Czese (hello) from Poland!

Unbelievably, we are winding down only our first day here in Warsaw, though it feels like much longer. We began our first of many busy days with a quick lunch and and a tour of Jewish Warsaw, where the Warsaw ghetto used to stand, before being entirely destroyed by the Germans at the end of World War II. We visited two monuments, both beautifully built and incredibly powerful. One, Umschtagplatz, was constructed at the site of the train station where thousands were deported for Treblinka, and lists only the first names of thirty Jews who perished in the Shoah, to represent the millions. We also visited the memorial outside the soon to open Museum of the History of Polish Jews, dedicated to those who fought in the Warsaw ghetto uprising and the Zionist Jews, ever marching south to Jerusalem.

After a brief but much appreciated rest, we all cleaned up quite well, if we do say so ourselves, and traveled to Chawura and Etz Chaim (a local synagogue) to welcome Shabbat with the Progressive Community Group. Going to the service was a very interesting experience. At first we were nervous about the extreme language barrier, but once we began singing Hebrew chants, the entire congregation came together. After services concluded, we sang kiddush and enjoyed a lovely cultural dinner. Boy, was the dinner different! Our favorite part about tonight was learning that Rabbi Stas Woyciechowicz is the first Reform Rabbi in Poland!

As we sit now back at the hotel all we can think about is – what a day! Poland has so much to offer but the group is only more eager to explore this country with such a diverse history. Tomorrow we celebrate Shabbat and tour more of Warsaw. We’ll be sure to grab souvenirs and have plenty of stories. Even better we finally join the Madrachim for dinner and havdalah – cant wait!!

Stay tuned!

- Hannah B., Casey R., and Aviva S.
YOPO – You Only Poland Once

Ofek students in Kiryat Malachi

By Danielle Pomeraniec

We sat in a room with 20 Ethiopian teenagers. All, at one time, had been failing school. Each one had their own background and unique challenges.

They also had a story of hope.

They told us how, recently, they were given an opportunity. That one extra lesson. The one extra teacher. The one extra guidance counselor.

And now these same teenagers were excelling at the highest levels.

This is the Ofek L’bagrut program.

Ofek is an after-school program across Israel that provides immigrant teenagers with tutoring for their matriculation exams. We visited an Ofek program in Kiryat Malachi that specifically serviced Ethiopian-Israeli students.

We observed tutoring sessions and sat down with students who told us how Ofek helped them. It was inspiring to hear how teenagers, whose parents were not educated in Israel and many of who do not speak Hebrew fluently, consistently improved their exam scores once they entered Ofek. These scores are very important as they affect students’ abilities to qualify for higher education opportunities as well as their placement in the army.

In November 2011, I went with a group of young professionals seeking to get a deeper glimpse into Israel through the work of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC).

JDC’s role in Israel is to provide social services to vulnerable communities so that they can participate in and contribute to Israeli society. During our time in Israel, we visited various programs ran by, in part or entirely, by JDC.

Among those programs we visited were a job bank servicing the Haredi community (ultra-Orthodox), a once isolated community, so that they can contribute to the Israeli economy; an early childhood education and development center servicing Arab-Israelis; a groundbreaking elementary education program focused specifically on nutrition; a community garden which serves as a social outlet to the senior immigrant women who tend to it; and an organization that provides refugees and asylum seekers with humanitarian and psychosocial services.

All of the programs were powerful. We were particularly struck by Ofek.

What really moved me were the similarities between what many Jewish families went through not too long ago (including my own) and what Ethiopian immigrants in Israel are going through today.

Seeking a land where they can practice Judaism freely and openly, Ethiopians face daily challenges in seamlessly integrating into Israeli society. The teenagers who receive assistance from Ofek are the future of Israel. Without Ofek, these Ethiopian-Israelis will continue to stay on the fringes of society – straining resources.

By assisting Ethiopian-Israeli teenagers in studying for their matriculation exams, Ofek is empowering teenagers to obtain scholastic achievement, which will open doors for them economically.

On Tuesday, April 3rd, we will be hosting an open bar event at Pop Pub (41 East 11th Street) to raise funds for Ofek L’Bagrut. Our goal is to raise $25,000.

With a gift of $25,000 we will enable the Ofek program to provide crucial learning support and empowerment to 130 youth from different schools in the city. This assistance will include group activities and accompaniment by a counselor during the last three years of high school.

In addition, Ofek will maintain ongoing contact with participants’ parents and schools to further their progress and ensure their successful graduation.

As a Jew, I feel a responsibility to look after Israel’s future. This is just one small way that I can help.

Please join us next Tuesday at Pop Pub to show support for this great program. Tickets are only $36 for as many drinks as you can handle!

And, even if you can’t make it, donations are always welcome. Tickets can be purchased and donations can be made at http://jdc.org/fundthefuture.

Thank you for your time and support!

In three days 18 University of Wisconsin students will embark on the journey of a lifetime. We will be joining forces with the JDC for a service- learning trip to Poland. While there we will travel around Poland from Warsaw to Lublin to Krakow to provide care and support to the Jewish community. Our goal is to give hope to these individuals and reassure them that people care about them. Poland’s Jewish community had doubled in the last 30 years, creating a need for social services and Jewish life programming. At the same time, the needs of the nation’s aging Holocaust survivors and other elderly Jews remain a primary concern for the JDC. In preparation for the trip, our group has attended various orientation sessions to learn about the Jewish community and history of the community in Poland as well to bond as a group. So far our group has raised $5300 (and counting) for the Jewish community and we will collectively decide how to donate this money once in Poland and we can asess the need.

We are all looking forward to a wonderful trip!

–Emily B.

Baking matzo during home visits in Dnepropetrovsk

University of Maryland Hillel students are wrapping up their time in Ukraine. Joey Kroll and Arielle Cohen check in before Shabbat.

Dobre Ootra and Zdrasvutyeh from Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine.

As our week here comes to an end, we can confidently say this has been an amazing experience that has brought us face to face with a country and Jewish community that has been really affected by world affairs.

While the Soviet influences are very noticeable, Ukraine is also a modern country. Yesterday morning, we rode through the Ukrainian countryside for about four hours from Donetsk to Dnepropetrovsk, which lies along the Dnepr River, the largest in Ukraine.

Sushi party at the Dnepro Hillel

Along the way we saw a variety of small, Fiddler on the Roof like villages that were quite different from Donetsk, the large industrial city where we started our journey.

Dnepro was a nice surprise and was another large and dynamic city; we were able to do some site-seeing and souvenir shopping at an artists’ market. Later, we made our way to the city’s synagogue and met their Rabbi, who had a very inspiring pluralistic approach to how he manages the city’s large Jewish community.

Playing Wii at the JDC Hesed in Dnepro

Dnepro is finishing up the construction of the largest Jewish complex in the world, roughly four office buildings, a shul and a JCC. We also visited the Hesed Center of the city where we worked with the elderly and played Wii with them, played with at risk children, and worked with special needs children and adults.

This city seems to be more well off than Donetsk and it is interesting to see the needs of its Jewish community.

Arts & crafts at the Dnepro JCC

Now, we are about to take off for a Shabbaton with new Ukrainian peers in the countryside, which should make for a great final weekend in Ukraine.

Bolyshy spasiba to all of our parents for enabling us to go on this amazing trip. Our group has really united and grown close, mostly bonding over the strong but uniquely Ukrainian quirks we have seen throughout our journey.

Planning the Shabbaton with our peers

Our farewell party with our new friends from Donetsk

We’re currently in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine. We had a great time in Donetsk. Rebecca B. has the story.

Are you following us on Twitter? @cohenbecca is tweeting from Ukraine. #FollowFriday: @MarylandHillel

We’ve been in Ukraine for a few days, and there hasn’t been a dull moment. From the moment we landed, we have been welcomed with enthusiasm and eagerness from our Ukrainian peers. We literally walked off the plane and were instantly greeted with huge signs and Ukrainian challah from about 20 excited Ukrainian Hillel Students.

After lots of photos with our new friends, we all got on the bus and headed to our hotel in Donetsk. The hotel was surprisingly great; it is called the Liverpool and is completely themed after the Beatles.

After putting our stuff down and freshening up, we headed to the JDC Hesed center where we formally met the Ukrainian participants. They explained to us the purpose of the Hesed center and how it’s brought them all together.
We watched a video about how the service provided helps so many people and really makes a huge impact in the lives of struggling Ukrainians. Although we were exhausted from the day-long plane ride, it was fascinating to learn about and meet the Ukrainian students.

Eventually we made our way to the restaurant for dinner. Dinner was definitely an experience; the food was Russian style and extremely foreign to the food we experience in the US.

While I made it a point to try all of the interesting Russian food, I think my palette is too American for all these novelties.

After dinner we had a “baby” themed party. We played a bunch of games that allowed us to get to know the Ukrainian students better and eat tons of candy at the same time! We passed around cotton candy as we laughed about each other’s funniest childhood stories.

Towards the end they showed us a slideshow with all our and their baby photos that they had put together as a surprise.

Finally we left the location and headed back to the hotel; we loved meeting the Ukrainians, but the lack of sleep was catching up with us.

Back at the hotel most of quickly went to sleep, while some of us continued to hang out with the Ukrainian students who were also staying in the hotel with us. It’s so much fun learning about the culture differences between students in the Ukraine and the US.

Fortunately, regardless to our differences we are all about to come together with our common goals and make a difference; this was especially apparent the next day.

We woke up early in the morning, ate a delicious Ukrainian breakfast, and headed to the Hesed center for a full day of service.

We broke into five groups along with the Ukrainian students, and were given tasks to complete. I was on the Red team and we were in charge of rehabilitating wheelchairs and cleaning them up so that they can be used. Other groups worked on re-building a warehouse, creating desks, fixing up walkers and canes, and repairing the bathroom.

Our refurbished wheelchairs at the JDC medical warehouse in Donetsk

At some point during the day, the truck of matzah arrived and we all took a break to unload it. We intend to distribute the matzah to the Ukrainian Jews so that they can happily participate and celebrate Passover, even in hard times.

Preparing matzo boxes for delivery to Hesed clients

It was so stimulating to see how the Ukrainian students and leaders worked together. They seem to still have a strong sense of women roles vs. men roles rather than the American view point that “anything goes”.

I personally loved working with the Ukrainian students even though the language barrier was definitely apparent. Only a hand full of the students can speak some English so it’s been a lot of fun figuring out other ways to communicate.

At another point during the day we had a tea and coffee break while getting the opportunity to ask some of the elderly Ukrainian Jews about their lives. Then we all got up and sang and danced together; I was surprised but also delighted that the elderly woman danced with us.

I really enjoyed spinning around and dancing with them. After we finished our tasks for the day we took about two hours to reflect on our experience thus far. Everything happens so quickly, so it’s nice to just sit and think about what we’ve done and what we want to accomplish on this trip.

We also discussed what it means to belong to a community and the importance of it. Even though it was just our University of Maryland group, it was interesting to see the different perspectives each of us had.

After our time of reflection, we walked back to the Beatles hotel and prepared for our exciting and surprising night out! Although we knew we were going to a “Russian Banya” we really had no idea what that would entail.

But it was honestly amazing! We entered this gorgeous two leveled pool house. There were hot tubs and saunas and obviously a huge pool. And the best part was the massive waterslide that started on the top floor and lead down into the pool. First we went upstairs and were greeted by a luau style dinner party.

Unlike most of the food this far, it was a very American dinner consisting of fries, chicken, and vegetables. After dinner we were all anxious to get into the water. Some of us relaxed in the hot tubs while others kept enjoying the massive water slide. We even had competitions in the pool; Marisa, Dillion, and Talia definitely represented the US well when they dominated in the water competition!

The actual “Russian Banya” was nothing as we expected; besides the pools and hot tubs, there was a sauna room that the Ukrainians referred to as “the banya”. It felt like an American sauna and they kept telling us how good it was for you to sit in it for a while.

However, after about five minutes I had to take a breather from the banya. We played lots of games, danced to the music, and had a great dessert. This again was a great way for us to really get to know the Ukrainian students and interact with them.

Some time after 11pm we all went back to the hotel and showered off “the banya”. Considering we are only here for a week we wanted to cease all the opportunity, so we all got dressed and went to a local café to hang out for an hour or so. It’s amazing how quickly we were able to connect to the Ukrainian students even though there was an obvious language barrier.

So far the trip has been absolutely amazing. Each moment is eye opening and invigorating. I love being with the Ukrainian students and helping out the elderly people supported by JDC. This is a trip that I’ll never forget and the journey has only just begun!

Ice skating in Donetsk

We’re on the ground in Donetsk, Ukraine. Check out some of our pics below and stay tuned for more.

UMD Hillel and our Ukrainian Peers outside the airport

Ice breakers with peers in Donetsk

Cleaning medical equipment at the JDC-supported Hesed in Donetsk

more cleaning

Job well done!

Where do I begin? This is the first group trip I have attended in college, and boy, has it set the bar high. First off, the location was amazing. I loved the fact that we went WAY off the beaten path, to Odessa, Ukraine, and got to experience a people, culture, and lifestyle that are so unique and different from our own. With decaying, old-fashioned buildings, hidden courtyards of shacks and clothes lines, and dusty, dark streets, we could recognize the definitive difference of the façade of Ukraine versus the United States, the old and slowly developing versus the new and globalized. The atmosphere of the country was so distinct, so unique to Eastern Europe and the Former Soviet Union, alluding to the young age of the nation and its complicated past. Our debrief on our first day in Odessa regarding Ukrainian politics, society, econsomics, and culture was extremely helpful in creating a basis upon which we could build with the personal insight of our experiences. The engrained corruption of everyday life, the need to pay off doctors for appointments and procedures or officials to receive papers to open a business, creates an interesting culture that is unfortunately unlikely to be undone for some time. The government officials are content in their positions of power and prioritize maintaining such power over affecting positive change for the future of Ukraine. Furthermore, there is not necessarily a plan for Ukriane’s future or a goal for them to pursue. A large portion of the population finds it pointless to vote, as the elected officials can’t or won’t make any significant change to the system and many feel like their vote doesn’t actually count due to corrupt elections. Ukrainian elections often don’t matter anyway, as the Russian government has the Ukrainian government in the palm of its hand due to its control on Ukraine’s oil supply. The Ukrainian government completely disregards its responsibility for social programs, which is a central part of what we observed. When the Soviet Union collapsed and Ukraine was formed roughly twenty years ago, all of people’s savings were depleted, leaving the elderly defenseless and poverty-stricken. Now, they only receive around $150 per month from the government with which to pay for EVERYTHING. This amazes me because you wouldn’t last two days in the United States on that pension, and they expect their senior citizens to last thirty days.

This is where the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) comes in. Through one of their programs, Hesed, they provide food, health, and social services to the elderly. This program extends the average Ukrainian’s lifetime by TWENTY YEARS!!! Now THAT is amazing. Hesed has its workers buy food on food cards (of a certain amount of the elderly people’s pensions) to grocery shop for the homebound seniors. We had the opportunity to work on a few of these outings, purchasing groceries, delivering them to the elderly, and visiting with them for a while. This was an eye opening experience. The first woman’s entire home was as big as my bedroom. She had no central heating or hot water, subsisting on a coal stove for warmth and cooking. She had no shower or bath, only a drain in the room with her toilet. And these women were alone, with no parents, husbands, or children to visit or take care of them. I could not imagine living like that on a daily basis with such little hope for a brighter future. The first trip was great, and although the woman was slightly embarrassed about her situation, she was glad for the company and conversation. The second trip was heart wrenching, as the woman was bedridden and frail. She began sobbing at any mention of her late husband or deceased parents, and we felt helpless, trying to bring up topics that could make her happy in her evidently hopeless situation. How could a government leave a woman like that alone in a home without heating and with meager amounts of food? AND no one drinks Ukrainian tap water, so bottled water is an additional necessity. I have a new perspective on how critical international non-governmental organizations are to people who don’t have the luxury of government protection of safety, health, and survival.

I LOVE OUR ODESSA PEERS!!!!!! They are such amazing, vibrant, welcoming, caring, passionate people, and I feel so lucky to have met you and become so close to you!!!! PLEASE come to LA, and stay with us! Shabbat was SO cool. I loved how despite the language barrier, we could all sing in Hebrew together and unite in our Judaism. It was beautiful. Also, I loved staying up in our hotel, talking, spastically dancing, and celebrating with all of you! AND karaoke-ing! I can’t believe how close we got in such a short period of time, and I miss you already. Thank you for making our experience so amazing.

My description earlier made Odessa sound bad… it actually is uniquely beautiful and charming! The port was an amazing sight, and the Opera House was gorgeous! I felt bad that I was so exhausted from jetlag and couldn’t quite stay alert through the whole opera… but I was still thankful that we got that cultural experience.

It is really interesting how Judaism has been recreated in Odessa. Before the Holocaust, Odessa was home to the third largest Jewish population in the world. Now, after the repression of the Soviet government, Jews are reconnecting to their roots through organizations like Beit Grand and Migdal. Both offer opportunities for Jews, young and old, to gather, pray, and have fun with social clubs for various activities (dancing, singing, arts, education, etc.). They are lively and welcoming! Reform Judaism does not really have a hold yet in Odessa, as the two synagogues are more conservative or orthodox. But the renewal of the once vibrant Jewish life is in progress and growing!

We also saw the Holocaust Museum, which detailed the unique experience of Ukrainian Jews. These Jews did not make it to concentration camps, but instead were simply rounded up in mass numbers and annihilated. It was tragic and horrifying. No matter how many times I learn about the Holocaust or hear survivors’ stories, I always cry, imagining how horrifying it must have been. I am so glad the Judaism is being reborn in Odessa. It is owed to those who were lost.

To my fellow USC and Occidental travelers, THANK EVERY ONE OF YOU SOOOO MUCH! It was really hard for me to write this without a millions hearts and smiley faces, because I always do that and it truly represents how I feel about you guys and our time together. It was amazing because of the inclusive, open-minded, mature, fun-loving, and considerate nature of every individual in the group. I really didn’t want to leave. I want to spend more time with you guys! I love how we work together and understand each other. We have to keep this going! I love each of you guys so much, and thank you for being you. I am so glad I met you and got the privilege of spending this experience with you!

We’re looking for our first west coast staff person. This position will support the growth of our local Learning Networks, as well as the on-going involvement of the growing number of JDC program alumni in California. The position is based in San Diego, CA.

Full job description and application information can be found here.

All available positions at JDC can be found here.

The streets here have a flavor.  This is a result of the variety of buildings here in Odessa.  Some of the buildings were built a hundred years ago.  These buildings have large stone facade, almost Italian looking to me.  One can tell that a lot of detail was put into the decoration of these buildings.  It’s interesting though because we are not in italy, we are in Ukraine.  You can tell because the ornate stone designs have obviously been faded and muted by the elements. There are cracks in the walls and the windows look inoperative.  These are old buildings, more than a hundred years old, and yet they are still standing as sort of an old, stoic homage, to the pre-war days. (update: so we took a tour of the more touristy central pedestrian area of Odessa and there were more of these fancy buildings.  The difference though, is that these buildings are in better condition.  Overall, I’d say that there is a fair amount of these fancy old victorian Italian whatever buildings. It’s pretty amazing that so many of them survived the war.)

Interestingly, these decorated buildings scattered amongst the Soviet-styled concrete monuments, which I guess double as apartment buildings.  These soviet style buildings are all grey.  Their facades are flat.   Their windows are square.

And then, there are some hybrid buildings. Like large Soviet era builds that were decorated. There was one I saw with a greek styled personage, holding up a pillar of the building. So communist!

What find most exciting about the streets is the prevalence of graffiti tags.  Graffiti is everywhere here! And I like it.  There are lots of words on the sides of buildings, mostly nonsensical to me.   Some people hate all this stuff.   I would agree that there are many reasons to hate it.  First off, it is scribbles. Second, it makes some of the buildings look decrepit.  But i would say that this graffiti adds much needed color to the mostly grey buildings.  And to me, it does not seem like there is that great of an effort to clean the graffiti up.  I wouldn’t consider the graffiti profane.  It’s more of a mood setter in my eyes.  The graffiti adds a bit of wildness to the sometimes blank, perpendicular streets.

The city is urban, and yet it’s not. The people here dress very nicely, like I was in manhattan, and they walk around with purpose, like in manhattan.  And their are lots of buildings.  Yet it’s not quite distinctly urban. There are lots of trees in the streets, and most of the buildings are not too high, only around 4 stories I’d say.

It’s funny to see that some of the advertisements are of American things. For example, I’ve seen perfume advertisement featuring Natalie Portman.  Also, a billboard advertising the new John carter movie, but John carter of course was spelled in the other alphabet.

Id say the cultural street feeling of this city that I get a mix of history and cold weather and a communist past.  Obviously, it’s hard to describe, but all interesting.

Yesterday, we went down to these famous steps.  In this district, there was a monument to Katherine the great, and across the street, a club. And there was this old house that used to be owned by a dignitary, and now there is graffiti all around it.  There was this obelisk that was a monument to communism stuff, and there was a shopping mall around it.

So definitely the cultural feel of these place is historic, yet it’s like not too old.  It hints at the prewar past and it also hints at the soviet past.

Also, like I mentioned before, a lot of the buildings here are grey. I was talking though to a friend, and we debated whether this was a result of the weather.  It would be interesting to see this city in the summer when all of the trees have leaves and stuff. It must be beautiful.  After all, the population of the city doubles during the summer. All of those people must be here for a reason.

Yesterday, we got a really great piece of the culture here, as we went to the opera.  The opera house was fabulous.  According to some sources, it is the 3rd greatest opera house in the world.  It’s a classically designed building, with all the greek statues and stuff and the fat baby statues, and a ton of gold leaf. Like sooo much gold leaf.  And the chandelier insider weights two tons. It was quite spectacular.  And amongst the Italian marble statues of cherubs and angels, there was a bust of Lenin.

It was quite an interesting experience actually watching the opera.  Of course it was in Italian, and it was translated into Russian.  So we had no idea what was going on the whole time.  The only other opera I have watched was at the metropolitan in New York, so I’m no connoisseur of good opera but I think that the performers did a good job.  One thing that I thought was interesting about the opera was that going to the opera wasn’t some sort of ritzy affair like it was in New York.  The place was not at full capacity and some people wore jeans to the show. I wonder how much the opera is a cherished thing here.

One cultural element that I do not see here that I expected to see was the stereotypical european gangster people, like that guy from the movie everything is illuminated. Go figure.  Maybe those people only come out during the summer.

The train station was very cool looking here.

So I’m rambling. But hopefully I’ve been able to ever so slightly give you a feel of what it is like here, halfway across the world.  I appreciate the environment.  It serves as a frame for the rest of the experience here.

I’ve been talig plenty of photos. When I get back home to high speed Internet, I’ll show you some of that graffiti.

Peace out.

Fasky