2013 Annual Report | 3 REFLECTIONS by ALEXANDER SMUKLER, PRESIDENT

2013 Annual Report ANNUAL REPORT 2013 NCSEJ: National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry CONTACT US AT: NCSEJ 1120 20th Street NW, Suite 300N Washington, DC 20036 (202) 898-2500 (202) 898-0822 fax Email: [email protected] Web: www.ncsej.org @NCSEJ facebook.com/ncsej © 2014 NCSEJ. All rights reserved. All photographs are from the archives of NCSEJ except where otherwise credited. TABLE OF CONTENTS Mission and Background 2 Message from Stephen Greenberg, Board Chairman 3 Reflections by Alexander Smukler, President 4 A Note from Mark Levin, Executive Director 5 Highlights of the Year 6 Jewry in the New and Expanded NCSEJ Region 10 Federation Partners 12 Program Initiatives 12 Board of Governors Meetings 14 Financial Statement 18 Donors, Member Agencies, and Program Funders 19 Executive Committee Members and Professional Staff 21 MISSION AND BACKGROUND MISSION language and life. Jewish identity remains fragile and To empower and ensure the security of Jews in many communities are struggling to rebuild Jewish the fifteen independent states of the former Soviet communal life and institutions. Union and Eastern Europe; to foster cooperation NCSEJ has taken an active role in the region since among the U.S. government, U.S. Jewish 1971, playing an important part in the rebirth of organizations, and the Jewish communities and Jewish consciousness during the final decades of the governments of the region; to facilitate international Soviet era. Today, NCSEJ’s central role in the growth Jewish organizations’ access to Jewish communities; of new, post-Communist Jewish institutions makes it to represent the organized U.S. Jewish community, a respected leader in all aspects of Jewish communal including the Jewish Federations of North America life, in Jewish relationships with the independent and its member Federations; and to collaborate with states of the region, and in relations between the other organizations for the provision of humanitarian countries of the region and the United States. aid, social services, and educational/communal In the U.S., NCSEJ collaborates with national development assistance throughout the region. agencies, Federations, and representatives from Jewish organizations working on behalf of the more BACKGROUND 1.5 million Jews that live in the post-Communist The systematic destruction of Jewish communal countries of Eastern Europe and the former Soviet institutions and the persecution of Jews, especially Union. NCSEJ and its partner organizations maintain Jews in public positions, left Jewish communities close relationships with key government officials without resources or infrastructure after the throughout the region, Israel, and the United States. collapse of Communism in Eastern Europe and NCSEJ sponsors missions and maintains networks the Soviet Union. Although the post-Soviet states of communication through its elected Board of and the countries of Eastern Europe have laws Governors, whose members represent a wide array against state-sanctioned anti-Semitism, its popular of Jewish organizations from the United States and expression remains woven into the fabric of daily the region. “Slowly, not only American Jews, but Christians, African Americans, and people from the arts and sciences joined our cause… this (was) a human rights issue. ” —RABBI DAVID HILL ON THE SOVIET JEWRY MOVEMENT. NATIONAL COUNCIL OF YOUNG ISRAEL’S VIEWPOINT MAGAZINE , Summer 5773/2013 2 | National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry MESSAGE FROM STEPHEN GREENBERG, BOARD CHAIRMAN As I look back over my first full year as Chairman, I am amazed at how much we have accomplished. From the very beginning I intended that we would try new paths, and we have. We joined with Hillel and established an award honoring the late Senator Lautenberg. We have developed a mutually beneficial relationship with the World Jewish Congress that recognizes the value of NCSEJ’s unique expertise. The office is about to move and we have changed our name. We undertook these innovations in an already eventful year that repeatedly proved our worth. From elections in Georgia to unrest in Ukraine, NCSEJ has maintained contact with national Jewish communities, government officials and protesters, the U.S. State Department and the administration, and with diplomats in D.C. and abroad. We have kept the U.S. Jewish community alert with up-to-date reliable information about unfolding events. This year’s events have affirmed for me the importance of our name change. Although the Cold War is over, the battles for geopolitical power continue. The Ukraine crisis is all about the relationship of the fifteen independent states of the former Soviet Union (FSU) with Europe, America, Russia, and Israel. Not surprisingly, Jews play multiple roles, some pivotal to the region’s future. They are citizens, many in the forefront of democratic change, especially the younger generation. They assume important positions “[A] new stage in the wake of upheavals of established government. In Ukraine, two well-known Jewish in Jewish life in businessmen have become pro tem city leaders. They also reach out across arbitrary the region has political borders to the larger culture they share as Jews. The Krakow music festival emerged…” brings together musicians from Romania as well as Belarus. Historically, NCSJ began as the Free Soviet Jewry movement. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, NCSJ played a critical role in the renaissance of Jewish communities in the fifteen newly independent states. Recently, a new stage in Jewish life in the region has emerged, one that further erodes the territorial boundaries of the Cold War era. Jewish communities in Eastern Europe and the independent states of the FSU are increasingly reaching out to one another. As our member organization Project Kesher reports from the field, groups of young Ukrainian Jews are in touch with their Russian counterparts, even as Russia and Ukraine stand on the brink of hostilities. Similarly, Poland’s experience with democracy built on Solidarity, which wove a position against anti-Semitism into the fabric of the new state, is a nearby and powerful model for Ukrainian protesters. Jewish life has a long history of trans-nationalism. The fiery politics of the Bund and Zionism knew no territorial boundaries as they sparked debate in Jewish communities across the region before World War II. Now, as the 21st century marches on, filled with so many unknowns and uncertainties, we can celebrate the emerging return of a viable and visible Jewish presence throughout the region by updating our own geographical boundaries and becoming the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, NCSEJ. 2013 Annual Report | 3 REFLECTIONS BY ALEXANDER SMUKLER, PRESIDENT Every Russian Jew in my generation knew of NCSJ. It was our lifeline to freedom outside the Soviet sphere. I now have children the age I was when I immigrated to the United States. They are part of a very different world. I certainly do not want them to romanticize the past, but I do want them knowledgeable enough to reach into the history and culture of Russian Jewry to enrich their own lives and to inform their perspective about the past and the future. I am sure I am not alone. What I feel has probably been experienced by every immigrant generation to the United States, and is certainly felt by my contemporaries in the Russian-American Jewish community. My allegiance to my new country is unswerving. I am grateful and joyful for the opportunities, friendships, and security I have found. But as a businessman who travels frequently between Moscow and New York, I am also aware of the enormous changes in Russia and the problems and possibilities for its future. I have witnessed the rebirth of the national Jewish community in Russia, and at the synagogue I attend when I am in Moscow, of the Reform Jewish tradition. All the ambivalences I feel about transmitting Russian culture to the next generation came to the fore at our board meeting last spring, as I listened to the presentation of two young Jewish Russian-speakers. They are the leaders of a group of young Jewish Russian- “As president speaking professionals in Washington who are eager to explore their roots. I feel so proud that NCSEJ has reached out to them. These young people, American of NCSEJ, I in every way, are eager to embrace their past and to make it relevant to their lives. am deeply NCSEJ’s engagement with Jewish communities throughout the former Soviet Union concerned that (FSU) offers them a unique opportunity. They not only learn about the Jewish we nurture renaissance in the FSU over the past decades; through NCSEJ they get a meaningful way to contribute to the continued renaissance. the next I see in them the opportunity to meld the past and future. As president of NCSEJ, I am generation…” deeply concerned that we nurture the next generation of leadership. I am also intent that the next generation of leaders understand the history of the past half-century and what has made NCSEJ so important to the U.S. Jewish community and to Jewish communities across the FSU. These are the young people with the interest and the commitment to see to the future of an organization I have loved since my youth. I welcome them and look forward to witnessing their increasing participation and their outreach to similar young people around the country. L to R Smukler with Young Leadership Program chairs Mark Lyubovitsky and Veronica Slootsky (Ron Sachs/CNP) 4 | National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry A NOTE FROM MARK LEVIN, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR Change is in the air. We have changed our name to the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry, moved our offices, and expanded the region we serve. At the same time, geopolitical changes affecting the development and security of Jewish communal life are taking place in the countries of Eurasia, from Poland to Georgia.

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