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3101 Clifton Avenue,
Cincinnati, Ohio 45220
513-487-3055
fax: 513-221-1842
chhe@huc.edu
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| Inspirations
from the Jewish Experience: Simchat Torah |
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Torah
Dedication in a DP Camp
Rabbi Eliezer Silver from Cincinnati visited the surviving Jews
of Europe, behind the barbed wires of the Allied armies' Displaced
Persons (DP) Camps after the Holocaust. He brought hope and
reassurance, food, clothing, money. He also brought Jewish books
and objects back into Europe. At the DP camp on the site of
the former concentration camp of Bergen Belsen, Rabbi Silver
delivered a precious gift: a Torah scroll.
To celebrate the new Torah, a special dedication ceremony was
scheduled. Most eagerly awaited this event, but one young man
refused to attend. This young man was a strong leader in the
camp, and his refusal was jarring.
Rabbi Silver gently approached this man: "They say you
are angry with God, is that so?"
"No Rabbi," the young man replied, "I am not
angry with God. I am angry with His servants. It is their treachery
that I didn't expect-nor can I forgive."
The young man told his painful story: "In the concentration
camp, one of my bunkmates had somehow concealed a small prayer
book in his clothing. Often he took out the prayer book and
spoke out loud to God. I admired that man's faith. Then one
day I noticed other men begging to borrow his prayer book. He
allowed them to use it only on condition that they share their
soup rations. Can you imagine, Rabbi? Using his prayer book
as a means of taking food from his fellow starving Jews?! This
I will never forgive."
Rabbi Silver thoughtfully listened, and then quietly asked him.
"And did men actually share their precious food scraps
for the chance to pray from the prayer book?." When the
young man acknowledged that it happened all the time, the rabbi
then asked: "Why do you focus on the faith of this man?
Consider the faith of the other men. What kind of faith would
strengthen them so that they would be willing to give up food
for a chance to pray to God?"
The young man reconsidered, and joined in the Torah dedication.
His name was Simon Wiesenthal (1908-2005), who became known
as the man who committed his life to the search for justice
by documenting information and bringing to trial Nazis who had
escaped punishment.
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A
Torah Shines Among the Stars
Eliezer Wolfermann was just a boy when he escaped Germany. He
grew up in British mandate Palestine, fought in the War of Independence,
and while on a kibbutz, met and married Tonia Kreppel. Tonia
was from Poland, who as a teenager, survived Auschwitz, and
then spent years in a detention camp on Cyprus, forbidden by
the British to enter Palestine prior to Israel's statehood.
Eliezer and Tonia were the parents of Israel's first astronaut,
Ilan Ramon, who died on February 1, 2003, along with six American
astronauts on the Columbia shuttle tragedy, Mission STS-107.
Rabbi Stuart Federow, of Ilan's Houston synagogue wrote "Ilan
understood that being the first Israeli astronaut brought with
it great responsibilities, not just to Israel, but Jews worldwide."
Ilan Ramon is a national hero, who had proudly represented the
Jewish people on an ill-fated space mission watched around the
world.
Ilan Ramon was a Sabra, born in 1954, and was a role model for
all that is distinctive about the Israeli spirit. He graduated
at the top of his high school class, and became a highly decorated
pilot in the Israeli Air Force. He was a member of the squadron
that destroyed the Iraqi nuclear reactor. In 1998, Ilan Ramon
was chosen to become Israel's first astronaut. After training
together for several years, the closely knit crew, a diverse
team of men and women who had all grown to love and cherish
the entire Ramon family went into space on January 16, 2003.
Ilan said in an interview before the flight "I left Israel
as a shaliach, a representative, of Israel and the air force.
After more than four years of training in the United States,
I feel that I am now representing the Jewish people." In
Israel, practically every citizen was glued to the TV. There
was a great need to celebrate-there was such despair in the
midst of numerous terrorist suicide bombings. The Israeli newspaper
headlines of Yediot Ahronot had gleefully announced "First
Hebrew Astronaut Since Elijah!"
Not only did Ilan eat only kosher food in space, he also brought
a specially designed Kiddush cup to bless the Sabbath in space
with his fellow crewmembers. He decided to bring objects that
he believed "emphasized the unity of the people Israel
and the Jewish communities around the world." Included
among the items were a menorah and pocket size Bible on microfiche
film, a mezuzah, soil from Eretz Israel and an Israel flag.
But he also felt, as a son of a Holocaust survivor, compelled
to bring artifacts from that time and place. One of the most
beloved images from the Yad VaShem Holocaust Museum was one
of the earth as seen from the moon. Ilan took with him a copy
of this pen and ink drawing that was created by 14 year old
Petr Ginz in the Terezin Ghetto.
However, Ilan wanted to bring aboard the spacecraft an original,
powerful artifact that he felt would be a symbol of the darkest
time in human history, and could also serve as a beacon of hope
on a mission that he felt "was a benefit to all mankind."
He found exactly what he wanted in the home of the scientist
and professor of physics, Dr. Joachim Joseph, known to all his
friends and colleagues affectionately as "Yoya".
Ilan met Yoya as they were preparing experiments for the space
mission on a sophisticated research on visibility, light and
illumination. Once, as a guest in Yoya's home, Ilan saw a miniature
handwritten Torah scroll, only 4 inches tall. Yoya told him
that he received it from Rabbi Simon Dasberg, of Groningen,
Holland, who perished in the Holocaust. They were inmates together
in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp. Yoya was just turning thirteen,
and Rabbi Dasberg brought out the tiny Torah scroll and offered
to teach him his Bar Mitzvah. Though hungry, cold and exhausted
after many hours of slave labor, the two studied together at
night. In the early hours of the morning on the day of his Bar
Mitzvah, the men secretly held a service, where Yoya read and
chanted his Torah portion. Outside the window, his mother had
silently slipped out from the women's camp to hear her son become
Bar Mitzvah. The rabbi gave the Torah scroll to Yoya, hoping
that with his youth and strength he would survive. He only requested
that Yoya tell their story to the world.
Weeks after seeing the Torah, Ilan called Yoya and requested
to take the Torah up into space. Yoya agreed on the same conditions
that the rabbi gave him: "Tell the world." On January
21st, in an emotional news conference from the space mission
with Prime Minister Ariel Sharon, Ilan held up the Torah and
repeated its history and spoke of the horrors of the Holocaust.
He also spoke of the year and a half that his own mother spent
in Auschwitz.
The Ramon family's plan was to return together to Israel after
the mission, where their second son, Tal, was to have his own
Bar Mitzvah, reading out of Yoya's tiny Torah. On February 1,
2003, the space craft disintegrated during its landing, with
the crew and the Torah inside. Coincidently, it was the date
of Petr Ginz's birthday. If Petr would have survived Auschwitz,
he would have been 75 years old that day.
On February 11, Ilan Ramon was buried in Israel. In one of the
eulogies were the words "we have lost you Ilan, and in
the same breath, thanks to you, we have rediscovered the most
important source of our strength: our unity."
We embrace some of Ilan's final observations from a letter he
wrote to Israel's President Moshe Katzav on day 11 of the mission,
January 26th, "… From space, I could easily spot Jerusalem,
the capital, and while looking at Jerusalem, I prayed one short
prayer-Shema Yisrael. From space our world looks as one entity
with no borders. Let's work for peace and a better life for
everyone on Earth." |
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