Therapy dogs comfort Holocaust survivors at Brooklyn community center amid Israel-Hamas war
NEW YORK - The NYPD Hate Crimes Dashboard shows 26 confirmed antisemitic incidents between Oct. 7, 2023, and the start of this year -- that's more attacks against Jews than any other group.
At a community center in Brighton Beach, dozens of Holocaust survivors from Southern Brooklyn come together every month, a small reunion organized by the Jewish Community Councils of Greater Coney Island and Shorefront.
Since Hamas' terrorist attack against Israel in October and a spate of antisemitic incidents worldwide, many of the meetings have begun to look a little different. On Thursday, 12 puppies were brought to the center to provide therapy for those suffering from post-traumatic stress, having witnessed the deadliest day for Jews since the Holocaust.
"It's been difficult for a lot of our clients. A lot of our survivors are having a hard time coping emotionally with everything going on globally to the Jewish community," Zehava Birman Wallace, the Program Director of the JCC of Greater Coney Island, tells CBS New York's Hannah Kliger.
Sofia Grodski and her family fled the advancing Nazis during World War II from Kyiv, Ukraine, when she was a child. They ended up in Makhachkala, in the Russian Caucasus. In Russian, she explained that the battle with antisemitism was a lifelong struggle that didn't end when she came here.
"I lived in Israel between the '90s and 2000. We had wars, but they were short-lived, they were just a few days. There was no such sadism, such cruelty. People need to know, we must never forget," she said.
All of JCCGCI's programs for Holocaust survivors are funded by the Claims Conference, which fights for compensation for Jews and victims of Nazi persecution worldwide.
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