Sunday, October 4, 2026
A local Holocaust survivor was honored at a special ceremony, where he was invited to help restore a historic Torah scroll nearly lost before World War II.
Fred Zeilberger, 94, endured five different concentration camps, beginning just before his 12th birthday.
After losing his entire family in the Holocaust, he moved to the United States in 1947 and served in the Korean War, start his own business and raise a family in New York.
He was invited to contribute to the pre-Holocaust Torah, a scroll originally hidden by a non-Jewish neighbor in Poland to hide it from the Nazis. The Torah was damaged and is now being rebuilt letter by letter by Holocaust survivors across the world.
Zeilberger wrote the Hebrew letter Lamed—which represents the letter L—in memory of Leah, a relative who died in the Holocaust, and his daughter Linda.
A resident of The Bristal at North Woodmere, Zeilberger said that he sharing his story is important so that it is never forgotten.
“I used to speak about it all the time, I spoke all over the world,” Zeilberger said. “Thirty years ago I never spoke about it, but now, there are less Holocaust survivors alive, all my friends, I am the only one left, and there is nobody talking about it.”
Jonny Daniel, 39, is the founder of the From the Depths Foundation, an organization that aims to educate younger generations about the horrors of the Holocaust.
Daniel established the group in 2013 and has been traveling the world visiting Holocaust survivors with the Survivor Torah, having them contribute to restoring the scroll.
He spoke to around 100 residents at the Israel Chesed Center on July 1, about the importance of learning about the Holocaust as well as the events of Oct. 7, 2023, when Hamas attacked Israel.
He said that it is important that the younger generation learn about the past in order to better understand the present.
“Even in the context of Oct. 7, and this rise of antisemitism that we’re seeing around the world, when the experiences are able to be shared from a Holocaust survivor, somebody who has lived through the most difficult days of the Jewish people in recent history, it enables us, the younger generation and every participant to have an understanding and balance of how they view the situation today,” Daniel said.
“Yes, it is hard, yes, it is difficult, but the situation for Jews today is the best it has been in 3000 years, throughout all of the difficulties context is remarkably important and historical context is remarkably important as well, and when we learn from our past, we are definitely better suited and able to be in a better position in terms of how we are dealing with the present,” he added.
Moshe Bodner, a co-founder of the Israel Chesed Center, added to this and said the organization like hosting these events to educate the younger generation and the community on ways to contribute.
“Because we’re approaching this sort of last generation, you know, of survivors in 10 years there might not be any survivors left,” Bodner said. “Working with survivors, at the same time, can help raise awareness about what is going on in Israel, and possibly what can we do as a community to strengthen the Jewish people.”
