Since 1995, our congregation has maintained a friendship with a group of survivors of the Minsk ghetto of the Holocaust.  These elderly Jews, numbering about 165 people, still live in and around Minsk, Belarus.  We speak with the ghetto survivors monthly by telephone, send over-the-counter medicines, vitamins, and other miscellaneous items, and provide financial assistance to 14 of their neediest members, many of whom are ill, disabled, or alone. The survivors live on a fixed monthly pension and have trouble paying for housing, food and medicine.

Michael Treister, one of the survivors of the Minsk Ghetto, wrote a memoir about life in the ghetto and after the war.  To read his memoir, click here.

If you would like to contribute to this program with other Hakafa members, please contact Judy Solway or Julia Volpe.