Coronavirus crisis is testing the resilience of Europe’s small Jewish communities – JTA News – Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Posted By admin on September 23, 2020
(JTA) With 20 years of experience as a professional singer, Petra Ernyei had enjoyed a reasonable level of job security.
During the High Holidays especially, Ernyei, 44, could depend on steady gigs from local Jewish organizations in her native Czech Republic, home to some of European Jewrys oldest heritage sites.
She has performed at the Maisel Synagogue, a 17th-century Renaissance temple with three naves, and the synagogue in Polna, which was rebuilt in recent years after having been used by the Nazis as a warehouse for stolen Jewish property.
But with the coronavirus pandemic blowing a large hole in the communitys budget this year, several employees have been let go by Czech Jewish groups and even freelancers like Ernyei have seen their work evaporate. Now instead of working for the community, she is relying on it to survive, joining a growing list of Prague Jews who have come to depend again on international Jewish philanthropy to make ends meet.
I try to be optimistic. Sometimes I cry, Ernyei told the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. We dont go out anymore, the kids mostly stay at home or go to friends. Life is different now. But I remember that weve got our health and weve got each other.
Six months after the coronavirus brought much of European Jewish life to a halt, communities across the continent have mostly adjusted to life under the cloud of a global pandemic. Schools and synagogues have largely managed the transition online, and initial concerns about kosher food shortages and the inability to perform certain religious practices have not come to pass.
But as Europes Jews celebrate the High Holidays, the financial repercussions of the pandemic are just now coming into focus. They threaten to undo years of progress toward achieving financial independence.
Smaller Eastern European communities, which languished under communism for decades and only recently have come to develop local sources of revenue that enabled them to shed their dependence on foreign donors, are increasingly depending anew on external aid.
This reliance on aid is familiar territory for Jewish communities in former communist countries like the Czech Republic and Bulgaria. The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, or JDC, especially spent hundreds of million of dollars on caring for the basic needs of needy Jews in the aftermath of the collapse of the Iron Curtain in the 1990s.
Communist repression meant that most Jews in newly democratic countries had little knowledge of their religion and its traditions. So millions of dollars more went to helping them build community institutions, including schools, summer camps and youth programs.
Some communities also were given back real estate that had been stolen from Jews in the Holocaust, a mixed blessing that included spectacular synagogues but also dilapidated structures and cemeteries that strained their budgets.
Over time, as some of those sites became lucrative tourist attractions and the ranks of local supporters swelled, many of the communities have become less dependent on charity and more self-reliant, though with razor thin margins.
The pandemic has complicated a delicate balance sheet.
The coronavirus crisis is compounding the preexisting financial problems of small communities in Europe, said Sergio DellaPergola, an expert on Jewish demography at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Theyre limited in their sources of income and burdened by maintenance expenses on old real estate.
In the Czech Republic, where about 3,000 Jews live, the coronavirus has led to a revenue shortfall of about $6 million for Jewish organizations, according to Petr Papousek, the president of the Federation of Jewish Communities there. In Prague, where most Czech Jews live, about 50% of the annual budget has disappeared.
The shortfall owes to a near total halt in ticket sales at the Jewish Museum in the capital city, which generated thousands of dollars daily before the pandemic. And there was a secondary effect: Revenue from community-owned property rented to hotel and restaurant owners, businesses that took a beating because of the coronavirus, also took a serious hit.
Theres no sign that this new reality is going to change in the near future, or before 2023, Papousek said. We need to start thinking about a new financial model.
In Hungary, home to one of the larger Jewish communities in the region with about 100,000 people, the coronavirus cost the Jewish community about $1 million in lost ticket sales to the Dohany Synagogue, the second largest in Europe and a popular Budapest tourist attraction. Mazsihisz, the main Jewish umbrella group in Hungary, managed to avoid dismissing any of its dozens of employees, but it did mandate a 40% pay cut. That forced some staff to quit because the reduced salary was too little to live on, a member of the Mazsihisz board said.
In Bulgaria, dozens of Jewish community employees are in danger of being let go as the community grapples with the loss of tens of thousands of dollars a week from ticket sales to the Sofia Synagogue, one of the largest and most ornate of its kind in the Balkans. Those revenues help fund the Jewish school and kindergarten in Sofia, the capital, as well as social activities for young people and older adults, who make up a sizable chunk of Bulgarias Jewish population of about 5,000.
We used to have 200 to 300 visitors each day, many from Israel, said Alexander Oscar, president of the Organization of the Jews in Bulgaria Shalom. Now theyre not coming anymore because of corona and were going to have a serious budget problem.
So far, the Bulgarian community has managed to avoid staff layoffs but Oscar says that wont be possible much longer.
Were barely managing to pay the bills this month, but after September I dont know what were going to do, he said.
As in the United States, where a coalition of donors quickly pulled together an $80 million emergency fund as the pandemic gained ground this spring, the JDC has led an emergency program to provide relief to 1,600 Jewish families in 16 countries, including 11 in Europe.
The first phase of the Pandemic Humanitarian Relief Program its being funded by a consortium of donors that includes the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation, the Maurice and Vivienne Wohl Philanthropic Foundation, the Maimonides Fund and the Genesis Philanthropy Group began in April with stipends ranging from $100 to $180 each month.
That fund is in addition to a $17 million allocation last month from the Israeli government and the Jewish Agency aimed at supporting small Jewish communities through the crisis. An earlier $10 million Jewish Agency fund created to lend money to communities at risk has received applications from 80 communities worldwide.
The growing reliance on external funding represents not only a step backward for many of these communities in terms of self-reliance, but also comes as many potential benefactors run low on cash themselves because of the pandemic. But many in the communities say their institutions are strong enough to weather the crisis in part because they know how to work together and leverage resources that didnt exist decades ago.
In April, the Chabad-affiliated EMIH Jewish federation in Hungary scaled back its lucrative kosher foie gras production line the only one of its kind in Europe to help avert kosher meat shortages elsewhere in Europe. The switch reduced revenues at the federations slaughterhouse, but it enabled a quadrupling of capacity to as much as 10,000 birds a day as a quick resolution to early kosher meat shortages.
The crisis has also strengthened bonds within communities that almost didnt exist 40 years ago under communism. In Bulgaria, a program called Phone a Friend encouraged younger community members to reach out to older ones who were either confined to their homes or at an elevated risk outside them.
Martin Levi, a 33-year-old events manager from Sofia, made calls each week to check in on two men in their 70s. One of them wanted to know why he was talking to an old man instead of finding a wife, which made Levi laugh. The other had traveled widely and was a skilled conversationalist.
Our community has managed to stick together, improvise, regroup and adapt, Levi said. It exists and it can survive this setback. It makes me feel proud to be a Bulgarian Jew, and it shows the return on the investment that it took to build this community.
To Russel Wolkind, the director for planning and partnership for JDCs Europe division, this is evidence that the fallback to external aid will be only a temporary measure. The communities of Eastern Europe have developed the infrastructure to stand on their own when circumstances improve.
Yes, theres external funding, but the handholding of the 1990s is a thing of the past, Wolkind said. The communities are administering this and other emergency measures themselves, and are rising to the occasion in an impressive way.
More:
- Mike Colle Statement re Jewish Heritage Month 4 10 14 - Video [Last Updated On: April 12th, 2014] [Originally Added On: April 12th, 2014]
- Israel Independence Day 2014 - Video [Last Updated On: May 9th, 2014] [Originally Added On: May 9th, 2014]
- BOL Celebrates Jewish Heritage Month 2014 - Video [Last Updated On: May 21st, 2014] [Originally Added On: May 21st, 2014]
- Jewish Heritage Month : CUPE Local 79 [Last Updated On: October 6th, 2014] [Originally Added On: October 6th, 2014]
- Rangel Honors Jewish American Heritage Month | Congressman ... [Last Updated On: May 16th, 2015] [Originally Added On: May 16th, 2015]
- Why Does No One Care About Jewish Heritage Month ... [Last Updated On: May 30th, 2015] [Originally Added On: May 30th, 2015]
- Jewish Heritage Month [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2015] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2015]
- Why Did Canada Nix Jewish Heritage Month? - Opinion ... [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2015] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2015]
- Video: The Holocaust | Watch The War Online | PBS Video [Last Updated On: October 28th, 2015] [Originally Added On: October 28th, 2015]
- Jewish Heritage Month -- National Register of Historic ... [Last Updated On: February 10th, 2016] [Originally Added On: February 10th, 2016]
- How May became Jewish American Heritage Month - The Times of Israel [Last Updated On: May 15th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 15th, 2017]
- May is Jewish American Heritage Month. Here's why you didn't know that. - Jewish Post [Last Updated On: May 17th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 17th, 2017]
- Did you know that May is Jewish American Heritage Month ... - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: May 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 19th, 2017]
- The case for Jewish Heritage Month - Canadian Jewish News (blog) [Last Updated On: May 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: May 19th, 2017]
- Palestinians Launch Fresh UNESCO Bid to Deny Jewish Ties to ... - Algemeiner [Last Updated On: June 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 19th, 2017]
- A trove of Nazi-era objects in Argentina stuns investigators - Jewish Telegraphic Agency [Last Updated On: June 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 21st, 2017]
- Given that June is both Gay Pride and Immigrant Heritage Month, it's fitting that the Tenement Museum last week ... - Tablet Magazine [Last Updated On: June 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 22nd, 2017]
- Ontario Jewish Heritage Month Calendar | UJA Federation of ... [Last Updated On: June 22nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 22nd, 2017]
- A French Jew's killing provides a test for the new Macron administration - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 23rd, 2017]
- Fun Shabbats planned at Congregation Beth Am this summer - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 23rd, 2017]
- My special-needs daughter's tallit is her superhero cape - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 23rd, 2017]
- Citrus Club 'Happy Hour' unites support for Jewish Pavilion - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 23rd, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 23rd, 2017]
- Higher health risks for Israeli Ethiopian immigrants - The Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2017]
- WATCH: Indian Jews bring Bollywood flair to Jerusalem - The Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2017]
- The 'reward' of every Temple Mount rioter: 4,500 shekels a month ... - Arutz Sheva [Last Updated On: June 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 25th, 2017]
- Women and Tales in Jerusalem Jewish Orthodox style - eTurboNews [Last Updated On: June 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 26th, 2017]
- More Americans Support Same-Sex Marriage Than Ever - Reason (blog) [Last Updated On: June 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 27th, 2017]
- Israel's Western Wall Crisis: Why Jews Are Fighting With Each Other Over the Jewish Holy Site, Explained - Haaretz [Last Updated On: June 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 27th, 2017]
- News Transcript Datebook, June 28 - centraljersey.com [Last Updated On: June 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 27th, 2017]
- Bringing People Together in Montgomery County - Virginia Connection Newspapers [Last Updated On: June 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 27th, 2017]
- Corsicana receives $25k grant to maintain Temple Beth-El - Corsicana Daily Sun [Last Updated On: June 27th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 27th, 2017]
- Housefather celebrates Jewish Canadian contributions - The Suburban Newspaper [Last Updated On: June 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 28th, 2017]
- What's Goin On July | SD JEWISH JOURNAL - San Diego Jewish Journal [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2017]
- Palestinians Hope to List Hebron As UNESCO World Heritage Site - The Media Line [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2017]
- A trove of Nazi-era objects in Argentina stuns investigators - thejewishchronicle.net [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2017]
- How Jewish women have shaped our nation - Canadian Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 29th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 29th, 2017]
- Building in Beachwood | Destination | clevelandjewishnews.com - Cleveland Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- Tidbits from the Sandwich Generation - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- International Jewish athletes 'return' to Jerusalem for 20th Maccabiah Games - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- New and improved Jewish tradition - Heritage Florida Jewish News - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: June 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: June 30th, 2017]
- Over 200 North Americans become Israelis as first aliya flight of the summer arrives - The Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: July 5th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 5th, 2017]
- The Secret Jewish History Of A Violent New Zealand Cult - Forward [Last Updated On: July 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 6th, 2017]
- Clayton native re-engineers Sriracha sauce - St. Louis Jewish Light [Last Updated On: July 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 6th, 2017]
- Hungarian Jews ask PM Orban to end 'bad dream' of antisemitism - The Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: July 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 6th, 2017]
- 'PM's gifts from Kerala to his Israeli counterpart reflect our Jewish heritage' - Times of India [Last Updated On: July 6th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 6th, 2017]
- Kochi jews in israel seek a monumental protection- The New Indian ... - The New Indian Express [Last Updated On: July 7th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 7th, 2017]
- Days out while school's out - Jewish Chronicle [Last Updated On: July 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 10th, 2017]
- Is Hungary's anti-Soros campaign antisemitic? Even Israelis can't ... - The Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: July 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 10th, 2017]
- After UNESCO vote, Netanyahu reads from Bible to prove Jewish ties to Hebron - Jewish Telegraphic Agency [Last Updated On: July 10th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 10th, 2017]
- After UNESCO Vote, Netanyahu Reads From Bible To Prove Jewish Ties To Hebron - Jewish Week [Last Updated On: July 11th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 11th, 2017]
- Anti-Soros Campaign In Hungary Dogging Bibi's Trip - Jewish Week [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2017]
- This 2016 Donald Trump Jr. interview about Russia is now downright cringeworthy - Washington Post [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2017]
- Belated Bar Mitzvahs for Five College Students in Vienna - Chabad.org [Last Updated On: July 12th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 12th, 2017]
- How a Portuguese King Found Solace in the Psalms of His Ancestors - Chabad.org [Last Updated On: July 13th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 13th, 2017]
- How a Korean-Jewish entrepreneur uses food to empower immigrants - Jewish Post [Last Updated On: July 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 14th, 2017]
- How Gaza's electricity crisis could spell trouble for Israel - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: July 14th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 14th, 2017]
- Knesset bloc unveils peace plan: Total Palestinian surrender - jewishpresstampa [Last Updated On: July 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 18th, 2017]
- Hungarian PM to Netanyahu: We Cooperated With Nazis Instead of Protecting Jews, Won't Happen Again - Haaretz [Last Updated On: July 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 18th, 2017]
- First Read For July 18 - Jewish Week [Last Updated On: July 18th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 18th, 2017]
- Albany Beat - The Jewish Press - JewishPress.com [Last Updated On: July 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 19th, 2017]
- Calendar July 21, 2017 - Jewish News of Greater Phoenix [Last Updated On: July 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 19th, 2017]
- Leah Koenig - Tablet Magazine [Last Updated On: July 19th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 19th, 2017]
- Group travels to Israel to connect with Jewish heritage - Florida Times-Union [Last Updated On: July 20th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 20th, 2017]
- 5 students celebrate belated bar mitzvah - Arutz Sheva [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2017]
- Holocaust Rhymes And Lamborghinis, A Jewish Rapper Breaks Taboos In Germany - Worldcrunch [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2017]
- Cool off with Shabbat Sababa at Ohev Shalom - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: July 21st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 21st, 2017]
- At least 15 Jewish families move into disputed West Bank building - Jewish Telegraphic Agency [Last Updated On: July 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 25th, 2017]
- A new generation of Jewish farmers sees a fertile future in South Jersey - Philly.com [Last Updated On: July 25th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 25th, 2017]
- At 30, YJLC Rafting Weekend Now Competing with Technology - Jewish Exponent [Last Updated On: July 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 26th, 2017]
- Begin breaks ranks to oppose Jewish nation-state bill | The Times of ... - The Times of Israel [Last Updated On: July 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 26th, 2017]
- Anti-Semitism Claims Hound Party Led by Darling of U.K. Left - 41 NBC News [Last Updated On: July 26th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 26th, 2017]
- In trip to Lodz, Poland, East Bay group sees dark past, hopeful future - Jweekly.com [Last Updated On: July 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 28th, 2017]
- Scene Around - Heritage Florida Jewish News [Last Updated On: July 28th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 28th, 2017]
- "Shared struggles" forum to tackle faiths' differences, similarities - Charleston Post Courier [Last Updated On: July 30th, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 30th, 2017]
- Temple Mount or Haram Al-Sharif? We've been here before - i24NEWS [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2017]
- Around Newton - Wicked Local Newton [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2017]
- SlutWalk Chicago, in reversal, will allow marchers carrying Jewish and Zionist symbols - Jewish Telegraphic Agency [Last Updated On: July 31st, 2017] [Originally Added On: July 31st, 2017]
- Cave Of Dreams - Jewish Week [Last Updated On: August 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 2nd, 2017]
- Grapevine: When age doesn't matter - The Jerusalem Post [Last Updated On: August 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 2nd, 2017]
- SlutWalk Chicago, In Reversal, Will Allow Marchers Carrying Jewish ... - Jewish Week [Last Updated On: August 2nd, 2017] [Originally Added On: August 2nd, 2017]
Comments