Elderly in the Soviet Union

It would be hard to find anyone who would not agree that elderly Jews – many of whom are Holocaust survivors – deserve to live out their lives in dignity.

Yet, in countries throughout the world, hundreds of thousands of elderly live in abject poverty. For them, life is a daily struggle, and loneliness is their constant companion. But you can make a difference - through UJA.

In the former Soviet Union, with your support local communities create Hesed welfare centers. These centers provide a wide range of services, including food packages, hot meals, medicine, homecare, and winter relief to more than 270,000 impoverished elderly.

The following is the  per capita (BPC) in annual terms. This figure is the ratio between the direct welfare budget and the number of clients and represents the average value of JDC's support to an individual client. 

 The following amounts include:
·  Welfare Services
·   Home Care
·  Food
·  Medicine

One Story:
Long Gone are Sela's Days in the Fast Lane
Looking at Sela, 82, it is hard to imagine the vibrant woman she once was.

At the height of her career,  Sela was a high-powered executive rising to the top ranks in Soviet Television. She oversaw a staff of hundreds and was in charge of children's programming. Her fast-paced days were full of meetings, phone calls and urgent decisions that needed to be made.

Now Sela's life is confined to a rickety wood-framed bed. She spends her time staring out a window — the tops of trees her only view, with an occasional lone bird flying by. Sela's husband, Irving, breaks the monotony by reading the daily newspaper to her and helps turn her over to prevent bed sores from developing.

Traces of Sela's former self emerge when she speaks: her voice is still firm, authoritative and no-nonsense, as when she directs her husband to get her a blanket or tells a group of visitors that she is too tired to talk. Yet it seems to Sela that she was so recently on the go, engaged in community affairs and feeling alive.

Even after she retired Sela kept active, volunteering at the local JDC-sponsored Hesed social welfare center helping to coordinate social events for her fellow seniors. But a fall two years ago changed Sela's world and marked an end to her independence.

Since her accident, Hesed has helped Sela with rehabilitation; medicine; food; and a home care worker named Yelena, who comes five days a week to prepare meals, clean the small apartment, and help Irving to bathe and move his wife.

"We can't even begin to tell you how much Hesed is helping us," says Irving. "My wife cannot do anything for herself. Can you imagine how we would be able to live without this help? On our pensions it would be impossible." Both he and his wife have monthly incomes of $115. Still, Sela and Irving live with the constant worry that this essential help from Hesed might one day be gone. Over the last year Sela has seen some of her assistance reduced. Her monthly food package, for example, is now substantially less.

"We know about these cuts," says Sela, "and we can only hope that we can continue keeping what we have."

Though the gravity of Sela's situation is at least as great as other elderly clients in the FSU whose services are not in jeopardy, she and Irving have no choice but continue to wait, day by day, at the mercy of others' assistance. "There really is nothing that we can do," she says.

Special Projects for 2008 Campaign

Elderly in the Former Soviet Union
Disabled Israeli Soldiers Learning to Ski in Aspen

Sister City Beer Milka 
in Israel's Negev

In October 2006, the country was raging in light of the controversial outcome of the Second Lebanon War. But beyond the strident public discourse that arose after the war, it was "business as usual" in the State of Israel: the stock market rose, cafés were lively, restaurants were packed and most people went on vacation like they did every year.

 In that same month some new start-ups were launched, another Israeli company was sold for over a billion dollars, young men and women started college in the more popular faculties of law, business administration, media and computer science, while two Israeli movies won unprecedented acclaim abroad.  

Far from the bustle and tumult of these occurrences, a lone truck climbed up a dirt road towards a barren sand dune overlooking the vast deserts of Sinai and the Negev. The truck was carrying two trailer-homes, and when it reached the top of the hill, the driver switched off the engine.

The silence of the desert prevailed and a pleasant breeze welcomed the newcomers. After a few minutes, three dusty minibuses arrived with several families. Dudi pointed to a spot at the far end of the hill and said, "There." Moments later, the first structure was set down in Beer Milka – the most recent Jewish community to be established in the State of Israel!!!

Two years later, 17 families numbering over 30 children, ages 0-15, live in Beer Milka. In the summer of 2008, on a desolate hill on the Egyptian border, saplings were planted, foundations were dug; children are running around and the delicious aroma of freshly baked casseroles floats in the air.

As evening falls with its incredible sunset over the seemingly endless desert, one can see that even in 2008 it's still possible to feel excited and moved by the idealism and pioneering spirit of settlement in the Negev.

 Beer Milka was established in an abundant "sea of sand" in the Kagor Holot (Sands) Nature Reserve located about 80 kilometers (nearly 50 miles) from Beer Sheba and only 2 km (1.2 miles) from the Egyptian border. The inhabitants of Beer Milka, unlike most of their Israeli peers, have chosen to fulfill and renew the Zionist spirit of agricultural settlement in the Negev.

 Beer Milka was established at the initiative of a group of men and women in their 20's who decided to live a life of agriculture based on community and quality of life. By doing so, they are challenging the existing trend among many of our country's young people, who primarily look after their own interests, forgetting their kinship to Israeli society and the State, which has mainly become the object of criticism.

 The place and name that were chosen indicate a deep consciousness of the spirit of the place and the history of the Jewish People. This community village is situated above the junction of two river channels which flow once a year.

At the precise meeting place of these channels there is an ancient well, thousands of years old, called in Arabic "Bir-Milga" which means "well of the junction".  In the Bible two women named Milka are mentioned: one was the wife of Nahor, the brother of Abraham; the other was one of the daughters of Zelpahad. Today, the inhabitants of Beer Milka make their living from organic farming, carpentry, restaurants and tourism.

Playground Project

Beer Milka has become a center of attraction for young, daring, non-conformists interested in living their life differently from the accepted norms in Israel today. The growing number of young families with children compels us to provide services like day care, kindergartens, recreational equipment and medical services.

Some of these services are given, however due to the proximity to the Egyptian border, exceptional security measures are required.  At present, Beer Milka has no gathering place where children can play basketball or soccer and enjoy other kinds of recreational or instructional physical activity.

The regional council has requested UJA's partnership in building a sports and recreation court for the children of Beer Milka. This court will make it possible to keep the community thriving by attracting and absorbing new families.

 Court Specifications:
Area …………………………………………………..14 x 26 meters
Fence …………………………………………………80 meters
Baskets ……………………………………………….2
Lighting ………………………………………………..4 poles

 Cost Estimates:

Construction: court, lighting, fence, marking and installing baskets….$80,000

Regional Council Funding ……………………………………………………….….$40,000

Media Central Journalist Resource Center

Media Central is an independent, media-liaison organization in Jerusalem providing support services for journalists based in or visiting Israel, the Palestinian territories and the region.

The media has a difficult job researching and reporting the news at the best of times and in the most friendly of environments. In a foreign country, in the midst of often-violent conflict, a journalist faces numerous obstacles to efficient and effective reporting. Unfamiliar language(s), cultural barriers, changing players, deadlines geared to home-country clocks, potential physical dangers and other issues combine to make reporting from the region a tremendous challenge.

MediaCentral has been set up as a non-profit, independent, media-liaison service organization offering what are perhaps the three most important elements in journalism:

MediaCentral offers a friendly place to work in downtown Jerusalem, with free or low-cost services including:

Media Central is confident that accuracy is Israel's best ally, and therefore strives to simply help journalists achieve their own goals of understanding and reporting the facts and providing insightful analysis, in cooperation with both Israeli and Palestinian partners from the government and NGO sectors.