How a Zoom Meet Reunited Two Holocaust Survivors And Long Lost Friends, 7 Decades Later

Holocaust survivors Ruth Brandspiegel and Israel “Sasha” Eisenberg call their reunion a miracle that began on the holiest day in Judaism, and it only happened thanks to a prayer service that was held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. More than 70 years later, Brandspiegel, now a Philadelphia resident, heard a familiar name being called out in a Yom Kippur service held in late September via Zoom by her son’s synagogue in East Brunswick, New Jersey. “I said … just take a look.’” After some back-and-forth on the phone with the Eisenberg family, Larry called with the good news: It was indeed her beloved childhood friend. “I even didn’t know that Regina was in America!” said Eisenberg, 79, using Brandspiegel’s original name which she adapted to Ruth after moving to America. After some weeks in Ukraine, her family was sent to a labor camp in Siberia and later to the Ural Mountains, “where it was a little warmer.” After the war they briefly went back to Poland but left with the help of Jewish organizations to the Hallein Displaced Persons Camp in Austria, in 1946, where they befriended a family that hailed from their same hometown.