Yiddish Collection Project
In winter and spring of 2005, senior citizens of the Jewish Community Center participated in a project to collect books, movies, and memorabilia in Yiddish. During the Holocaust, many books and materials in Yiddish were burned and destroyed. Hebrew became much more common among Jewish people. Yiddish is now considered a “lost” language spoken only by the extremely Orthodox. "Yiddish went out of usage when the Israeli government took power in 1948 and Hebrew became the official language," says Arthur Schreiber, a member of the JCC’s “Let’s Speak Yiddish” program and one of the many volunteers who helped collect Yiddish materials. The volunteers at the JCC, led by Fay Simon, who originally started the effort, collected Yiddish books and memorabilia for donation to the National Yiddish Book Center in Amherst, Massachusetts.
WWII Veteran’s History Project
In 2004 volunteers and members of the Jewish Community Center undertook a project to collect testimonies from veterans who served in WWII and other wars. Armed with tape recorders and an interest in history, volunteers like Matt Luby (below left) met with veterans who had extraordinary stories to share. These stories were recorded, transcribed, and sent to the Library of Congress’ national-level Veteran’s History Project.
Support for Troops in Iraq
Members of the JCC recently sent care packages to the troops of the 503d Military Police Battalion (Airborne), which is currently stationed in Mosul, Iraq. The packages included “goodies” and, more importantly, a heater. According to Plans Officer Alan R. Kabakoff of the 503rd, “Believe it or not, it gets cold in the dessert. It is now the rainy season. We have just gone through several weeks of bone chilling rain and mud. It is great having a heater to sit next to and get warm.”
Please click here for photographs from our most recent mitzvah projects.
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