‘It’s time to go home’: After 57 years in America, a Holocaust survivor comes home to Israel

Morton Pancer, 86, a Holocaust survivor born in Poland in 1939, and his wife Carole, 82, made aliyah to Israel after 57 years in Maryland. The couple arrived on an El Al flight on August 25 with Nefesh B'Nefesh, joining two daughters who had already immigrated. Morton's family survived the war by fleeing to Siberia. The move brings them closer to eight grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren already living in Israel.

Morton Pancer, 86, a Holocaust survivor born in Tomaszów Lubelski, Poland in 1939, and his wife Carole, 82, made aliyah to Israel on August 25 after 57 years of marriage and life in Maryland. The couple arrived on an El Al flight with Nefesh B'Nefesh, joining two daughters who had already immigrated — Jessica Gertel in the early 2000s and Shoshana Lerner this year. Morton's family fled Nazi persecution when he was seven months old, escaping to Siberia where they survived for about five years. His father was sent to a slave-labor camp; his mother kept the family alive by selling items on the black market. After the war, the family returned to Poland, finding no survivors, then lived in a displaced persons camp in Germany before immigrating to the US in 1951. Morton served in the US Army in Germany and later worked for the US government and armed forces financial systems, retiring in 1998. Carole, a former fashion illustrator, hopes to paint Israeli landscapes. The move brings them closer to eight of their 12 grandchildren and seven great-grandchildren already in Israel.