Agency seeks families to adopt babies

NEW YORK, June 15 (JTA) — An adoption agency based in Silver Spring, Md., is looking for Jewish families to adopt Russian children of Jewish ancestry. Although Cradle of Hope is not a specifically Jewish adoption agency, the director of the agency, Linda Perilstein is Jewish and is “committed to preserving Jewish heritage.” Due to the dwindling number of Jewish families in the former Soviet Union, the number of Jewish children available for adoption is “not huge,” but in the past six months, that number has increased. Since 1991, Cradle of Hope, a licensed, nonprofit agency, has placed over 1,000 Russian orphans with American families. While many of the Russian children in orphanages have Jewish birth fathers — and are therefore technically not Jewish according to Jewish law — Perilstein said those children are at least half-Jewish and ought to have the chance to grow up in a Jewish home. Perilstein is looking for families to adopt a 2-year-old boy, a 2-and-a-half-year-old-boy and an 18-month-old girl. For more information, call Cradle of Hope at (301) 587-4400.