a Skills Building Conference
Norman Sandfield
e-mail: norman@sandfield.org
The Jewish response to AIDS is international. Three powerful symbols will come together in Washington, D.C. on October 10, 1996: the Red Ribbon of AIDS Awareness, the Jewish Mogen David, and the World Globe, all together representing an international Jewish response to HIV/AIDS. Under the auspices of the International Jewish AIDS Network, a new group formed by the leaders of Jewish AIDS Network - Chicago, The Los Angeles Jewish AIDS Services, and The AIDS Project of Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco, will hold an international one day conference for Jewish agencies and individuals working to meet the Jewish aspects of the AIDS challenge. This new group will meet at the Washington Hilton Hotel while Washington hosts both the Names Project AIDS Quilt and the AIDS National Skills Building Conference. This one day program, a Satellite Program of the NSBC, will tie in with events already bringing hundreds of thousands of AIDS activists and workers to our nation’s capitol. People from as far away as London and Israel have already expressed an interest in attending.
Jews throughout the world have responded to the AIDS epidemic. Following the commandment of bikkur cholim (visiting the sick) worldwide, over the centuries. Jews have always responded to challenges that face their communities. Throughout the world, Jewish individuals and group reach out to those affected by the new challenge of HIV and AIDS. The meeting in Washington will be a time of mutual support and networking, as well as an opportunity for sharing programming ideas. Currently, almost all of this important work is done on the local level, by both congregational and community service organizations, by individuals and by grassroots organizations who provide the special and unique Jewish components of care for people with AIDS and their families and loved ones. With the birth of the International Jewish AIDS Network on October 10, they will know that they do not work alone and their work forms a part of a large worldwide congregation of those who have met a challenge with love and humanity.
One of the items being created for distribution at this event is an international Resource Directory listing individuals and organizations providing the Jewish component of AIDS work. There are currently more than 100 entries in the directory. The greatest success of the meeting will be based on the exchange of ideas, programming and the Directory as an international resource list.
While the Los Angeles Jewish AIDS Services, and The AIDS Project of Jewish Family and Children’s Services of San Francisco are probably the two largest agencies providing the Jewish component of AIDS services in the world, most of the work done by Jews, for Jews infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS, is done locally, whether by previously existing groups or new grass roots organizations, and the main need for many of these people is networking to learn how other groups and individuals are providing the special and unique Jewish components of AIDS care for people with AIDS and their families and loved ones.
--30--