JDC Ambassadors Circle: The Hesed: Filling a Social and Economic Gap in the FSU

Hesed in Action: A Personal Story
Hasya Gitman lives in Dnepropetrovsk, Ukraine and is one of the hundreds of thousands of elderly Jews who has benefited from Hesed services. She was born in 1925 to a religious family in the Yiddish-speaking shtetl of Zvenigorodka in Ukraine. When she was six years old, famine broke out in the country and Hasya’s family relocated to the large city of Dnepropetrovsk, hoping for a chance at survival. Fearful that young Hasya might not endure the long trip, her parents temporarily left her at the state orphanage, hoping she would be fed and safe. Both of Hasya’s brothers fought and died in World War II. Hasya’s father was shot by the Nazis in front of the house where they lived. While temporarily living in Central Asia with her mother, Hasya worked day and night making ammunition for the Soviet war effort. The two women returned to Dnepropetrovsk in 1944, immediately after its liberation from the Nazis. With little education, Hasya always worked in factories. She married a Jewish man who died a few years later of a serious illness; their only child was mentally disabled and committed suicide at the age of 21.‘I have nothing good to remember,’ Hasya often says. She lives alone in her tiny room, is almost completely homebound, and suffers from severe joint problems and incontinence. Her state pension is $78 per month. Hesed welfare has stepped in to offer her the attention and support that she needs. She receives home care, a food card (to purchase groceries at the supermarket), home delivery, medications and hygiene materials, medical rehabilitation equipment, winter relief, as well as a heater, TV set, and refrigerator through the SOS program. How would Hasya manage without the Hesed?”
JDC Ambassadors Circle: The Hesed: Filling a Social and Economic Gap in the FSU