VOA常速英语2008年-Hollywood-based Charity Helps Jewish Holocaust

By Mike O'Sullivan
Los Angeles
15 April 2008

A Hollywood television director is helping¹ elderly Jewish survivors³ of the Holocaust⁴. Mike O'Sullivan reports, the effort began informally with a chance meeting in Eastern Europe.

Zane Busby got her start in Hollywood as an actress, appearing in films and television series. Then she became a director of television comedies.

But curiosity attracted her to another part of the world. In 2001, she decided⁵ to visit the towns where her grandparents had lived in Belarus and Lithuania. On her way, she stopped in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius, where she met linguist⁶ Dovid Katz, research director at the Yiddish Institute of Vilnius University.

"And he reached in his pocket and he took out a list of eight names and he said, would you mind very much visiting, it's kind of on your way, these eight people? They're very, very old. They're in their 90s. They're Holocaust survivors and they haven't had a visit from anyone, and it would be a really great thing for you to go visit them. I said, absolutely," she said.

She paid visits to the elderly people, brought them Yiddish-language newspapers, did some shopping for them and left them money.

After returning to Hollywood, she sent letters and cash. "Meanwhile this professor, Dovid Katz from Vilnius University, kept sending me more names of people and more names, and the list grew from eight to 30 to 80 to 150 to 200, 300, 400, 500 - now it's over 800 people, and there are probably thousands."

She says throughout Eastern Europe, there are elderly survivors of the Jewish villages or shtetls that were destroyed by the Nazis⁸.

What began as a personal effort grew into a charity called the Survivor² Mitzvah Project - mitzvah being the Hebrew word for good deed. It is a volunteer endeavor that sends financial aid to holocaust survivors in countries that include Lithuania, Latvia, Belarus, Slovakia, Ukraine and Moldova.

Busby says many recipients⁹ have survived years of hardship. The oldest lived through World War I as children, survived famine in the 1930s, and the Nazi⁷ killing¹⁰ squads¹¹ of World War II. Some were arrested in Soviet¹² times and spent time in gulags, forced labor¹³ camps.

"Now they may be the only Jew in their town or village. They may be the sole survivor of the killing fields. They may have been a partisan¹⁴ in the forest of Belarus when they were a teenager. They're all alone, without anyone, without a family. And they're the last people who experienced this," she said.

The survivor Mitzvah Project has no paid staff or offices. It gets word out over the Internet, and channels its aid through larger Jewish charities. Busby says it is an example of what she calls social entrepreneuring.

"It's very interesting to live in this global world, where people are saying, oh, there's a problem. Let's try to fix that, without government intervention¹⁵ and big corporations or anything, just people on a grassroots level trying to do some good in this world. So the Survivor Mitzvah Project is really social entrepreneuring. I didn't know that when we started it, but now I know it," she said.

She says the project has created bonds of friendship between its American supporters and elderly survivors of the Nazi Holocaust in Eastern Europe.

1 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

2 survivor   

n.生存者，残存者，幸存者

参考例句：

• The sole survivor of the crash was an infant.这次撞车的惟一幸存者是一个婴儿。
• There was only one survivor of the plane crash.这次飞机失事中只有一名幸存者。

3 survivors   

幸存者，残存者，生还者( survivor的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• The survivors were adrift in a lifeboat for six days. 幸存者在救生艇上漂流了六天。
• survivors clinging to a raft 紧紧抓住救生筏的幸存者

4 holocaust   

n.大破坏；大屠杀

参考例句：

• The Auschwitz concentration camp always remind the world of the holocaust.奥辛威茨集中营总是让世人想起大屠杀。
• Ahmadinejad is denying the holocaust because he's as brutal as Hitler was.内贾德否认大屠杀，因为他像希特勒一样残忍。

5 decided   

adj.决定了的，坚决的；明显的，明确的

参考例句：

• This gave them a decided advantage over their opponents.这使他们比对手具有明显的优势。
• There is a decided difference between British and Chinese way of greeting.英国人和中国人打招呼的方式有很明显的区别。

6 linguist   

n.语言学家；精通数种外国语言者

参考例句：

• I used to be a linguist till I become a writer.过去我是个语言学家，后来成了作家。
• Professor Cui has a high reputation as a linguist.崔教授作为语言学家名声很高。

7 Nazi   

n.纳粹分子，adj.纳粹党的，纳粹的

参考例句：

• They declare the Nazi regime overthrown and sue for peace.他们宣布纳粹政权已被推翻，并出面求和。
• Nazi closes those war criminals inside their concentration camp.纳粹把那些战犯关在他们的集中营里。

8 Nazis   

n.（德国的）纳粹党员( Nazi的名词复数 )；纳粹主义

参考例句：

• The Nazis worked them over with gun butts. 纳粹分子用枪托毒打他们。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The Nazis were responsible for the mass murder of Jews during World War Ⅱ. 纳粹必须为第二次世界大战中对犹太人的大屠杀负责。 来自《简明英汉词典》

9 recipients   

adj.接受的；受领的；容纳的；愿意接受的n.收件人；接受者；受领者；接受器

参考例句：

• The recipients of the prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者的姓名登在报上。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The recipients of prizes had their names printed in the paper. 获奖者名单登在报上。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

10 killing   

n.巨额利润；突然赚大钱，发大财

参考例句：

• Investors are set to make a killing from the sell-off.投资者准备清仓以便大赚一笔。
• Last week my brother made a killing on Wall Street.上个周我兄弟在华尔街赚了一大笔。

11 squads   

n.（军队中的）班( squad的名词复数 )；（暗杀）小组；体育运动的运动（代表）队；（对付某类犯罪活动的）警察队伍

参考例句：

• Anti-riot squads were called out to deal with the situation. 防暴队奉命出动以对付这一局势。 来自辞典例句
• Three squads constitute a platoon. 三个班组成一个排。 来自辞典例句

12 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

13 labor   

n.劳动，努力，工作，劳工；分娩；vi.劳动，努力，苦干；vt.详细分析；麻烦

参考例句：

• We are never late in satisfying him for his labor.我们从不延误付给他劳动报酬。
• He was completely spent after two weeks of hard labor.艰苦劳动两周后，他已经疲惫不堪了。

14 partisan   

adj.党派性的；游击队的；n.游击队员；党徒

参考例句：

• In their anger they forget all the partisan quarrels.愤怒之中，他们忘掉一切党派之争。
• The numerous newly created partisan detachments began working slowly towards that region.许多新建的游击队都开始慢慢地向那里移动。

15 intervention   

n.介入，干涉，干预

参考例句：

• The government's intervention in this dispute will not help.政府对这场争论的干预不会起作用。
• Many people felt he would be hostile to the idea of foreign intervention.许多人觉得他会反对外来干预。