Socializing experiences
are
very important for both youngsters and their families, observed Ms.
Olshanitskaya. All Jewish and Ukrainian
holidays are celebrated, and an annual banquet is held at the Menorah
Center. Additionally, some online
festivities are organized with different groups in Boston.
Notwithstanding the
crisis in eastern Ukraine, Ms. Olshanitskaya observed, conditions are stable at
the Resource Center. However, the situation
for individual families continues to deteriorate. Most families are single-parent units, she said,
because many fathers abandon their families at the birth of disabled children. The demands of special-needs children are
such that most mothers are unable to work outside the home. The state pensions
that handicapped people receive did not cover even basic expenses before the
steep increases in inflation, and these already-inadequate pensions are not indexed
to inflation rates.
Understandably,
continued Ms. Olshanitskaya, many mothers of Resource Center children are
severely depressed and worry constantly about the fate of their children if the
mothers themselves become ill or die.
Ms. Olshanitskaya arranges some social activity, as well as counseling,
for parents and other caregivers. The Jewish
Women's Microenterprise Loan Fund and Project Kesher also offer programs
to Resource Center mothers.
The Resource Center
receives significant professional and financial assistance from Combined
Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston (the Jewish federation in Boston). In one such program, CJP supports a video
conference series in which specialists from Gordon College of
Education in Haifa (Boston's sister city) instruct Resource Center staff
and professionals from several other Dnipropetrovsk institutions in special
education methodology and other topics related to special needs children and
youth. The Resource Center, which
possesses all of the necessary video equipment, convenes the conferences in
which 15 to 16 professionals from other Dnipropetrovsk programs also
participate. Another Boston contribution
has been a specially-equipped passenger van that is fitted with two
lifts to bring wheelchair-bound youngsters into the van and then discharge them
efficiently and safely. The van is
essential to transporting youngsters between their homes and the Center, said
Ms. Olshanitskaya.
The family of Dr.
Judith Wolf, one of the founders of the Dnipropetrovsk Kehilla Project,
supports a warm home program in which three to five Resource Center
children in the same age group, along with their mothers and several Resource
Center professionals, meet in the home of one of the children. The children and parents know each other and
are comfortable with each other, a key element of the program, Ms.
Olshanitskaya stated. One professional
leads the children in arts and crafts and other informal activities, while
another meets with the mothers for childcare education, counseling, and
informal recreational projects of their own.
The Resource Center provides light refreshments, birthday presents, and
van transportation. Two such warm home
events are held each month, engaging each child at least twice yearly. The gatherings in children's homes also
enable professional staff to assess home conditions, such as individual space
available to the Resource Center child, said Ms. Olshanitskaya.
9. The Hillel student organization occupies
a suite of two activity rooms and several
offices in the Menorah Center. A
third room, which is a computer training center with 12 workstations and a
small conference room, is located on another floor.
Olga Tovkach, the director of
Dnipropetrovsk Hillel since 2008, said that the number of individuals on the Hillel
contact list has declined sharply over the past year, reflecting two
developments. The first and most
important is a surge in aliyah (emigration to Israel) of Jewish students
and young adults. The second is the
transition of a large number of former participants to an age cohort in which
Hillel activism is no longer appropriate.
The Hillel contact list has fallen from 1500 to 800 in recent months,
Ms. Tovkach said. About 200 of these are
activists, participating in at least one program monthly, compared with about
300 activists during the last academic year.
Not surprisingly, the decline in participation has led to a dwindling
number of those willing or able to assume leadership positions; a smaller pool
of students generates fewer participants with the necessary skill sets to teach
various classes (such as Jewish tradition, Hebrew, English, computer skills),
lead committees, or perform other functions required by Hillel.
Olga
Tovkach, the highly regarded Hillel director in Dnipropet-rovsk, resigned her
position during the summer of 2015 to make aliyah to Israel with her husband
and other family members.
Photo:
the writer.
Notwithstanding
the declining number of participants, Hillel continues to engage more Jewish
young people than any other Jewish organization in the city, all of which are
affected by the same demographic issues.
Hillel works closely with student groups associated with the
Jewish Agency and with the Jewish Community Center. In response to a question, Ms. Tovkach said
that Hillel does not collaborate with the Chabad organization See the Light
because that group accepts only those young people who are halachically
Jewish. Hillel does not want to exclude
anyone with even relatively remote ties to the Jewish people, it does not want
to cut people off.
Ms.
Tovkach observed that the Hillel organization in Donetsk, whose
establishment had been strongly supported by Hillel in Dnipropetrovsk several
years ago, had ceased operations. Most
Jewish students, she continued, left Donetsk and emigrated to Israel, some of
them emigrating through the MASA program. Members of the Donetsk Hillel staff,
continued Ms. Tovkach, were now working in Kyiv, Odesa, Kharkiv, and Dnipropetrovsk.
At
the moment, Ms. Tovkach said, Dnipropetrovsk Hillel is conducting its annual Week
of Good Deeds. Responding to current
needs, the focus this year is on internally displaced people, about
50,000 of whom are in Dnipropetrovsk. JDC
and the Schusterman Foundation are joining Hillel in providing financial
support for Hillel work with internally displaced families and elderly people. Hillel volunteers participated in a seminar
to prepare them for their programs with the IDP's.
Notwithstanding
the problems noted above in finding individuals with appropriate skill sets to
lead its various classes, Hillel continues to operate a variety of programs
that appeal to Jewish students. A grant
from a local family has enabled Hillel to offer several studios for aspiring
artists (both professional and amateur), noted Ms. Tovkach, and the information
technology program remains very active.
The latter offers instruction in coding and other skills; all computer
instruction is fee-based, she said, but tuition charges are lower than in
commercial classes, thus attracting numerous young people, including some
non-Jews. Approximately 20 Hillel
students are enrolled in Pesach University, a multi-session program that
instructs participants in the conduct of Pesach seders.
Taglit
(birthright Israel)
remains very popular with Hillel members, Ms. Tovkach stated. Dnipropetrovsk Hillel will recruit local
Jewish young adults for three Taglit buses (40 people each) this year. Comprehensive follow-up with Taglit returnees
continues, she said; Hillel, the Jewish Agency, and the Israel Culture Center
work together in organizing common special events for returnees from Taglit
tours from all three groups. Perhaps the
highlight of these events is a Shabbaton.
In common with the other local Taglit sponsors, Hillel encourages Taglit
veterans to enroll in Masa programs.
Masa is increasingly popular as many young people are eager to explore
Israel in depth; they are seriously considering aliyah as an alternative to
life in present-day Ukraine.
10.
Established in 2006 and already operating programs in Kyiv, Odesa, and
other post-Soviet cities, Moishe House started its Dnipropetrovsk group
in 2014 with assistance from the international office of Moishe House and from
the Joint Distribution Committee. Its
facility is a small two-story house with a relatively large living room on the
ground floor and quarters for its residents on the second floor. At the time of the writer's visit, the two
resident directors were Roman Shulman, age 24, and Kostya Konyvets,
age 21. The two men described such programs
as weekly Shabbat dinners, observance of all Jewish holidays (including the 9th
of Av, said one), accompanying youngsters from Older Brother, Older Sister
in visits to wounded veterans in a Dnipropetrovsk military hospital,
entertaining internally displaced Jewish children awaiting emigration to
Israel,
visiting Jewish elderly at Beit Baruch,
and visiting children with cancer at a local children's hospital. They also visit a general orphanage and raise
funds for children requiring complex surgery.
Additionally, Moishe House participants volunteered at various projects
during the recent Week of Good Deeds.
They attended a seder as a group at the Menorah Center and held their
own seder for 18 people at Moishe House on a different evening. A teacher from the Jewish Agency teaches
Hebrew at Moishe House. They have
organized one Moishe House Shabbaton at
a nearby facility.
Roman
Shulman, left, and Kostya Konyvets, right, were directing the Dnipropetrovsk
Moishe House at the time of the writer's visit in April.
Photo:
the writer.
Most
programs at Moishe House attract 15 to 22 young people, said the two men. However, twice-weekly musical evenings of
both Jewish and non-Jewish music often attract additional young adults.
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