Yom Kippur Zoom reunites Holocaust survivors 71 years later
Source: AP
By LUIS ANDRES HENAO and JESSIE WARDARSKI
NEW YORK (AP) — Holocaust survivors Ruth Brandspiegel and Israel “Sasha” Eisenberg call their reunion a miracle that began on the holiest day in Judaism, and it only happened thanks to a prayer service that was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Decades ago their families, who came from the same city in Poland, escaped the Nazis, crossed into the Soviet Union and were sent to different labor camps in Siberia, where Eisenberg was born. They later met at a displaced persons camp in Austria, where they became close friends. They last saw each other there, in 1949, before losing track of each other’s whereabouts.
More than 70 years later, Brandspiegel, now a Philadelphia resident, heard a familiar name being called out in a Yom Kippur service held in late September via Zoom by her son’s synagogue in East Brunswick, New Jersey.
“I said to myself, Sasha? I know there’s a lot of Eisenbergs, but Sasha Eisenberg? How could that possibly be?” she said. So she called son Larry Brandspiegel, a cantor at the East Brunswick Jewish Center, and asked him to help her check.
In this photo provided by Larry Brandspiegel, Holocaust survivors Israel "Sasha" Eisenberg, left, and Ruth Brandspiegel are reunited on Oct. 3, 2020, in East Brunswick, N.J. for the first time in more than 70 years since their families left the Hallein Displaced Persons Camp in Austria. They met under a sukkah, a temporary shelter used to celebrate the weeklong Jewish fall holiday of Sukkot. (Larry Brandspiegel via AP)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/virus-outbreak-new-york-yom-kippur-israel-new-jersey-3e8d4d5abac33dea32d33a427c87d6fd
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