Shalom and blessings dear beloved friends.
As usual on Yom HaShoah (Remembrance Day of the Holocaust) we invite the Holocaust survivors. We want to be together with them while they remember this very sad and painful part in their lives.
Normally we have guests in Sabra from all over the world. This year they were not possible to come, because of the Covid-19, but the Holocaust survivors where so happy and touched to see the people who they know so well to be with them by Zoom. That they found the time to be with them and comfort them even when it was on a screen.
It is beautiful day, today and we decide to have the Memorial outside in the garden. The team had been busy the whole day, preparing food and to make the tables look nice.
At this touching meeting we invited local guests, the Head of the Aliyah Department Ina and her secretary. She was excited and emotional and she was full of thanks to Sabra that we organize these special days and give the opportunity to the people to tell their stories and comfort them.
We recite some prayers and ask Holocaust survivors to light a candle, six candles one by one. This is a special, touching moment and you can see on their faces what is going on in their mind. They cannot hold their emotions, they are crying.. After that we give them space to tell their stories, what they crossed in their lives.
Comfort, comfort My people Isaiah 40:1
We do this already 16 years and every year we hear something new. Horrible stories about what they crossed. To see a lady, already far in her eighties, lighting a candle for the memory of some members of her family and after so many years she is lighting a candle she is telling with tears in her eyes what she and her family crossed in the time of the Holocaust.
This year people also begin to tell what happened to them after the war. After being so happy that they were liberated and returning home from the camps or the hiding places, again they had to face horrible experiences. The Anti-Semitism rose up in their cities.
A man told us his story; in those times he was a little boy. He returned to his city and went to his home, where already another family had taken possession of it. They didn’t even allow him to come in, but was sent away with mean and nasty words and a terrible beating…
to give you a future and a hope. Jeremiah 29:11
Sabra’s work in Jerusalem
In Jerusalem we continue to be active in visiting and helping Holocaust survivors and girls and young ladies who lost their way in life. We gave them the opportunity to celebrate Passover and the Seder night.
We gave poor families vouchers, to buy themselves what they need to celebrate Pesach. And you could see their face lighting up when we gave them the vouchers.
Our volunteer in Jerusalem (Hannah) has touching stories about her work. It is wonderful to hear. The Holocaust survivors whom she visits are asking her when she is planning to come back.
It is not easy though to start the work in Jerusalem. There are so many needy people, but if they don’t know you they are very suspicious. We need a lot of prayers for the work in Jerusalem, because we feel that our Creator really wants Sabra to be active in the Holy City Jerusalem.
Sabra Foundation
Love and blessings,
His servant Mordechai ben Yakov
