After more than a year of irregular meetings due to the pandemic and recent war conflict, May 26th was a night for celebration and community for the survivors in Netanya. Bozena Gasiorowski, president of Helping Hand Coalition, attended this joined Shalom House event in Netanya. Hosted by Mila Kornish, leader of The Promised Home, the room was filled with forty excited survivors. 

As Mila welcomed everyone to the evening’s festivities, the room glowed in a golden hue from the mural of the famous portrait of Adele Bloch-Bauer I (also known as The Woman in Gold), bringing to mind the symbol of cultural identity the painting brought to Europe when it was returned to its rightful owner after being stolen by the Nazis during WWII.

Having lived through some of the darkest days in Jewish history, it is always an incredible sight to watch the survivors embrace their cultural identity, congregating with an energy that far exudes most people their age! They wanted to feel alive, and the Shalom House event gave them the chance to be free after a year of uncertainty and difficulties.

After Mila had introduced the night, reciting original poetry to honor the birthdays of a survivor and Boris Tsirolnik, a representative from Netanya’s municipality, who also shared a few words of appreciation, the night’s performer took to the stage. Evgeny, who recently made Aliyah from Ukraine, brought the room to life with his voice and violin, taking the audience from Italy with his version of Domenico Modugno’s Volare to their homeland with the famous Soviet Victory Day anthem. The colorful paintings on the walls seemed to join the celebration, dancing with the survivors as they waltzed around the room with their partners! It was a night no one wanted to end! 

Thank you to all the sponsors for helping make this event possible! We look forward to many more events to come! 

Click here to see full photo album: https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=HelpingHandCoalition&set=a.3684592611640450