The Joint’s helping hand
HE’S travelled the world to help rebuild Jewish communities and bring relief to disaster victims, now American Joint Distribution Committee assistant executive vice-president Dr William Recant is looking forward to promoting the work of “The Joint” in Australia.
HE’S travelled the world to help rebuild Jewish communities and bring relief to disaster victims, now American Joint Distribution Committee assistant executive vice-president Dr William Recant is looking forward to promoting the work of “The Joint” in Australia.
Recant arrived last week for meetings with senior politicians and business and community leaders, as well as appearances at public functions in Melbourne and Sydney.
“The main reason for the visit is to share 100 years of modern Jewish history – it is The Joint’s 100th anniversary – with Jewish communities that don’t know about the work that has been done and is being done, and to talk about Jewish responsibility,” he told The AJN.
Recant’s role of coordinating rescue, relief and renewal projects in Jewish communities and non-sectarian disaster programs has seen him travel to over 30 countries.
He has witnessed the revival of the community in Cuba, the reintroduction of religious freedom in the Former Soviet Union, and the fall below the poverty line of a third of the Jews of Buenos Aires.
“The world I’ve seen in my 30 years of professional Jewish life is a dramatically changed and ever-changing world.”
He has also seen firsthand the difference The Joint makes, recalling as an example meeting a home-bound 92-year-old Holocaust survivor in Tbilisi, Georgia.
“She lit up and smiled and she just said ‘thank God for The Joint and thank God that I know you’re here’. It was just wonderful,” he said. “I’ve gotten to live a lot of these stories. I watched people in Argentina fall from literally the penthouse to the poor house, and come to feeding centres that we ran in Jewish community centres and in synagogues.”
Recant, who met Attorney-General and Minister for Emergency Management Mark Dreyfus last Wednesday, has met with aid organisations following disasters around the world. “It is very fulfilling that you can sit at a table as literally the embers are still burning in Pristina, Kosovo … sit around a table – that’s brought together by the UN – of the international NGOs that are participating in emergency relief,” he said.
“I’ve seen it work. I’ve seen the impact it’s had on non-Jews, especially those who say ‘oh, we always thought the Jews took care of their own’. I’ve seen a tremendous shift in attitude with increased Jewish participation.”
Dr Recant will speak at the Sydney Jewish Museum on Tuesday, May 28 at 10.30am.
GARETH NARUNSKY
Dr William Recant (Photo: Peter Haskin).
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