American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) President Annie Sandler recently visited Kansas City to speak to Jewish Federation of Kansas City donors and community leaders about JDC’s impact.
She and Reut Friedman, JDC senior director of strategic partnerships, met with dozens of people to share about the effect that the Kansas City Jewish community has by giving money to JDC and supporting Jews worldwide.
“It was an incredible honor to have Annie Sandler visit our community and share her passion for JDC and expertise in world Jewry and how our community’s support is making an impact in Jewish communities all over,” said Taly Friedman, Federation director of community impact and partnerships.
Part of Federation’s Community Campaign revenue — more than $400,000 in 2026 — goes to JDC, a 112-year-old Jewish aid organization that supports Jewish communities across the world. Included in the communities it supports are those of Bulgaria and Romania, with which Federation has special relationships. Federation designates funds for specific programs in the two countries, and those allocations are then given to JDC to benefit the communities. Between 12% and 18% of funding for JDC’s support of the Romanian and Bulgarian Jewish populations comes from Kansas City’s Federation.
“[Federation] started to invest in Bucharest and in the Romanian Jewish community when it was just getting its feet back under it, when they didn’t have the resources for a lot of different things,” Sandler said.
As JDC president, Sandler has experience with Jewish communities across the world, but has a special connection with that of Romania. She was named a Grand Officer of the National Order for Merit for the country by its president, Klaus Werner Iohannis, for her contributions to develop Jewish life in Romania.
“They try really hard to build a community,” she continued. “They’re very proud of what they do, and they really grew from a small community, because it was not safe to be Jewish… Now they’re close to 10,000 and a healthy, thriving community, thanks to Kansas City and thanks to JDC.”
JDC Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships Reut Friedman and President Annie Sandler presenting to community members about JDC’s global impact.
Sandler’s affection towards Romania dates back to when her husband was on the JDC board and went with her to visit the JDC-Lauder International Jewish Youth Camp in Szarvas, Hungary, where Jewish kids from around the world came together. She was so impressed with the camp that she took her own children the following year. Her children bonded with the Romanian campers.
“That was my introduction to the Romanian community, and those [campers]... became leaders of all these different communities,” Sandler said. “...Some of the campers are now older, and they’re doing things in the Jewish community.”
Beyond summer camps, Federation also has funded medical work for the Bulgarian and Romanian Jewish communities. Sandler was there to see the results of an initiative to send an ophthalmologist to Romania to remove cataracts from visually impaired community members. While talking to a woman who worked in the community, she realized that some members of the “Blind Club” that she’d visited early in her trip were able to see now.
Local support also funds a Meals-on-Wheels-style program for elderly and homebound Jews in Bucharest. The food is prepared in community kitchens that were drastically upgraded from what Sandler called “the nastiest place you’ve ever been in your whole life” to a modern, clean facility thanks to local and JDC funding.
Supporting Federation and JDC, Sandler said, is a way for Kansas City Jews to “water their Jewish roots” while educating their children and grandchildren and joining something bigger than themselves that tangibly changes lives in Romania and Bulgaria.
“You get out of this more than you think you’re giving, you get so much more out of those relationships that you create and you form with people,” Reut Friedman said. “Once you visit, you cannot unsee it.”
A Federation community trip in partnership with JDC to Romania, Bulgaria and Athens will take place from Oct. 12 to 21. For more information on the trip, those interested can contact Taly Friedman at .
