Miriam and Yehuda Goldman both endured the horrors of the Holocaust as teenagers in Europe. A native of Belgium, Miriam was hidden by a Christian family in a small Belgian village. Her father was killed by the Nazis; her mother survived. Yehuda, who was born in Poland, lost all of his family in the Shoah. "Many died in the ghetto and the others perished in Auschwitz," he says. Yehuda was interred in Auschwitz, survived the death march to Buchenwald, and was liberated from that camp at the end of the war.

Cared for by UNRWA, Yehuda remained in Germany for two months and then was taken to Paris. From there, he departed for Israel, arriving in October 1945. Miriam came to Israel with Youth Aliyah in 1946. Her mother joined her two years later. The first address in Israel for both Miriam and Yehuda was the Ben Shemen residential village, where they learned Hebrew, studied agriculture-and met each other. They both served in the IDF and married in 1949. Yehuda's army posting brought them to the then-tiny town of Beersheva. "After he completed his army service, Yehuda got a job working for the Mekorot water company in the Negev," says Miriam. "So we stayed in Beersheva."

Miriam worked for the Ministry of Absorption in the city for 20 years. Two years ago, when AMCHA opened a branch in Beersheva, Miriam became coordinator of its moadon-social club. Today, as she and her husband are being honored by the Beersheva municipality among the city's founders who are Holocaust survivors, Miriam is still helping Beersheva and its residents make new strides. In just one recent project, she coordinated a series of meetings and holiday celebrations between a class of local high school students and survivors at the AMCHA moadon. "The survivors are delighted that the joy of youth has been introduced into their lives," Miriam reports. "And the teenagers never imagined that they could have such a meaningful connection with the survivor generation."

	Menachem Perlmutter
	Baruch Fettman
	Amb. Benjamin Navon
	Prof. Zvi Eyal
	Shmuel Armal