NCSJ Student Advocacy - 05.24.2005

APSJ	November 29, 2005: Participants from the NCSJ Student Advocacy Program with Lesley Weiss, Nancy Kaufman, Boston JCRC Director and Rabbi Shmuel Kaminezki at the L'Dor V'Dor event in Boston Read full report at www.ncsj.org/May2005DnepTrip.pdf

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PRESS RELEASE

Release Date: May 24, 2005

Contact: Mark Levin (202-989-2500)

NCSJ Mentors Jewish Students in Human Rights Advocacy 




Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, May 2005: NCSJ's Lesley Weiss leads
Boston-Dnepropetrovsk Student Advocacy Trip


Washington, D.C. - American and Ukrainian Jewish university students will meet in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine, this week for trainings in human rights advocacy and cross-cultural dialogue about Jewish identity and community building in new democracies such as Ukraine.

The week-long gathering, part of an international student exchange program organized by NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, mentors Jewish students in the political issues and skills that form the basis of Jewish foreign policy efforts between the organized American Jewish community and its counterparts in former Soviet countries, which, taken together, now make up the world's third largest Jewish population.

"If we had to choose one Jewish value that NCSJ can pass along to younger generations, it is the traditional belief that Jews everywhere are responsible for one another," stated Mark B. Levin, NCSJ Executive Director.

"All of our foreign policy efforts are anchored in this belief," stressed Levin, who, 25 years ago, anchored emigration and aliyah campaigns for Soviet Jews, and who, today, advocates to ensure the security of FSU Jewry and enable international Jewish welfare agencies to serve the developing communities.

This week's training program, linking students in the sister cities of Boston and Dnepropetrovsk and co-organized with the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston and Hillel Foundations at Brandeis University and Tufts University, introduces American students to Ukrainian Jewish life through meetings with students, Jewish community leaders, representatives of international Jewish agencies and Ukrainian government officials.

Students encounter first-hand how Ukrainian Jews of all ages and backgrounds are reinventing Jewish life after decades of censorship and isolation so damaging that a region once vibrant with Jewish culture became a veritable wasteland. Students also have ample opportunities to share their concerns about Jewish identity, religious observance, anti-Semitism, Israel and world Jewry's direction in their lifetime.

"The American students will learn how Jews in newly democratic societies seek to balance their identities as Jews and citizens. The Ukrainian students will learn that if you are a victim of anti-Semitism, you are not to blame, the problem doesn't disappear on its own, and that, in a civil society, you can take legal recourse," explained Lesley Weiss, NCSJ's program director, who will lead the advocacy trainings. "Together, the American and Ukrainian students learn how to use democratic institutions locally and internationally." 

Follow up activities enable students to meet with Washington, D.C. policymakers, intern with NCSJ, and speak at local campus and community forums.

NCSJ's Student Advocacy Program offers young American Jews hands-on experience in the revitalization of Jewish communal life in the FSU. Through this university-based program and other community exchanges, NCSJ affirms American Jewry's ongoing commitment to FSU Jews, and prepares students in both countries for leadership roles in their respective communities.

NCSJ: Advocates on behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, a voluntary, non-profit agency created in 1971, is the mandated central coordinating agency of the organized Jewish community for policy and activities on behalf of the estimated 1.5 million Jews in the former Soviet Union.

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JTA - 06.03.2005

Students meet, learn in Ukraine 

(JTA) -- American and Ukrainian Jewish college students learned about human rights advocacy. 

The students, who met in the Ukrainian city of Dnepropetrovsk on May 25-26, also had a cross-cultural dialogue on Jewish identity and community building. The meeting is a part of an international student exchange program organized by NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia, that mentors Jewish students in political issues and skills that form the basis of American Jewish lobbying efforts on Jewish issues in the former Soviet Union. 

The program, which links students in the sister cities of Boston and Dnepropetrovsk and is organized by the Jewish Community Relations Council of Boston and the Hillels at Brandeis and Tufts universities, introduces American students to Ukrainian Jewish life through meetings with students, Jewish community leaders, representatives of international Jewish agencies and Ukrainian government officials.