SOFIA, A HOLOCAUST SURVIVOR in the Chicago area, has faced countless challenges over the years. As with so many other Jews who were in Europe during World War II, she has sustained her share of loss and trauma. She is also, according to social service professionals working in the survivor community, among the approximately one-third of Holocaust survivors in this country living below the poverty line. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
As if that\u2019s not difficult enough, Sofia has had significant dental problems, not uncommon among Holocaust survivors, who went without oral hygiene during the Shoah. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
But thanks to an initiative that launched more than six years ago, Sofia and more than 200 other local survivors are getting the dental attention they need. That initiative, the Alpha Omega-Henry Schein Cares Holocaust Survivors Oral Health Program, was established out of a federal push to create public-private partnerships that would ensure that survivors without means would receive long overdue care at no cost to them. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Aviva Sufian, an Obama Administration appointee who became in 2014 the Special Envoy to Holocaust Survivor Services, approached Henry Schein, one of the world\u2019s largest distributors of medical and dental office supplies, to participate in the initiative. Henry Schein quickly signed on. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In turn, Henry Schein approached the Alpha Omega International Dental Society, a historically Jewish professional organization and the oldest international dental society, to fulfill the mission of providing free dental care to Holocaust survivors in need. Alpha Omega\u2019s members, the vast majority of whom are Jewish dentists, responded enthusiastically\u2014particularly those in metropolitan Chicago, which has a large and active Alpha Omega chapter. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Chicago became one of nine initial pilot sites to implement the program, relying on CJE SeniorLife, a JUF agency, and its Holocaust Community Services program to screen appropriate clients. The ARK, another JUF partner, also works with Henry Schein Cares to provide free dental services to the survivor community. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
One of the first dentists to whom the HCS program turned for assistance was Dr. Laurie Gordon-Shaw. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gordon-Shaw, a Chicago native and active, longtime Alpha Omega member, continues to provide pro bono services to Holocaust survivors to this day. During the height of the pandemic, clad in COVID-protective gear, she visited patients\u2019 homes to attend to urgent needs. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIn my experience,\u201d said Gordon-Shaw, who has practiced for 33 years, \u201csurvivors lost a tremendous number of teeth early on in their life\u201d because figuring out how to stay alive in Nazi-torn Europe took precedence over every other need. Many years later, she noted, as so many survivors are scraping by, they have often had to \u201cchoose between food or care.\u201d Gordon-Shaw said that it has been \u201cmeaningful to me to give back\u201d to the survivor community through the Alpha Omega-Schein program. She is hardly the only Chicago area dentist to feel so. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
In Evanston, Alpha Omega member Dr. Adina Silberman\u2014one of this year\u2019s 36 Under 36 honorees\u2014is working to make sure that survivors\u2019 dental needs are satisfied. This work has particular resonance for her, she said: Both of her maternal grandparents were survivors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cIt\u2019s very personal,\u201d Silberman said, adding that it has been enriching to hear her patients\u2019 stories of love and survival. \u201cWe build these tremendous bonds.\u201d <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Gordon-Shaw, Silberman, and the 40 or so Alpha Omega dentists in the Chicago area offering free care have been able to call upon the Prospect Heights-based Golden Ceramic Dental Lab to supply, gratis, the dental products their patients need. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Cydney Topaz, who owns the business with her husband, Ben Topaz, said giving back to survivors has special meaning for them both. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cHe thought it would be a wonderful way to honor his grandparents,\u201d who were Holocaust survivors, she said of her husband. As for Cydney Topaz, who once worked in the Jewish community, the ability to connect with the survivors has brought her \u201cback to Jewish communal life in a way I didn\u2019t expect,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
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