(SOCIETY PALM BEACH -- SOUTH FLORIDA SUN-SENTINEL)
Special Feature
More than 550 people attended Cafe Europa, a lunch for Holocaust survivors, hosted by Ruth Rales Jewish Family Service of South Palm Beach County, at B'nai Torah Congregation on SW 18th Street in Boca Raton and sponsored by Boca Raton philanthropists, Jill and Cliff Viner. The event brings together Holocaust survivors for lunch, music and socializing, noted Jill Viner. “Survivors frequently meet others who may have been in the same camp or gone through the same circumstances,” she explained. Speakers included State Representative Kelly Skidmore; state Sen. Ted Deutch’s wife Jill Deutch; and city councilman Michael Mullaugh.The event, held twice a year, is open to Boca Raton, Delray Beach and Highland Beach Holocaust survivors. Auschwitz-Birkenau survivor Alex Moskovic helped initiate the first Café Europa in Boca Raton five years ago. “Café Europa actually began in Europe right after World War II as Jews returned to their home cities. Today, it’s still survivors getting together and still trying to find friends and family from their hometowns in Europe.”Survivors showed their friends long lost photos of their parents and siblings they never thought they’d see again—which they recently obtained via an Internet search of Yad Vashem’s archives. (Yad Vashem is the main Holocaust museum in Israel.) One of them had just learned she still had a cousin in Germany. “It’s a miracle,” she said. Mullaugh, who is president of RRJFS said, “It’s only when 60 years have passed that many of these survivors want to meet and talk with fellow survivors of one of the darkest moments of mankind. They lived separate lives, then built new lives in America after the most horrible circumstances. Now they’re really trying to remember a little bit, get back together with people who they might have known before or at least shared their experiences.”
For more information, call 561-852-3333 or e-mail: info@rrjfs.org.
PHOTOS: Basia McDonnell, left, Cyla Feit and Benjamin Feit look at a photo of their families together.
Seated: Chaja Wajsblat, left, and Eva Dombrow. Standing: Agnes Glick, left, and Doris Wasserman.
Nissim Benyamini.
Michael Mullalugh gives flowers to Jill Viner and Cliff Viner.
