IFCJ, JDC to distribute $52M in aid to Jews in former Soviet Union

JTA – The International Fellowship of Christians and Jews has pledged $52 million to provide food and medicine to elderly Jews living in the former Soviet Union through the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.

The Food and Medicine Lifeline, a four-year, $13 million per year commitment, was announced Sept. 26 by the IFCJ. Many of the tens of thousands of recipients of the aid are elderly and impoverished Holocaust survivors, according to the IFCJ.

The assistance will be delivered through the JDC’s local network of humanitarian services throughout the states of the former Soviet Union.

“There are countless hungry and sick elderly Jews across the FSU, including over 100,000 Holocaust survivors, who depend on our help,” Rabbi Yechiel Eckstein, IFCJ founder and president, said in a statement.

“Too many Jews around the world, but especially in the former Soviet Union, struggle to meet their most basic needs.”

IFCJ raises more than $140 million per year, mostly from Christians, to assist Israel and the Jewish people. Since its founding more than 30 years ago. The organization said it has committed hundreds of millions of dollars to assisting poor and elderly Jews in the former Soviet Union.

JDC works in more than 70 countries, including Israel, to assist Jews in areas ranging from alleviating hunger to providing disaster relief.