment. Federalism, including linguistic federalism, is often a better solution. But as the punch-up in parliament over Russian in the eastern regions shows, when times gets tense, people’s thinking becomes zero sum: a gain for Russian must be a loss for Ukrainian. The country, as currently constituted, is probably fated for a lot of mutual misunderstanding yet.

I will be the last one to leave this city

I’m doing research this week for a couple of presentations to highlight our work with post-Soviet Jewry. For some of the depth, I’ve been using our amazing 100-year old archives and our extremely helpful archival researchers.

I’m not exactly sure what I’m looking for. I know that there are so many stories in the archives that sometimes I just send a query through the system because, odds are, I’ll find something just fascinating and worth reading.

This is one of those examples.

A colleague passed on this incredible transcript. It’s part of an oral history project from 1981, interviewing Boris Smolar, who dedicated much of his life to reporting on the situation of Jews, and in many places saw the work of the Joint. He’s being interviewed about JDC’s role in Poland in 1920 … and this piece really struck me …

“In 1920 JDC started to work in Poland after the war, and sent a unit of more than 30 people - Americans, social workers and leaders of various groups - to conduct their work there. They were all in para-military uniform for protection, because the situation in Poland

at that time was so chaotic. The Polish Army, which secured Polish independence from Russia after Poland being Russian for many generations, was so drunk with victory that they celebrated their victory by assaulting Jews in the street and cutting of their beards, like in Hitler's time. They would even throw Jews off of running trains. It was dangerous for

a Jew to travel on a train at that time.

…

Petlura's regime [the independent anti-Bolshevik leader] fell, and the [Poles] simply intended to go all the way to Warsaw. But they didn't succeed long. They remained in the Ukraine for only a short while, several months, until they met the Red Army. They were no longer dealing with bandits, but a regular Soviet Army. So, it was the Polish Army facing the Russian Army, and the Russians gave them such a beating that they began to retreat. They retreated so fast that I saw them running. They had no cars, no trucks, nothing. All they had were horses and wagons. And if a wagon lost a wheel, it ran on three wheels.

During this retreat, they reached Rovno. When they were about to retreat from Rovno, JDC's Abe Shohan put as many Jews as didn't want to, remain under the Bolsheviks or fall under the Soviet regime in trucks with reserves of food, intending to open a JDC office in the next city after we left Rovno. The entire JDC staff was evacuated in trucks with food to Lutsk(?), a city about 60 miles from Rovno, thinking we would be able to open a JDC office there. Before leaving, Shohan said to me - you and I are going to be the last to leave. I am remaining, you can remain here if you want, or you can go to Warsaw, but I am staying here to be the last to leave. As the JDC representative, I want you to go with me as translator to the military commandant in Rovno, to make sure he issues an order that no pogroms take place.

He went to the commandant and said: Look. You are, by military law, the last of the military units to leave the city. You have no automobile, and you will have to leave like all the other retreating soldiers, by horse and wagon. The Russians are driving you back fast. You can never tell, they may surround the city. Then you will be stuck in Russian hands, and you know what that means. Now, I have an automobile with an American flag on it, and I will be the last one to leave this city, watching in my automobile whether Jewish stores and homes have been looted, raided, whether there have been pogroms, and so on. 1 will wire a report to the American Jews as to whether the Polish Army behaves during their last minutes in the city. I don't want to see any pogroms; it wouldn't be good for the reputation of the Polish Army. And frankly, it wouldn't be too good for you either. If you promise to issue an order to the retreating officers of your unit, to see that discipline is maintained, and that there will be no pogroms in the city, I will pick you up in my automobile and we will be the last to leave. The military commandant had no choice anyway so he said sure, we don't like pogroms, and there will be an order issued that there should be no pogroms by the retreating Polish Army.

And there were none.”

If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email, sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

The Crisis in Ukraine

This was a thoughtful piece by Vladimir Ryzhkov, a State Duma deputy ... 

When the Soviet Union and Eastern bloc collapsed 25 years ago, Ukraine and Poland had similar economies and per capita gross domestic products. Today, Poland's GDP of $483 billion is almost triple that of Ukraine's $174 billion. Per capita GDP in Poland is $20,600 based on purchasing power parity, while Ukraine's is just $7,300. And those are figures from 2012. The situation in Ukraine has only worsened since then.

What's more, Ukraine has a huge and rapidly growing foreign debt, placing the country under constant threat of default. Its foreign exchange reserves are nearly depleted. Ukraine has a large negative trade balance and is desperately short on outside investment and private savings. Russia is the only country willing to extend financial assistance in exchange for Ukraine's nearly worthless junk bonds. President Vladimir Putin recently committed to buying $15 billion worth of these bonds, as well as extending significant discounts on Russian gas. No other country has made a serious offer to help.

Over the past 20 years, Ukraine has been unable to build effective government institutions and is ranked among the lowest in the world on a wide range of important indices.

According to the World Economic Forum competitiveness ranking for 2013 to 2014, Ukraine is in 84th place out of 148 states. Other countries ranked alongside Ukraine include Tunisia, Guatemala, Uruguay and Moldova.

According to Transparency International, Ukraine ranks in 144th place out of 175 for perceptions of corruption. Ukraine is also ranked among the very lowest for its judicial system, protection of property and administrative procedures.

In the 2014 Doing Business ranking by the World Bank, Ukraine stands in 112th place out of 189, even while Russia managed to climb from 120th place two years ago to 92nd place today.

Ukraine is deeply divided along both cultural and political lines, and this split seems to have only deepened over the past two decades. Demonstrators have seized local government buildings in 10 of Ukraine's western regions and proclaimed independent "people's councils" in their place. Meanwhile, the people in eastern Ukraine maintain their deeply rooted antipathy and distrust of western Ukraine, with their strong nationalistic and anti-Moscow sentiments.

Ukraine needs to do more than just reach a tactical compromise between the opposing sides and settle on who will serve in which government post. More important, they must find solutions to the country's systemic problems such as the need for a common identity, modern government institutions, rule of law and a strong economy. They must address the problem of extreme social stratification, for which Ukraine is currently ranked 120th in the world, a precipitous fall from 29th place in 1999. The country must also reduce its horrendous concentration of political power and wealth among a handful of oligarchs and stem the rampant corruption by starting with the family members of top officials.

The greatest threat to Ukraine is not the protests or Yanukovych. The primary threat is the growing chaos and complete disintegration of society.

The task before both Russia and the EU is not to gamble on this or that side in the European conflict but to help Ukraine — an important European country with a long history and rich culture — to stand firmly on its feet.

Read more: http://www.themoscowtimes.com/opinion/article/the-failing-ukrainian-state/493495.html#ixzz2sIC2Su4n
The Moscow Times
There's also an excellent piece in the Washington Post with a primer on the situation: http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/worldviews/wp/2014/01/30/9-questions-about-ukraine-you-were-too-embarrassed-to-ask/

If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

Moked ...

This is one of my favorite programs. It's such a simple, clear idea. But it has massive impact. And every time I visit, in any location, I always walk away amazed at how people's lives are enriched and ennobled by simple things.

Moked is an amazing, unique program in many Hesed buildings that gives services to our elderly / at-risk clients for repairs, equipment loans and more.

There’s nothing quite like the Moked program anywhere outside of Hesed in the former Soviet Union. In some places in Ukraine, the State comes to Hesed and asks for Moked support.

In Dnepropetrovsk, for example, 1400 clients use the Moked service; they get walkers, walking sticks, toilet seat frames and bedsore mattresses (these can get really expensive) for the chronic bedridden clients. They have a tailor and a barber.

  

In Hesed Yehoshua, in Tashkent, Uzebekistan, the Moked program has 24 different types of equipment for loans.

Some Moked programs can send repairs to your apartment for things like TV sets, fridges, radios, locks. And others can assist with bath and toilet rails. The idea isn’t only to provide our clients with basic necessary equipment, but also to raise their quality of living.

It raises them from more dependence to more independence. About 60,000 clients receive free Moked services. 

Every year.

Everything is run by volunteers. And everything is free.

Three Minute Primer on Jewish Elderly in the former Soviet Union

A colleague from a Jewish federation asked me the other day about the elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union, how we got to where we are, and what the needs are going to look like in the coming years. All in three minutes ...

So here's the basic idea (and I'll try to do some more down the line):

As the caseload has aged (thanks to the help the elderly get from Hesed), their needs have changed ... they are less mobile, more sickly, and more isolated.  

Given the fact that there is virtually no institutional care, these clients become home-bound, without the resources needed to care for them
-no one to cook
-no one to clean
-no one to shop
-no one to pick up their medicines, etc.

On the scale of need - these people really are at the top.  So, as we have done from the onset of our re-entry in to the FSU, we have made the program sensitive to the greatest needs of those who depend on us. 

To give it broader context, we started out in the early 90's with food distribution as the primary function of Hesed.

As medicines became harder to secure, we added them to the mix, recognizing that from a limited pension, food and medicine were the two most expensive and critical items. 

About six years ago we graduated into food cards, which allowed the elderly to choose their individual mix of food and medicine by using the equivalent of a debit card, based on arrangements with supermarket and pharmacy chains, where possible.  

And about three years ago we started putting more of an emphasis on homecare, because this was emerging as the primary need.  

There is still, of course, a food/medicine distribution program, and food cards where these are available.  But the growth area is in homecare so that we can respond to the needs of the most vulnerable, especially in the former Soviet Union. And it's the support of our Jewish federations and donors that allow us to reach out to these most vulnerable, in several thousand locations, on a daily basis, to bring them food, medicine and homecare.

We try to find as many opportunities as possible to say thank you. But if you're reading this, and you're one of those generous donors, or federation donors, then you should know how grateful we, and the clients whose lives you're saving, really are.

If you want to receive this blog on a regular basis by email (about twice a week, depending on what else I'm up to), sign up in the top-right box where it says "follow" ...

The Sounds of Odessa (Part Two)

Young performers practicing at JCC Migdal Odessa .... just terrific

Potemkin Buildings

Yesterday our Baltimore-Odessa Partnership mission visited Yelena, a 16-year old girl in Odessa. 

Yelena lives with a cousin, Rosa, their aunt, Svetlana, and with Svetlana’s mother and baby son.

They live together in two rooms of a communal apartment, along with five other families. It’s a beautiful building on a main road in Odessa, over a hundred years old. And like so much of Odessa, it’s a Potemkin façade. It looks beautiful and striking on the outside … but on the inside it’s crumbling. The fixtures and steps are falling apart. It probably was a beautiful building before the Revolution. 

But not anymore.

The apartment is on the top floor and it smells awful and needs repairs. Everything’s falling apart. The family can't pay for gas heating, so they use an electric heater to warm up in winter. 

Or they just bundle up with more layers.

Yelena never met her father; her mother left for Kiev to look for a job, and no one has seen her since. 

Rosa is 18. Her mother died and her father is in hospital for long-term psychiatric care. 

Svetlana is 36 but she looks tired, and a lot older. She married for the second time in 2012 and in the summer that same year gave birth to her only son, Igor. A few months later her husband was diagnosed with cancer and died. 

Inna, the girls’ grandmother, is retired. She had a stroke and she's not mobile anymore. She mostly sits on the couch or in bed and cries.

Svetlana is tough. She’s trying to study at University (Law and Finance) with a correspondence course. It’ll take her six years to get her degree but she's sticking with it.  She works several hours a day cleaning offices. She's also a certified bartender and waitress.

The total family income is a little over $450, with Inna’s pension and a small government allowance for baby care and what money Svetlana can bring in.

It’s not enough to feed and clothe a family, especially one with medical bills and little resources.

Yelena starts crying when she talks about Hesed and the help she gets from the Jewish community. Then Inna starts crying too. “Hesed has saved our lives,” she says. “The government won't help people in need. But the Jewish community helps us.” Svetlana is crying now, too, and points to the fridge, which came from Hesed, and says, “I told someone at work about Hesed and they didn’t believe me. They thought I was making it up. How could it be that they just help you, like that? Who could these people be?”

Yelena tries to cheer everyone up, saying that everything is fine, we have a fridge, we have somewhere to live, and we’re not hungry anymore. Meanwhile, Igor is scooting around the dirty apartment, happily playing with us and gripping our hands. He’s got a terrific smile. Yelena is taking care of him today; she’s very responsible.

There are 400 children-at-risk and their families being helped on a daily basis by JDC through Hesed Odessa. Svetlana and her family receive a food card with a monthly allowance for use in the supermarket, vitamin supplements, school supplies and warm clothing for the winter, and diapers, stroller and clothes for Igor.

And they also have Ira, a Hesed case worker, who checks in on them on a regular basis, and helps Svetlana come to activities for youth in the community at minimal or no-cost. She helps them negotiate the city bureaucracy. And most importantly, she shows them that they’re not alone.

As we leave, Svetlana says, “When I become a lawyer I’ll give back as a volunteer. I’ll give free legal advice in Hesed for the clients, for those that need it. Spasiba Bolshoya – thank you so much.”