"Giving hands are holier than praying lips"
Jewish wisdom
What kind of heart should be in a person who consciously dedicates his life to helping others? Obviously kind, loving and hot. Such people are able to see wider, understand better and do more than seems possible. Before telling a story about an organization that has been bringing together such people for a hundred years, let's imagine a simple situation.
Draw a beautiful summer landscape in your mind. You are walking along a country road to the fair in the nearest settlement: you have put on the best clothes so that you can show off in them among other people, you are in a good mood and your goal is to have a great time and have fun. And already when the outline of the place of the fair tents is clearly visible ahead and cheerful music is heard, your attention is drawn to the roadside marshy pond. Suddenly, you notice that a child is drowning in the middle of the pond while getting lost in the water and splashing muddy water! But more indignation is caused by a crowd of onlookers who indifferently stand by the road and watch this tragic scene.
Are you ready to rush to the aid of a drowning person? After all, pulling the poor guy out of the swamp won't be a big deal for you. But you can't delay - you need to act immediately! In this case, your entire outfit will get wet and dirty, algae and frogs will get into your pockets, and your new shoes will get muddy. There can be no talk of any kind of fair and fun. The cost of saving the child for you will be the cost of the outfit, which we will estimate at approximately one hundred euros. You can imagine moral damages yourself. At the same time, none of the onlookers watching you swim in the pond will spend a penny, just as they will not spoil your clothes...
Are you ready to lose a hundred euros to save a person? If you vividly imagined the situation above, imagined a helpless poor man in the middle of a duckweed, then the answer is obvious.
And now the task will have to be complicated. Imagine that there is the same pond and the same boy drowning in it; saving this poor man also costs a hundred euros... But all this is happening a hundred kilometers from you and you cannot see it with your own eyes or help yourself. Would you now give a hundred euros or your outfit to save a life?
This story is just a short story, almost unreal in life. But the mechanism he describes does exist in our world. It is about charity: voluntary giving of funds to needy people whom you do not know personally, do not see with your own eyes. But believe, giving away a piece of your property with faith that someone else will definitely be better off.
And even if you, having read this, are surprised: "What other pond, what boy is a hundred kilometers away? You hear that..." - the principle of charity will not suffer a single gram from this. It is precisely such convictions that they adhere to in "Joint", raising funds bit by bit for the needs of people they don't even know. But we are sure that these people really need help, which no one will provide except themselves (remember the crowd of onlookers). For employees of this organization, such a story is not just a dummy, but a very understandable and felt situation. These are people who are able to see wider, understand better and do more than seems possible.
The American Jewish United Distribution Committee "Joint" is the main donor of the Khmelnytskyi Charitable Fund "Hesed Besht". This is an organization thanks to which the Jewish communities in the Khmelnytskyi and Ternopil regions have felt confident for 15 years, receiving material and spiritual help in a variety of difficult situations. The return of "Joint" to the territory of the post-Soviet space ensured stability in the communities at a time when chaos was brewing in the young independent states.
The Khmelnytskyi Charitable Foundation "Hesed Besht" devoted many publications, video materials and stories to the history of "Joint". In 2013, the video studio "New Look" at the Community Center "Thiya" released one of the best documentary short films "Joint of the 20th Century", devoted to the history of the creation, development and activity of the American Jewish United Distribution Committee. The video work was presented on April 14, 2013 at a solemn meeting of "Joint" employees in the city of Kyiv, a copy was handed over to the central office in Jerusalem, where the film received the highest rating. You can always get acquainted with the video at the "Thiya" Community Center or on the Internet: on the Foundation's website or directly using the "YouTube" service.
Quite a lot has been said and written about the history of "Joint". It was created for a hundred years by thousands of kind, responsive and creative people who worked for well-being and peace in the whole world. And if we summarize now, list the main achievements and principles of the organization, we will be able to understand what work was done by several generations of employees over the centuries: from 1914 to 2014. And so, what does one of the best charitable organizations on the planet represent today?
The American Jewish United Distribution Committee "Joint" is the leading Jewish humanitarian aid organization in the world. Since 1914, "Joint" has professed the principles enshrined for the Jewish people in the Commandments of Tzdakah and Mitzvah. The main idea of the organization is that, without exception, all the Jews of the world are responsible for each other and can help improve the well-being of their fellows, regardless of distances or obstacles.
Today, the Joint works in more than 70 countries of the world to save people from hunger and disease, to protect Jews from danger, to ensure a strong connection with the Jewish life, traditions and culture of the people. The organization has a special reverent attitude towards the victims of Nazism and the Shoah who stood in the face of death.
In addition to helping the Jewish population, "Joint" comes to the aid of all the inhabitants of the Earth in the most difficult and emergency cases, such as war, man-made or natural disasters, taking all possible actions to alleviate the fate of the victims and their long-term support during the liquidation of the consequences of the disaster.
The priority areas of work have always been and is to help the poorest Jews in all countries of the world. Special attention in the organization is given to lonely, isolated, elderly people, children and families belonging to risk groups. In addition to direct assistance to such people, "Joint" stimulates the development of the Jewish communities to which they belong. After all, a stable, developed community is the first instance that is capable of taking care of its people. Therefore, no matter where the community is, it can always count on the help and support of the world organization.
Over centuries of history, clear principles have been formed that have not lost their relevance to this day and determine the success and originality of the organization. The first of them states that the American Jewish United Distribution Committee "Joint" does not identify itself with any political movement and also respects the beliefs of all those people whom the Committee selflessly helps. The second principle is cooperation. The Joint works closely with many of our partners, striving to strengthen local leadership and infrastructure to promote the growth of the community as a whole. Employees of the organization establish strong alliances between secular leaders and professionals, thereby ensuring close communication and effective work of each participant in this process. The third principle is sustainability: the desire to create and support strong and independent Jewish communities, capable of responding to their own needs and helping their members. The last, but one of the most important principles for the life of the organization, is the high professional level of employees. The staff of "Joint" experts is a community of true experts in their field, who ensure the effectiveness of our organization's work around the world.
All this emphasizes the peculiarity of the American Jewish United Distribution Committee "Joint". A hundred years is far from the limit. As long as injustice, hopelessness, hunger, disease and loneliness exist on Earth, until then there will be associations of good people who spare no effort to overcome such phenomena.
