April 10, 2020
R OCKLAND NEWS
A different world
Caring for the dead, comforting mourners in a pandemic

Barry Wien’s grandfather used to tell him stories about the 1918 Spanish Influenza pandemic.

“You could talk to somebody one day — and the next day they died,” Mr. Wien, of Eden Memorial Chapel in Fort Lee, recalls his grandfather Herman Wien saying.
Rockland museum offers Holocaust video testimony

The Holocaust Museum & Center for Tolerance and Education in Suffern offers clips of interactive educational video testimonies called the “Survivors’ Project.” The videos were produced and directed by Paul Galan, a Holocaust survivor.

The survivors featured in the video clips are local to the lower Hudson Valley region and many were active in founding the Holocaust Museum. Though some of them have died since they were filmed, their memory lives on with their shared stories.

For more information, call (845) 574-4099 or go to  holocauststudies.org .
OJC offers supportive small group meetings

In response to the need for social distancing, quarantine, concerns about illness, worry for loved ones, unknown work conditions, and grief for ourselves and our friends, the Orangetown Jewish Center in Orangeburg offers a virtual weekly support group. A volunteer mental health professional will lead the group, ideally with five participants, to help counter feeling of isolation.

For more information, send an email to OJC.Chesed@gmail.com .

The gatherings are not intended to be therapeutic groups. If you live in Rockland County and need group therapy, call Rockland Jewish Family Service at (845) 354-2121, ext. 140, or email reception@rjfs.org .
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