"Every week, the visits from Gett Chesed volunteers rejuvenate me and give me the strength and desire for life," says 95-year-old Holocaust survivor Dov Landau from Tel Aviv.
Eshel Chabad's Gett Chesed project involves approximately 1,000 teenagers and 600 students throughout the country providing weekly visits to 1,000 Holocaust survivors who otherwise would be lonely. The volunteers serve the survivors hot meals and take them out to cafes and restaurants, ultimately enhancing their quality of life and bringing them joy.
According to Eshel Chabad Chairman Mandy Blau, loneliness can be a painful reminder of the Holocaust for survivors. The Gett Chesed project was created in response to the COVID-19 pandemic to address this issue, by providing weekly visits to 1,000 Holocaust survivors.
Volunteers for the project offer companionship through activities such as playing games, chatting, or going out to cafes or restaurants. Project leader Blau reports that the visits have brought happiness to the survivors, visibly brightening their spirits.
Ran Huri, a volunteer who visits Landau every week, says: "Every week I visit an elderly person and sometimes two, ask about their well-being and condition, and provide them with delicious food for Shabbat.
"I believe that giving is the key to maintaining a healthy society in which there is mutual responsibility and concern for others, and it represents Jewish values more than anything else.
"The Holocaust survivor with whom I am in close contact is Dov Landau, whom I met during a visit I made to him and discovered an interesting man, a fighter, a Zionist, and a role model to be admired by any standard."
At the age of 95, Landau bears the heavy burden of surviving five concentration camps, including the infamous Auschwitz-Birkenau, as well as the grueling death march of April 1945. He carries with him the tragic memories of losing his parents, grandfather, brother, and over 50 other relatives to the carnage of the Holocaust.
But Dov is not just a survivor; he is a fighter, a proud Zionist who fought for the liberation of Israel in Gush Etzion and the Jerusalem area in the Independence War. Despite being captured and imprisoned by Jordanian forces during the war, he emerged victorious, and went on to start a family, raising three children and watching them have children of their own.
On this week's Holocaust Remembrance Day, Dov celebrated his birthday, a testament to his resilience and determination to live a full life, and thanks to Gett Chesed, he receives weekly visits from volunteers who not only bring him hot meals but more importantly, the human connection that reminds him that he is not forgotten.
Ran Nezer, a Jerusalem-based Holocaust survivor, had a very pleasant surprise courtesy of the Gett Chesed volunteers. "Those weekly meetings are by far the most joyful moment of the whole week," he says. "The volunteers make life worth living and I can't thank them enough for it.
"There were hundreds of thousands of us Holocaust survivors, and now we're down to 165,000, so this connection with the volunteers helps commemorate the legacy onwards."