Life Line Center- The Center for the Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust, was established in 2025 at the initiative of the Wilfrid Israel Museum and the Committee for Honoring the Heroism of Jewish Rescuers During the Holocaust. The committee has been active since 2000 and, in collaboration with the B’nai B’rith World Center in Jerusalem, has awarded the Jewish Rescuer's Citation to hundreds of women and men.
The Jewish Rescuer's Citation is awarded to individuals who acted either alone or as part of youth movements, communities, or other organizations. They operated in countries where Jews were persecuted, as well as in countries to which Jews had fled. They sought to rescue fellow Jews through various means that had not even crossed their minds until that moment—crossing borders, smuggling food, forging documents, hiding people, establishing welfare institutions, and more. They took upon themselves an additional layer of danger, beyond the threat they already faced as persecuted Jews. In many cases, they could have saved themselves but chose instead to stay in danger in order to save others.
The fact that Wilfrid Israel himself was one of the first rescuers during the Holocaust, and among those honored with the citation, makes the museum a natural home for the stories of these rescuers’ legacy.
The center is located in a dedicated hall within the museum and features original artifacts, photographs, films, and other technological means. Visitors can decide what information to engage with and how—either as a personal experience or as part of a group activity. Rescue stories are presented with diversity in age, gender, geography, and community, and with reference to different rescue patterns. The center presents the moral dilemmas the rescuers faced. Visitors will "enter" a complex historical and human situation, gather information, and actively develop the story while grappling with the ethical challenges that confronted the rescuers. The digital program was developed in collaboration with the technology company Camel, which has partnered with many museums and heritage sites.
The educational activity will serve as a complement and extension of the museum experience for student visits and teacher training sessions held both onsite and virtually. The educational program will include suggested pre-visit activities for teachers, enrichment of the exhibition visit, and post-visit activities. It will focus on stories where the heroes were children and teenagers, such as Fanny Ben-Ami, "the little commander," and Wolf Gelferin, the rescuer of the Kovno children. Discussions will center around values related to the survival of the Jewish people and the sanctity of human life, as well as the qualities needed to uphold these values under the harshest conditions: responsibility, courage, resourcefulness, determination, and leadership.
The digital collection will serve those who cannot visit in person, as well as visitors who wish to deepen their understanding of the rescue phenomenon. During each visit, we estimate that visitors will be exposed to about five rescue stories; the educational activities will enhance understanding of the phenomenon and the moral dilemmas at its core through one or two additional stories. Visitors can further explore the topic of rescue through the museum's website.
We welcome individual visitors, adult groups, families, school groups from middle schools (for shorter activities) and high schools (for half- or full-day seminars). We also welcome teachers participating in professional development programs and training for guides of educational journeys to Poland. The center will also serve students and teachers from around the world.
The center aims to raise awareness of the extraordinary story of Jewish rescuers, to enable a deep understanding of a complex reality, and to inspire visitors of all ages to care about and take responsibility for the lives of others—as helping another human being knows no boundaries.