Beyond A Game | Youth and Chess: Closing the Intergenerational Gap in America
I have a lot to learn from young Zachary Targoff. He’s a selfless leader, a good man. I doubt I’d have used all my bar mitzvah money to do what Zach did at his age with his nest egg.
Zachary started a chess program a few years ago at DOROT, a nonprofit organization on the Upper West Side of New York City that works to make older adults less socially isolated. To that end, and with the support of Zach and his parents, DOROT brings together teenagers and seniors to play chess.
It all started with a very special Bar Mitzvah present Zachary Targoff received in 2014. Zachary had an idea to find an elderly New Yorker (who loves chess like he does) to play with once a week. The organization DOROT was able to pair Zachary and 90-year-old Holocaust survivor Herman Bomze together. It wasn’t long before Zachary realized the impact of chess and how it connected lives, young and old, and how it kept alive a part of the Jewish people that was lost in the holocaust.
Photo Credit: by DOROT | (left) Zachary Targoff (right) Herman Bomze
What transpired between Zachary and Herman was a friendship that let them learn things about each other’s lives, while playing a game that they both loved. At Zachary’s Bar Mitzvah, Herman gave him his father’s chess board that Herman smuggled out of the Holocaust when he was a boy – his father would not survive.
As a product of their friendship, Zachary and Herman have created the highly-successful program in NYC that brings together young and old weekly for chess.
DOROT is an organization that alleviates social isolation among the elderly in New York City and surrounding areas. The creation of the Intergenerational Chess program is part of Herman Bomze’s legacy with both Zachary and with DOROT.
DOROT’s program mission to “share your love of the game and bring a smile to a senior” has engaged both generations to meet weekly for chess.
Recently, DOROT mourned the passing of the legendary Herman Bomze, 95, a gentle man who has been a beloved figure in the DOROT community since 2013
May Herman Bomze’s memory forever be a blessing.