By Don Horwitz
Throughout history, fear has been so much more than just an emotion for Jewish people from the Former Soviet Union - it has been a constant companion. I would like to introduce you to my Bubby (Yiddish for cherished grandmother). She was just 17 years old when she fell in love and married my Zayde (grandfather). Just days after their wedding, their parents called them over and sat them down. With tears running down their cheeks, they told them that they must leave Ukraine immediately as they were in imminent danger of losing their lives.
The very next day, they packed everything they had into a single suitcase, said a final goodbye to their parents and all of their loved ones, and then fled for their lives to escape the horrors of the Pogroms in Ukraine—a series of violent anti-Jewish riots where thousands of Jews were viciously tortured and killed.
Despite the immense trauma that she carried throughout her entire life, my Bubby was the embodiment of love and resilience. I will never forget those very special Saturdays that I always looked forward to every week. My cousins and I would gather at Bubby and Zayde’s apartment early in the morning. There, she would wrap us in her comforting warmth, cook us the most delicious meals from scratch, and then shower us with an endless supply of her love. Their home was a place where we all felt so loved, safe and cherished.
With all of those beautiful moments and memories, there was one thing that always stood out: Bubby and Zayde never, ever, spoke about where they were from, how and why they left, or who the family members and friends were that they left behind. Why did they not share their past with us?
The answer was…immense loss and fear. Bubby and Zayde lived their entire lives in overwhelming fear—a fear that they would somehow be found, returned to their homeland, and then lose their precious family that they had built and loved more than anything in life.
Sadly, over a century later, this same fear that Bubby and Zayde felt during their entire lives, is still permeating the lives of our elderly Jewish brothers and sisters in our Senior Care Program in Ukraine.
Holocaust survivors like Diana, who we found suffering from malnutrition and extreme loneliness, continues to live in daily fear of being taken away, beaten, and starved—just as she was as a young child.
