Gurwin Jewish Assisted Living Residents Participate in Holocaust Memorial Day Global Social Media Campaign

The World Jewish Congress this week launched the largest global event ever to commemorate the holocaust, via a #WeRemember international social media campaign. People around the world were encouraged to upload to Twitter and Facebook photos of themselves displaying “WeRemember” signs.

In the days leading up to today’s observation of Holocaust Memorial Day -- the 72nd anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp -- supporters worldwide posted their #WeRemember photos to social media, which were then live-streamed on a jumbotron at Poland’s notorious camp, Auschwitz, near crematorium 2. Resident survivors at Gurwin Jewish~Fay J. Lindner Residences, an assisted living community in Commack, were honored to be part of the campaign.

World Jewish Congress noted several reasons for the critical nature of the global social media movement: the dwindling number of survivors, the ongoing occurrence of genocides, and the need to educate future generations about the atrocities of the holocaust. Robert Singer, World Jewish Congress CEO, noted the importance of the campaign, hoping it would “engage the next generation, because soon it will be their responsibility to tell the story and ensure that humanity never forgets.”

In all, seven Gurwin assisted living residents, including survivors of the Bergen-Belsen and Auschwitz concentration camps, posed with their “We Remember” signs, some fulfilling promises to family members who perished in the genocide, to “live to tell the story,” and others eager to participate in a remembrance project with an international reach.

“My father told me to do everything I could to survive, to get out and tell the world what was happening,” said Sally Birnbaum, an Auschwitz survivor, now living at Gurwin. The World Jewish Congress made it possible for Sally, and thousands of others, to be sure that the world never forgets.

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About Gurwin

Founded in 1988 in Commack, NY as a skilled nursing care facility, Gurwin has expanded to include a full-range of health care options, such as long-term care, short-term rehabilitation, ventilator-dependent care, hospice and palliative care, memory care, on-site dialysis, an adult day health program and two home care programs. The Gurwin family also includes a 201-apartment assisted living community -- Gurwin Jewish~ Fay J. Lindner Residences -- and a proposed independent living community to be built on the Commack campus. For more information, visit www.gurwin.org.