Elderly Holocaust survivors meet every month to sing and talk about their lives. DP
By Andreae Downs, Globe Correspondent
They were there to sing and socialize. But despite long memories, the dozen elderly immigrants weren't there to share many of them.
Instead, they talked about the happier times - before the Holocaust wiped out contemporaries and connections that would otherwise have populated their lives here in America.
"So, where were you born?" coordinator Ellen Krechmer asked. "How many languages do you speak?"
Besides English: Yiddish, Russian, and Hebrew. Some Polish, Ukrainian, German. What conversation passed among them was as often in Russian as in English.
"Am Israel Chai!" they sang, their voices hardly rocking the rafters at 100 Centre St., space donated by Hebrew Senior Life. The Cafe Hakalah (Hebrew for "easing," as in a burden) meets every month, usually on a Wednesday, and participants come from all the Boston suburbs.
"A lot of survivors live in Coolidge Corner," said Ellen Ogintz Fishman, director of Schechter Holocaust Services at Jewish Family & Children's Services, which funds the cafe. "The hope is they will socialize outside of Cafe Hakalah."
Stephan and Paulina Fedoruk, for instance, are driven in from Stoneham, where they care for their grandchildren and teach them a little Russian. Transportation and refreshments are provided by Generations After, an organization of the children of survivors.
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