Brookline Rabbi Helps Holocaust Survivors Get Vaccinated

BROOKLINE, MA — A Brookline rabbi helped dozens of Holocaust survivors and their children get vaccinated against the coronavirus on Feb. 25. They'll be back again for their second dose within the next 28 days.

"They didn’t survive the war and all the things they went through to be stuck at home because of COVID," Brookline Rabbi Dani Eskow said. "They should be living their fullest lives and right now a lot of them are isolated."

Eskow, who started OnlineJewishLearning, has worked with Holocaust survivors in Greater Boston with the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors and Descendants of Greater Boston for several years because her husband’s grandparents were survivors.

When the vaccine became available, Eskow knew she wanted to help ensure people who weren't as tech-savvy as she was get the vaccine. She spoke with her sister Dr. Marisa Tieger, a physician at Massachusetts Eye and Ear, and it wasn't long before they were hashing out a plan to reach out to Holocaust survivors in the area.

Eskow reached out to Congregation Kehillath Israel in Coolidge Corner to see if they might be able to let them use the space, to the owner of the Brookline clinic where she had gotten vaccinated to see if he might be interested in helping to supply the vaccine and to the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors to see if they would help connect with survivors.

Everyone was all in, she said.

She started calling survivors that she knew and made her way down the list of phone numbers that the association had to see if anyone needed help getting a vaccination.

Some people said yes, a lot had already gotten vaccinated, and a few numbers were disconnected, she said.

But within 24 hours of launching the project, 14 survivors were signed up to get the vaccine. In another day that number had doubled. When the governor announced that the vaccinations were opened to those 65 and older, children of survivors joined the clinic, adding two dozen more people to the list. In the end they vaccinated 120 people.

There are about 4,000 survivors living in the state, according to the American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors. The youngest are in their 80s.

The project was a hit.

As news got out that Eskow was working to reach as many Holocaust survivors in the area as possible, people jumped out of the woodwork to volunteer to help, she said.

Her main goal was to get survivors vaccinated. But a secondary goal was to help relieve some of the isolation that comes with the pandemic.

"If we can make them feel like part of a community after being isolated so long then to me that’s as important as giving them the vaccine, making them feel appreciated and heard and not alone," Eskow said.

Volunteers lined up to sit, and talk with the survivors and their children during the 15 minutes they were asked to sit following their shots.

"The thing that's really cool is how many people got excited about it," she said. "Just seeing that we’re not the only ones who care about this community and that everybody is interested in protecting these unbelievable people. They [the survivors] are gems, and they are rare unfortunately these days, and we have to take care of them."

Dr. Justin Holtzman, who has been running his own clinic at the University of Massachusetts Amherst, provided the vaccine for the clinic. He said it was a natural extension of his goal to help get as many people vaccinated as he can.

"It is especially meaningful to help give back to a community that clearly sacrificed so much during WWII," he said.

The effort was not lost on local survivors.

Tania Lefman, 92, of Wellesley, remembers when the Nazis invaded in 1939 when she was 12. She survived the Koretz ghetto. When her husband got out of the work camps, he was 80 pounds, she said. Eventually she and her husband came to the United States to start a new life here.

Although she was able to secure both of her vaccine shots elsewhere, Eskow's father-in-law was like a brother to Lefman and her husband. So when she heard about the project she said she was proud.

"She did such a wonderful thing that God will appreciate what she did for survivors," Lefman said in a phone interview. "Imagine, vaccinating 120 people. She saved their lives. She not only [made appoints to get] the vaccine for them, but she made sure to pay for it. They're an amazing family, I just love them. There's no word to express it more."

Jenna Fisher is a news reporter for Patch. Got a tip? She can be reached at Jenna.Fisher@patch.com or by calling 617-942-0474. Follow her on Twitter and Instagram (@ReporterJenna). Have a something you'd like posted on the Patch? Here's how.