[By Devorah Naomi Waters]

Devorah Naomi Waters, a social worker who works with older adults, is a member of the project staff for “Meaningful Moments with Holocaust Survivors.”

On Motza’ei Shabbos, November 12th, Bikur Cholim Chesed Organization hosted a gathering for women interested in volunteering their time visiting Holocaust survivors in our community. Over 120 women left their busy homes to attend “Meaningful Moments with Holocaust Survivors” at the Boro Park Y, where, with the staff of Bikur Cholim, they met their match in warmth and enthusiasm.

The evening featured the documentary “Names, Not Numbers” in which Holocaust survivors shared gripping stories of their experiences, as well as uplifting musical entertainment by Malky Giniger’s renowned Ratzon choir. The highlight of the program was an interactive question-and-answer session with Bikur Cholim staff, in which the sensitivities and nuances relevant to visiting survivors were discussed, and practical ideas and how-tos were exchanged. The room was filled to capacity with enthusiastic participants, many of whom approached Bikur Cholim staff members afterward to request additional events and share their feeling of inspiration to do more for the survivors in their lives.

The variance in age among the volunteer attendees spoke to the richness of what Jewish women, as a group and individually, can offer survivors. Younger adults, who may have two or more generations separating them from Holocaust survivors, may worry that their lives could seem trivial to those who have lived through many lifetimes of experience. What is important to remember is that along with everything and everyone they held dear on this earth, what was taken away forever, in the war, was survivors’ youth. Spending time with younger friends can bring back a remembrance of youth, and the chance to immerse themselves in a younger and more carefree world. Volunteers of mature age, on the other hand, can connect with a Holocaust survivor on another, possibly deeper level, and stand to offer the empathy and sensitivity born of experience.

It can often seem to would-be volunteers that, for all their efforts, they can make only the most minute dent in some gaping area of need, whether those they help face poverty, illness, or isolation. However, as illustrated by the stories of Holocaust survivors in “Names, Not Numbers,” to change one’s person’s life, as the axiom goes, is to change the whole world. And while an hour a week may not seem like much, when added to that hour are many more hours of eager anticipation, and then of satisfying reflection, that one hour is magnified many times over- like a donation drive in which an anonymous donor matches contributions six to one.

As was highlighted during the program discussion, the professionally trained and caring Bikur Cholim staff working with survivors will be on hand to support and guide volunteers who make brightening a survivor’s life their special chesed. This is the generation that built, from the ashes, the vibrant and thriving Jewish communities we so proudly call our own. Let us join hands with them, and give them our friendship and our nurture for as long as they are with us.

“Meaningful Moments with Holocaust Survivors” is a project of Bikur Cholim Chesed Organization, with support from the Jewish Federations of North America’s Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care and from the NYC Department for the Aging. For more information about volunteering to help survivors, please contact Bikur Cholim Chesed Organization at 718-438-2020, extension 7437.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)