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Summaries of Lecture Series for Children of Holocaust Survivors: “Our Parents, Ourselves, Our Changing Lives”

The document available at this link holds a collection of summaries of a lecture series entitled “Our Parents, Ourselves, Our Changing Lives” for children of Holocaust survivors.

The ten meetings took place monthly in Boro Park, Brooklyn, between May 2016 and June 2017, and were made possible by Bikur Cholim Chesed Organization, with support from the Center for Advancing Holocaust Survivor Care of the Jewish Federations of North America.

The group was intended for individuals who wished to discuss issues they experience in caring for their aging Holocaust survivor parents, and also for those who no longer have parents who are alive but wished to gather with other children of survivors for a sense of community and to discuss the unique ways that their experiences as children of survivors color other aspects of their own lives. Each meeting included a lecture focused on a topic and a discussion that followed. The summaries of the lectures are presented in the order that they took place. The topics discussed included many aspects in the lives of the second generation, with an emphasis on enhancing current relationships and self-understanding, and improving the capacity for joyful and healthy aging.

As a child of survivors and the facilitator of these meetings, it has been a moving and meaningful connection for me. These lectures gave me a precious opportunity to share the knowledge we have accumulated about the impact of trauma on the survivors and their children, while pointing to the ways in which we can continue to transform ourselves and amplify our resilient and life-affirming legacy.

             Irit Felsen

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