Marks JCH in Brooklyn, NY, grants $50,000 to Solomonika JCC in Dnipro, Ukraine
During the JCH’s 95th Anniversary Benefit dedicated to Ukraine relief efforts, Marks JCH CEO/Executive Director, Alex Budnitsky and Board Chair, Jonathan Gold announced a $50,000 gift to JCC Solomonika.
For nearly a decade, in the early 2000s, Marks JCH, a HUB for Russian Speaking Jewish Community in Brooklyn NY, and the Dnipro JCC in Ukraine, were connected through the We Are Family initiative –exchanging young leaders, family camping, and building community together.
This past March, as the war in Ukraine raged, JCC Global reconnected these two communities. Honoring their local and global responsibility, the Marks JCH leadership has been in daily contact with the JCC of Solomonika Executive Director Vadym Farber and their heroic team – providing support and resources. Last week, during the JCH’s 95th Anniversary Benefit dedicated to Ukraine relief efforts, Marks JCH CEO/Executive Director, Alex Budnitsky and Board Chair, Jonathan Gold announced a $50,000 gift to JCC Solomonika. These funds will enable JCC Solomonika to provide 500 hot meals a day over the next 5 months to families seeking refuge in Dnipro from the escalating fighting in the region.
Vadym Farber, the Executive Director of Solomonika JCC was ever so grateful and said that thanks to JCC Global they were able to establish this special connection. As the situation is getting worse and the needs are growing, the help of Solomonika JCC to Jews and non-Jews alike is a life saver.
In addition, since the beginning of March, the Marks JCH has stepped up with speed, skill and urgency to receive a growing flow of families who have fled Ukraine to the safety and promise of a better future in the US. To read more about the Marks JCH Ukraine Crisis Response Center, which continues to support hundreds of Ukrainians with comprehensive resettlement services Click here.
“The JCC Global connections allowed Jewish Care, UK to be bold about its future vision”
“The JCC Global connections allowed Jewish Care, UK to be bold about its future vision” These were some of the moving remarks of Daniel Carmel-Brown, CEO of Jewish Care, at the concluding session of “the Dr. Mark Ramer JCC Global Hub: Building Thriving Communities: A Capacity Building Hub for Jewish Care, London”.
Jewish Care is the largest provider of health and social care services for the Jewish community in the UK and touches the lives of 10,000 people, every week. It has been a founding member of JCC Global and a close partner ever since.
It focuses on older people, people with mental health needs, Holocaust survivors, people living with dementia, people who care for others who have a variety of needs, people with MS, Parkinson’s, strokes and those who are visually impaired and people who are bereaved and those recently separated.
For many years it also ran Sinclair House- a JCC in Redbridge, that has participated in all JCC Global programs and initiatives. Recently, Jewish Care has embarked on a massive expansion, opening several campuses and has reached out to JCC Global to learn more about community building models and JCCs from around the world.
This Hub was tailor made for senior managers of JCCs under the auspices of Jewish Care, UK, with the goals of exploring the values and precepts of a Jewish Community Center, enriching the participants with models and best practices from around the world, and developing a professional peer group and support network around community building issues.
“The JCC Global Hub provided my team with an incredible opportunity to harness the skills and experience of their colleagues around the world. The international Jewish community provides us with many occasions to connect and learn from Jewish Community professionals with vastly different experiences from our own. All of this serves to enrich and further develop the knowledge and skills of Jewish Care’s managers to ensure that we continually develop and grow for the best possible outcomes for our communities and the people we serve” concluded Jamie Field, Head of Community Services, Jewish Care, UK.
JCC Global Hub focusing in Culture and Arts bring new exhibits to Milwaukee
One of the goals of the Dr. Mark Ramer JCC Global Hub: A Global Tapestry of Culture, Arts and Community Building was to develop a global network of culture influencers via peer learning and exposure to the plethora of arts and culture programs and initiatives in all corners of the world. It was therefore so gratifying to receive this message from Reva Fox, Arts & Culture Director at the Harry and Rose Samson Family JCC in Milwaukee.
“I was brand new to my position here when I participated in the JCC Global Tapestry Hub last spring. I just wanted to let you know about two programs that we have brought/are bringing to our JCC that came directly as a result of attending the Global Hub!
Mirta Kupfirminc-
I met Mirta during the JCC Global Hub. She was speaking in one of the sessions and then messaged me through the zoom chat that she LOVED Milwaukee and that she used to teach at the Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design. We ended up in a breakout room together and were chatting and she mentioned that she had some important work at the Golda Meir Library here in Milwaukee. I just liked her so much so I then reached out to the library to come look at her work. After a couple of months of figuring it out, I was able to do an exhibit of some prints of hers that the Library had. The exhibit was gorgeous and Mirta generously did a zoom interview with me so that we could include excerpts in our digital exhibit for folks who couldn’t come into the building! Pursuing this exhibit also allowed me to connect and build a good relationship with the head of Special Collections at our Library as well.
Yossi Veissid-
Yossi was a speaker during the JCC Global Hub. He showed his work and talked about it. It is so fascinating and different. We all loved the detail and the architecture influence on his work. I then reached out to him and we have been talking back and forth and are bringing an exhibit of prints of his work to Milwaukee in late November. He will also do a zoom program/talk for us at our opening event and it will also be a part of our virtual exhibit.
I met so many interesting artists and JCC staff from all over the world during the hub. It was one of the first things I did when I started here at the JCC and it was such a great way to connect with Artists and Arts Program staff. I just wanted to reach out and let you know the impact the Hub had on JCC Milwaukee! Thank you!”
The Center for Holocaust Education of the East Valley JCC in Arizona offers virtual live tours of Auschwitz
The East Valley JCC invites JCCs to join an Auschwitz Virtual Live Tour. This educational program provides a unique learning experience about the Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp, using historical footage, Holocaust survivor testimonies, panorama pictures and modern animation combined with virtual reality tools to teach about the horrors that happened there. These two-hour group tours, which include Q&A, are led by an Auschwitz educator in Poland. For more information and to sign up:
Concert for Peace
You are welcome to join online a Concert for Peace to help refugees in Poland. It is an initiative of Lamrtoh Hakol Synagogue/JCC and will take place on Wednesday, June 29th at 7:30 p.m. Buenos Aires time and streamed all over the world. Proceeds will also help Krakow JCC and its incredible work for refugees.
To register and contribute click here.
Sending strength to JCCs in Ukraine and the region and praying for peace,
JCC Global staff team