The Survivor Mitzvah Project

Giving direct financial aid to Holocaust survivors still living in Eastern Europe.

Mission Statement

The Survivor Mitzvah Project is 100% dedicated to providing direct financial aid through donations to those elderly and forgotten Jewish Holocaust survivors scattered throughout Eastern Europe who are sick, impoverished, and isolated. Their families and communities destroyed by the Nazis, they struggle to survive in their few remaining years, lacking the means to buy even the most basic of human necessities: food, medicine, heat and shelter. Most live alone in horrific conditions. Our project, by bringing help quickly and directly to these Holocaust survivors, helps ensure that they may live out their last years with some measure of comfort, support, and dignity.

Although this situation is urgent and dire, this crisis can be totally resolved with financial aid and donations.

Chic Wolk, Founder & Zane Buzby, Director
The Survivor Mitzvah Project
2658 Griffith Park Blvd. Ste. #299
Los Angeles, California

Please join this grassroots project which saves the lives of Jewish Holocaust survivors one at a time. In a world spinning out of control with so much "evil" it is really a wonderful feeling to be a part of something meaningful and good.

It is our great hope that these people who have suffered so much already will not be forgotten in their final years. We have already changed the lives of over 300 people and we hope you can help us help the rest. This matter is urgent as so many of the people on our list are in their late 80's and 90's (a few over 100 years old!)

Survivor dwelling in Odessa

Along with this aid, we provide friendship and hope to these survivors who are alone or lonely. With the collapse of the Soviet Union and the rampant governmental embezzlement in the Ukraine during Perestroika, most of these elderly people have had their bank accounts depleted or their meager "pensions" reduced to almost nothing. For the elderly Jews in Ukraine, Moldova, Lithuania, Slovakia and Belarus, time is running out – there is not enough money to buy food, let alone medications.

For many of these elderly and forgotten people, the war never really ended, as each day brings more illness and misery.

Here are just a few photos of some of the people we help.



Malka, Belarus (born in 1910, she lives alone, has outlived children)	Sonia, Belarus (born in 1909)	Rakhil, Belarus (born in 1912)	Ester and handicapped daughter. Lived in shack with no water until able to move.	Fanya, Belarus (blind and ill, no money for needed medications)

The list goes on and on. We correspond with all of these people and they are incredibly appreciative of the help they receive. They call us "The Angels in America." Along with this aid, we provide friendship and hope to these survivors who are alone or lonely. As Fanya from Belarus writes, "...when we read your letter we cried because of how much you love us."

Presently, we are seeking funds so that the over 700 people on our list will receive adequate food, heat, shelter and medicines and be cared for on a regular basis. We have also just been sent a list of the needy in Moldova, the poorest country in Europe.

The situation in Moldova is terrible with elderly Jewish women having to beg on the streets in order to survive.

Unfortunately, we do not have the funds to help them at this time.

Any donation is a lifesaver.


Boris and Anya before aid.		Boris and Anya 1 year after aid.

We try to make sure that each person will receive at least $1.00 per day. That buys them food for a month and a little extra can provide heat or the medications they so desperately need. Our list of people keeps growing as we uncover more elderly Jews in remote areas.

Any amount, large or small, is a great help and will surely save lives. We are desperate to get aid to these people as time is running out. Please make your donation today!

All donations to the Survivor Mitzvah Project are tax deductible.

The Survivor Mitzvah Project
(800) 905-6160

Download more information
about the Survivor Mitzvah Project.
Click here.

The Survivor Mitzvah Project considers all Jewish Men, Women and Children who experienced the Holocaust, "Survivors," whether they were in ghettos, concentration camps, partisan groups, the Russian Army, the Gulag, slave labor camps, or whether they were hidden or fled to Russia to escape the killing squads. In every case, the German War machine decimated lives and entire families, and these survivors were left with nothing. Because the definition of "Survivor" used by the German government to determine reparation is narrow, many elderly people receive no compensation at all, even though they suffered tremendously under the Nazis and in post war Soviet times. The Survivor Mitzvah Project seeks to help these people who receive no reparations from the German government. The Survivor Mitzvah Project complements, rather than duplicates, the fine work being done by major organizations such as the JDC and other charitable and humanitarian groups.

The Survivor Mitzvah Project is a project of the Friends of the Vilnius Yiddish Institute a non-profit 501 (c ) (9) organization.