Chaya Lasson, R.N., BridgingLife’s director of Jewish hospice and palliative care, knew that hospice patient Israel Gruzin was a man of great faith. When she would drop in to visit him, he would give her a blessing, often in Yiddish. He was well loved in the Jewish community. The pews and bookshelves he crafted as a custom woodworker adorned many of the community’s synagogues.
He was also a Holocaust survivor, one who had spent his 13th birthday—typically a milestone birthday in the Jewish faith—imprisoned in a concentration camp.
