A group of Polish Christians who risked their own lives to help Jews during the Holocaust were brought together Sunday to be honored by a New York City-based Jewish organization that provides financial aid to these rescuers – an attempt to give back something to people who gave the gift of life to thousands of Jews in Europe’s darkest days.
“Words are truly inadequate to express the gratitude of the Jewish people to each and every one of you,” Stanlee Stahl, executive vice president of the Jewish Foundation for the Righteous, said to 35 rescuers.
In a short speech, Stahl called them “the precious few who chose not to be bystanders.”
The organization was founded in 1986 by a rabbi who wanted to fulfil a traditional Jewish commitment of seeking out and recognizing goodness, called “hakarat hatov” in Hebrew. The foundation’s main role is to supplement state pensions and provide rescuers with medication, hearing aids or other medical support that they might not otherwise have in a nation where state pensions and medical services remain meager.
