Community begins where people voluntarily contribute their time, labor, and skills for its development. Only that community has future, which has a strong volunteer’s movement. The Jewish Center will not be able to function without its volunteers because they are a crucial part of any community; they are the base of its existence.

In March, the Jewish Community Center was flooded. It was necessary to do unplanned repairs. As soon as people knew of what had happened they started contacting us, offering their help. It turned out that the flood was not only the Center’s problem but of the whole Community. Volunteers are motivated by an acute sense of personal responsibility for the common cause.

The Community always supported the indigent, sick, and old. Everybody already got used to it. This time the Community itself was in need of help. People voluntarily did their best to enable the Center continue working. This is a natural manifestation of traditional Jewish values.

The Director of the Hesed Polina, Ms. Inessa Chugaynova, expressed a great gratitude to everybody who helped for their understanding and assistance, namely to Tatyana and Alexander Chapovs, Svetlana Dorozhenko, Alexander Aniskovich, Leonid Hanukayev, Eduard Kaukin, Arkadiy Plotkin, Larisa Sudakova, Mariya Russu, Irina Musayeva. Some of volunteers asked not to disclose their names because tzedakah is when everybody gives as much as he can. The highest tzedakah is when the giver does not disclose him.

It is not right to view volunteering as a heroic deed. This is a conscious participation in the community activities. Only spiritual and material contributions give us the right to belong to the Jewish Community.

Lyudmila Starodubova