Survival and Resilience dinner

#NeverForget: The first Survival and Resilience event for World War II Holocaust survivors, educators, family and friends was held at the Jewish Association on Aging, Tuesday evening. Nearly 20 survivors were among guests attending the dinner and panel discussion.

“I think this is an incredible event,” said Lauren Apter Bairnsfather, director of the Holocaust Center of Pittsburgh. Her husband Christopher and her parents, Scott and Ruth Apter, were among the guests. Rabbi Eli Seidman welcomed everyone and offered the blessing. Sam Gottesman, a 91-year-old survivor, was on the panel.

Originally from Czechoslovakia, his family was sent by the Nazis to a ghetto in 1944, and then to Auschwitz concentration camp. He had three brothers and three sisters, but only one sister and his father survived the Holocaust with him. Yolanda Willis, the other survivor on the panel, was a child hidden in Greece posing as a Christian to avoid capture. She has written a book “A Hidden Child in Greece: Rescue Stories of the Holocaust.”

Tim Smith, executive director of the Center of Life, moderated with Ms. Bairnsfather. Coming in from Washington, D.C., for the event was Don Shulman, CEO of Association of Jewish Aging Services. Among the supporters were Holocaust survivor Rabbi Mordechai Glatstein with Cyna, Linda Hurwitz, Ruth Gelman, Rod and Karen Werstil, David Hammerstein, Marc and Robyn Friedberg, Marian Unger Davis, Sara Brett, Debbie Winn-Horvitz and Bruce Horvitz and Moshe Baran.

—