Russian Jewish Community Foundation (RJCF) is a grassroots all-volunteer charitable organization.
The RJCF mission is to preserve and enhance Jewish identity among Russian Jews and to support Israel.
Thank you to our community for supporting this incredible project and pulling off a big mitzvah this summer. The butterfly effect of this summer will continue for years to come. With your generosity and support, we successfully hosted 20 kids from Sderot this summer.
Please read their reflections from this experience.
Israeli & American Families Share Deep Gratitude for Sderot presence at Camp RSM 2024
Multiple parents expressed their heartfelt gratitude to the Rifkin family and the members of the Boston Jewish community for the amazing opportunity you provided to the children of Sderot to participate in the Camp RSM summer camp.
Please read their testimonies.
With your generosity and support, we successfully hosted 20 kids from Sderot this summer. Their time provided a needed reprieve since the nightmare of October 7th and the continued difficulties as they hear and see all the action being 1 km from the Gaza border. Read the Jewish Journal’s feature on the Camp Boston Sderot project and this summer’s unbelievable work. All possible because of the tireless RJCF volunteers and alumni volunteer counselors.
They attended Camp RSM as a group of 1 counselor, 5 CITs, 4 CHs, 8 oldest kids and 2 campers. Camp was a transformative experience for Sderot kids and American campers alike.
This summer, we plan to bring 20 kids from Sderot for a 2-week session at RSM Camp (here in the U.S.). We have a rare opportunity to make a BIG impact this year. We need your help to make it possible!
Please DONATE today to help bringing 20 kids from Sderot to America, to provide safe environment and rewarding summer time to kids directly impacted by October 7th terror attack, as well as to strengthen Boston young community to stand with Israel.
Read the reflections of the counselors of the Boston-Sderot Camp 2023, with photos.
By Karin Ulanovsky (3rd year counselor):
"This year at camp I had the oldest girls - ages 15 and 16. Coming into this age group I had a lot of biases as someone who already had second oldest last year (and some of these girls as well). I knew they would be concerned with their appearance : excessive hair brushing, lots of perfume, and showering as much as possible normally multiple times a day. Truth be told, this turned out to be..."
Laurie has been involved with the RJCF since meeting the children from Sderot at Camp RSM, when the project started in 2007. She has travelled to Israel as a Program Director (2012), Counselor (2013) and Chaperone (2019). Laurie attributes her connection to Israel completely to her early engagement with the Boston-Sderot Project. Camp Boston-Sderot is a family affair, with her sister, Anna, being among the first counselors, and her mom, Irene, travelling as a chaperone.Since 2012, Laurie recruits new ...
Yudit has been actively involved in the planning, organization, fundraising, and chaperoning of the Boston-Sderot Camp since 2013. Yudit is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has been an active member of the Russian-Jewish community in Boston since her teenage years. She was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and moved to Newton, MA when she was 2. Growing up she attended RSM year round, RSM camp in the summer, and competed in Rhythmic Gymnastics. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2015, and continued on to get her Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology at Northeastern University in Boston in 2017. Each summer during college and...
On December 22, 2022 our Russian-Jewish Boston Community celebrated a very unique and special event. Our first Boston-Sderot wedding in Israel! Yudit Bolotovsky and Harrison Volaski met on the beach in Tel Aviv in August 2017 while both had just moved to Israel on their new journeys in life. Yudit-grew up in Newton, Massachusetts and was deeply immersed in the Russian Jewish community in Boston as a teenager and young-adult. She first got introduced to the Boston Sderot Project as a 12-year old at sleepaway summer camp- Camp RSM. Fast forward to 2017, ...
Camp Boston Sderot 2022 was a great success. A set of short reflections from the counselors of Camp Boston-Sderot 2022. By Laura Agarkov, Abby Avin, KK, Ben Jakobson, Liz Zhorov, Ben Gribov, Anne Genzelev.
Laura Agarkov: This was my 3rd year in person at Camp Boston-Sderot and I’d say it was probably the best one yet. Although every year has been an incredible life-changing experience, each with its own quirks and fun memories, this year ...
This year the Boston-Sderot Project Team was given very sad and almost unimaginable news- that there would be no way to have Camp 2020 in person with the American counselors due to COVID19. Immediately the project’s core planning team decided that they couldn’t take no for an answer, and found a solution. Of course nothing can compare to the real camp, but doing something is always better than doing nothing...
A note from Turbomasala - Creativity as a lifestyle, the filmmakers:
"We haven't seen so many brilliant, kind and fun kids in one spot for a while. You are amazing and documenting all these moments was pure joy. Hope to come back next year!"
Annual Charity Concert and Fair
Sderot – city on the border with the Gaza Strip - is under constant siege for over ten years. Children are the ones who suffer the most. Boys and girls of Chicago come together to help children of Sderot to improve their health by going to summer camp in a safer place.
Blog by Yudit Bolotovsky, RJCF Young Leadership Award Recipient, who made aliyah to Sderot, Israel to serve as the Boston-Sderot Community Center and Boston-Sderot Camp Director.
Concert on March 13th in Chicago: Children of Chicago to Children of Sderot
On March 13, 2016, Charity "Chicago Connect" with the support of the Russian-language newspaper "Reklama" held the annual charitable fair and concert in Chicago dedicated to the children of Sderot.
.
"We want the children of Sderot to know that somewhere back in Chicago people care about them", reads the event poster. (For more details)
The Third Day! (Letter from the Boston-Sderot Camp 2015)
And as always, there was an evening and a morning, and then came the evening of the third day. The evenings are important. The most important activities are happening in the evening...
---
И как всегда был вечер, и было утро, и наступил вечер третьего дня. Вечер – это главное. Вечером у нас главный пиелут, по-вашему – активити, а может быть и мероприятие. Это, смотря на каком языке вам проще говорить. В нашем распоряжении их целых три и плюс ещё язык жестов. Вечером третьего дня у нас долгожданная дискотека. Но всё ведь должно быть интересно, т.е. смешно и красиво. У нас свои понятия о красоте. Там размахивают...
The RJCF Boston-Sderot Project's long term goal is to support the Israeli City of Sderot and provide meaningful experience for American Youth to experience Jewish peoplehood and Israel by supporting a besieged community. It consists of two programs: Summer Camp and Community Center. We prepared information about these projects.
RJCF Expresses Gratitude To Our Partners in Chicago
We are sincerely grateful to "Chicago Connect", the Russian-language newspaper "Reklama" and Reklama Women's Board for holding pro-Israel meetings, for their ongoing fundraising efforts benefiting the children of Sderot, and for continuing support of the Russian Jewish Community Foundation. We thank everyone involved with that project, and in particular Faina Kravchenko, who was the event organizer, for raising over $5,000 towards the RJCF Boston-Sderot project.
RJCF Board of Directors
The 5th Annual CBCS Concert on November 17th at 3PM at Center Makor
The 5th Annual Children of Boston to the Children Of Sderot (CBCS) Concert will be held on Sunday November 17th at 3PM at Center Makor - All proceeds go to the Boston Sderot Project.
To purchase tickets email us at campbostonsderot @ rjcf.com . If you are unable to attend, please consider donating (click Donate button for online donation). Learn more about the Boston Sderot Project on our facebook page or contact us by e-mail or phone to get involved!
Charity "Chicago Connect" with the support of the Russian-language newspaper "Reklama" and radio New Life, New Horizon and People’s Wave will hold on Sunday, August 17, at 11 AM Community pro-Israel meeting to show our support to Israel and fundraiser to benefit children of Sderot.
RJCF Children of Sderot Project in pictures and numbers
The RJCF Boston-Sderot Project's long term goal is to support the Israeli City of Sderot and provide a meaningful experience for American Youth to experience Jewish peoplehood and Israel by supporting a besieged community. It consists of two programs: Summer Camp and Community Center.
The recent charitable fair and concert in Chicago was dedicated to the Children of Sderot. The project was a great success, with many participants in both the concert and the fair, and many people and organizations supporting this charitable event.
A personal inside look on a truly inspiring story about a young girl
After a Kassam landed on her house, Larisa Abramov, age:16, talks about her traumatizing experience and how it helped her grow as a person.
It was just a typical day in Sderot, Israel for Larisa Abramov and her family. She had just returned home from school and was ready to begin her homework and complete her daily tasks.
We have just received phenomenal news from Sderot that must be heard by all our friends, family, and supporters. Our very own Sveta Panaitov, director of our Boston Sderot afterschool program and annual summer camp, just got elected to Sderot’s City Council! While this is a tremendous achievement for her personally, this win is an even greater accomplishment and triumph for our afterschool program and our entire initiative in Sderot. We are already seeing the results of this victory through Sveta’s electoral campaign. Gaining access to a greater outlet has enabled Sveta to reach more of Sderot residents and inform the greater general public about the Boston Sderot club.
But what does this have to do with us here in America? ... (continue)
Children Of Chicago to Children Of Sderot – Concert 2013
The charitable concert the Children of Boston to the Children of Sderot became an annual event in Boston. A similar event took place recently in Chicago (May 2013).
Money collected from this event will go toward Boston-Sderot Summer Camp in Israel.
“Boston – Sderot” Community Center. About our project and us. Who are “we”?
1. The Boston’s organization the Russian Jewish Community Foundation (RJCF), invited to a summer camp in Boston 20 children from Sderot, and decided to take care of the children in the future – this was in 2006. The motto of this initiative were the words Inna Rifkin, one of the leaders of the organization and the initiator of the project: "it is not in our power to stop the terror Qassams, but we can give the children their childhood back. We cannot invest in the defense of the Jewish state, but we can invest in the development of these Jewish children.
Sderot bombing continues: an appeal to the community
Yossi Haziza, a Sderot resident in whose courtyard the first rocket exploded, was looking at the walls of his home sprayed with shrapnel and shattered windows.
"I wish this was merely damage to property but my eight year old daughter and my wife are terrified," Haziza said. "We just want to live in peace. We don't want to keep having to run to bomb shelters." Washington Post, March 21, 2013
Dear friends, Lately I have heard the same question from many friends and relatives: Why ...
JNS: Bunkmates from Sderot put summer camp, life in perspective
by DIANA BURMISTROVICH / JNS.ORG
For those of us who ever went to summer camp, we vividly remember our first night in a bunk, first scary story, first campfire, and for some, our first kiss. But for nine children from the southern Israeli city of Sderot who spent three weeks in 2007 at Camp Sunapee in Georges Mills, NH, their first vivid memory of ... [ Read More]
An article in Boston's "The Jewish Advocate" newspaper on January 18th, 2013
RJCF works to ensure children of Sderot get reprieve from violence
When the qassam rockets were raining down on Sderot - an Israeli town less than a mile away from the Gaza Srip - during Operation Pillar of Defense, Svetlana Sheetrit, who runs the Children of Sderot program in Israel, knew whom to call for help.
[Read More]
Children of Boston to Children of Sderot – Concert 2012
by Louisa Gorbatov
The 4th annual Children of Boston to Children of Boston to Children of Sderot Concert was held on October 14th at the Center Makor in Brookline. The support of the community has created a continued tradition to raise funds for the Children of Sderot through the performances of the Children of Boston. With these collections our project can maintain the summer camp program created for the Children of Sderot.
A new group of incredible Boston counselors has successfully raised enough funds for 10 people to travel to Israel and volunteer to work at the Boston Sderot camp for two weeks.
The 3rd annual Children of Boston to Children of Sderot Concert – 2011
The 3rd annual Children of Boston to Children of Sderot Concert was held on October 23rd at Center Makor in Brookline. The concert hosted over 100 performers from several performing groups in the Boston area.
Concert: Children of Boston to the Children of Sderot
Russian Jewish Community of Boston invites you to the Annual Charitable Concert.
It's a wonderful show by Boston's kids: young musicians, dancers, actors, gymnasts.
October 23rd, 2011 at 5pm, Temple Bnai Moshe, 1845 Commonwealth Ave, Brighton, MA
Support the Summer Camp 2011 for the children of Sderot
Our previous camps for the children of Sderot were very successful. Not only were children given a brief respite from Kassam fire, they took part in nature trips, math and English clubs, and learned about Jewish traditions.
You were there to make the difference in the past...it's time to act once again.
Make your donation!
Thank you to our community for supporting this incredible project and pulling off a big mitzvah this summer. The butterfly effect of this summer will continue for years to come. With your generosity and support, we successfully hosted 20 kids from Sderot this summer.
Please read their reflections from this experience.
Read More
Multiple parents expressed their heartfelt gratitude to the Rifkin family and the members of the Boston Jewish community for the amazing opportunity you provided to the children of Sderot to participate in the Camp RSM summer camp.
Please read their testimonies.
With your generosity and support, we successfully hosted 20 kids from Sderot this summer. Their time provided a needed reprieve since the nightmare of October 7th and the continued difficulties as they hear and see all the action being 1 km from the Gaza border. Read the Jewish Journal’s feature on the Camp Boston Sderot project and this summer’s unbelievable work. All possible because of the tireless RJCF volunteers and alumni volunteer counselors.
Yudit has been actively involved in the planning, organization, fundraising, and chaperoning of the Boston-Sderot Camp since 2013. Yudit is a Speech-Language Pathologist who has been an active member of the Russian-Jewish community in Boston since her teenage years. She was born in Tel Aviv, Israel and moved to Newton, MA when she was 2. Growing up she attended RSM year round, RSM camp in the summer, and competed in Rhythmic Gymnastics. She received her Bachelor’s Degree in Communication Disorders from the University of Massachusetts-Amherst in 2015, and continued on to get her Master’s Degree in Speech-Language Pathology at Northeastern University in Boston in 2017. Each summer during college and...
Annual Charity Concert and Fair
Sderot – city on the border with the Gaza Strip - is under constant siege for over ten years. Children are the ones who suffer the most. Boys and girls of Chicago come together to help children of Sderot to improve their health by going to summer camp in a safer place.
Blog by Yudit Bolotovsky, RJCF Young Leadership Award Recipient, who made aliyah to Sderot, Israel to serve as the Boston-Sderot Community Center and Boston-Sderot Camp Director.
On March 13, 2016, Charity "Chicago Connect" with the support of the Russian-language newspaper "Reklama" held the annual charitable fair and concert in Chicago dedicated to the children of Sderot.
.
"We want the children of Sderot to know that somewhere back in Chicago people care about them", reads the event poster. (For more details)
And as always, there was an evening and a morning, and then came the evening of the third day. The evenings are important. The most important activities are happening in the evening...
---
И как всегда был вечер, и было утро, и наступил вечер третьего дня. Вечер – это главное. Вечером у нас главный пиелут, по-вашему – активити, а может быть и мероприятие. Это, смотря на каком языке вам проще говорить. В нашем распоряжении их целых три и плюс ещё язык жестов. Вечером третьего дня у нас долгожданная дискотека. Но всё ведь должно быть интересно, т.е. смешно и красиво. У нас свои понятия о красоте. Там размахивают...
The RJCF Boston-Sderot Project's long term goal is to support the Israeli City of Sderot and provide meaningful experience for American Youth to experience Jewish peoplehood and Israel by supporting a besieged community. It consists of two programs: Summer Camp and Community Center. We prepared information about these projects.
Returning home, July 20, 2014
Boys who protect us, July 24, 2014
The first summer without Camp, August 1, 2014
Jewish Secret Weapon, August 14, 2014
How I Spent My Summer, Aug 31, 2014
Letter from Sderot, Feb 18, 2014
We are sincerely grateful to "Chicago Connect", the Russian-language newspaper "Reklama" and Reklama Women's Board for holding pro-Israel meetings, for their ongoing fundraising efforts benefiting the children of Sderot, and for continuing support of the Russian Jewish Community Foundation. We thank everyone involved with that project, and in particular Faina Kravchenko, who was the event organizer, for raising over $5,000 towards the RJCF Boston-Sderot project.
RJCF Board of Directors
The 5th Annual Children of Boston to the Children Of Sderot (CBCS) Concert will be held on Sunday November 17th at 3PM at Center Makor - All proceeds go to the Boston Sderot Project.
To purchase tickets email us at campbostonsderot @ rjcf.com . If you are unable to attend, please consider donating (click Donate button for online donation). Learn more about the Boston Sderot Project on our facebook page or contact us by e-mail or phone to get involved!
Charity "Chicago Connect" with the support of the Russian-language newspaper "Reklama" and radio New Life, New Horizon and People’s Wave will hold on Sunday, August 17, at 11 AM Community pro-Israel meeting to show our support to Israel and fundraiser to benefit children of Sderot.
The RJCF Boston-Sderot Project's long term goal is to support the Israeli City of Sderot and provide a meaningful experience for American Youth to experience Jewish peoplehood and Israel by supporting a besieged community. It consists of two programs: Summer Camp and Community Center.
The recent charitable fair and concert in Chicago was dedicated to the Children of Sderot. The project was a great success, with many participants in both the concert and the fair, and many people and organizations supporting this charitable event.
After a Kassam landed on her house, Larisa Abramov, age:16, talks about her traumatizing experience and how it helped her grow as a person.
It was just a typical day in Sderot, Israel for Larisa Abramov and her family. She had just returned home from school and was ready to begin her homework and complete her daily tasks.
We have just received phenomenal news from Sderot that must be heard by all our friends, family, and supporters. Our very own Sveta Panaitov, director of our Boston Sderot afterschool program and annual summer camp, just got elected to Sderot’s City Council! While this is a tremendous achievement for her personally, this win is an even greater accomplishment and triumph for our afterschool program and our entire initiative in Sderot. We are already seeing the results of this victory through Sveta’s electoral campaign. Gaining access to a greater outlet has enabled Sveta to reach more of Sderot residents and inform the greater general public about the Boston Sderot club.
But what does this have to do with us here in America? ... (continue)
The charitable concert the Children of Boston to the Children of Sderot became an annual event in Boston. A similar event took place recently in Chicago (May 2013).
Money collected from this event will go toward Boston-Sderot Summer Camp in Israel.
Yossi Haziza, a Sderot resident in whose courtyard the first rocket exploded, was looking at the walls of his home sprayed with shrapnel and shattered windows.
"I wish this was merely damage to property but my eight year old daughter and my wife are terrified," Haziza said. "We just want to live in peace. We don't want to keep having to run to bomb shelters." Washington Post, March 21, 2013
Dear friends, Lately I have heard the same question from many friends and relatives: Why ...
by DIANA BURMISTROVICH / JNS.ORG
For those of us who ever went to summer camp, we vividly remember our first night in a bunk, first scary story, first campfire, and for some, our first kiss. But for nine children from the southern Israeli city of Sderot who spent three weeks in 2007 at Camp Sunapee in Georges Mills, NH, their first vivid memory of ... [ Read More]
An article in Boston's "The Jewish Advocate" newspaper on January 18th, 2013
RJCF works to ensure children of Sderot get reprieve from violence
When the qassam rockets were raining down on Sderot - an Israeli town less than a mile away from the Gaza Srip - during Operation Pillar of Defense, Svetlana Sheetrit, who runs the Children of Sderot program in Israel, knew whom to call for help.
[Read More]
by Louisa Gorbatov
The 4th annual Children of Boston to Children of Boston to Children of Sderot Concert was held on October 14th at the Center Makor in Brookline. The support of the community has created a continued tradition to raise funds for the Children of Sderot through the performances of the Children of Boston. With these collections our project can maintain the summer camp program created for the Children of Sderot.
A new group of incredible Boston counselors has successfully raised enough funds for 10 people to travel to Israel and volunteer to work at the Boston Sderot camp for two weeks.
The 3rd annual Children of Boston to Children of Sderot Concert was held on October 23rd at Center Makor in Brookline. The concert hosted over 100 performers from several performing groups in the Boston area.