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Travelogue—Contemporary Understandings of Citizenship among European Jews
Author(s): Barth, Theodor
Date: 2010
Topics: Ethnography, Jewish Heritage, Jewish Community, Jewish Identity, Main Topic: Identity and Community, Conflict, Care and Welfare
Abstract: Travelogue – On the Contemporary Understandings of Citizenship among European Jews – title and subject of Theodor Barth’s thesis – encompasses six books with ethnography based on a multi-sited fieldwork, in Central- & Eastern European Jewish communities. The books are concerned with aspects of their own conditions of production, from fieldwork research to writing, alongside the ethnographic subject of the Travelogue: the conditions of Jewish communities (mainly in cities of Central and Eastern Europe) in the last half of the 1990s (1995-99). The books root the model experiments developed throughout the Travelogue in different ethnographic contexts. Book 1 (Spanning the Fringes – Vagrancy to Prague) is a traveller’s tale with quite contingent, serendipitous, and very short-term trips to sample Jewish life in St. Petersburg, Vilnius, Warsaw, Kiev, Bucharest, Sofia, and Budapest. Book 2 (The Minutes of the ECJC) is a commentary and analysis around a conference which the candidate attended in Prague in 1995 of the European Council of Jewish Communities (ECJC). It focuses on the political work and changing strategies of the ECJC. This book establishes some of the terms of the problems of community-Jews in Europe. Book 3 (The Zagreb Almanach) is a description and analysis of the candidate’s stay with the Jewish community of Zagreb, focusing on a place, a green room, the community centre itself—this is the closest to a traditional site of community living in his ethnographic research. Book 4 (The Books of Zagreb and Sarajevo) provides a contemporary and contextualized reading of a key Jewish ritual complex—the Passover Seder and its text, the Haggadah. This is a cultural object for systematic iteration and commentary, on which to articulate in depth a number of his insights gained more diffusely from observation. Among all the books, book 4 is the one intensive piece in which the textual analysis defines a process through which the candidate intends to sensitise the reader to how pattern can emerge from details. Book 5 (Thirteen Kisses—a Manual of Survival From Sarajevo) relates a testimonial account of how the activist group La Benevolencija functioned in Sarajevo humanitarian relief during the Bosnian War of 1992-95. The candidate hopes to demonstrate a slow transition from wartime testimonials in the presence of an anthropologist, to recognition in the urban commonwealth in the aftermath of the war. He also invites the reader to consider the particularities of survivor testimonies and contrast these to how the war-zone was perceived from the outside. Book 6 (The Account of the Lifeline) provides an understanding of a search and accountability model developed by La Benevolencija—in co-operation with the Joint—during the war in Bosnia (1992-95). It consolidates and expands the account of the Jews in Sarajevo and their humanitarian actions, through the candidate’s work on archives of the Joint (American Joint Distribution Committee) in Paris. The six books of the Travelogue are rounded up in three concluding sections, containing 1) a synopsis of the findings across the books (Frames – Modeling Disordered Systems), 2) an account for the process of visual modeling throughout the books (Design – Choices and Aggregates), 3) a bibliographic presentation in which various sources influenced the conceptual choices and experiments that are made throughout the manuscript are discussed (Bibliography: Reflective Readings). In this way, the candidate hopes to retrace his steps from the findings, via the crafting of the volume back to the ranks of colleagues and readers.
Moving beyond COVID-19: What needs to be done to help preserve and enhance Jewish communal life?
Author(s): Boyd, Jonathan
Date: 2021
Topics: Coronavirus/Covid, Health, Finance, Main Topic: Other, Policy, Synagogues, Jewish Schools, Care and Welfare, Charity / Tzedakah
Abstract: Since the COVID-19 pandemic first began, the JPR research team has focused its efforts on trying to understand how it is affecting Jewish life in the UK and around the world, and has generated a series of reports sharing our insights as they evolve. In this research and policy briefing, we draw together the findings from much of the work that has been done, and consider their implications for the future of Jewish communal life.

The report touches on multiple themes, including the economic needs of disadvantaged households, how best to maintain the Jewish charitable sector, the importance of supporting local synagogue communities and Jewish schools, how to address the potential harmful effects of the pandemic on the community’s informal educational infrastructure, health measures that should be considered to help protect lives, intracommunal relations, and issues around the use of technology to help support and bolster Jewish life.

In addition, it considers how the pandemic has impacted data collection work, for good and for bad, and makes important recommendations about the research that needs to be undertaken to support Jewish life going forward.

As well as making specific recommendations, the paper is designed to be a trigger for discussion among community leaders, philanthropists and members, and we welcome feedback from readers.
Hardship And Needs Of Elderly Hesed Clients: An Analysis Of Clients Served By Hesed Service Centers In Russia & Ukraine
Author(s): Tighe, Elizabeth; Magidin de Kramer, Raquel; Bleckman, Dina; Begli, Nursahedov; Saxe, Leonard
Date: 2012
Topics: Ageing and the Elderly, Care and Welfare, Health, Evaluation, Main Topic: Other, Social Services, Social Work, NGOs
Abstract:

The countries of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) are the home today for a substantial number of Jews, many of whom live in poor, economically disadvantaged communities. Throughout the FSU, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) has supported the development of Hesed welfare and Jewish community centers to assist in the provision of services to Jews in need and to support the renewal of Jewish life after years of suppression. The present report is designed to review the current economic, health, and social conditions of these elderly Jews in need in the FSU and to compare their circumstances, as best possible, to their counterparts who live in western countries such as the United States.

Data from a large number of sources are reviewed and analyzed, including national statistics, national and local surveys, and client-level data. The data indicate clearly that, in view of demographic composition, as well as economic and social conditions, elderly Jews in the FSU have tremendous needs for supportive services funded by philanthropy compared to their peers in the United States. The comparisons also highlight the disparities in available care among those most in need.

There is a clear need for external support for basic health and social services for elderly Jews in the FSU. Twenty years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, there is not an adequate safety net for the elderly. The situation is in flux and there are unique challenges associated with understanding service delivery in societies that are in transition. The available data on pensions and living circumstances make clear that the economic situation for elderly in the FSU who seek Hesed services is dire. Faced with increasing costs for basic needs such as utilities and food, along with health services including essential medicines, quality care and homecare, the pension amounts that Hesed clients rely on are inadequate to meet their needs.
Jewish Politics, Women’s Politics, General Politics – The Experience of Project Kesher
Author(s): Yakimenko, Svetlana
Date: 2016
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Women, Jewish Peoplehood, Care and Welfare, Conflict Resolution
Abstract: Since 1989 Project Kesher has worked bringing women together, creating a network of Jewish women, helping women who knew nothing or very little about what it means to be Jewish, not only to become Jewish, but to create and strengthen Jewish community life in Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia and Moldova. We shared success and analyzed the changes. We felt that we were one people.

Due to the present political crises we lost our vision as one Jewish people, we became divided. It was clear Project Kesher needed to take action. We started with International Skype calls. Every evening one woman from Russia, one from Ukraine, one from Belarus, one from Israel called a woman in another country: talking, sharing our love and support, wishing peace. When women started calling each other again and restoring broken relationships we saw that “KESHER” – connection – is working.

One day when there was a serious military clash in the area where she lived one of our leaders proposed to read Tehilim (Psalms), as prayers for peace. Soon more than one hundred women were reading Psalms, creating a chain of peace. Such a spirit of peace prevailed even at a time when the air was filled with war.

In Russia there are refugee families from different regions of the Ukraine. Sometimes they lost everything. Project Kesher women’s groups in cooperation with other Jewish organizations collected clothes, foot-wear as well as school-bags, school record books, sketchbooks, colored paper, paperboard, plasticine, pencil boxes, paints and markers for refugee children. Project Kesher activists also actively participated in organizing camps for refugees in Kharkiv and the Dnipropretrovsk region (Ukraine).

In times of conflict the wish to live in peace is not enough. Women needed instruments for conflict resolution. Project Kesher developed a unique leadership training program with the aim to enable the participants to conduct trainings in conflict resolution themselves in Jewish communities and partner organizations and to engage in mediation. These trainings are often based on Jewish tradition and text study.

A special event is Project Kesher’s Global Women’s Seder that was celebrated in 2015 for the 21st time. No less than 2500 members of 140 Project Kesher women’s and youth groups in 110 cities and five countries – Belarus, Georgia, Israel, Russia and the Ukraine – participated this year. The participants spoke about peace and declared that they intended to do everything possible to maintain peace in their families and in society. With the energy it sets free Project Kesher continues to initiate positive changes.
Jewish Europe Today. Between Memory and Everyday Life
Editor(s): Dimentstein, Marcelo; Tartakowsky, Ewa
Date: 2020
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Identity, Jewish Revival, Antisemitism, Jewish Culture, Jewish Heritage, Rabbis, Kashrut, Shechita / Ritual Slaughter, Jewish Organisations, Care and Welfare
Becoming-dementia as an Immanent Condition of Co-dwelling in Everyday Life
Author(s): Jong-min, Jeong
Date: 2017
Topics: Elderly Care, Ethnography, Health, Mental Health, Main Topic: Other, Volunteering, Ageing and the Elderly, Care and Welfare
Abstract: What have those living with dementia lost? If they have lost aspects of their mind and self, who are they now? Are they 'normal'? Prevailing medical, therapeutic and sociopsychoanalytic interventions and studies on dementia, largely influenced by Tom Kitwood's person-centred approach, have focused mainly on revealing and evaluating the remaining intact bodily abilities and functions beyond loss. In contrast to this predominant understanding of dementia, my decade-long involvement in a Jewish Care Home as a volunteer and researcher has raised ontological, epistemological and practical critiques, acknowledging that we are never beyond loss but always alongside it, and that we simply do not know how to dwell well with it. Although the expressive and performative words, gestures and behaviours of those with dementia are often regarded as inarticulate, repetitive and nonsensical, these are the lived worlds of dementia that those affected feel, experience and live through, whilst continuously making relations and familiarising themselves with people, things, and their surroundings. This demands a paradigm shift in the ontological, epistemological and practical horizon within the study of dementia. Critically developing Canguilhem's notion of the normal and the abnormal, Ingold's dwelling perspective and Deleuze's concept of becoming, I redefine dementia not as a fixed mode of being but as a continuous process of becoming-dementia through an attentive engagement with one's immediate surroundings. In more detail, this study explores the ways in which people challenge the taken-for-granted concepts of loss and abnormality in five different dementia contexts: ethics, repetition, time, agency and emplacement. By rejecting medical preconceptions or categorisations, this study focuses on uncovering what loss does in everyday life rather than asking what loss means or what people lose. In particular, this study emphasises bodily movement, sensory perception and affect, not because of the language deterioration during dementia trajectories but because of a new way of understanding and new reality that those affected practise in daily life. Consequently, this study illustrates the immanent potential of the anthropological view for thinking and dwelling with those living with dementia alongside their limits and implications. This study is thus an autobiographical ethnographic testimony of my past decade living, learning, volunteering, studying and most importantly co-dwelling with those living with dementia. This is a collaborative co-production created with those involved, as without the participation of those affected and the co-presence of significant others, my work could not be done. Accordingly, there is neither a beginning nor end to this study, but a moving forward and generating dementia becoming as the lives of those affected and those who care for them unfold.
Building relationships between the generations: the case of the co-located nursery
Author(s): Somers, Ali
Date: 2018
Topics: Age and Generational Issues, Ageing and the Elderly, Main Topic: Other, Care and Welfare, Nursery Schools
Abstract: This report explores the process of setting up the UK’s first
intergenerational nursery. It covers how the idea came about
in 2014, and includes a summary of the main stages the
project went through to build community support and open
its doors to its first cohort of children.
The nursery is a partnership between the Apples and Honey
Nursery group and the Jewish elderly care home charity
Nightingale Hammerson. A weekly intergenerational baby
and toddler group began at the care home Nightingale
House based in Wandsworth, London, in January 2017. The
day nursery opened within the grounds of the care home in
September 2017, where intergenerational sessions between
nursery children and care home residents take place every
single day.
This report includes extensive feedback from the first year
of the intergenerational programme, including the views of
families who attend the baby and toddler group, residents
of the care home, volunteers, physiotherapists, parents from
the new nursery, and staff from both organisations. This
case provides a lot of very useful and practical information,
including the top three intergenerational baby and toddler
activities to run, and examples of what weekly planning
within the nursery for intergenerational sessions looks like
while delivering the UK’s Early Years Foundation
Stage framework.
The Intergenerational Programme at Nightingale House: A study into the impact on the well-being of elderly residents
Author(s): Somers, Ali
Date: 2019
Topics: Age and Generational Issues, Ageing and the Elderly, Main Topic: Other, Care and Welfare, Nursery Schools
Abstract: Nightingale House is a faith-based elderly residential care home located in South West London. The
Jewish charity Nightingale Hammerson runs the care home and is over 175 years old. In January
2017, a weekly intergenerational baby and toddler group began in the home’s main lounge. This was
followed by the opening of an on-site social enterprise day nursery, Apples and Honey Nightingale
CIC in September 2017. Apples and Honey Nightingale sets aside 20% of nursery places for care home
staff to use for their own children at a heavily subsidised rate. The intergenerational on-site nursery
is the second branch of a local one that has operated for over 25 years and has a long-standing
relationship of visiting and interacting with the care home.

This report details the findings of a study to determine the extent to which the regular intergenerational
programme has an impact on the well-being of elderly residents at Nightingale House. The research
took place over five months and included more than 30 days of observations. Impact is defined here
as observable changes to resident behaviour, and can include (but is not limited to) improvements to
physical mobility, verbal and nonverbal communication, cognitive function, and expressed feelings of
self-worth. While the research framework accounted for positive and negative changes for residents,
almost entirely positive changes were observed.
Jewish Communal Service in Romania and Poland 1986-2006: Partnership, Challenges, and Transitions
Author(s): Feine, Zvi
Date: 2019
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Revival, Care and Welfare, Community Development, Charity / Tzedakah, Fundraising and Philanthropy, Jewish Organisations
Abstract: Dr. Zvi Feine served the Jewish communities of Romania and Poland as country director for the Joint Distribution Community during those two countries respective transitions from Communist rule. This memoir of his work under the constraints of communism, through the violent December 1989 revolution in Romania and the more peaceful transition in Poland, and in the aftermath of transition to democracy describes the challenges of effective communal service in turbulent times. The mission of the JDC was to support and partner with the Jewish communities that remained after the devastation of the Holocaust, sustaining the Jews of Eastern Europe with material and communal assistance. Dr. Feine relates poignant and harrowing memories of working under the constant surveillance of the Securitate secret service agency and dealing with the aftermath of the revolution and the resistance to change, all the while navigating a complex and delicate web of history, religious and cultural mores, personalities, ideals, and hopes. Illustrated here are numerous principles of communal work, including the importance of understanding the cultural context, resource and leadership development, and the crucial role that lay leaders can play. Communal workers in the Jewish community and beyond will benefit from Dr. Feine's accumulated wisdom over a lifetime of community service in positions all over the globe.
Culture-Sensitive Counselling, Psychotherapy and Support Groups in the Orthodox-Jewish Community: How they Work and How they are Experienced
Author(s): Loewenthal, Kate Miriam; Brooke Rogers, Marian
Date: 2004
Topics: Orthodox Judaism, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Interviews, Main Topic: Other, Mental Health, Psychology/Psychiatry, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis, Care and Welfare
Abstract: Background: There is political and scientific goodwill towards the provision of culture-sensitive support, but as yet little knowledge about how such support works and what are its strengths and difficulties in practice.

Aims: To study groups offering culture-sensitive psychological and other support to the strictly orthodox Jewish community in London.

Methods: Semi-structured interviews with service providers, potential and actual users from the community, and professionals serving the community. Interviews asked about the aims, functioning and achievements of 10 support groups.

Results: Thematic analysis identified seven important themes: admiration for the work of the groups; appreciation of the benefits of culture-sensitive services; concerns over confidentiality and stigma; concerns over finance and fund-raising; concerns about professionalism; the importance of liaison with rabbinic authorities; need for better dissemination of information.

Conclusions: The strengths and difficulties of providing culture-sensitive services in one community were identified. Areas for attention include vigilance regarding confidentiality, improvements in disseminating information, improvements in the reliability of funding and attention to systematic needs assessment, and to the examination of efficacy of these forms of service provision.
Situace V Oblasti Péče Poskytované Přeživším Holocaustu A Ostatním Obětem Nacistické Perzekuce Na Území Itálie
Translated Title: Care Situation Provided To Holocaust Survivors And Other Victims Of Nazi Persecution In Italy Territory
Author(s): Ludvíková, Miroslava
Date: 2013
Topics: Ageing and the Elderly, Elderly Care, Care and Welfare, Holocaust Survivors, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Abstract: Předložená studie analyzuje situaci v oblasti péče poskytované přeživším
šoa a ostatním obětem nacisticko-fašistické perzekuce na území Itálie (dále jen
studie) a vznikla na žádost a pro potřeby Evropského institutu odkazu šoa, o. p. s.
(dále jen ESLI), jemuž má sloužit především jako podpůrný nástroj pro
formulování jeho krátko-, středně- a dlouhodobých strategií v oblasti péče o
přeživší šoa a ostatní oběti nacisticko-fašistické perzekuce.
Tato studie v mnohém inspirativně a metodologicky vychází ze studie
Situace v oblasti péče poskytované přeživším holocaustu a ostatním obětem
nacistické perzekuce na území České republiky provedené výzkumným týmem
pod vedením PhDr. Dariny Sedláčkové (Praha: ESLI, 2012).
V úvodní kapitole je definována cílová skupina, na niž se studie
zaměřuje, jsou zde představena základní metodologická východiska, užívané
termíny a rozsah mapované péče. V závěru této části jsou uvedeny předpokládané
tendence ve vývoji potřeb výše definovaných cílových skupin.
Druhá kapitola obsahuje ucelený přehled platné italské legislativy
související s oblastí sociálního a důchodového zabezpečení a státní a
regionální/místní sociální podpory a obsahuje i souhrnný přehled specifických
opatření přijatých italským státem ke zlepšení životní situace cílových skupin,
eventuálně jejich pozůstalých. Kapitola je doplněna informacemi o
odškodňovacím programu Claims Conference na území Itálie.
Třetí kapitola prezentuje asociace a organizace, které sdružují přeživší
šoa a další oběti nacisticko-fašistické perzekuce v Itálii, popřípadě jejich pozůstalé.
Zmíněny jsou také organizace spojující účastníky národního boje za osvobození.
Čtvrtá kapitola analyzuje současný stav poskytování sociální péče
přeživším šoa a ostatním obětem nacisticko-fašistické perzekuce v Itálii z pohledu
praxe a jsou zmíněny regionální diverzity v poskytování sociální péče.
V poslední a závěrečné kapitole jsou shrnuta zjištěná fakta a jsou vedena
doporučení na zlepšení fungování systému sociální péče poskytované přeživším
druhé světové války a nacisticko-fašistické perzekuce. Tato doporučení vycházejí z reálných návrhů a praktických potřeb a mohla by efektivně vylepšit sociální
pozici cílové skupiny.
Součást studie tvoří rovněž příloha s přehledem relevantních italských
zákonů.
Vzhledem ke skutečnosti, že v průběhu vypracovávání studie postupně
docházelo k úpravám penzijního systému a k přechodu na nový, je na tyto
skutečnosti na patřičném místě upozorněno.
Autorka studie používá primárně italskou odbornou terminologii a
názvosloví a až v závorce uvádí český překlad. Je si však vědoma toho, že překlady
nejsou vždy zcela přesné, a to z toho důvodu, že v českém jazyce není vždy možné
najít přesný ekvivalent termínů.
Zároveň autorka také upozorňuje na skutečnost, že italský důchodový a
sociální systém je natolik složitou soustavou, že pro tuto studii byly vybrány
relevantní informace a data. Mimo fokus této práce byly ponechány nepodstatné
skutečnosti, stejně jako nejsou zmíněny například sociální příspěvky, jež již
v současné době nejsou v platnosti
Situace V Oblasti Péče Poskytované Přeživším Holocaustu A Ostatním Obětem Nacistické Perzekuce Na Území České Republiky
Translated Title: The Situation in the Care Provided to the Holocaust Survivors and Other Victims of Nazi Persecution in the Territory of the Czech Republic
Author(s): Sedláčkové, Dariny
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Care and Welfare, Elderly Care, Ageing and the Elderly
Les « enfants cachés », survivants de la Shoah. Traumatismes et deuils. Études rétrospectives
Translated Title: The "hidden children", survivors of the Holocaust. Trauma and grief. Retrospective studies
Author(s): Mouchenik, Yoram; Feldman, Marion; Moro, Marie Rose
Date: 2013
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust, Holocaust Survivors, Psychology/Psychiatry, Trauma, Care and Welfare
Abstract: Cette recherche concernant les traumatismes et les deuils des enfants juifs, survivants de la Shoah, cachés en France pendant l’Occupation, est une étude rétrospective sur les conséquences des traumatismes et deuils de l’enfance dans une situation de génocide. Nous évoquerons ici deux recherches différentes, réalisées en France. La première étudie un groupe d’anciens enfants cachés qui vont se réunir en association et mettre en place, plus d’un demi-siècle après la fin de la guerre, une dynamique groupale que nous qualifierons d’auto-thérapeutique. La seconde recherche étudie d’anciens enfants cachés qui sont restés isolés et qui, le plus souvent, ont des difficultés à métaboliser leurs expériences traumatiques.
Etude sur les besoins et les attentes des victimes et survivants de la Shoah
Author(s): Podselver, Laurence
Date: 2003
Topics: Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial, Holocaust Survivors, Social Services, Care and Welfare
Improving mental health knowledge of the Charedi Orthodox Jewish Community in North London: A partnership project
Author(s): Perry, Aradhana; Gardener, Chelsea; Dove, Jonathan; Eiger, Yocheved; Loewenthal, Kate
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Health Education, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Mental Health, Policy, Care and Welfare, Psychotherapy / Psychoanalysis
Abstract: This article describes a successful community-based partnership project between statutory and third-sector services targeting the strictly Orthodox Jewish community (OJC).

Methods:
The City and Hackney Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) Access Service (East London NHS Foundation Trust (ELFT)) collaborated with Bikur Cholim, a local third-sector organisation based in the heart of a north London Charedi OJC, to develop a brief culturally tailored psychoeducational group intervention focusing on mental health promotion and prevention. In total, 34 carers in the Charedi OJC were provided with general information on mental health, the availability of support services and self-care.

Results:
Overall improvements in well-being, increased intentions to access services, particularly talking therapies, and qualitative feedback indicated that the group was very well received.

Conclusion:
The project endorses the value of culturally relevant psychoeducation, enabling suggestions for culturally appropriate service development.
Witnessing loss in the everyday: Community buildings in austerity Britain
Author(s): Robinson, Katherine; Sheldon, Ruth
Date: 2018
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Elderly Care, Care and Welfare, Jewish Organisations, Economy, Ethnography, Memory, Comparisons with other communities
Abstract: This article is concerned with what happens to precarious community buildings in times of austerity. It responds to a landscape of capitalist realism, in which instrumental, economic forms of value are mobilised to justify the closure of ordinary buildings whose survival is not identified as a political priority. The study focuses on two London cases of a library and an elderly day centre under threat of closure, and traces how grammars of austerity rendered these buildings substitutable. Considering how abstract sociological conceptions of value/s can struggle to break into the embedded common sense of austerity, the authors explore how ethnographic practices of collaboration and attentiveness can help amplify alternative expressions of the meanings of these buildings for their communities. Enacting a form of ethnographic witnessing, which learns from Wittgenstein, the authors highlight the creative, vernacular registers and gestures of library users and day centre members, and show how these were anchored in the buildings themselves. In this way, the article supplements noisier, more hyperbolic accounts of the violence of austerity by amplifying quotidian responses, which express how ordinary buildings and the forms of life they sustain, matter.
Renewal: Reconnecting Soviet Jewry to the Soviet People. A Decade of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC) Activities in the Former Soviet Union 1988-1998
Author(s): Weiner, Anita
Date: 2003
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Jewish Organisations, Post-1989, International Aid, NGOs, Poverty, Care and Welfare
Abstract: Seven decades of severe Soviet cultural-religious suppression and two world wars had isolated and demolished the once flourishing Jewish communities behind the Iron Curtain. When the era of Glasnost and Perestroika presented an opportunity for world Jewry to reestablish its lost ties with the three of four million Jews still living throughout the former Soviet Republics, it was unknown whether there was any hope for some kind of Jewish community renewal. The story of how the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, a voluntary, humanitarian organization supported by American Jewry, made its entry into the isolated, poverty-stricken world, is a dramatic one. Beginning with only a few highly motivated and experienced workers, contact was made through music, literature, food packages, and religious holiday celebrations. Local Jewish leadership emerged and was encouraged. Plans for community development through social, religious, educational and welfare services were made and implemented. With the guidance of AJJDC and its dedicated community workers came rehabilitation and renewal.
Sweet Burdens Welfare and Communality among Russian Jews in Germany
Author(s): Roberman, Sveta
Date: 2015
Topics: Main Topic: Identity and Community, Jewish Community, Care and Welfare, Ethnography, Russian-Speaking Jews, Immigration
Abstract: Sweet Burdens presents a detailed ethnographic study of the lives of Russian-Jewish immigrants in Germany over the past twenty years. Focusing on the first generation of adult immigrants, Sveta Roberman examines how they question and negotiate their moral economy and civic culture vis-à-vis the host German state and society, on the one hand, and the Holocaust past, on the other. She approaches the immigrant-host encounter as one of many cycles of social exchanges taking place in multiple and diverse arenas. The book sheds light on a number of issues, including the moral economy of Jewish-German relations, immigrants’ performances of civics and citizenship, modes of inclusion and exclusion, consumption and consumerism, work and the phenomena of unemployment and underemployment, the concept of community, and the dynamics and difficulties of reinventing Jewish identity and tradition.
Negotiating the Pathways Into Care in a Globalizing World: Help-Seeking Behaviour of Ultra-Orthodox Jewish Parents
Author(s): Schnitzer, Gila; Loots, Gerrit; Escudero, Valentin; Schechter, Isaac
Date: 2011
Topics: Main Topic: Other, Haredi / Strictly Orthodox Jews, Care and Welfare, Parenthood, Psychology/Psychiatry, Counseling, Interviews, Social Work, Social Services
Abstract: Background: The study of the pathways into care as a social process subject to a wide range of influences is needed to build appropriate and effective mental health services for culturally diverse societies.

Material: Grounded theory and situational analysis of 21 in-depth interviews explores the help-seeking behaviour of ultra-Orthodox Jewish parents: which help-seeking pathways parents follow and how they make the decision to consult regular services for their child.

Discussion: Three help-seeking pathways are influenced by glob/calization dynamics and gender: parents draw on diverse parenting discourses and strategies, socio-religious frameworks and cultural realities.

Conclusion: Strategies are suggested to enhance the accessibility of services.
Public Faith and Finance: Faith responses to the financial crisis
Author(s): O’Toole, Therese; Braginskaia, Ekaterina
Date: 2016
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: This report looks at how faith organisations have been responding to the impact of the financial crisis and the politics of austerity. It is based on a scoping survey of the work of 90 faith organisations and 13 case studies of faith-based initiatives, conducted by a research team based in the Centre for the Study of Ethnicity and Citizenship at the University of Bristol. This study builds on a core area of the Centre’s work which focuses on the role of, particularly minority, religions in public life. The project is hosted by the Centre’s online forum on religion and policy, Public Spirit. It is funded by the Barrow Cadbury Trust as part of an ongoing interest in promoting economic justice.
The role and impact of faith organisations in providing welfare services, and particularly in the context of economic recession and welfare reform, are well recognised. It is important to acknowledge that faith organisations are not only plugging gaps in social or financial provision left by the market and state, but also bring critical perspectives to questions of socially just economic organisation. Across different religious traditions, faith organisations are also mobilising values, people and resources to develop and innovate alternative approaches to market-based finance and credit. This report focuses on the role of faith organisations in:
1) assisting those experiencing financial hardship;
2) engaging in activism on and campaigning for the reform of financial products and services;
3) advocating or providing alternatives to market-based finance.
We explore how faith organisations, particularly from minority religious groups, view the effects of the financial crisis and austerity on faith communities and neighbourhoods and the ways in which they are responding to these issues. We examine the ways in which they assist those experiencing financial hardship, the issues on which they campaign, and the alternatives to market based finance they are helping to develop or advocate. We look at how and with whom they collaborate, and the values, models and practices that underpin their work.

[Includes Jewish case studies]
Kränkung und Krankheit – Psychische und psychosomatische Folgen der Migration von aus der ehemaligen Sowjetunion ausgewanderten Juden
Translated Title: Injury and illness - psychological and psychosomatic consequences of migration of emigrants from the former Soviet Union Jews
Editor(s): Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland
Date: 2003
Topics: Care and Welfare, Mental Health, Psychology/Psychiatry, Russian Emigration, Immigration, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Trauma und Intervention Zum professionellen Umgang mit Überlebenden der Shoah und ihren Familienangehörigen
Translated Title: ТРАВМА И ПСИХОСОЦИАЛЬНАЯ ИНТЕРВЕНЦИЯ О профессиональном обращении с людьми, пережившими Шоа и их близкими
Editor(s): Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland; Claims Conference: The Conference on Jewish Material Claims Agains Germany
Date: 2013
Topics: Holocaust Survivors, Mental Health, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Trauma und Intervention: Zum professionellen Umgang mit Überlebenden der Shoa und ihren Familienangehörigen
Translated Title: Trauma and Intervention: Professional work with survivors of the Shoah and their family members
Editor(s): Bloch, Benjamin
Date: 2010
Topics: Elderly Care, Holocaust Survivors, Holocaust Survivors: Children of, Mental Health, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
„Nach dem Überleben“: Psychosoziale und medizinische Auswirkungen der Shoah auf die Generation der Child Survivors. Tagungsband 2011
Translated Title: "After surviving": Psychosocial and Medical Impact of the Shoah on the Generation of Child Survivors. Proceedings 2011
Editor(s): Bloch, Benjamin
Date: 2011
Topics: Elderly Care, Orthodox Judaism, Holocaust Survivors, Care and Welfare, Mental Health, Health, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Betreuung und Belastung: Herausforderungen bei der psychosozialen Versorgung von Überlebenden der Shoah. Konferenzbeiträge 2. - 5. November 2014 Frankfurt am Main
Translated Title: Care and stress: Challenges in psychosocial Care of survivors of the Shoah. Conference 2 to 5 November 2014 Frankfurt am Main
Editor(s): Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Juden in Deutschland
Date: 2014
Topics: Care and Welfare, Holocaust Survivors, Mental Health, Main Topic: Holocaust and Memorial
Bosnian Jewry: A Small Community Meets a Unique Challenge During the 1990s War
Author(s): Ceresnjes, Ivan
Date: 2007
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: During wars, Jewish communities often become scapegoats and victims of the combatants. In the war in Bosnia-Herzegovina in the early 1990s, the opposite happened. The Jewish community in the country’s capital Sarajevo extended humanitarian services indiscriminately to people of all religions and was respected by the three warring parties, Muslims, Orthodox Serbs, and Roman Catholic Croats.
Support from the American Joint Distribution Committee and other foreign groups enabled the Jewish community to provide free food, medicine, as well as radio and mail services.
During the battle for Sarajevo the Jewish community evacuated a thousand Jews and two thousand non-Jews in eleven convoys and planes.
At present, six Jewish communities remain in Bosnia-Herzegovina with a total of a thousand members. Of these seven hundred are in Sarajevo and the remainder in Mostar, Zenica, Tuzla, Banja Luka, and Doboj.
Jewish Life in Independent Ukraine: Fifteen Years After the Soviet Collapse (Part 2)
Author(s): Gidwitz, Betsy
Date: 2007
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Manchester Jewish Community Project: Final Report on Phase Two
Author(s): Centre for Voluntary Action Research
Date: 2006
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: The aim of this phase of the Study was:
By means of a mailed questionnaire and interviews with key informants, to review current
welfare and youth services provision for the Manchester area Jewish population and to
propose models for the reorganisation of planning, coordination, leadership and commissioning
of that provision.
Welfare state type, labour markets and refugees: a comparison of Jews from the former Soviet Union in the United States and the Federal Republic of Germany
Author(s): Tress, Madelaine
Date: 1998
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Abstract: The massive exodus of Jews from the former Soviet Union [FSU] has been accompanied by welfare state retrenchment and labour market restructuration in the two preferred destination countries of refugee resettlement: the United States and Germany. This study compares the resettlement policies and outcomes of FSU Jews and shows how the context of resettlement, viz. differences in welfare state type, labour market formation and host ethnic community, yield marked differences in formal job market adaptation. FSU Jews in Germany are almost twice as likely as their American counterparts to rely on some form of refugee cash assistance for their primary means of support, whereas the American cohort is twice as likely to be employed in the formal labour market. However, informal labour market adaptation is quite similar. Findings suggest unwitting system convergence, each exercising a different form of social exclusion - welfare stigma and under employment for refugees in the United States, and high labour market regulation in Germany.
Cultural Aid and Jewish Identity in Post-Communist Hungary
Author(s): Mars, Leonard
Date: 2000
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: This paper is based on current research which is concerned with the revival of religious and ethnic identity among Jews in Hungary after the collapse of communism. Several non-governmental institutions, groups and individuals from various countries, but especially Israel, the UK and the USA, are involved in the revitalization and transformation of Jewish life in the areas of education, ethnicity, religion and social welfare. I examine the complex relationship between emigre donors, often from an Hungarian background, and local Hungarian Jews, to show how cultural aid is accepted, transformed and sometimes resisted. Such aid is not uni-directional from donor to recipient. Rather, it may require the donors to modify their goals; to realize that their assessment of Hungarian needs may be based on anachronistic attitudes. The impact of the recipients on the donors is such that reciprocal change occurs between the two parties.
Welfare Policy and Social Security in Post-Communist Jewish Communities: The Case of Ukraine
Author(s): Zissels, Josef
Date: 2002
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: The development and functioning of the welfare system in Ukraine is an important condition for Jewish communal survival in post-Soviet countries. Social welfare must be based on demographics and the needs of local communities. The Joint as well as local Jewish communities must work together in order to solve current problems, especially in the area of financing the various projects. This essay outlines the problems currently facing the Jewish social welfare organizations in Ukraine and offers some solutions.
Identity, Assimilation and Revival: Ethno-Social Processes within the Jewish Population of the Former Soviet Union / זהות, התבוללות ותחִיה: תהליכים אתנו-חברתיים בקרב האוכלוסיה היהודית בברית המועצות לשעבר
Author(s): Khanin, Ze'ev; Chernin, Velvl
Date: 2007
Topics: Assimilation, Demography, Care and Welfare, Jewish Revival, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Drs. Khanin and Chernin address basic questions regarding Jewish life in the FSU states at present and in the future. A major issue they focused on was this: under current socio-economic and political circumstances in Eastern Europe, many intermarried Jews together with their non-Jewish partners choose to maintain ties with Jewish communities and to take advantage of their educational, information, cultural and welfare services. Consequently, most local Jewish leaders regard this group as a target population for their communal activity. Accordingly, such activity is directed in fact at all those to whom the Israeli Law of Return applies, and sometimes even to those are not included in this category (4th generation members married to non-Jewish spouses, for example).

Some of the questions raised by the center’s researchers were:
1. How significant is the size of this group?
2. Can it be regarded as a human reservoir for Jewish activity?
3. Does this activity contribute to the formation of Jewish or semi-Jewish identity among offspring of mixed-married couples and among the non-Jewish members of their families, and to the evolution of behavioral models that can be interpreted as “post assimilatory” behavior?
In order to address these questions, a vast and diverse body of data was amassed. The authors did not relay only upon existing data but set out on an empirical exploration. They have conducted interviews in Moscow, St. Petersburg, Yekaterinburg, Samara, Sertov, Novosibirsk, Irkutsk, Khabarovsk, Birobidjan, Tomsk, Petrozavodsk, Chelyabinsk, Nizhni Novgorod, Kazan, Vladimir, Riazen, Tula, Rostov, Piatigorsk, Nalchik, Kiev, Daniepropetrovsk, Odessa, Zaporozhieh, and a number of towns in Belarus and Latvia.

The compelling findings of the research indicate an interesting variety of sub-populations in the vast group called “FSU Jewry”. Specific planning based on the distinctive characteristics and the features of each group can serve as the basis for well-tuned action plans aimed at the strengthening of the Jewish future of each specific sector.


ד"ר חנין וד"ר צ'רנין מעלים במחקרם שאלות יסוד אודות הקיום היהודי בארצות חבר העמים לשעבר, כיום ובעתיד. נושא מרכזי שבו התמקדו היה זה: בתנאים החברתיים-כלכליים והפוליטיים הקיימים במזרח אירופה בימינו, מעדיפים רבים מבני נישואי תערובת, הן בן הזוג היהודי הן בן הזוג הלא-יהודי, ועמם בני המשפחה המעורבים, להיות קשורים לקהילות יהודיות ולהסתייע בשירותיהן בתחומי החינוך, המידע, התרבות והרווחה. עקב כך, רוב המנהיגים היהודיים המקומיים רואים בקבוצה זו "קבוצות יעד" לפעילות הקהילתית. בהתאם לכך, פעילות זו מופנית בפועל לכל זכאי חוק השבות הישראלי, ולעתים אף לאוכלוסיה החורגת מגבולות המוגדר בחוק זה (כגון בני הדור הרביעי לנישואי תערובת).

במחקרם, שאלו החוקרים את השאלות הבאות:
א. עד כמה משמעותי הוא היקפה של קבוצה זו?
ב. האמנם ניתן לראות בה עתודה לפעילות יהודית?
ג. האם פעילות זו תורמת לעיצוב זהות יהודית או כעין-יהודית אצל צאצאי נישואי תערובת ובני משפחה לא-יהודיים של בתי אב מעורבים, ולבניית דגמי התנהגות חברתית שניתן לפרשם כ"בתר-התבוללות"?
כדי להשיב על שאלות אלו, נאספו נתונים מרובים ומגוונים. החוקרים לא הסתפקו בנתונים קיימים, אלא יצאו לשטח כדי לבדוק את הנתונים באופן ישיר. הם ערכו ראיונות במקומות אלו: מוסקבה, סנט פטרבורג, יקטרינבורג, סמרה, סרטוב, נובוסיבירסק, אירקוטסק, חברובסק, בירוביג'אן, טומסק, פטרוזבודסק, צ'ליאבינסק, ניז'ני נובגורוד, קאזן, ולדימיר, ריאזן, טולא, רוסטוב, פיאטיגורסק, נלצ'יק, קייב, דנייפרופטרובסק, אודסה, זאפורוז'יה, וכן כמה ערים בביילורוסיה ובלטביה.

ממצאי המחקר מצביעים על מגוון מעניין של אוכלוסיות-מִשנה בתוך הקבוצה הגדולה המכונה 'יהדות חבר העמים'. תכנון ממוקד, המתבסס על מאפיינים ייחודיים של כל קבוצה, עשוי להוות בסיס לתכניות פעולה ממוקדות, שתכליתן חיזוק עתידו היהודי של כל מגזר ספציפי.
Community-Wide Planning for Faith-Based Service Provision: Practical, Policy, and Conceptual Challenges
Author(s): Harris, Margaret; Hutchinson, Romayne; Cairns, Ben
Date: 2005
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract:
The context for this paper is the public policy interest in the US and the UK in the contribution that faith based organisations can make to the provision of welfare and other public services, and the corresponding demands on such organisations to consider how they plan and deliver services. We present findings from a major research program, comprising ten studies conducted over five years, which aimed to facilitate the planning of service provision within one faith group, the UK Jewish community. We examine the opportunities and obstacles facing this ‘Jewish voluntary sector’ and we discuss the lessons from the research process itself about the benefits and challenges of taking a community-wide approach to the planning of services within and across a faith group. We conclude by reflecting on the appropriateness of a collective conceptualisation of ‘faith based organisations’ in the current public policy environment.
Judisk invandring från f.d. Sovjet 1988-1995: vägen till integration: erfarenheter av flyktingarbete på Judiska församlingen i Stockholm
Translated Title: Jewish immigration from former Soviet Union 1988-1995: the road to integration: experiences from social work with refugees at the Jewish Community in Stockholm
Author(s): Balint, Marie
Date: 1995
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Demography and Migration
Key trends in the British Jewish community: A review of data on poverty, the elderly and children
Author(s): Abramson, Sarah; Graham, David; Boyd, Jonathan
Date: 2011
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Demography and Migration, Ageing and the Elderly
Abstract: This report, commissioned at the request of, and sponsored by the Maurice Wohl Charitable Foundation, provides an overview of existing reliable demographic data related to three issues within the British Jewish community: poverty (including indigence and distress), the elderly (including care, welfare and support) and children (including care, welfare and support and education).
The Jews of Leeds in 2001: Portrait of a community
Author(s): Waterman, Stanley
Date: 2003
Topics: Voluntary Sector, Jewish Organisations, Schools: Non-Jewish, Care and Welfare, Ageing and the Elderly, Volunteering, Surveys, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: In 1997 JPR embarked on a major and innovative research project concerning the Jewish voluntary sector (JVS). The present report, on the Leeds Jewish population, was the last publication in a series that dealt with a wide variety of issues of concern to the Jewish community. These have included studies on how the JVS is financed and governed, on the problems facing an increasingly ageing community, on issues concerning Jewish schooling, and on voluntary associations within the community.
A portrait of Jews in London and the South-East
Author(s): Becher, Harriet; Waterman, Stanley; Kosmin, Barry; Thomson, Katarina
Date: 2002
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: This landmark survey of the Jewish population in London and south-east England, conducted in 2002 and based on 2,965 completed questionnaires, was, at the time, the largest ever study of Jews in Britain. It covers a wide range of topics: housing, lifestyle, health and illness, communication and leisure, participation in Jewish cultural activities, charitable giving, voluntary work, education and schooling, and care for older people and the infirm. Written by leading experts in contemporary Jewry working in partnership with senior researchers at the National Centre for Social Research, it has provided planners and decision-makers across the Jewish voluntary sector with essential data to support their efforts.
The Jewish voluntary sector in the United Kingdom
Author(s): Harris, Margaret
Date: 1997
Topics: Voluntary Sector, Volunteering, Jewish Organisations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: This paper examines the issues currently facing the UK voluntary sector, suggests special challenges which face the Jewish voluntary sector, and considers the need for a systematic enquiry about the Jewish voluntary sector and its future.
Planning for the Future of European Jewry
Date: 1996
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Other
Abstract: Jewish leaders, policy-makers, academics, researchers and communal leaders attended the historic three-day conference on 'Planning for the Future of European Jewry'. Over 200 delegates came from over 25 countries. Delegates from Eastern and Western Europe were joined by leading members of the American Jewish Committee and academics from the US and Israel. The conference was held from 2 to 5 July 2995 at the Hotel Forum in Prague. It was co-chaired by Professor Dominique Moisi from France and Lord Weidenfeld from the UK. The aims of the conference were to share existing ideas, proposals and policy options, and, to generate new ones, with the aim of providing those working for a viable Jewish future in Europe with the tools to achieve it, to develop a culture of strategic policy planning so that change can be managed as systematically as possible, to set up a dialogue between researchers and decision-makers with the aim of coordinating their work, to provide an opportunity to inform others about European Jewish problems. 
Women in the Jewish Community: Review and Recommendations
Author(s): Goodkin, Judy; Citron, Judith
Date: 1994
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Report of a wide-ranging review of the status and position of women in the UK Jewish community. Initiated by Chief Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and chaired by Rosalind Preston. Draws on the work of multiple working groups and a specially commissioned survey. Makes detailed recommendations on ways to improve women's status in the UK Jewish community.
Women in the Jewish Community: Survey Report
Author(s): Schmool, Marlena; Miller, Stephen
Date: 1994
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Report giving detailed findings if a postal survey of 1350 British Jewish women. It includes detailed analyses of their characteristics and their attitudes. The survey was conducted as part of the wider Women in the Jewish Community task force, chaired by Roslaind Preston. Although commissioned by the Chief Rabbi, the survey and the report encompassed the entire Jewish community.
The Relaxation of Community?
Author(s): Cohen, Frances; Hart, Rona; Schmool, Marlena
Date: 2003
Topics: Finance, Poverty, Jewish Organisations, Jewish - Non - Jewish Relations, Care and Welfare, Jewish Community, Main Topic: Identity and Community
Abstract: Discusses the situation of small Jewish communities in the United Kingdom at the end of the 20th century. 'Small Jewish communities' are defined as towns and cities that have had less than 1500 Jews since 1959. Looks at reducation of services in these communities.