The Jewish community also sponsors a wide variety of social, cultural
, and educational activities.
A soup kitchen, funded by the American Jewish Joint Distribution
Committee and Britain's World Jewish Relief, serves hot meals to about
200 needy people, including about 60 non- Jews.
The community also sponsors cultural events to which local citizenry
at large are invited. Recent events have included promotion of a book
on the Ladino language, and an autobiographical work by a wellknown
author about her Sephardic roots.
In 1998, the community established a non-sectarian humanitarian organization
called "la Benevolencija." This body was modeled on the
organization by the same name run by the Jewish community in Sarajevo,
which became one of the most honored and effective non-sectarian aid
organizations during the Bosnian war.
Among other projects, the Subotica La Benevolencija organization worked
with refugees in camps in Montenegro.
It also provided aid and support to a small camp of refugees from
Croatia located near Subotica, as well as to a big local
orphanage and to a geriatric center. The group also ran courses in
the English language, helped support an ambulance, and drew up a project
for including Holocaust education in local middle schools.
June Jacobs (l), outgoing president of the International Council
of Jewish Women, and Princess Katarina (r), during ceremonies
marking the 150th anniversary of the Subotica Women's organization,
March 2002
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Financial support for these activities comes from outside contributions.
The Joint Distribution Committee provides some
funding, but most funding for la Benevolencija, as well as some
aid packages, comes from citizens groups and women's groups
in the Netherlands, Switzerland and Great Britain.
Jewish women in Subotica in particular have forged strong links
with other Jewish women through the International Council of
Jewish Women, and they operate a local concluded in 2002, June
Jacobs visited Subotica several times and Subotica women collaborated
in the organization of conferences such as a women's interfaith
meeting held in September in Sarajevo.
In March 2002, the Subotica Women's Organization celebrated 150
years of activity. June Jacobs took part, as did Princess
Katerina, wife of Prince Alexander, the pretender to the Serbian
throne.
During the 1990s, economic strife, conflict and political turmoil
took their toll on the community. Many community members are without
jobs, or exist on tiny pensions. Most young people from the community
left, although about eight to ten children attend Hebrew school.
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