The Moroccan food was a hit.
We had brought it from Ashdod for a gathering with Holocaust survivors in Jerusalem, and before long people around the tables were asking about our city. What is Ashdod like? Could they come visit sometime? We loved that. Somewhere between passing plates, talking across the table and getting to know one another, they were already imagining another day together. We had come to Jerusalem to spend an afternoon with them. Before it was over, they were talking about the next time.
There were 34 Holocaust survivors with us that day, including Yosef Levin, who was celebrating his 91st birthday. Our team and volunteers set the tables and served lunch, but we didn’t want to spend the afternoon serving people from a distance. So we sat down too. We ate together, asked questions and listened. Many of these men and women are wonderfully active and social, and once the Keytlin Jerusalem Band began playing familiar Jewish music, the room came alive.
Birthdays were celebrated with small gifts.
People sang.
Before long, there was dancing.
A pastor from Ukraine had also joined us that day. He hadn’t come as a speaker; he came simply to help, setting tables alongside the other volunteers. Later, he was invited to share a few words. He told the survivors that despite everything happening in Ukraine, believers there continue to pray for Israel and stand with the people of Israel. He spoke about God’s love for them. For people who know better than most what it means to wonder whether the world remembers, hearing that believers in another country were praying for them meant something. They listened closely, and several told us how much his words had encouraged them.
But one of the things we carried home with us was much simpler. As the afternoon was ending, some of the survivors invited us to visit them at their hostel.
“Don’t forget us. Come again.”
There was something wonderfully direct about the request. They didn’t need another elaborate program. They wanted to know we would return. And we do want to return—not only once, but regularly.
These gatherings are becoming an important part of our ministry with Holocaust survivors. The meal matters. The music matters. Celebrating someone’s 91st birthday matters. But when we come back month after month, something else becomes possible. We remember the conversation from last time. We recognize the face across the table. We know whose birthday is coming. Another piece of someone’s story gets told. You cannot build that kind of relationship in one afternoon. It takes another visit, and then another.
That is what we are asking you to help us continue. Your support helps provide the meals, bring our team to Jerusalem, celebrate birthdays and make these monthly gatherings possible. It gives us time to sit down rather than simply drop something off and leave. And it allows us to keep a promise that matters very much to us: when these precious men and women say, “Don’t forget us,” we want to be able to come back.
Will you help us keep coming back?
“Do not cast me off in the time of old age; do not forsake me when my strength fails.”
Psalm 71:9
