JDC helping elderly during Moscow heat wave

The American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee has enlisted a group of volunteers to help elderly Jews in Moscow during a heat wave in Russia.

JDC has created a volunteer base of some 40 young Jewish students and professionals in the Russian capital to check in on the elderly as temperatures in recent days have hit 100 degrees and beyond, the organization said in a news release.

The volunteers are “ready to do everything necessary from check-in calls, in-home visits, revitalizing meal deliveries, and fan purchases,” JDC said in the release.

They have made about 900 phone calls and numerous home visits to the isolated elderly, as well as helped staff an air-conditioned child care program at a JCC.

“By activating our strong network of community centers and social workers with supplemental help from young people who gave up their traditional Russian summer vacations to volunteer, we have helped many people escape the oppressive and exhausting conditions brought on by this environmental crisis,” said Steven Schwager, the CEO of the Joint Distribution Committee.