It was a game of global “Jewish Geography” that began at High Holy Day services at Cong. Sons of Israel.

Livia Salomon (left) reunites with her long-lost friend Ruth Bohm. The two were classmates in Czechoslovakia in 1938. They recently met after having not seen each other in almost 70 years. Suri Herzberg of Philadelphia, who was attending services with her son and daughter-inlaw, Steve and Judy Herzberg, got to talking to Pam Benedon, who was there with her family, including her mother, Livia Salomon. The Benedons also are active members of Cong. Beth El, but had joined her mother for services at Sons of Israel, where they also belong.

In that conversation, it became known that Ruth Bohm, a good friend of Suri’s in Philadelphia, might have come from the same town in Czechoslovakia where Livia had grown up. Livia, a Holocaust survivor who now lives at Lions Gate, was eager to know more.

And there WAS more.

As it turned out, the two women, Ruth and Livia, had attended the very same high school decades ago, and once Yiddish and maiden names were offered, they realized that they actually had known one another as graduates of the class of 1938.

That’s when the longing for a reunion knew no bounds.

That reunion happened at a recent Sunday morning brunch at the home of Judy and Steve Herzberg. There were hugs, tears and laughter, and most of all, there was a once-in-alifetime experience for two women who had not seen one another in 70 years, with Suri Herzberg, the “matchmaker,” also present, and beaming.

“It was just so incredibly emotional,” said Pam Benedon, who accompanied her 87-year-old mother to the brunch. Ruth and Livia had enjoyed several lengthy phone conversations before that meeting, but seeing one another in person was, of course, the incredible moment.

“We told each other all about our lives—and there was a lot to tell!” said soft-spoken Livia, a woman who speaks six languages and has an indomitable spirit despite being at two notorious concentration camps during the Holocaust.

In Ruth Bohm’s case, gentile identity papers had saved her life. During the war, she had lived in Budapest and worked in a restaurant. The Orthodox Jewish Ruth even wore a Christian cross around her neck, and managed to escape detection before migrating to the United States.

For Ruth’s classmate Livia, the road to liberation had been far more daunting. In March 1944, Livia, her young husband Siggi, her widowed mother Rachel, her grandmother Rivka and brother Yitzchak were taken to the ghetto in Begegzasz. From there, the family was transported by cattle car to Auschwitz, where only Livia and Siggi survived the initial “selection.”

Livia’s mind-numbing, body-punishing work was moving heavy stones to a river. Siggi, taken to the men’s camp, would die when a train from Auschwitz to a work site was bombed.

On Dec. 31, 1944, Livia was shipped off to unspeakable conditions at Bergen- Belsen. “At Auschwitz, at least we had barracks with cots. At Bergen-Belsen, we had nothing…nothing. We slept on the floor without blankets.”

In May 1945, when the camp was liberated. Livia, who had severe bouts with typhus, weighed 68 lb. Her sisters-in-law, who had cared for her in the camps, had saved her life.

In one of those amazing unexpected wartime miracles, Livia ended up marrying her late husband’s brother Rudy, whom she had known before the war, in 1946. He, too, had barely survived, narrowly escaping death several times and ultimately joining the Russian army in liberating Czechoslovakia from the Germans.

The couple came to the United States in 1948, settling in New York. Livia, who had never even held a needle, had a short-lived career as a seamstress. Rudy found his way into the furniture business after a brief stint in a hardware store. The couple moved to North Jersey, and had two daughters, Julie, and eight years later, Pam.

Livia later lived in Florida with Rudy, her husband of 56 years, until his death in 2002, and came to Lions Gate, a continuing care retirement community affiliated with he Jewish Federation, three years ago.

So there was much to share with Ruth Bohm at that joyous reunion. And Livia’s daughter, Pam Benedon, was witness as that remarkable sharing unfolded.

Both women could remember the names of their teachers, school songs, high school dances and various people from those high school years. A photograph of the high school class had miraculously survived the decades, and was the source of precious and delightful memories.

“Every time there’s some connection to the past, I learn more about my mother’s life, and that day was just amazing,” said Benedon. “It was extremely emotional in the best sense.”

Livia Salomon herself will tell you that her life has been rich and full, that it has been greatly enhanced by having a new beginning in the United States and a family of her own.

The babkas and sponge cakes at the reunion brunch may have been sweet, but for Livia, the best “sweet” of all was reaching back to a piece of her past—and finding, at 87, a new/old friend.

“It was good,” she said. “It was more than good—it was so very wonderful!” .