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Marti and Bob Dotan
Photo: Yaron Brener
Contemporary menu

Café for Holocaust survivors in Ramat Hasharon

City honors its 500 Holocaust survivors by opening coffee shop that will serve as time tunnel to pre-war Europe with contemporary design, food and music. 'It's an opportunity not only to talk about what you went through, but discuss what happened after that,' says survivor

Ramat Hasharon is soon to open a special coffee shop - Café Europe. The targeted clientele at this unique café is the 500 Holocaust survivors living in the city.

 

The venue will be designed in pre-WWII style, will play contemporary music and hold dances from that period and the menu will be early 20th century European cuisine served in traditional European crockery.

 

This idea for this coffee shop came after Holocaust survivors asked to have a place to meet. The café will provide a place for the survivors to experience their common culture and remember their shared pre-war memories.

 

The café will operate once a week in one location and once a month at a second location.

 


Invitation to the café (photo: Yaron Brenner)

 

Bob and Marti Dotan, Holocaust survivors from Ramat Hasharon, think it is a good idea. "I think it's worth giving it a try. I plan to go and see what it's like," Marti said.

 

The café will enable the survivors to be with people who will not pass judgment on them for what happened. "People think that something was wrong with us, that we went like sheep to the slaughter," Marti said.

 

She also believes that the coffee shop will be a place not only for the survivors to remember their past, but also to talk about the future. "It's an opportunity not only to talk about what you went through, but discuss what happened after that, talk about the children, grandchildren, how you spend your time."

 

Ramat Hasharon Mayor Yitzhak Rochberger thinks this is the least the municipality could do for the inhabitants of the town. "We care about the survivors. We regard them as an integral part of the Ramat Hasharon community. Activities of this type are meant to empower our senior citizens who came here with that specific background and to strengthen their feeling of belonging to this community."

 

Raanan Ben-Zur contributed to the report

 


פרסום ראשון: 02.15.07, 21:29
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