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

79
drain”, but she doesn’t yet know if such concern will develop into a serious problem for
the program. 75 In response to a question about JAFI summer camps, Mrs. Faingold
said that Donetsk-area youngsters participate in the summer camp managed from the
JAFI Kharkiv office.
51. Ludmila Saprykina directs operations of the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee in Donetsk, working from a small, overcrowded building that was built as a
preschool. Unlike the Jewish Agency, the JDC mandate in Donetsk is confined to
Donetsk and the surrounding area; the region does not included Kharkiv, which is
managed separately. 76 Ms. Saprykina said that JDC believes that the Jewish
population in Donetsk oblast is about 15,000, half of whom reside in Donetsk itself.
Outside Donetsk, the major Jewish population centers are in Mariupol, Kramatorsk, and
Artemivsk. Smaller Jewish population centers – some with about 60 Jews – exist in
even smaller cities that are (or were) mining or factory towns, dependent on mining
and/or a single mining-related industry. The mines shut down and the local economy
collapses; younger people
leave, but older people lack
the energy to uproot themselves
and therefore remain
alone, said Ms. Saprykina.
Ludmila Saprykina, at far right,
and her deputy, Anna Salkova,
manage JDC operations in the
Donetsk area.
Photo: the writer.
The welfare program of JDC reaches 4,000 elderly Jews, 2,800 of whom are eligible
for enhanced services through the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against
Germany. JDC previously operated six heseds in the region, but financial difficulties
have forced closure of three of them; those that remain are in Donetsk, Mariupol, and
Kramatorsk, said Ms. Saprykina. Approximately 300 Jewish seniors receive patronage
services, that is, shopping, cooking, cleaning, and other assistance provided to those
who are homebound. Additionally, continued Ms. Saprykina, the hesed extends
assistance to about 300 Jewish children up to the age of 18 and their families. This
assistance includes psychological counseling, material goods (food, medicine, clothing),
afterschool activities, and participation in a summer day camp that is operated in the
75 Na’aleh has generated periodic similar concern in other areas; from time to time, officials in different
regions have attempted to curtail the program or have asked youngsters/families to sign pledges that
Na’aleh participants will return to their country of origin after completion of high school and university
studies in Israel. Such pledges are difficult to enforce and usually are considered meaningless.
76 See pages 58-59 and 65-67 for information about JDC operations in Kharkiv.