86-year-old crowned 'Miss Holocaust Survivor' in Israeli beauty pageant

An 86-year-old great-grandmother has crowned Miss Holocaust Survivor on Tuesday in an annual Israeli beauty pageant designed to honour women who endured the horrors of the Nazi genocide.

Ten contestants - ranging in age from 79 to 90 - trod the catwalk at a museum in Jerusalem, their hair styled and make-up applied and dressed to the nines with sashes adorning their gowns.

Organizers of the contest, which was cancelled last year due to the coronavirus



pandemic, say it bestows glamour and respect on a dwindling number of Jewish women whose youth was stolen during World War Two but who went on to build new lives in Israel.

Tuesday's winner, Salina Steinfeld, was born in Romania, where she survived Nazi attacks before moving to Israel in 1948, organizers said. Other contestants included a woman born in Yugoslavia who survived the Rab concentration camp in modern-day Croatia.