Project Kesher

Our computer centers teach the fundamentals of Microsoft Office and offer training in bookkeeping, graphic design, legal literacy, career counseling, job placement and resource management. In the last year alone, 5,091 students graduated from the program (93% were women).

Project Kesher also works with women to learn how to create family budgets, decrease debt, and make savvy financial decisions on such items as cell phone plans and credit cards.

The Centers also serve as safe women’s centers where participants learn about access to valuable resources for women needing domestic violence shelters, rape crisis centers or local vocational placement services.

Seventy years ago, Torah Scrolls were exiled from Eastern Europe. At first, the Torahs went underground; Jews passed them from house to house and met in basements to read the Torah. Then, faced with Siberia or death, they smuggled the scrolls out of the country. The practice of Judaism sputtered out in the region.

With the renewal of Jewish life in the region, there has been a shortage of Torah Scrolls. In June 2004, Project Kesher brought six Torahs from the United States and put them in the hands of six of their leaders, who brought them home to their communities. In most cases, there had not been a single Torah in those communities.

To date, Project Kesher has since sent 37 Torah Scrolls to the region. Wherever they have gone, Jews have come forward to study, to become bar/bat mitzvah, and to celebrate together. They have served as a locus of Torah-centered activism.

Project Kesher activists are trained to reach out to people of other faiths and nationalities, other organizations, and government agencies to promote women's health and economic power and support women’s issues in their communities. These coalitions work together proactively on shared issues, developing trust and good working relationships that serve them well in the unfortunate event of a hate crime or community crisis.

Every year, 50,000 women in the region are newly diagnosed with breast cancer.

The breast cancer rate has increased 64% over the last 20 years. Rates are even higher for Ashkenazi Jewish women who live in the path of the Chernobyl cloud.

Working on our own and sometimes in partnership with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in cities throughout the region, Project Kesher has developed culturally-sensitive and cost-effective programs to educate women about breast cancer, motivate them to go for diagnosis and treatment, and to sustain women post-treatment through peer support groups.