From Surviving the Holocaust to Being the Soul of a Community in the Lower East Side

Raisa Sheynzon was born in Kharkov, Ukraine on January 15, 1939. She was just two and a half years old when World War II reached her country. Her father was conscripted into the army, and Raisa, her mother, her aunt, and her cousins were evacuated by train to the city of Kamenogorsk in Kazakhstan. During their journey, the train was bombed by the Germans, and the family arrived barely alive in Kazakhstan, where they had to live in a cellar with no washing facilities or toilet. Due to war-caused shortages, people were given only small amounts of food through vouchers, and because of this, Raisa grew slowly and was afflicted with thyroid and malaria. The family endured these terrible conditions for the whole duration of the war.

In the summer of 1944, Raisa and her family returned to Kharkov. Her father had been killed in the war, and they had lost their home and all their valuables. The experience also undermined Raisa’s health, and to this day, she suffers from various health issues.

Raisa’s parents in 1939

Life After the War: Becoming an Engineer and Facing Antisemitism

In 1957, Raisa graduated from high school with the goal of becoming an engineer. Despite facing significant anti-Semitism in the former Soviet Union, she graduated from a technical school and earned her first degree as an auto-mechanic. After graduating in 1960, Raisa went to work in an automotive factory, where she did dispatch and clerical work.

Raisa left her job at the factory to pursue further education and become an engineer. In 1962, she applied to attend the Polytechnical Institute in Ukraine. However, her application was initially rejected based on her Jewish heritage. After showing the administration a letter about her father sacrificing his life for the country in war, she was eventually accepted and allowed to pursue a secondary degree in mechanical engineering. She became an engineer and worked in that capacity for many years before leaving the Soviet Union.

Living with increasing fear of the Communist attitude and prejudice toward Jewish people in the Soviet Union, in the summer of 1988, Raisa decided it was time to leave Ukraine. She arrived in the United States in 1989.

Mayor of the Building: A Journey of Service and Altruism

Raisa has been volunteering at UJCES for the last 20 years

During her first year in the US, Raisa studied English, and in 1990 she became a Home Attendant in Brooklyn. After working six years helping elderly and ill people in their homes, in February of 1996, Raisa suffered a fall while boarding the subway and ended up with multiple slipped discs in her spine and a fracture in her neck. Following this, she applied for disability and retired. To this day, Raisa cannot lift heavy objects.

In June of 1997, she moved to Manhattan, where she found an apartment in a building for aging and disabled individuals. After living there for a year, Raisa became aware of the growing need for someone who could translate English documents into Russian for her neighbors, who were in a similar situation as her. Thanks to her dedication to helping everyone around, her neighbors started calling her the "mayor of the building" and she is well-known not only in the building but also in the community. She assists neighbors by accompanying them to Access-a-Ride interviews and doctor appointments. In case of emergencies, she is the one to call an ambulance and translate between Russian-speaking patients and EMTs and paramedics. In some cases, she has even accompanied her neighbors to the emergency room.

For the last 20 years, Raisa has been volunteering, helping social workers from UJCES with gathering requested Passover Outreach documents from 28 Holocaust survivor neighbors and contacting clients for planned meetings, events, and food distribution.

Raisa Sheynzon's strength, resilience, and unwavering kindness have made a profound impact on our community. Despite facing unimaginable hardships throughout her life, she has never lost her compassion for others. Her dedication to helping those in need has earned her the love and respect of many. Her selflessness and generosity have touched the lives of countless individuals and serve as an inspiration to all those who know her.