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IDF fighters adopt Shoah survivors

Members of elite army and police units team up with Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims, vow to help survivors with any problem

Hundreds of officers and fighters from the elite units of the Israel Defense Forces and Israel Police have joined forces with the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims in Israel and will adopt survivors in order to stay in close contact with them.

 

The idea was proposed several months ago following a conversation between a police officer from a special unit and his neighbor, a 90-year-old Holocaust survivor, which quickly turned into a long and emotional heart-to-heart talk.

 

The officer, who was moved by the talk, decided to recruit his friends from the IDF and police's elite units, and set up an extensive network of hundreds of officers and fighters, in compulsory and reserve service, to help the survivors.

 

After getting organized, the fighters turned to the Smile and Love association and to the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims, headed by former IDF Personnel Directorate chief Elazar Stern, and asked to receive a list of Shoah survivors and their addresses.

 

Each unit will receive the names of the survivors living in its area, and ahead of the Jewish New Year the fighters will visit each one of them with a box of chocolate and a bottle of wine.

 

In addition, the fighters will talk to the survivors and ask them to contact them with any problem.

 

"There is no doubt that this is an extraordinary project which emerged from the ground, without a noisy organization," says Colonel (Res.) Rony Kalinsky, director of the Foundation for the Benefit of Holocaust Victims.

 

"I call on everyone who can come and volunteer to do so. I am very pleased by our people's resourcefulness and kindness."

 

 


פרסום ראשון: 09.29.11, 08:09
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