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Nov. 11, 2005
Life choices celebrated
New CJA event focusing on women is inspiring.
CYNTHIA RAMSAY
"Everything I have in my life. Everything I have in
my life. Everything. Everything ... is because of
you and people like you. Everything." Alina Spaulding was emphatic
as she addressed the crowd of almost 300 at a Combined Jewish Appeal
Women's Division event last week. For everything from her first
pair of new shoes to 20 additional years with her father, Spaulding
credited the Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) and the CJA donors
who help fund it.
Spaulding currently works at the Greensboro, N.C., Jewish Federation
as the director of outreach and education. But her life was not
always so comfortable. As a young girl, she lived with her parents
in the former Soviet Union (FSU) under horrid conditions, her father
given at most five years to live because of complications arising
from surgery on a broken leg. The family's prospects only improved
when, in 1979, they immigrated to the United States with the help
of the worldwide Jewish community.
Her father, who had been an Olympic hopeful, was injured in a skiing
accident in the FSU. It took more than a week for a medical professional
– not even a doctor – to examine him "because he
was a Jew and he was useless," said Spaulding. Her mother was
made responsible for supplying the bandages, sutures, anesthetic
and other items needed for the surgery – she had to sell her
clothes, jewellery and other objects to do so. Spaulding's mom was
21 at the time, her dad, 23.
Some eight months later, her father was operated on, but the surgery
was a failure. Her father was expected to live another five years.
This was in mid-1975.
Later that year, Spaulding said her mother heard a rumor about the
existence of an organization called the Joint that comes to Russia
to rescue Jews, but her mother didn't believe it. She thought that
no one would ever come to this "living hell" to save them,
"because no one even knows we're here.
"And that, my friends, is where she was so, so wrong,"
said Spaulding. "Because in the early '70s, you and people
like you, were sitting in rooms exactly like these [at a CJA dinner],
saying we are not going to stand idly by while people who have the
sole misfortune of being born across the ocean somewhere are denied
basic rights, basic freedoms, basic dignity. And you and people
like you and people like your parents and your grandparents and
your neighbors, stood up for people like me ... not knowing who
we were, not knowing what we looked like, not asking us, 'Are you
Reform? Conservative? Orthodox? Reconstructionist?' You asked us
two questions, 'Are you Jewish?' and 'Are you hungry?' When the
answer to those questions was yes, the Jewish community from around
the world stood up and stood for people like me and my family."
The process with JDC began in 1977 and, after a couple of stays
in other countries along the way, the family ended up in New York
in 1979.
Spaulding entertained the crowd with hilarious stories of their
welcome to the United States by an effusive woman named Kitty, who
met them at Kennedy airport. She did a great impression of Kitty's
nonstop chatter from the airport to home, reminding the audience
in undertones that her parents didn't speak any English. Later in
her speech, Spaulding noted that Kitty became such an important
part of her family's life that she attended Spaulding's wedding
in 2000.
Spaulding recounted numerous instances of kindness, generosity and
care given by the Jewish community. She told funny anecdotes about
her parents' adjustment to life in a new land, including their introduction
to new foods like broccolli ("like cauliflower, but it's not"),
grapefruit ("like an orange, but it's not") and, most
amusingly, Fruity Pebbles breakfast cereal ("by far,
the farthest-from-edible-looking product ... [containing] every
color in the world").
In a more serious vein, Spaulding said that an anonymous donation
from someone in the community allowed her father to receive the
medical attention he so badly needed. He lived to have a second
child, a son, and an active, happy life until he died while white-water
rafting in 1997.
Married for five years now and still living and working in Greensboro,
Spaulding has two "children," teenaged sisters from Moldova
whose parents wanted them to have a brighter future. The older girl
came to live with Spaulding first, the younger arrived later. When
initially considering whether to help this family, Spaulding phoned
her husband, a "Jew-by-choice." His response was, "What
the Jewish community has done for you, we will do for this child."
Spaulding shared her amazing stories at Choices, a new CJA outreach
event launched by the Women's Division this year. It is to be an
annual program that highlights the life choices of a unique Jewish
woman. At the Nov. 3 event, a video presentation focused on the
increasingly important role of women – "the new philanthropists"
– in CJA campaigns. In her remarks, division chair Bev Libin
told the audience that Women's Division fund-raising accounts for
20 per cent of this year's local campaign, or $1.4 million. Of the
300 people in attendance, Libin said 114 had given their first donation
this year. To be a part of the dinner, a woman had to have given
a minimum commitment of $136 to the division's 2005 campaign and
a minimum increase of $36 over last year's gift.
Choices took place in Schara Tzedeck's Wosk Auditorium. It was co-chaired
by Lisa Boroditsky, Gaynor Levin and Cheryl Stein. Melanie Samuels
introduced Spaulding and Eve Camerman concluded the evening with
"Hatikvah." The meal was catered by Susy Siegel, who provided
a delicious cold entrée of salmon, couscous salad, green
beans and mushrooms and an incredible-tasting brownie and fruit
salad dessert; a fortune cookie offering women's wisdom completed
the meal.
For more information about the Combined Jewish Appeal's Women's
Division or to donate to this year's campaign, call 604-257-5100.
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