Halfway There

Hi, it’s Adam K. As I sit here just after the halfway point of our trip to Almaty, I cannot help but think how fantastic everything is going. Not only is our work with the local Hesed clients bringing smiles to the community, but we have created a bond with our Kazakhstani peers that is far more incredible than any of us had expected. We have discussed our Jewish identities with one another, shared our religious experiences, and discussed why it is so important for all of us to be part of one single Jewish community. Thinking back upon the days when our group first convened back home at Tufts Hillel, I remember how many of us students were unfamiliar with JDC as we learned about its role of providing rescue, relief, and renewal to struggling Jewish communities overseas. On this trip, many of us have participated first hand in the relief and renewal aspect of JDC’s work as we have celebrated Shabbat together, taught our Kazakhstani peers some of our Jewish traditions from home, and offered our help to some of Hesed’s older clients.

In addition to learning about the JDC and its crucial role in the Jewish community, we have also had the opportunity to learn from JDC staff and administration about the ins and outs of the organizations and some of the hardships it faces in serving as the backbone of overseas Jewish communities. This afternoon we had the pleasure of sitting down with Max Weisel, who heads JDC’s efforts in Central Asia, and discussing JDC’s work in Kazakhstan. In addition, as we learned about the challenges the Jewish community faces in Almaty, many of us began to struggle with the question of what our purpose really is in traveling over 6,000 miles to Almaty, and what our role as American Jews should be toward this community. Max helped us realize that while the service work (cleaning the houses of Hesed clients) is extremely important in providing welfare services, our purpose in being here reaches far beyond any service project we could do. We are here to develop a sense of responsibility to the global Jewish community, to learn about the diverse ideas of what constitutes one’s Jewish identity, and to learn about the JDC and its unwavering support to Jewish communities abroad. We talked about how many of the peer connections we have made may be strained by distance and time, but this trip will provide us knowledge of what it means to be a responsible member of the Jewish community and a sense of how we can help other Jews find their identities abroad. Hopefully, as we wrap up the last few days of this trip, we will come to realize that the future of the global Jewish community is dependent upon us, and as we grow into adults and find our own identities, the notion of giving back to our community will be ingrained in us.