I live like a flower

Sometimes, when I’m looking for inspiration, I look through notes from meeting Hesed clients – elderly Jewish survivors and community members who rely on our donors and federations for their food, medicine and homecare. Without the support of our donors and our Jewish federations, these elderly Jews wouldn't be alive.

And this weekend I came across the story of Ida, in Vilnius, Lithuania, whom I met last year. Our car got lost on our way to her in a labyrinth of Khruschevkyas, badly-numbered and randomly-ordered massive Soviet-era buildings. It was difficult to drive through because the spaces between the buildings weren't designed with the idea that people would have private cars parked nearby.

Ida lives on the fourth floor. She hasn't left the apartment since January 2007. She was in her kitchen carrying coffee grinds and she slipped. She broke her hip and since then she stays inside. Once a year a family friend takes her to the cemetery to see her son’s grave. Her Husband died in 2007, a few weeks after her son. Her sister in 1984, her mother in 1986. Her dog died in 2008.

But she is still living. We bring her food, winter relief, a social case worker, and the knowledge that she’s not alone.

Ida was born in 1924 in Gomel, Belorussia so she’s now 90 years old. She’s full of life, with a beaming smile and more energy than her visitors.

 “Oy Joint” she says with a beautiful smile. “I remember the Joint. In 1944 in the war my mother and sister and me came to Gomel and the Joint gave us help. They gave us cans of fish and meat and clothes. I want to share a story. I got a skirt from the Joint. It was black and beautiful with short sleeves and this skirt was very short (she giggles). It was called ‘the man doesn't have time.’ It was slit down the side.” (Yes, I was blushing. No, she wasn't).

“Later when I came to Vilnius I got four JDC packages – clothing, winter clothes. Thank you."

“Why do I live so long? Because God loves me. I live like a flower. I open up slowly and I have a beautiful fragrance that surrounds me. And now the Jewish community is my family, and they take care of me.”

Yet another reason why I love my job

I spent an hour this morning visiting one of the most amazing Jewish women in Budapest. 

Erzabet (Elizabeth) is 90 and was one of the Shoah survivors saved by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. She was caught several times by the Arrow Cross (the Nazi-backed Hungarian fascists) and the Nazis, but each time managed to escape. "They kept capturing me, so I kept escaping, " she said.

And she was telling us about the food packages she received from the Joint.... and suddenly we realized that she wasn't talking about the food packages she receives now, but rather the ones she received from us in the 1940s, with her first coat, and the taste of chocolate.

556 Calories

We had dinner last night with some inspiring leaders of the Hungarian Jewish community. I was fortunate to sit and chat with Andras Heisler, the newly-elected president of the federation of religious communities.

“Without the Joint,” Andras said, “there would be no Jews in Hungary.”

The largest-ever relief operation conducted by the Joint, by budget size, was the $35 million program to provide food, medicine and clothing to several hundred thousand Hungarian Jews after the Second World War. 

Negotiating with the new communist regime (many of whose leaders were anti-Zionist and extreme Stalinists of Jewish descent, generally hostile to Jewish and humanitarian concerns) meant negotiating with a government that had no desire to protect its own Jews. By the end of 1945, the Hungarian ration card entitled its holder to exactly 556 calories (out of the 2500 a healthy person required).

And … Hungarians had relatives in the countryside. They hadn’t returned from the ghettoes and camps. The Jews had nothing. No strength, no food. No families. 

JDC had to save them from death.

The fact that there’s a thriving community – and a living one – is testament to what happened here almost seventy years ago.

It's going to be an amazing mission

I’m getting ready to go this weekend to Minsk, Belarus, for the Campaign Chairs and Directors (CCD) Mission with the Jewish Federations of North America. 

Belarus has fascinated me for a long time, because in so many ways, it’s a microcosm of the Jewish world. 

In every meaningful way – the challenges, the expectations, the horizons – what we see in Minsk is what’s happening around the Jewish world today.

Before the 1917 Soviet revolution, millions of Jews lived in Russia and the Pale of Settlement. 

Most of them lived pretty autonomous lives, set apart from their non-Jewish neighbors. 

Even secular Jews had a decent knowledge of Jewish tradition. But in the seventy years following the revolution, generations were cut off from Jewish tradition and memory.

With glasnost, the opening of society in the late 1980s, it was clear that there was no community, no organized Jewish life. JDC’s Minsk offices, opened in 1922 and closed by Stalin in 1931, were finally reopened in 1990; the first task was to locate and reach out to those Jews who were scattered throughout Belarus. Even though so many (and davka those with the most developed Jewish identities) left for Israel, Europe and the US, within just a few years there were synagogues, community programs, a Hesed program and much more.

And today, like in so many countries around the world, JDC does three things in Belarus:

(1)   We bring Relief to the poorest and most vulnerable Jews, with food, medical support, home care and other programs for thousands of elderly, struggling young families, youth at risk and the disabled.

(2)   We work for the Renewal of Jewish life with camps, retreats, celebrations, community festivals and more.

(3)   We develop tomorrow’s Jewish Leadership with programming and training.

It’s going to be an amazing mission.

JDC Strategic Partnerships Mission to Kazakhstan and Turkey

The JDC Strategic Partnerships Mission. Somewhere near Almaty, Kazakhastan

Meeting with the Consul-General of Israel in Istanbul

Most public buildings, schools, etc. in Istanbul, need to have hard-hats under seats in case of earthquakes

Istanbul in the morning, looking over the Bosphorus

Aya Sofia

The Basilica Cisterns, underneath Istanbul

The wonderful Day Center at Hesed Almaty

Food packages for elderly clients in Hesed Almaty

Amazing and dedicated volunteers at Hesed Almaty, helping to put food packages together for those in need

An international photo exhibit and competition by young members of Hesed Almaty - the photos were beautiful, and the message of cooperation and recording shared heritage was inspiring

Photo from the competition

Almaty in the morning. Not warm.

Guny village, about an hour from Almaty

Traditional Kazakh cooking class.

Yurt village

Food preparation (there's a hole underneath the pot where you add blocks of wood and build a fire)

Not the-vegetarian-option

Lunch in Guny

Dancing class in Hesed Almaty

Arts and crafts in Hesed Almaty

Singing group in Hesed Almaty

Downtown Astana

A warm and lovely welcome in Hesed Astana

Yelena, Director of Hesed Astana

The Pyramid of Peace in Astana

The Pyramid of Peace in Astana

Astana Opera House

Bayterek is the most famous landmark in Astana. The legend behind this tower as a symbol is that it represents a poplar tree, where the magic bird Samruk laid its egg.

The view from the top of Baytarek

Khan Shatyr, a giant shopping mall complex, shaped like a nomad tent, another building designed by Norman Foster. Underneath the tent, an area larger than 10 football stadiums, is an urban-scale internal park, shopping and entertainment venue with squares and cobbled streets, a boating river, shopping centre, minigolf and indoor beach resort.