Letters From Our Partners in the (former) Soviet Union

 

The following letters of appreciation were directed to Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews in response to UCSJ’s Yad L’Yad program in the mid 1990’s.

The fall of the Soviet empire left a vast communal vacuum in which left Jews without communal or religious resources. Responding to the enormity of the need, indigenous Jewish groups in Russia and Ukraine struggled to provide food and medicine to the ill, the elderly, and holocaust survivors and develop religious, educational and communal services for those Jews who couldn’t or were not yet leaving. In partnership with these new activists, UCSJ’s community to community initiative linked American synagogues and Jewish organizations to these newly formed groups and communities in the FSU that were desperate to provide physical and spiritual resources after the fall of the USSR.

Dear Pam,

Yad l’Yad is quite unique. By establishing direct close contacts between Jewish communities in the USA and Russia, this program has organized support for local Russian Jewish communities..I believe this program should be increased.

Michael Ostrakh

President Hatikva Jewish Cultural Society

Ekaterinburg, Russia

Chair, Yad L’Yad coordinating committee for the Russian Va’ad

Dear Mrs. Cohen,

Thank you for your great help that our community received from you, especially for the holy Sefer Torah..and for the medicines ..much needed and the Russian Jewish books.

Rabbi A.D. Gurevich

Tashkent, Uzbekistan

Chief Rabbi of Central Asia

Dear Mrs. Cohen,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank you for your effort to help us in our struggle to obtain the remaining two floors in the school building.

Thank G-d …we succeeded in obtaining the entire building and there is no doubt your letters were instrumental…We are now abler to accept even more children in the school.

Rabbi Berel Lazar,

future Chief Rabbi of Russia

Dear Pamela Cohen

I was very impressed by your words that we have known each other for 5 thousand years and are responsible for each other. We, the Jews of Nalchik and refugees from Grozny, understand that very well. We are very grateful for your help..

I support the idea of creating the fund for rescue and salvation off Jews in extreme situations. Unfortunately, our life is unpredictable. We don’t know what will be tomorrow.

Thank you very much,

Svetlana Danilova

TOVUSHI

Jewish Social, Education and Cultural Center

Nalchik, Russia

January 19, 1995

Dear Ms. Pamela Braun Cohen,

The Lithuanian Jewish Community Medical Center “Ezra”expresses its deepest gratitude for the invaluable help of Yad L’Yad.

Michael Zak, M.D.; Ph.D

Head of the Lithuanian Jewish Community Center, “Ezra”

MORE….

Received by fax from UCSJ’s office in Moscow in February 1993 following the kidnapping, arrest, and subsequent release of Abdumanov Pulatov: (See Hidden Heroes for the full story).

Dear Pam, Micah, and Leonid,

My deepest gratitude for all that you have done for me…It would be impossible to talk about my release without the organizing done by the UCSJ.

Sincerely yours,

Abdumanov Pulatov