Met Council & Haym Salomon Pre-Chanukah Event December, 2017
Haym Salomon Nursing Home and Met Council Collaborate on Magnificent Holocaust Survivor Pre-Chanukah Socialization Event With Over 500 Holocaust Survivors
Haym Salomon Nursing Home and Met Council
Collaborate on Magnificent Holocaust Survivor
Pre-Chanukah Socialization Event With Over 500 Holocaust Survivors
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In Partership With<br />
Holocaust Survivor<br />
<strong>Pre</strong>-<strong>Chanukah</strong> <strong>Event</strong><br />
<strong>December</strong> 3rd, <strong>2017</strong>
<strong>Haym</strong> <strong>Salomon</strong> Nursing Home and <strong>Met</strong> <strong>Council</strong><br />
Collaborate on Magnificent Holocaust Survivor<br />
<strong>Pre</strong>-<strong>Chanukah</strong> Socialization <strong>Event</strong><br />
The <strong>Met</strong>ropolitan <strong>Council</strong> on Jewish Poverty Holocaust Survivor Program<br />
teamed up with the Lipschitz family of the <strong>Haym</strong> <strong>Salomon</strong> Home<br />
for Nursing and Rehabilitation to host a<br />
<strong>Pre</strong>-<strong>Chanukah</strong> <strong>Event</strong> for Holocaust Survivors<br />
on <strong>December</strong> 3rd, <strong>2017</strong>. Over 550 Survivors<br />
from all across New York City attended the<br />
lavish event which was held in the beautiful<br />
<strong>Haym</strong> <strong>Salomon</strong> ballroom featuring panoramic<br />
views of the New York City skyline.<br />
The collaboration between the <strong>Haym</strong> <strong>Salomon</strong><br />
Nursing Home and the <strong>Met</strong> <strong>Council</strong> Holocaust<br />
Survivor Program works so well since<br />
both programs provide services in a person-centered<br />
manner, which allows survivors<br />
to receive help in a dignified and sensitive manner, individualized to each<br />
person’s experience. These social events aid in alleviating<br />
symptoms of depression, anxiety and post-traumatic<br />
stress. The survivors in attendance are<br />
often isolated with little opportunity or ability<br />
to leave their homes and engage in distraction<br />
from painful memories. This event created an<br />
opportunity for survivors to join together to<br />
celebrate not only the miracles of <strong>Chanukah</strong>,<br />
but their own miraculous survival as well. Chaim,<br />
an 89 year old Survivor proudly dressed for the event,<br />
declared: “I haven’t left my apartment in three weeks, but today’s the<br />
day!’”
Arriving in comfortable coach buses, the attendees were greeted by<br />
a pair of playful mimes and ushered to their seats. One survivor was<br />
struck by the welcome they received: “All the staff members were smiling<br />
as we came in and throughout the event.” They enjoyed a delicious,<br />
beautifully presented four course lunch in the elegantly decorated, <strong>Chanukah</strong>-themed<br />
ballroom. Guests were entertained by renowned singers<br />
Shulem Lemmer and Yoely Lebowits and<br />
a full musical orchestra, and were treated<br />
to performances of songs from the ‘alte<br />
heim’ that they remembered from their<br />
youth growing up in Europe. The survivors<br />
enjoyed clapping and singing and dancing<br />
along to the music. One guest, an 86 yearold<br />
survivor from Boro Park, felt that “the<br />
music was not from this world, it was so<br />
beautiful.”<br />
Survivors were addressed by distinguished<br />
guests - New York City <strong>Council</strong> Members Rafael Espinal and David Greenfield,<br />
<strong>Council</strong>man-Elect Kalman Yeger, and a representative from the<br />
Mayor’s Office. A grateful guest commented that the event was ‘Yiddish’<br />
and ‘Heimish,’ thoughtfully organized and personally<br />
designed towards ‘our background’.”<br />
The joy of the hundreds of survivors was clear<br />
to all in attendance. “Seeing all the smiling<br />
faces and all of our survivors having a great<br />
time was such a wonderful treat,” said Judah<br />
Zellermaier, <strong>Met</strong> <strong>Council</strong>’s Director of the Holocaust<br />
Survivor Program. “We were so fortunate to<br />
be able to team up with the Lipschitz family of the <strong>Haym</strong><br />
<strong>Salomon</strong> Nursing and Rehabilitation Center on this outstanding program<br />
and we look forward to working on many future projects together.”
In the <strong>Pre</strong>ss
The <strong>Event</strong>