Our Global Work

Stories of the work we do around the world

70-Year-Old Bella Celebrates Her First Seder

This year is Bella’s first Seder.

As a child in occupied Odessa, Ukraine, 81-year-old Bella Yurash was forced to share sleeping space on the floor of a family’s friend’s basement with her mother and younger sister — and rats.

The most festive Jewish meal she can remember from that …

Safety Net for Flooded Holocaust Survivors: When Cherished Photos are Lost

Shawn Golan’s 80-year-old grandmother, a Holocaust survivor, was stranded on the island in her kitchen while the floodwater rose all around her. For nearly six hours, strong currents on the streets around her house made it impossible for rescuers to reach her.

“I would have put on my wa…

Be the Jewish Community You Want To See

Economic crisis. Rising anti-Semitism. Population decline.

It’s not easy being Jewish in Italy today. But that just makes Joseph and Sharon work even harder to show their pride in their Jewish and Italian heritage, pride they developed at Liceo Renzo Levi, Federation partner World ORT’s…

"We Are Not Forgotten"

One of the last surviving members of a prominent Jewish family of carpenters in the Konkan villages about three hours south of Mumbai, India, 73-year-old Milka Waskar depends on the help she receives from Federation partner JDC to live.

A retired plantation farmer, Milka suffers from asthma…

Soundtrack of Destruction: Recovering the Music of the Holocaust

Clive Marks was distraught. A lecturer on music in the Third Reich and patron of the arts in England, he found he couldn’t write about music of the era without knowing more about the history of that time. Some told him it was all history and he should let it go, but he couldn’t, not whil…