Action for Soviet Jewry was incorporated in 1975 as a private non-profit organization to better meet the needs of refuseniks (those refused permission to emigrate from the Soviet Union) and Prisoners of Conscience. We are a constituent of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, a grass roots collection of 50 councils across the U.S., although only two councils remain active, including our own. When the Soviet Union dissolved in 1990-91, we changed our agenda to meet the needs of those Jews still living in the FSU, and changed our name to Action for Post-Soviet Jewry.
Our main activity in the early 1990’s began in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine, a Jewish community adopted by the Greater Boston Jewish Community as part of the Kehillah project of the National Conference of Jews in the FSU. As Dnipropetrovsk became more organized and financially more secure, we moved our program to other needier cities in eastern Ukraine, which now include Dniprodzerzhinsk, Pavlograd, Novomoskovsk, Kirovograd, Krivoy Rog, Piatikhatki, Melitopol, Mariupol, Rubezhnoe, Kharkov, Cherkassy, Lubny and Poltava. We also serve a number of villages near Dniprodzerzhinsk and Kirovograd.
In addition to aiding pensioners, we have a Bar and Bat Mitzvah “Twinning” program, which links youngsters in the U.S. with their peers at Jewish Day Schools in the cities we serve. Several “twins” have sent packages to the schools with school supplies, English language books, shoes (always in great demand), and winter clothing.
We ship hundreds of pounds of good used clothing, medicine and medical supplies to the communities we serve. We provide vitamins for the Jewish Day Schools and adults in our program. For many of our clients, the medicine we ship is their only source. They cannot afford to purchase it on their own.
We ship medical supplies to three hospitals in Dnipropetrovsk and one in Russia, where we have close contacts with particular physicians. We have received appreciative thank-you letters for supplies which are in short supply.
We also aid the Jewish communities of Bobruisk, Belarus, Kishinev, Moldova, and Drohobych in western Ukraine with shipments of aid. We encourage local synagogues to link with Jewish communities and progressive congregations , and have fostered links with Bobruisk, Belarus, and Odessa, Ukraine.