Our activists were happy to partake in another year of Operation Dugo, named after the 90-year-old Holocaust survivor David “Dugo” Leitner who eats falafel every year on January 18, the day in which the infamous 1944 death march from Auschwitz began.
During the death march, Dugo, starving and exhausted, fantasized about eating “bilkelach,” mini challah rolls that Dugo’s mother said were in abundance in Israel.
After the war, Dugo moved to Israel and for the first time saw a falafel ball, which reminded him of bilkelach. Since then, he’s been eating falafel every year to celebrate his survival.
