(Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Krivoi Rog, Donetsk, and Kyiv) Report of a ...

124
Ben-Tzvi continued, are forcing the closure of small and medium-size businesses,
unless their owners are willing to enter the black economy and try to survive without
paying taxes. “Black” businesses, said Mr. Ben-Tzvi, will not do business with the
hesed because the hesed is “white,” that is, it reports all of its financial transactions.
82. The Jewish Service Corps is a recently-initiated program of the Joint Distribution
Committee in which young American Jewish adults with university degrees engage in
year-long paid service work related to JDC overseas programs. Most placements are in
Israel or in diaspora Jewish communities, but some opportunities also exist in
developing countries in which JDC conducts non-sectarian humanitarian projects. JDC
covers travel and housing expenses, insurance, a monthly stipend for living expenses,
and a year-end bonus.
The writer spoke with Aryeh and Stephanie Pelcovits, who arrived in September 2010
as the first JSC Fellows to serve in Ukraine. They are recent graduates of New York
University and modern Orthodox in Jewish religious orientation. In discussing their
mission, Ms. Pelcovits referred to their pioneer status by
saying that they were “filling a niche that did not exist”.
More seriously, they concurred that their major
responsibility is to engage young Jews between the
ages of 18 and 30 in informal Jewish settings.
Stephanie and Aryeh Pelcovits, left, were JDC Jewish Service
Corps fellows in Kyiv in 2010-2011.
Photo: the writer.
By early April, they had hosted over 60 different young people at Shabbat dinners, eight
individuals at a time, in their apartment. They meet people through circulating at
different synagogues, small minyans that meet in Kyiv, Moishe House, and other Jewish
programs that attract young adults. They had consulted with Moishe House residents
on procedures for running Shabbat dinners and conducting other Jewish rituals at the
Moishe House apartment. They led programs at Jewish seminars and camps. They
traveled outside their Kyiv base to do similar work in other Jewish population centers.
One of their unexpected constituencies proved to be a fairly large number of young
Jews working in Ukraine as members of the United States Peace Corps. Some of
these individuals, said Ms. Pelcovits, clearly were looking for an English-language
Jewish connection during their tenure in Ukraine. Several young Jewish Peace Corps
volunteers had taken the Pelcovits couple to the villages in which they were stationed
so that they can engage remnant Jewish populations in these locales.