The New York Times: Alum Jill Shames (SSW’83) Provides On-the-Ground Services Near Ukraine with Israeli Nonprofit
BU School of Social Work alum Jill Shames (COM’82, SSW’83) was recently interviewed by The New York Times for an article focused on the Israeli aid workers who have joined the effort to provide emergency services for Ukrainian refugees.
Shames, a social worker who lives in Israel, is currently in Moldova volunteering in an advanced psychotrauma unit set up by the non-profit organization United Hatzalah of Israel. Like many other Israeli aid workers, she feels a deep connection to the refugees she serves.
Excerpted from “Once Victims in Southeast Europe, Jews Come to Aid Fleeing Ukrainians” (The New York Times) by Patrick Kingsley:
It feels like it’s some kind of repair,” said Jill Shames, [an] Israeli social worker at the synagogue whose ancestors also escaped nearby pogroms in the late 1800s.
Like [fellow volunteer] Ms. Hod, Ms. Shames was providing psychological support to refugees, on behalf of United Hatzalah. “We’re doing now what we couldn’t do then,” said Ms. Shames.
Shames received her MSW from BU School of Social Work in 1983 after receiving a bachelor’s degree in communications from the University’s College of Communications. In 1996, she and her family moved to Israel where Shames developed her expertise in therapeutic martial arts and empowerment self-defense. She is the former head of training for Kids Kicking Cancer Israel.
Learn more about Jill Shames and get a firsthand account of her on-the-ground experience in Moldova in Bostonia’s Q&A.