Holocaust Survivors, Homebound FL Seniors Get Vaccine Priorities

FLORIDA — Some of Florida’s most vulnerable residents will receive 1,500 COVID-19 vaccines this week in a pilot program that focuses on inoculating homebound seniors and Holocaust survivors statewide.

Gov. Ron DeSantis told reporters at Aventura Turnberry Jewish Center north of Miami on Thursday that 750 Holocaust survivors and their spouses are included in the 1,500 that will receive the shot.

A leader in the congregation said the synagogue has proudly helped more than 600 seniors and 50 Holocaust survivors obtain appointments for the vaccine within the last three weeks. He described that as love and mitzvah.

“Words can hardly express how meaningful this effort has been after all this time apart so deeply rewarding,” the congregation leader said, “and tremendously fulfilling to finally see the smiling eyes of our older congregants.”

Holocaust survivor 83-year-old Judy Rodan, who is homebound, was the first to receive a vaccine at the center on Thursday. Rodan shared with DeSantis her Holocaust experiences.

“She was orphaned, she was in Auschwitz, she escaped, and thankfully has been able to live a long and fruitful life,” DeSantis said. “But everyone else in her family was taken, killed, in the Holocaust.”

The leader said the Jewish faith teaches that when one life is saved, it’s as if the entire world has been saved.

“I know that this command is shared in Christianity and in Islam,” he said. “Our Torah teaches us interestingly this week to honor our parents, it’s one of the top 10 and by extension our grandparents. As Jews, we are taught to stand up before those with gray hair, to honor the face of the elderly. The Bible implores us ‘do not cast me off in old age.’”

DeSantis said the state will contact Jewish organizations to identify Holocaust survivors who want the vaccines.Florida added 7,711 new coronavirus cases as of Thursday, according to the Florida

Department of Health. Total number of statewide cases since the start of the pandemic is 1,752,330; hospitalizations are 73,631; and coronavirus-related deaths are 27,698.