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The Ongoing Impact of Trauma
There’s nothing simple about trauma. Holocaust survivors of New York reckon with their past every day, even as they navigate an evolving world and the normal process of aging. Many of them live in poverty, many of them live alone. It’s our job to make sure they don’t feel alone.
Brooklyn has one of the highest populations of Holocaust survivors in the world. The median age of a survivor in New York state is 86. We made a name for ourselves caring for survivors, with both compassion and a strong clinical lens on case management.
A Community of Survivors in Brooklyn
Today we still do everything we can to support their resilience. Ohel provides counseling, support groups, screening for conditions like depression, and care coordination across New York City and beyond. At the same time, we’re doing our best to do something more intangible – reaching out to people where they are, in their own language, and helping them to feel like part of a larger community.
As time goes on, we’ve extended some services to the families of our survivors, too – whether that means caregiver support and education, or counseling services for second- and third-generation survivors. Caring for individuals means caring for a community.
A Legacy of Care Beyond the Holocaust
Our experience working with survivors has prepared us to work with older adults who have survived other life-defining traumas – refugees from Vietnam, members of the LGBTQ community who lived through the HIV/AIDS epidemic, and more. Still, caring for Holocaust survivors remains at the core of what we do.