Family Camp in Ukraine

Maya and Alex Voronovskav, and their daughter, Lilia, live in Cherkassy, Ukraine. The family has suffered economically since Lilia’s birth, when Maya became disabled and Alex began working only part time to take care of them both.

Their connection to their Jewish roots was minimal at best. Since World War I, Communism, and the Holocaust, the Jewish community in the region has declined from 65 percent to 1 percent of the population. Like Maya, Alex, and Lilia, many of these 3,100 people have never had the opportunity to learn about their Jewish roots or participate in Jewish community life.

Through the Cherkassy Family Camp and related social welfare programs, UJC MetroWest and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee are changing the lives of people like the Voronovskavs. Each summer, about 200 people travel for 16 hours to attend camp. Through Jewish programming, the arts, sports, Shabbat observance, and by interacting with visitors from Israel and the United States, they come to feel that they are at the center of a warm, supportive community. Thanks to the MetroWest-Cherkassy partnership, they are enjoying revitalized communal life, a growing sense of Jewish awareness and support for their most needy.

Every gift of $500 will pay the participants’ share of costs for 10 families to attend camp this summer. A gift of $2,000 will pay the full costs for 8 participants, and a donation of $65,000 would allow the camps to extend the summer program by 2 additional weeks for 225 people. An endowment gift of $1,000,000 will ensure that Jews from the Cherkassy region have access to this transformative experience for generations to come.

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