Your Last Chance to Meet One of 196,000 Living Miracles

Almost every Friday afternoon for the past few years, I took my children to Reb Yosef Lefkovich's home. Reb Yosef was the sole survivor of an extended family of 150, a man who endured six concentration camps and was instrumental in capturing Amnon Goth, the commandant of the Plaszow concentration camp.

As we ate herring with crackers and drank a l’chaim, his stories began to flow. I watched my children sit transfixed as this 97-year-old man shared priceless life advice. My teenagers forgot their phones existed.

Here was a man who had every right to be broken. Instead, he chose purpose: hunting Nazis, rescuing orphaned children, spending his final decades teaching anyone who would listen.

Reb Yosef showed our family that the opposite of death is living a purposeful life.

My kids visiting Reb Yosef Lefkovich, of blessed memory

With his passing just over a year ago, there isn't a week that goes by that his name isn't mentioned in our house, that my kids don't talk about him in school, or that we don't look at his pictures without smiling. For my family, his mission lives on.

The Window Is Closing

With International Holocaust Remembrance Day this week, let’s take a moment to consider what we're about to lose.

Only 196,000 Holocaust survivors remain alive worldwide, according to new data from the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany, down from 220,000 just months ago.

Museums are racing to preserve what they can. In just a few years, when someone says "Auschwitz," you'll only be able to watch a recording. You won't be able to sit across from an actual person who was there.

A documentary cannot look you in the eye when you ask a difficult question. A hologram cannot pause mid-sentence because a memory has overwhelmed them. Technology cannot transform your teenager the way sitting with a real person can.

Zachor—Remember

The word "zachor", remember, appears throughout the Hebrew Bible. Jews are commanded to remember and learn from the past, to remember where you came from so you know where you're going.

As Elie Wiesel taught: "For whoever listens to a witness becomes a witness." You're taking on responsibility to carry that testimony forward.

You still have the opportunity to fulfill this obligation in the most direct way possible: by sitting with someone who lived through one of history's greatest atrocities and choosing to become a witness yourself.

Your Last Chance

Somewhere in your community, there's likely one of those 196,000 survivors who would welcome you into their home. Who has stories to share, wisdom to impart, and very little time left.

Talking to Reb Yosef

Too many survivors live alone, with few visitors, sometimes in neglected conditions. They need you as much as you need them.

If there's a Holocaust survivor in your community, reach out. Call them. Invite them for Shabbos. Bring your children and watch the transformation happen. Come regularly—the ongoing relationship changes both of you.

Ask what kept them going, how they rebuilt their lives, what they've learned about human nature, how they chose hope over despair.

Record their testimony and share it with organizations like USC Shoah Foundation or Yad Vashem. But the recording is for future generations. The relationship is for you, right now.

Make the call and bring your children.

Your last chance is now.