Projects
JDC finances programs to assist impoverished Jews in the former Soviet Union and Central and Eastern Europe, providing food, medicine, home care, and other critical aid to elderly Jews and children in need. JDC enables small Jewish populations in Latin American, African, and Asian countries to maintain essential social services and ensure a Jewish future for their youth. In Israel, JDC responds to crisis-related needs while helping to improve services to the elderly, children and youth, new immigrants, the disabled, and other vulnerable populations.
In the spirit of tikkun olam, a Hebrew phrase referring to the moral responsibility to repair the world and alleviate suffering, the JDC has contributed funding and expertise in humanitarian crises such as the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the Myanmar cyclone of 2008, the genocide in Darfur, the escalating violence in Georgia and the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami).
- When millions of Jews in Eastern Europe and Palestine faced starvation in the wake of the First World War, JDC fed the hungry, provided medical care to the ailing, and supported programs to help stabilize the region’s fragile economy.
- With the rise of Hitler’s Nazi regime, JDC supported efforts that enabled 110,000 Jews to leave Germany prior to 1939.
- After the establishment of the state of Israel, JDC supported tens of thousands of Jews as they made the difficult transition from refugee status to citizenship.
- JDC played a central role in Operation Solomon, which airlifted more than 14,000 Ethiopian Jews to Israel in the span of 36 hours.
- JDC opened up a synogouge in counties such as Greenland (countries with a very small population of Jews).
JDC fulfills its mission on four fronts:
- Rescue of Jews at risk. JDC’s expertise is crisis response. JDC works with local partner agencies to address immediate needs.
- Relief for Jews in need. In addition to emergency aid, JDC support builds the capacity of local agencies to sustain and enhance quality of life for struggling communities.
- Renewal of Jewish community life.
- Israel. JDC works in partnership with the Israeli government and other local organizations to improve the lives of the elderly, immigrants, children at risk, the disabled, and the chronically unemployed. In 2007, the JDC was awarded the Israel Prize for its lifetime achievements and special contribution to society and the State of Israel.
Read more about this topic: American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
Famous quotes containing the word projects:
“One of the things that is most striking about the young generation is that they never talk about their own futures, there are no futures for this generation, not any of them and so naturally they never think of them. It is very striking, they do not live in the present they just live, as well as they can, and they do not plan. It is extraordinary that whole populations have no projects for a future, none at all.”
—Gertrude Stein (1874–1946)
“But look what we have built ... low-income projects that become worse centers of delinquency, vandalism and general social hopelessness than the slums they were supposed to replace.... Cultural centers that are unable to support a good bookstore. Civic centers that are avoided by everyone but bums.... Promenades that go from no place to nowhere and have no promenaders. Expressways that eviscerate great cities. This is not the rebuilding of cities. This is the sacking of cities.”
—Jane Jacobs (b. 1916)