Hesed (FSU Jewish Community Welfare Centers)
{{Short description|Nonprofit organization}}
{{Infobox organization
|name = Hesed (FSU Jewish Community Welfare Centers)
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|formation = 1993
|founder = Amos Avgar
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|type = Charity
|headquarters =
|location = Post-Soviet states
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Hesed is a network of nonprofit community welfare centers to serve the Jewish community in former Soviet Union states (FSU's).{{cite news |last1=Liphshiz |first1=Cnaan |title=Funds for Ukrainian Survivors Bring High Hopes |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/funds-for-ukrainian-survivors-bring-high-perhaps-unrealistic-hopes/ |access-date=15 February 2023 |work=Times of Israel |date=4 October 2012}}{{cite news |last1=Sokol |first1=Sam |title=Unable to flee, elderly Jews remain behind in eastern Ukraine |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/unable-to-flee-elderly-jews-remain-behind-in-eastern-ukraine-375806 |access-date=17 February 2023 |work=Jerusalem Post |date=19 September 2014}} The network provides services to Jews who remained in post-Soviet states after the dissolution of the Soviet Union.{{cite book |last1=Tighe |first1=Elizabeth |last2=de Kramer |first2=Raquel Magidin |last3=Bleckman |first3=Dina |last4=Nursahedov |first4=Begli |last5=Saxe |first5=Leonard |title=Hardship And Needs Of Elderly Hesed Clients: An Analysis Of Clients Served By Hesed Service Centers In Russia & Ukraine |date=2012 |publisher=Brandeis University |location=Boston, MA |pages=27–34 |url=https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/outputs/report/Hardship-and-needs-of-elderly-hesed/9924144323701921?institution=01BRAND_INST#metrics |access-date=16 February 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Weiner |first1=Anita |title=Renewal : reconnecting Soviet Jewry to the Jewish people ; a decade of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC) activities in the former Soviet Union ; 1988-1998 |date=2003 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, MD |isbn=9780761824763 |pages=176, 205}}{{cite news |last1=Radler |first1=Melissa |title=Acts of kindness |url=https://www.proquest.com/docview/319537212/63111EBB298949B2PQ/ |access-date=17 February 2023 |work=Jerusalem Post |date=17 October 2003}} Hesed uses its volunteers and charity centers to provide basic necessities and medical services within a physical location in which community members can meet and participate in cultural and religious activities.{{cite news|last =ZIieve|first =Tamara|title =Scores help reach out to elderly, needy Jews in Ukraine|work =Jerusalem Post|date =3 April 2017 |url =https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/scores-help-reach-out-to-elderly-needy-jews-in-ukraine-485971|access-date = 23 February 2023}}{{cite book |last1=Shachtman |first1=Tom |title=I Seek My Brethren: Ralph Goldman and 'the Joint' : Rescue, Relief, and Reconstruction |date=2001 |publisher=New Market Press |location=New York |isbn=1557044953 |page=240}}{{cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=Andrew |title=Book Review: Renewal: Reconnecting Soviet Jewry to the Jewish People; A Decade of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC) Activities in the Former Soviet Union, 1988-1998 |journal=American Jewish History |date=2003 |volume=91 |issue=1 |pages=191–193 |doi=10.1353/ajh.2004.0029}}
History
The first Hesed center opened in 1993 in St. Petersburg.{{cite journal |last1=Alleson |first1=I. |title=[Review of Social Disaster as Opportunity: The Hesed Model, by J. Mirsky, R. Kaufman, & A. Avgar]. |journal=Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations |date=2006 |volume=17 |issue=4 |pages=377–378 |url=http://www.jstor.org/stable/27928048 |access-date=17 February 2023}} The organization was formed by the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC){{cite news |last1=Maltz |first1=Judy |title=The Woman Who Oversaw the Rescue of 250 Ukrainian Jews From the Russian Border |url=https://www.haaretz.com/israel-news/2022-05-01/ty-article-magazine/.premium/the-woman-who-oversaw-the-rescue-of-250-ukrainian-jews-from-the-russian-border/00000180-989c-d20e-adb5-dc9e9c5f0000 |access-date=17 February 2023 |work=Haaretz |date=1 May 2022}}{{cite journal |last1=Khanin |first1=Vladimir |title=Institutionalization Of The Post-Communist Jewish Movement: Organizational Structures, Ruling Elites, And Political Conflicts |journal=Jewish Political Studies Review |date=2002 |volume=14 |issue=1/2 |pages=11–12 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/25834536}}{{cite news |title=Top Russian Rabbi Says NGO Crackdown Worries Jews |url=https://forward.com/news/breaking-news/321686/top-russian-rabbi-says-ngo-crackdown-makes-jews-worry-about-future/ |access-date=15 February 2023 |work=Forward |date=29 September 2015}} and funded by JDC, International Fellowship of Christians and Jews (IFCJ), World Jewish Relief, and other donors.{{cite book |last1=Tighe |first1=Elizabeth |last2=de Kramer |first2=Raquel Magidin |last3=Bleckman |first3=Dina |last4=Nursahedov |first4=Begli |last5=Saxe |first5=Leonard |title=Hardship And Needs Of Elderly Hesed Clients: An Analysis Of Clients Served By Hesed Service Centers In Russia & Ukraine |date=2012 |publisher=Brandeis University |location=Boston, MA |pages=27–34 |url=https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/outputs/report/Hardship-and-needs-of-elderly-hesed/9924144323701921?institution=01BRAND_INST#metrics |access-date=16 February 2023}}
Hesed based its structure and activities on a model developed by Amos Avgar, who was Director of the JDC-FSU Welfare Department.{{cite book|last =Katz|first =Esther|title =Hesed Evaluation Study: Jewish Identity, Community Orientation and Voluntarism: Report Number 5: Findings from an In-depth Study of Hesed Directors and Jewish Community Representatives|date =1 January 2004|publisher =JDC-Brookdale Institute|location =Jerusalem|isbn= |pages =|url =https://brookdale-web.s3.amazonaws.com/uploads/2018/01/s-113-04-eng-hesed5.pdf|access-date = 22 March 2023}}
Volunteering, fostering community and Jewish traditions or Yiddishkeit were central to the model.
As of 2003, there were 174 Hesed centers operating in 2,800 Jewish communities and serving over a quarter-million people in the FSU.
Hesed continued to operate through the war between Russia and Ukraine in Crimea and the Donbas starting in 2014.{{cite news |last1=Borschel-Dan |first1=Amanda |title=Crimean Jews Surprised by New Referendum to Join Russia |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/crimean-jews-surprised-by-new-referendum-to-join-russia/ |access-date=16 February 2023 |work=Times of Israel |date=6 March 2014}}{{cite news |last1=Sokol |first1=Sam |title=Unable to flee, elderly Jews remain behind in eastern Ukraine |url=https://www.jpost.com/diaspora/unable-to-flee-elderly-jews-remain-behind-in-eastern-ukraine-375806 |access-date=17 February 2023 |work=Jerusalem Post |date=19 September 2014}} During the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, Hesed continued providing services{{cite news |last1=Surkes |first1=Sue |title=Risking Life and Limb, Hesed Network Continues Caring for Ukraine's Neediest Jews |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/risking-life-and-limb-hesed-network-continues-caring-for-ukraines-neediest-jews/ |access-date=15 February 2023 |work=Times of Israel |date=2 March 2022}} to its approximately 37,000 Ukrainian clients.{{cite news |last1=Liphshiz |first1=Cnaan |title=Odessa's Rabbi, Responsible for 250 Kids in 3 Orphanages |url=https://www.timesofisrael.com/ukraines-jews-hunker-down-as-long-feared-russian-invasion-becomes-deadly-reality/ |access-date=16 February 2023 |work=Times of Israel |date=22 February 2022}} The organization also offered psychological counseling and operated a hotline for those needing assistance and treatment during the hostilities.
Services
In addition to activities in the Hesed centers, volunteers visit the homebound.{{cite book |last1=Avgar |first1=Amos |last2=Mirsky |first2=Julia |last3=Kaufman |first3=Roni |editor1-last=Mirsky |editor1-first=Julia |editor2-last=Kaufman |editor2-first=Roni |title=Social Disaster as Opportunity: The Hesed Model |date=2006 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, MD |isbn=9780761833383 |page=198 |chapter=Chapter Three: From Model to Movement: The Development of Hesed Centers in the Former Soviet Union}}
Hesed's services included food programs and packages, meals-on-wheels, soup kitchens, winter relief, homecare, providing medicine, medical equipment and medical services.{{cite book |last1=Tighe |first1=Elizabeth |last2=de Kramer |first2=Raquel Magidin |last3=Bleckman |first3=Dina |last4=Nursahedov |first4=Begli |last5=Saxe |first5=Leonard |title=Hardship And Needs Of Elderly Hesed Clients: An Analysis Of Clients Served By Hesed Service Centers In Russia & Ukraine |date=2012 |publisher=Brandeis University |location=Boston, MA |pages=27–34 |url=https://scholarworks.brandeis.edu/esploro/outputs/report/Hardship-and-needs-of-elderly-hesed/9924144323701921?institution=01BRAND_INST#metrics |access-date=16 February 2023}}{{cite journal |last1=Harrison |first1=Andrew |title=Book Review: Renewal: Reconnecting Soviet Jewry to the Jewish People; A Decade of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC) Activities in the Former Soviet Union, 1988-1998 |journal=American Jewish History |date=2003 |volume=91 |issue=1 |pages=191–193 |doi=10.1353/ajh.2004.0029}}
Social and community services include day centers, library services, and Jewish holiday celebrations.{{cite book |last1=Weiner |first1=Anita |title=Renewal : reconnecting Soviet Jewry to the Jewish people ; a decade of American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (AJJDC) activities in the former Soviet Union ; 1988-1998 |date=2003 |publisher=University Press of America |location=Lanham, MD |isbn=9780761824763 |pages=176, 205}}