Moishe House Hosts Dinner with George Rishfeld

Moishe House–East Atlanta recently hosted a Shabbat dinner with a Holocaust survivor.

“This program was very meaningful. We first met George Rishfeld at an Oct. 7 Commemoration Dinner (hosted through Onetable), where he mentioned that while it is very important to him to spread his story to as many people as possible, he particularly wants to spread his story to non-Jewish people as well as Jews,” a Moishe House spokesperson said.

After the dinner, Moishe House residents, Arielle Stravitz, Mitch, and Shafir, came up with the idea to host a Shabbat dinner through Moishe House where Rishfeld could share his story, and where the group would encourage Jewish community members to invite their non-Jewish friends, partners, and colleagues. Moishe House officials decided on January, in honor of International Holocaust Remembrance Day.

About 30 people came to the dinner, roughly one-third of whom were non-Jewish guests.

“We did the Shabbat blessings and then sat down so that George could share his story. He shared some truly incredible experiences of luck during the Holocaust, including the time that, as a young child who was hiding with a non-Jewish family, a Nazi asked him where his mother was and he said ‘the ghetto,’ having no understanding of what that meant, but fortunately, his words were unclear enough that the Nazi misheard him. He also spent a while talking about the many decades of life he lived after the Holocaust, including his successful career (despite antisemitism he experienced), his family, and his large collection of cowboy boots,” a spokesperson said. “Lastly, he talked about rising antisemitism in today’s society, and the importance of taking that seriously, and talking to people in order to educate them. He shared that he believed that the Holocaust teaches us that people can be easily brainwashed and it’s something we all need to be aware of.

“Afterwards, we ate dinner and had a Q&A. People had so many questions that the event lasted almost three hours total. Several community members came up to us afterwards to thank us for hosting this event and to share how memorable and special the opportunity to hear from George was.”