Finding Light in a Time of Darkness: A Joint Staff Retreat for Holocaust Survivor Services Professionals in the Baltimore-Washington Region
By Deborah S. Adler and Beth Land Hecht
In On Joy and Sorrow, the poet Kahil Gibran writes,
Then a woman said, Speak to us of Joy and Sorrow.
And he answered:
Your joy is your sorrow unmasked.
And the selfsame well from which your laughter rises was oftentimes filled with your tears.
And how else can it be?
On Thursday, August 15th for the second year in a row, the Holocaust Survivor Program teams of JCS and JSSA gathered at Temple Isaiah in Fulton, Maryland for learning, community and support. The theme for the day was Finding Light in a Time of Darkness. Providing services for frail, elderly men and women who survived the Holocaust is a difficult task in itself. Due to global events, particularly in Ukraine and Israel, the past year has been especially challenging.
In January 2024, the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference) released an unprecedented demographic report on Holocaust survivors, indicating that there were approximately 245,000 Jewish survivors alive worldwide. Some sixteen percent or 39,200 were residing in the United States. Ninety-five percent were child survivors, born between 1928 and 1946. While 10 percent were born in Western Europe, 22 percent were born in Eastern Europe and 47 percent were born in the USSR. Their average age was 86 and 40 percent received social services from 300 Claims Conference-supported agencies across the globe in the prior year.
Two of these agencies, JCS and JSSA, serve survivors locally; JCS in the Baltimore Metropolitan Region and JSSA the National Capital Area. Each agency provides services to approximately 330 men and women. To qualify for the programs, individuals must be verified as Jewish Nazi Victims by the Claims Conference, live independently in the community, and meet specific financial criteria. The programs aim to support individuals by providing care management and wrap-around services such as personal care, homemaker services, transportation to medical appointments, nutrition and socialization to help them continue living in their own homes and avoid institutionalization.
Most of the survivors who live in the Baltimore-Washington region originate from the Former Soviet Union. They came to the US after the fall of the USSR and have limited English proficiency and today subsist on SSI. Staff, many who were born in the Former Soviet Union, are bilingual and second-generation survivors themselves, provide care management to their clients using a Person-Centered Trauma-Informed Care (PCTI) and Healing-Centered Engagement approach. The aim is to offer survivors autonomy and choice while providing the most compassionate and trauma-sensitive care.
August 15th provided many wonderful resources for the teams. Rabbi Craig Axler, Senior Rabbi at Temple Isaiah, spoke about The Time We’re Living in. He acknowledged the darkness in the world today and asked “how can we make sense of it all?” He also provided Jewish teachings to support team members and shared perspectives to bring to the clients to give them optimism and help them feel secure.
Eliana Posner, Senior Program Officer from the Claims Conference, presented details of the Claims Conference’s recent demographic study. In addition, she showed the film Reckonings, which summarizes the origins of material compensation for Holocaust survivors. She also shared what the future looks like for the Claims Conference.
There was a panel discussion with staff from HomeCentris, a homecare agency which serves clients in both programs. Topics included setting realistic boundaries, oversight of aides, and communicating with the agency about issues. In breakout groups, staff discussed the high points and challenges of the past year and shared approaches they recommended to clients to make them feel hopeful and safe. They also shared how clients have inspired them.
Overall, the teams walked away with a better understanding of the importance of the work that they do for survivors and the community. They learned new ideas and gained different perspectives to enhance their work and identified areas for continued learning and collaboration.
There will always be both light and darkness, joy and sorrow in our world. We can’t have one without the other. What we can do is support each other as we move through these difficult times and know that an easier time will be coming soon.