Program matches Holocaust survivors with new Olim
Adopt-a-Safta gives elderly people a friend and youngsters an opportunity to interact
Aaron Kalman is a former writer and breaking news editor for the Times of Israel
Jerusalem’s branch of Adopt-a-Safta (Hebrew for “Adopt-a-grandma”) will open Sunday eve, providing lonely Holocaust survivors with friends as Israel approaches Holocaust Remembrance Day.
According to a press release on Thursday, the initiative is an attempt to solve what some 200,000 elderly survivors point to as their No. 1 complaint — loneliness,
Adopt-a-Safta — founded by Jay M. Shultz, president of the Am Yisrael Foundation — pairs young immigrants to Israel with Holocaust survivors on the Big Brother/Big Sister model, and provides the survivors with companionship and a sense of legacy for their experiences before, during, and after the Holocaust.
In addition to providing the survivors with an adopted grandchild, the program enables young immigrants to deal with the stories of the Holocaust and understand their connection to it, and its memory in Israeli culture, which can be different from what they were used to abroad, the group said.
The Times of Israel covers one of the most complicated, and contentious, parts of the world. Determined to keep readers fully informed and enable them to form and flesh out their own opinions, The Times of Israel has gradually established itself as the leading source of independent and fair-minded journalism on Israel, the region and the Jewish world.
We've achieved this by investing ever-greater resources in our journalism while keeping all of the content on our site free.
Unlike many other news sites, we have not put up a paywall. But we would like to invite readers who can afford to do so, and for whom The Times of Israel has become important, to help support our journalism by joining The Times of Israel Community. Join now and for as little as $6 a month you can both help ensure our ongoing investment in quality journalism, and enjoy special status and benefits as a Times of Israel Community member.
comments