AEEJ Association of East-European Jewry

07/02/2026

🇺🇸 Happy 4th of July! 🇺🇸
Celebrating 250 years of America and the enduring values of freedom, opportunity, and unity.
Wishing everyone a joyful, safe, and happy Independence Day!
❤️🤍💙 Happy 250th Birthday, America! 🇺🇸

06/26/2026

The Association of East-European Jewry invites everyone who honors the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and those who were brutally murdered in Israel on October 7, to join us for the 23rd Annual Memorial Gathering, “No One is Forgotten, Nothing is Forgotten.”
🕯 The gathering will be held on The Association of East-European Jewry invites everyone who honors the memory of the six million Jews who perished in the Holocaust, and those who were brutally murdered in Israel on October 7, to join us for the 23rd Annual Memorial Gathering, “No One is Forgotten, Nothing is Forgotten.”
🕯 The gathering will be held on Sunday, August 30, at 11:30 AM at Holocaust Memorial Park in Brooklyn, on the shore of Sheepshead Bay (corner of Emmons Avenue).
Together, we will light candles of remembrance, raise flags, and stand in silence to honor the innocent lives lost. The program will also include the award ceremony for the winners of the 15 Annual “Never Again” Youth Contest.

🕊 As a symbol of memory, hope, and peace, white doves will be released into the sky.

We invite you to come with your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
For if we forget the past, we will have no future. on the shore of Sheepshead Bay (corner of Emmons Avenue).
Together, we will light candles of remembrance, raise flags, and stand in silence to honor the innocent lives lost. The program will also include the award ceremony for the winners of the 15th Annual “Never Again” Youth Contest.

🕊 As a symbol of memory, hope, and peace, white doves will be released into the sky.

We invite you to come with your children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren.
For if we forget the past, we will have no future.

05/26/2026

‼️https://www.facebook.com/share/1DzZPPrsfa/?mibextid=wwXIfr

Step into the gritty streets of old New York. 🕵️‍♂️ From Meyer Lansky to “Dopey” Benny Fein, discover the real stories behind the Jewish gangsters who ruled the Lower East Side. Join our expert-led walking tour this Friday, May 29, at 1:30pm and uncover the city’s organized crime legacies.

📍Meet: Ottendorfer Library, 135 2nd Ave
🎟️ eldridgestreet.org/events



(credits: Bugsy Siegel center with lawyers Jerry Giesler (left) and Byron Hanna (right).; Everett Collection Inc.; Louis Buchalter at his sentencing in 1941. (U.S. Library of Congress): Bugsy Siegel Mugshot (myjewishlearning.com).

05/24/2026

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She survived Auschwitz, raised a son alone in Queens, and never remarried.
He became a rock star. She remained the strongest person he ever knew.

Flora Klein was born in 1925 in Hungary. A Jewish girl in a world that would try to erase her.

In 1944, when the N***s invaded Hungary, Flora was 19. Her family was rounded up, packed into cattle cars, and sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

She survived. One brother survived. The rest—parents, siblings, cousins—were murdered.

Flora was 19 when her world ended. She carried that weight for decades.

After liberation, she lived in displaced persons camps. She married. In 1949, in Haifa, she gave birth to Chaim Witz.

The marriage didn’t last. By 1958, Flora moved to New York with her 8-year-old son. She had no husband, no money, no English—just survival instinct.

They settled in Washington Heights, then Queens. Flora worked long hours in garment factories, stitching and sewing for little pay. She never remarried. She poured everything into raising her son.

Young Chaim didn’t fully understand the horrors his mother had survived. She rarely spoke of the camps. But he understood strength. He understood resilience.

Flora saw the fire in him. She scraped together coins to take him to his first play.
“I’m going to be an actor,” he told her.
She didn’t laugh. She nodded. “Then you will.”

Chaim became Kirk Douglas. Worked every job imaginable. Sent money home. Learned lessons she taught: nothing is impossible, survive by working harder than anyone else.

In 1955, Kirk founded his production company. He named it Bryna Productions.

1958. *The Vikings* premiered. Kirk brought his mother to Times Square. Ten-foot letters: “BRYNA PRESENTS THE VIKINGS.” Flora saw herself in print. She cried—finally recognized.

Three months later, she died at 93. Kirk held her hand.
“Izzy, my son, don’t be afraid. This happens to everyone.”

Flora Klein never sought fame. She survived by being invisible. But her legacy is everywhere—in arenas, in millions of records sold, in a son who built an empire on her survival.

Flora Klein, 1925–2018. Holocaust survivor. Mother. Rock-solid presence. She survived Auschwitz. She raised a legend. She taught the world how to endure.

Zichrona livracha. May her memory be a blessing.

05/22/2026

05/16/2026

❣️May 16 🇮🇱 Support and Vote #3 — Noam Bettan with the song “Michelle” at the Eurovision Song Contest 2026 🎶

Subscribe and 🔔 to Eurovision 👉 https://www.youtube.com/user/eurovision?sub_confirmation=1 ​Join us LIVE at 21:00 CEST on Saturday 16 May for the Eurovisio...

05/15/2026

Please 🙏 vote for Noam Bettan tomorrow!!!!

05/14/2026

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UJA is proud to co-sponsor this evening’s Israel Independence Day at the United Nations with Israel’s Ambassador to the United Nations Danny Danon - דני דנון and Israel at the UN.

Together, we celebrated the 78th Independence Day of the State of Israel.