First he survived the Shoah — now he has survived coronavirus

Avram Woidislawsky is a survivor in every sense. The Philadelphia resident, who was born in 1940 in the Siberian mountains region, spent the Holocaust as a little boy moving from town to town in southern Russia with his parents.

This week he and his family are looking forward to celebrating Succot after Mr Woidislawsky, now 80, emerged from hospital after 81 days on a ventilator, beating the coronavirus and being described as a “hero” by his doctors. For 59 days he was in a coma, and then spent a further nine weeks in rehab in hospital.

But his relieved family were not surprised that Mr Woidislawsky survived Covid-19. Not only was his early life tough and touched by tragedy; but as a hyper-active senior citizen he spent much of his time in extreme physical exercise, ranging from water-skiing and horse-riding to ziplining upside down. He’s certain that his recovery owes much to his pre-pandemic active lifestyle, and urges others of his age to get out and exercise as much as they can.

After the war ended, Mr Woidislawsky’s parents decided to return to their country of birth, Poland, to see if they could find any of their 16 siblings or other family. But every single relative had been murdered; and so they moved to the new state of Israel in 1950.