A survivor herself, Yaffa Eliach has accomplished a staggering amount in commemorating the Holocaust. Throughout, she has focused not only on the deaths of the residents of the vanished shtetlach, but also on their lives.
Rabbi Eliach nods. “I think you had to already be something special just to survive the war,” he says. “You had to manage your life every second, to make sure you had that extra sip of water, that extra scrap of blanket to lie on. The people who came through were fighters from the beginning. Yaffa always had that drive.”
“But how does she find so many people who help fund her work and make it happen?” I persist, still amazed that this diminutive lady with the gentle voice has managed to coordinate gargantuan, wildly expensive projects like building Holocaust museums.
Rabbi Eliach smiles. “Yaffa has a way of making friends and getting to know people,” he says. “She can sit on a train and strike up a lifelong friendship.”
I see what he means; before I leave, Yaffa insists that her husband take a picture of us on the balcony of the apartment. We go out, and she puts an arm around me. After several hours of absorbing conversation, the Eliachs are starting to feel like family.
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