Penny Blumenstein mingles with PACT (Parents and Children Together)
kids during a 2007 visit to a Netanya daycare center serving Ethiopian
Israeli families. Since 2001, PACT has operated in Netanya as a partner-
ship of JDC, the municipality of Netanya and the Detroit Federation.
need to maintain the core programs
that give JDC its vaunted ability to
turn on a dime and respond to crises
and emergency needs.
What is the Joint's
annual budget?
The JDC program budget for 2013
is nearly $347 million. The top
regional funding recipients are the
former Soviet Union, approximately
45 percent; Israel, 34 percent; and
Central and Eastern Europe, 12 per-
cent. Other recipients include Latin
America, Africa and Asia, and next-
generation programs.
JDC is primarily funded through
the Jewish Federations of North
America. Key JDC funders also
include the Harry and Jeanette
Weinberg Foundation, the
Conference on Jewish Material
Claims Against Germany, the
International Fellowship of Christians
and Jews, the Maurice and Vivienne
Wohl Charitable Foundation, World
Jewish Relief (UK), UIA Federations
Canada and tens of thousands of
individual donors.
emergency assistance throughout the
Nazi era;
• Massive, all-encompassing, post-
Holocaust aid that helped meet the
needs of hundreds of thousands of
Jews across Europe by 1946-47;
• Facilitated the immigration of
more than 400,000 Jews to the new
State of Israel and sustained those in
transit;
• Created new care facilities and
rehabilitation programs in Israel for
the elderly and for people with dis-
abilities;
• Channeled discreet relief behind
what was then the Iron Curtain;
• Met Jewish community needs in
North Africa;
• Initiated programs to foster
Jewish identity and strengthen Jewish
connections in post-Communist
Europe, the FSU and beyond;
• Developed a world-class network
of social service centers in the FSU to
support Jewish elderly and children
at risk;
• Responded to contemporary cri-
ses in Israel and Jewish communities
worldwide.
sermon to JDC.
JDC is mounting centennial cel-
ebrations in Washington, D.C., this
December and in Israel and Paris
in May 2014. JDC's centennial mile-
stone was heralded at the Jewish
Federations of North America's
General Assembly, which was held
this past week in Jerusalem.
We are preparing a limited edi-
tion, 100th-anniversary volume of
photos and texts from the JDC Global
Archives, with a foreword by David
Bezmozgis, whose lifelong connec-
tions to JDC began in his childhood.
This project has been graciously
funded by longtime JDC board mem-
ber Jerry Spitzer and his wife, Linda,
of New York. The volume will be
available for purchase through our
website: wwwjdc.org .
In New York City, where JDC was
founded, the New-York Historical
Society will host a centennial exhibit
using artifacts, photos and docu-
ments from the JDC Archives. The
exhibit will open to the public on
June 11.
What is the Joint's
centennial vision?
Our vision includes a recommitment
to the guarantee that "wherever in
the world a Jew is in need, JDC will
be there and to ensure a global
Jewish community dedicated to
mutual responsibilities. That very
much includes members of Jewish
communities in Greece, Bulgaria and
the Baltic countries who have been
hit hardest by Europe's recent eco-
nomic and financial turmoil.
How will the centennial
Who are other Joint
By replicating and adapting job
leaders from Detroit?
of the JDC be celebrated?
programs and community sup-
Detroiters Mandell "Bill" Berman,
JDC has invited Jewish congregations
port initiatives developed during
Argentina's 2001-02 financial crisis,
Nancy Grosfeld, Joseph Orley, Nora
across the country to designate one
Lee Barron and Hannan Lis serve on
Shabbat between fall 2013 and spring we are helping Jews in need regain
the JDC board. Past board members
2014 as JDC Shabbat in recognition
their economic footing, keep their
include Marlene Borman and the late
of the significant role JDC has played
children in Jewish schools and main-
Hugh Greenberg.
in the modern-day history of the
tain their connections to Jewish life.
Jewish people. We launched this ini-
And when the forces of nationalism
What are some highlights
tiative right here in the Detroit area; I and anti-Semitism raise their head, as
from the Joint's history?
have already spoken at Shaarey Zedek they so often do in times of economic
Founded at the outset of World
and Temple Israel. I hope other rab-
trouble, our support assures these
War I, JDC has played a pivotal
bis will choose to dedicate a Shabbat
communities that they are not alone.
role in contemporary Jewish
Through the leadership
FOR THE AMMAR JEW'S ,
history, bolstering Jewish
development programs and
JOINT DIS1RIRO1101(01!!'TEI
RILIEFSOPPIRSORLECTIOR
lives and communities in the
opportunities that we've
face of tragedy and triumph,
established here at home and
and transforming difficult
abroad, JDC is empowering a
challenges into valuable
new generation of activists that
opportunities.
spans the continents, and giv-
Hallmarks of the JDC:
ing them the tools to respond
• Relief and reconstruction
to Jewish and other humanitar-
aid for Jews in Eastern Europe
ianneeds now — and into the
and Palestine facing famine,
future. They are tomorrow's
pogroms and economic devas-
Jewish leaders and we want
At a Detroit railroad siding, Jewish community
tation during and after World
them to be Jewishly educated,
leaders oversee loading relief supplies destined
War I;
inspired and prepared for what
for European Holocaust survivors, part of JDC's
• Rescue, emigration aid and
lies ahead.
post-World War II support efforts. c. 1947.
❑
Helping Engage The
Younger Generation
y
oung Jews today connect to their heritage
differently from previous generations, the
2013 Pew Research Center Survey of U.S.
Jews affirmed. Accordingly, Jewish service organiza-
tions are busy finding new ways to engage them.
For the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee (JDC), the way in is Entwine, a move-
ment of young Jewish leaders and advocates who, says
Entwine activist Kelli Saperstein of Detroit, seek "to
make a meaningful impact on global Jewish needs
and international humanitarian issues."
Each year, Entwine engages 500 young Jewish
adults who contribute 100,000 hours of global human-
itarian service. "Through eight learning networks
across America, run by Entwine service alumni and
focusing on issues from Jewish Cuba to social innova-
tion in Israel, they are bringing their peers through the
door:' explains JDC president Penny Blumenstein of
Bloomfield Hills.
Saperstein, 34, recently joined
other Entwiners on journeys to
Shanghai and Ethiopia as part of
educational and service missions,
respectively. Such travel is intended
to inspire a love of Jewish identity,
share professional expertise and
nurture global ties.
Kelli
"Our world is really becoming
Saperstein
smaller and we should find strength
in being a part of a global Jewish
community:' Saperstein wrote in a May JN article
about her Shanghai experience.
Entwine will hold its first local event at 7:30 p.m.
Monday, Nov. 18, at Sugar House, 2130 Michigan Ave.,
Detroit. Saperstein and Perry Teicher of Ann Arbor
will co-chair "RISKy Business: How a Fashionista's
Start-Up is Changing the Fabric of Jewish Poland:' fea-
turing Antonina Samecka. The young Polish entrepre-
neur owns the RISK, Made in Warsaw fashion line and
also RISK Joint, a fashion collection created in col-
laboration with JDC in Poland. Complimentary drinks
and vegetarian appetizers will be served. Reserve your
spot online: riskybusinessdetroit.eventbrite.com .
Says Blumenstein, "Having met and traveled with
Entwiners in many places around the JDC world, I
urge you to join them in in their efforts to catalyze
Jewish engagement, Jewish passion and Jewish inno-
vation in Jewish communities from Buenos Aires to
Mumbai to here at home in Detroit — and every-
where in between!'
❑
—Robert Sklar
Michigan Moment
Gov. Rick Snyder spent time during his June visit
to Israel at the JDC/New Beginnings-initiated Neot
Shaked Early Childhood Center in Netanya — a center
established with the help of the Detroit Federation.
JN
November 14 • 2013
43