Mission Statement

Chicago Action is a grassroots, non-profit organization that has been an advocate for Jews in the Soviet Union since 1972.  A member of the Union of Councils in Washington, D.C., Chicago Action is dedicated to the sustenance and security of the Jews in the third largest Jewish community in the world. 

• Chicago Action communicates with Jews in the former Soviet Union (FSU) daily, gathering information and monitoring needs.  It briefs travelers who are going to the FSU and who wish to be of assistance to Jews there, and sponsors delegations for fact finding trips to communities in the FSU.   

• Chicago Action sponsors and coordinates a dynamic program, “Yad L’Yad” (Hand to Hand), which pairs synagogues in the Chicago area and the United States with small Jewish communities in the former Soviet Union. 

• Chicago Action updates its membership, Congress and the press on events in the FSU through its newsletter “Tekiah!” and is a source of information for the community. 

• Chicago Action’s volunteer staff works with Congress.  In the former Soviet Union, it provides schools with Jewish books, sends medicine to the elderly and the ill, and helps financially when the needs are desperate and emergencies arise in the former Soviet Union. 

• Chicago Action tries to understand the nuances of governments and history, and combines this knowledge with the experience of Jews in the former Soviet Union so that together, the treasured goals of sustenance and security can be reached and maintained.