Bronx resident Berta Davidovitz Rubinsztejn was awarded the Jewish Rescuers Citation by B’Nai B’Rith on Thursday for helping Jews out of Nazi-occupied Hungary during World War II. The 92-year-old was also involved with the Zionist underground youth movement Dror Habonim.
At Thursday’s ceremony, Rubinsztejn was reunited with Meir Brand, one of the orphans she saved from living on Budapest’s streets. Brand is now 79 years old.
Brand says his parents paid a smuggler to take him out of Poland when he was seven years old in 1943 before they were forced to Auschwitz. He lived on the streets alone for almost a year before Rubinsztejn took him in.
