Yad L'Yad (Hebrew for "Hand to Hand"), is the UCSJ's innovative grassroots partnership program. Yad L'Yad links Jewish communities and institutions in the former Soviet Union with Jewish groups and congregations here in North America. In each "sister-community" linkage, a caring, person-to-person partnership is fostered.
More than 80 community partnerships currently exist, making Yad L'Yad the most extensive grassroots aid and partnership program on behalf of FSU Jews. During its 1995 Congress, the leadership of the Federation of Jewish Communities and Organizations of Russia (Va'ad) praised Yad L'Yad as the most effective Western program supporting Russian Jews.
Yad L'Yad provides moral support for FSU Jews and breaks their isolation from World Jewry. For many FSU Jews, this connection with American Jews is enough to make the program worthwhile. Yad L'Yad also provides more tangible benefits, acting as a delivery system for many UCSJ programs and services. By reaching out to small Jewish communities across the provinces, Yad L'Yad volunteers work with UCSJ to deliver humanitarian aid and support for Jewish education, religious life, and community development to cities and towns far from the urban centers. Yad L'Yad also acts as an interactive monitoring system, providing UCSJ with listening posts across the FSU - monitoring Jewish life, antisemitism, and fascist and extremist political activity. Yad L'Yad activists also help provide advocacy on behalf of Jews in their sister communities and help to develop new leadership among Jewish communities across the FSU.
Providing
Sustenance
Providing Jewish
Dignity &
Knowledge
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