Help Holocaust Survivors Heal and Thrive

It’s been 78 years since the Holocaust ravaged the lives of so many and robbed them of everything they knew and loved. There are now precious few Holocaust Survivors remaining - heroes who single-handedly turned the destruction defining their lives into rebuilding and regrowth. As they age and face yet more loss as spouses and friends pass away, debilitating health challenges and often poverty, it gets harder and harder for them to go on. Many sit at home wrapped in loneliness, completely isolated from connection and support.

Nachas Health and Family Network is determined to change that - and reach as many Holocaust Survivors as possible with support, warmth and uplifting connection. For 6 years, Nachas Health has sent Holocaust Survivors on a healing, transformative retreat in the tranquil beauty of the Catskills Mountains. Survivors have connected with other Survivors and forged new connections, gaining the strength and joy to face the challenges of the year ahead.

Every year, we face the challenge to send all the many Survivors who desperately need the retreat. How can we say no to any Survivor reaching out and begging us for help, pleading for an opportunity to go on the retreat and raise their dejected spirits? Every single donation will go directly towards a Holocaust Survivor to experience the healing of peer support and therapeutic groups for a week in the healing environs of nature. They would otherwise be sitting home utterly alone.

We’ve had Survivors who had been inside their small apartments for years, never stepping outside, walk outside for the first time in years to come to the retreat. It has changed their lives - and encouraged them to keep connecting and being part of a warm and loving community throughout the year. A Survivor’s child called us to let us know that her mother’s home was always dark and silent, that she never even wanted to turn on the lights - but after the retreat, her mother now has new friends, is part of the vibrant community, and her home is full of music, light and laughter. She comes to events and therapeutic groups daily at Nachas now, instead of spending her final years alone in darkness.

The retreat is life-changing for so many survivors. “It gives me the chizuk (strength) to go on all year,” a Survivor told us tearfully. Can you help us transform the lives of so many Survivors, filling their year with light, friendships and joy?