KESHER

Kesher is a Jewish women’s organization that promotes Jewish identity as well as human rights and women’s concerns in the former Soviet Union. It helps the women recover a lost past. (www.njjewishnews.com/.../)

  Kesher was founded in 1989 and is one of the fastest-growing women's advocacy and human rights groups. There are 165 Project Kesher Jewish Women’s Groups and ninety multi-faith, multi-ethnic coalitions established by  Project Kesher in Ukraine, Russia, Belarus, Moldova,  Georgia, and Kazakhstan, spanning nine time zones. This special network has recently expanded to include Russian-speaking women who have relocated to Israel.

The women active in this organization help create extraordinary change in their own lives and in the lives of their communities. The Women of Metrowest annually support the Kesher Project in Cherkassy, their sister city.

Many opportunities are provided to the Jewish women in Cherkassy:

1.      Leadership training programs for women and girls

2.      Job training at the ORT (The Society for Trades and Agricultural Labour) and at the Keshernet Computer Center

3.      A Jewish educational program

Support is given for health and social issues:

1.      Breast cancer

2.      HIV/AIDS

3.      Domestic Violence

4.      Anti-Semitism

In 2011, in West Orange, Metrowest, New Jersey, there was a photographic exhibition of Kesher’s work in Cherkassy.  (http://www.jfedgmw.org/local_includes/downloads/35354.pdf)