As the years go by, the horrors of the Holocaust stay with us. While six million Jews were exterminated by the Nazis and their collaborators, some five million survived, mostly moving to the United States and to Israel. Nature has taken its course, and only some two hundred thousand survivors are still alive, the youngest among them over 80 years old.

In September 2024, Root Source CEO Gidon Ariel had the hallowed honor of meeting one of these survivors, 94-year-old Rabbi Eliyahu Dermer, resident of Geula in Meah Shearim, Jerusalem. The two hit it off, and Rabbi Dermer agreed to Gidon's offer to publish his memoirs through Root Source Press, the organization's publishing arm. The book, in English and later in Hebrew and other languages, is due by August 2025. Some 23 generous donors contributed to the covering of the cost of this effort.

Many Root Source friends have encouraged us to not rest on our laurels. We consider it a holy task to record more stories of these survivors' lives, including that of Gidon's father, who passed away in 2008 after recording his own life story.

We aim to publish 100 autobiographies of Holocaust survivors, thereby keeping their personal stories alive and joining the leaders of the holy effort to keep the national and universal stories and message of the Holocaust itself alive. This project will be done in cooperation with Yad Vashem, Israel's World Holocaust Remembrance Center located in Jerusalem.

We are looking for you, churches, middle- and high-schools, synagogues, individuals, prayer circles, and any other group that wants to "adopt" a Holocaust survivor and partner with Root Source to sponsor the publication of her or his life story. The budget includes interviews, photography, translation, editing, formatting, and project management, at a sponsorship rate of $7,000 per book.

We will match you to one of our survivors' stories, but if you have a story you'd like to suggest, we are open to that.

Each book will include a dedication page acknowledging its partner/donor/sponsor[s].

We trust that you recognize the imperative and urgency to publish this work, and will join us in enabling its critical message to be heard.

Please register here as a team so your friends and colleagues can be part of this special effort as well!

https://wemustnotforget.org/

About Root Source

Root Source exists to enable, encourage, and enrich relationships between pro-Israel Christians and Jews on a basis of mutual respect and love. It brings knowledgeable, authentic Israeli teachers and inquisitive Christians together to study the Jewish texts foundational to Christian faith.

The flagship program of Root Source brings Jewish teachers together with Christians to share Jewish wisdom, the root and source of both of these religions.

www.root-source.com

We Must Not Forget: Autobiographies of 100 Holocaust Survivors

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