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Jan 23, 2020

A Survivor with Health Issues Can Stay in Her Home

With each new diagnosis, Luba becomes increasingly anxious. In the past, she relied on her physical strength to overcome hardships. But now that she is physically ill, she feels extremely vulnerable and unsafe.

Luba was a young child when the Nazis invaded her home city of Kiev, Ukraine. Re…

Jan 23, 2020

Breaking Bread and Building Friendships

Jewish meals begin with the blessing over bread, the hamotzi, and then everyone shares the bread. Reciting the hamotzi draws attention to the privilege of having food to eat. Seven days a week, with specially braided challah eaten on Shabbat, we acknowledge how grateful we are for the core s…

Jan 23, 2020

Cooking Club Feeds a Survivor’s Soul

A small bowl of watery soup. A few meager ounces of bread. A cup of imitation coffee. This was Irina’s daily food ration. First at Kraków-Płaszów. Then Ravensbrück. Then, Auschwitz.

For more than three years, the young teenage girl from Poland starved.

And yet somehow, she endured.

…

Jan 23, 2020

Helping a Holocaust Survivor Manage Trauma and Dental Care

Golda lost all of her teeth after surviving a concentration camp and living in war-torn Europe. Afraid to go to the dentist all her life, she suffered from poor nutrition and the social isolation that resulted from embarrassment and poor speech.

For Golda, the dental office—with its loud …

Jan 22, 2020

A Couple Finds Connection with Music

A Klezmer band plays the traditional melodies of Eastern Europe. People clap and move their bodies to the lively rhythms of their past. Others, hearing familiar words, join their voices. Boris, a Holocaust survivor who comes weekly to this music program, sits up front.

The healing qualities…