Federations Continue Life-Saving Efforts in Ukraine

From the desk of Michael Siegal, Chair, Board of Trustees, The Jewish Federations of North America

Thank you for your Federation’s generous support of the Ukraine Emergency Assistance Fund. Early in the year JFNA issued a funding request for 2015 related to the ongoing humanitarian needs of Ukrainian Jews caught up in the conflict in Eastern Ukraine, and your Federation responded! There are thousands of internally displaced Jewish refugees now living in various parts of Ukraine and Russia, about 2,500 of whom are living in temporary shelters managed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. In addition, JDC continues to provide life-sustaining assistance to about 6,000 elderly and poor Jews who are trapped in the conflict region. And aliyah from Ukraine continues to grow steadily.

Thanks to your community’s generous response, our overseas partners, the JDC and Jewish Agency for Israel, are able to continue their life-saving working through the balance of this year. As we have previously communicated, we have worked with both agencies to ensure that ongoing needs past 2015 will be incorporated into their 2016 operation budgets. Barring a further escalation of events in Eastern Ukraine, we expect this to be the last supplemental funding request related to this crisis.

However, it is vital that we continue to keep these needs front and center in our communities. In 2016 these needs will be met through core unrestricted funding from our system. Our recent JFNA mission to Dnepropetrovsk demonstrated the incredible work supported by our Federation system. Following the mission we have several high impact resources that you can use in telling this story, including:

For the first time since World War II we are caring for Jewish refugees in Europe. Because of the terrible conditions today in Ukraine, our brothers and sisters who are caught up in this crisis have nowhere else to turn for help. Please help us ensure that we are able to continue to fulfill our responsibilities.

For more information on the evolving events in Ukraine and our Federation system’s response, please contact Rina Goldberg at rina.goldberg@jewishfederations.org.

Again, thank you. We are very grateful for your support.

0Comments

Add Comment