Dear Friends,
I want to thank the many of you who have generously given your time and completed the online questionnaire that I will be using in a study of the responses of 2G’s and American Jewish comparison peers to the Hamas attack on October 7 and the events that have followed it. (The study was announced in my previous blog post, which can be found at this link. That post includes more details and my description of the purpose of the study.)
We are still looking for more volunteers to fill out the survey, so I want to ask any of you who have not yet done so and who might still find the time, to please help us in this study. We also need non-Holocaust related peers, so please disseminate the link to your spouses and other relatives and friends, and our gratitude will go to all of them. The link to the online study (which is completely anonymous) can be found by clicking here.
With warmest regards,
Irit
I answered the survey for 2nd generation survivors. I feel the survey did not allow me to convey my experience since my parents did not talk about their experience. They were paranoid and overprotective of their 4 children. I left home at 19 to live with a Catholic family they knew. I broke their heart. I think I had a good upbringing. The problems started when I was a teenager , around the age they were taken captive.
I suffer from anxiety. I tried to give my children a normal upbringing exposing them to different ethnic people, theatre, music and cultures. Although I married a catholic my children knew about the Jewish traditions. My son became aA modern religious Lubavitcher. My daughter celebrates both traditions with her children . Her husband was also a product of an interfaith marriage. I have a good relationship with both families. The Hamas war does trigger comparisons with the Holocaust. It does stress me. And it does give me a hopeless feeling especially with the world’s views on Jewish people. It is very sad that they can’t see us as human beings trying to do the best for themselves and the world. Too bad these views are not universal. I have to say I have always felt different even from other Jews.
Dear Evelyn!
My sincere gratitude to you for completing the survey. I am very interested in knowing more about questions you might have found important to include, which were not there.
Your story is very complex, as are so many of our stories. Nothing was simple in the lives built after such a catastrophic Holocaust.
It is heart warming that you have good relationships with both your children and their families.
Thank you again,
Irit