Jewish Joint Distribution Committee - Brazil

In 1636, Jews built the Kahal Zur synagogue in Recife/Br

Jewish history in Brazil dates back to the time of the voyages of Christopher Columbus. Gaspar da Gama, a Jew by birth, but later kidnaped and forcibly baptized, accompanied Portuguese admiral Pedro Alvares Cabral when he landed in what is now Brazil in 1500, beginning a more than 500-year presence in the New World.

Brazil is the largest country in South America, occupying half of the continent’s land mass. It is also the largest economy in the region. Formed primarily after 1920, Brazil’s Jewish population is currently the 10th largest in the world. Ethnically diverse in origin, its Ashkenazic component is primarily of Polish and German descent, while much of the Sephardic population is of Egyptian descent. Nearly all Jews live in urban areas, with São Paulo, Brazil’s largest city, having the largest Jewish community, followed by Rio de Janeiro and Porto Alegre.

Brazil is a federation; consequently, the Jews in each state have an organization of their own. The central body representing all Jewish federations and communities in Brazil is the Confederação Israelita do Brasil (CONIB), founded in 1951. This umbrella organization includes 200 associations engaged in promoting Zionist activity, Jewish education, culture, and charity.

Need
Income disparity is a major problem throughout Brazil, including in its Jewish communities. There is a need to create development and income opportunities to ensure a self-sustainable future. Attention to the enrichment of Jewish culture and heritage is also needed.

Response
JDC acts as a partner and consultant to the Jewish communities of Brazil, helping to enhance services, community development initiatives, and outreach activities. JDC’s efforts include:

Opening the Ariel Job Center in Porto Alegre, which provides training and job placement help
Monitoring a microloan fund for the community of São Paulo
Workshops for small Jewish communities in the country’s interior

Impact
JDC support is enriching Jewish community development in Brazil through training programs and exchanges. These include:
- The 2nd Latin American Conference for Homes and Day Centers for the Elderly, held in São Paulo in November 2009, brought together representatives from Jewish care facilities in eight Latin American countries
- The Albert Einstein Jewish Home for the Aged and Hospital in São Paulo—the largest Jewish hospital in Latin America—partnered with JDC for the event

Yeladim - Fair Chance for Children

"Make a Child Smile"

In Israel today, over 7,500 children under the age of 18 live in 80 residential group homes around the country, and not with their families. For these children, who were removed from their homes by court order or by the social service authorities because of their parents' serious problems, concepts such as home, family, support and adult protection are not taken for granted.

Yeladim – Fair Chance for Children is a volunteer organization that was founded in 1986 in order to help children in residential group homes. Our non-profit association focuses mainly on activities that are not funded by the ministries of social welfare, education and health, but in coordination with and under the supervision of the Child and Adolescent Department of the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services. The main goal is to provide each child with opportunities similar to those enjoyed by children who live with their families, so that they can grow into independent, useful adults.

Yeladim – Fair Chance for Children concentrates on two levels of activity:
- Lobbying to protect the rights of children at risk.
- Fundraising and operation of educational, rehabilitative and therapeutic programs.

The following is a brief description of the main programs operated by Yeladim – Fair Chance for Children:

Remedial Teaching - a program that helps kindergarten and elementary school children catch up and acquire the basic skills needed to cope with the demands of a regular school in the community.

Educational Resource Centers ­- educational centers aimed at instilling children with values. To achieve this aim, the counselors use games and different social activities, creating enjoyable experiences during the children's free time.

The Guardianship Body - personal, close guardianship by social workers of children in the residential group homes who have no parents or whose parents are completely unable to fulfill this role. The guardians help see to it that these children's needs are fulfilled until adulthood.

Child - Parent Summer Camps - an opportunity for children to spend time with their mothers or fathers at a summer camp, with the aim of renewing or strengthening the family relationships.

Family Ties - aproject, operated in collaboration with the National Insurance Institute and the Ministry of Social Affairs and Social Services, with the aim of promoting and strengthening the ties of parents with their children who live in residential group homes.

Expressive Art Therapy - initiated and funded therapy in the different arts for children in the residential group homes. Yeladim – Fair Chance for Children now provides professional consultation, recruits new therapists, accepts students for fieldwork and holds workshops for therapists.

Cultural Enrichment Program - activities aimed at introducing children living in residential group homes to theater, music, and dance. The professional committee of the program also provides scholarships to artistically talented children.

Sports Project - a program offering children in residential group homes a regular framework for a wide variety of sports activities, which aid the children's physical and emotional development, their leisure activity and offer an opportunity to attain personal excellence.

Volunteers - training and deployment of hundreds of volunteers to assist children in residential group homes in different ways: as host families, friends of the children and more, with the aim of restoring the children's trust in the adult world.

My Album - Since many children in the residential group homes have no mementos of their themselves and their families, Yeladim – Fair Chance for Children aims to provide each child with a personal photo album created over the years, to highlight their unique traits, reinforcing the child's inner strength and sense of belonging and reinforcing their self-image. Volunteer and professional photographers run the project.

The Project for Residential Group Home Graduates with No Family Ties - established by organizations and operated by Yeladim–Fair Chance for Children, the project helps young people who have spent time in placement and still lack family support when they graduate. The assistance focuses on different aspects of life, including housing, supervision (during military service as well), teaching life skills, guidance, professional training and finding work.

Help with the Enlistment of Residential Group Home Graduates in the IDF - personal supervision of graduates of the residential group homes through all stages from pre-enlistment to completion of military service: initial interviews and selection, appropriate assignments, soldiers' conditions and so forth.

The Council Budget - 90% of the income of Yeladim–Fair Chance for Children comes from donations – foundations, private individuals, and the business community in Israel and abroad. 10% of the budget is provided by different government ministries.

Donations - Donations to Yeladim–Fair Chance for Children are recognized for tax purposes according to section 46 of the Income Tax law.

The Giving Pledge - Eli & Edythe Broad

Eli Broad is Los Angeles’ biggest philanthropist, who has given away over $2 billion, but he and his wife Edythe pledged on June 16, 2010 to do even better in the future by distributing 75 percent of their total wealth, currently standing at $5.7 billion, “during and/or after our lifetimes.”

In announcing the pledges, Broad joined two of America’s wealthiest philanthropists, Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, in their so-called “The Giving Pledge” which urges wealthy Americans to donate at least half their fortunes to charitable causes.

Born into a “liberal Jewish household” of Lithuanian immigrants in New York City, Broad, now 77, moved to Los Angeles in 1961, making an initial fortune as mass homebuilder, and a second through the giant financial services company SunAmerica.
Doing philanthropy is much harder than running two Fortune 500 companies,” Broad said in an e-mailed statement, according to businessweek.com.

A 2003 study by researcher Gary Tobin found that Jewish mega-donors, those contributing over $10 million each year to charities, apportioned only 6 percent to Jewish causes, including support for Israeli institutions.

The reasons for the modest proportion of rich Jewish for giving going to Jewish causes include the ever-growing integration of Jewish giving into everything that includes ”repairing the world” (Tikkun Olam) and the timidity of Jewish organizations in developing projects for mega-donations.

With that in mind, Broad told The Journal some years ago, “If I find a Jewish philanthropy of merit, I will support it.”

Learn more about The Broad Foundations, which include The Eli and Edythe Broad Foundation and The Broad Art Foundation - http://www.broadfoundation.org/

Project Kav-Or - "Smile"

Goal :
The goal of this project is to assist sick children in hospitals through homework and peer assistance and distance learning services. It is also teaching high school students about community involvement.

Need:
Long-term diseases isolate children at a time in their lives when they thrive on inclusion and a daily routine. They endure long, boring stays in the hospital while recovering from surgery or receiving treatments; they are repeatedly separated from their families and friends; and they are absent from school, not only falling behind in their studies, but also missing out on physical and social activities they enjoy.

Based on its extensive experience in Israel, World ORT concluded that its specialty, technology, could be a key to keeping young hospital patients engaged in the midst of their isolation. The technology could function as both a learning tool to keep the children current in their studies, and a communications tool to keep them in touch with their friends.

Uniqueness:
The project benefits both -- the sick children in the hospital -- and volunteer students participating in the program. Participants per year: 120.000

Bat Mitzvah* - Cut paper collage created By Lori Peha Kezner
"A pledge to grow in mind and spirit, extending help and hope to others. To believe in one's self and uphold the ideals of Judaism. Striving each and every day to be a better person."

Would you like to help this project? Be the first to place a call!