The relentless flow of troubling news can be hard for even the most world-weary to digest. For Holocaust survivors, some images and headlines cut especially deep.

More than 50 Holocaust survivors from the Five Towns and other parts of Nassau County gathered at the Five Towns Premier Rehabilitation and Nursing Center in Woodmere on Oct. 29 for a “coffeehouse” get-together.

One day after school I walked into an office building in midtown Manhattan feeling a mix of nervousness and excitement. I was there to meet other high school students and older adults at the nonprofit Selfhelp Community Services. I heard about Selfhelp’s Witness Theater program from my sister so I knew that the older adults we would be working with are not ordinary New Yorkers – they are all Holocaust survivors.

Assemblyman Jeffrey Dinowitz (A.D. 81) and Councilman Eric Dinowitz (C.D. 11), both of whom broadly represent the northwest Bronx, joined attendees and officials from Selfhelp Community Services on Thursday, Sept. 18, when the organization hosted its latest “Coffee House” event at the Hebrew Institute of Riverdale, part of an event series dedicated to Holocaust survivors. 

For eight Long Island residents, the stories of surviving the Holocaust remain just as vivid over eight decades later.

Holocaust survivors from across Queens gathered for a “Coffee House” celebration hosted by Selfhelp Community Services on Wednesday, June 4, marking Holocaust Survivor Day.

Holocaust survivors from Long Island will join a discuss about antisemitism on Thursday.

Susan Kalev, 80, lives in a two-bedroom apartment in Washington Heights. On a sunny spring day, you’ll find her three cats zooming around her apartment, surrounded by gallery walls of photos documenting Kalev’s long and full life.