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74 Years...

Friday, 24 January, 2020 - 12:42 pm

By the Grace of G-d

Dear Friend,

Israel was full of world leaders this week. 

January 27th 2020 marks the seventy fifth anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. It was on that day in 1945 that the Russian army entered the gates of the infamous extermination camp. 

I think it would be accurate to say that ‘you can take a person out of Auschwitz, but you cannot take Auschwitz out of a person’.

Anyone who survived the nightmare of living under the Nazis came out changed forever.

Not many survivors are still alive.

Today it is in the children of the survivors that we are interacting with. To get married after the Holocaust and bring Jewish children into the world was a heroic act. It was the ultimate act of defiance against the monsters whose goal was to eradicate every Jew. Bringing more Jewish children in the world was our best way of defeating the goals of our enemies.

Raising children after themselves being so scarred and injured was bound to have repercussions on the children. Children of survivors can attest to the challenges of their childhood that were unmatched by those of their peers whose parents hadn’t been through this hell. The children still suffered the inevitable results on their parent’s persona resulting from the Holocaust.

Some parents continued to identify as Jews. 

But not all. 

How many parents were simply terrified to raise children as Jews. If being Jewish could make you a target for hate, degradation and even extermination wouldn’t it be safer to abandon the Jewish designation? Many survivors hid their Jewish identity from their post-war born children.

A few examples of this have come my way here in Thailand. 

I’m currently trying to help a French gentleman whose mother was hidden as a child in a Catholic convent during the war. He was raised as a Catholic because his mother had converted. His mother and her brothers were hidden in the convent because their mother was Jewish, and the Germans had occupied France. The difficulty here is that his mother has Alzheimer’s and his uncles are very unwilling to talk about the war years and their family background before the war. However, the man who came to see me feels that his Jewish soul has awakened. and he is looking to gain certainty about himself and who he truly is.

It was not long ago that we buried a Jew from the UK, Shimon Aaronson whose connection to Judaism was established only by a chance connection with a Jewish family when he was well into his adult life. I just received the copy of a previously overlooked conversation that Shimon had with Rabbi Boruch Hecht via Facebook a while before his passing. 

My mother’s family. Well only she and her brother out of 38 other family members were the only 2 who walked out of Auschwitz.

I made the awful mistake as a 6-year-old to ask why she had a tattoo on her arm... Silence, but uncle told me…

His mother was obviously terrified to raise her kids as Jews.

Our dear rice farmer friend Zevulun was raised by a Jewish mother who didn’t want her children to know they were Jewish. The reason? Her mother had traveled to Europe to save her family and was trapped in the hornet’s nest of Jewish persecution never to be heard from again. Zevulun’s mother, angry and shaken to the core over the loss of her mother, felt it was best to just raise her kids without the Jewish identity.

The Holocaust was an unprecedented low point in Jew hatred. Jews have suffered since time immemorial, but nothing, not the Crusades, Inquisition or even Cossacks was so thorough and so horrifyingly mechanized and systemized.

Britain’s former Chief Rabbi, Lord Jonathan Sacks, famously said at his keynote address to the Shluchim conference,

 And how can you redeem a world that had witnessed Hitler? And the Rebbe did something absolutely extraordinary; he said to himself: if the Nazis searched out every Jew in hate, we will search out every Jew in love.


This was the most radical response to the Holocaust ever conceived and I don't know if we still – if the Jewish world still – understands it.

Today, in many parts of the world anti-Semitism has returned, and baruch Hashem [thank G-d] there are hundreds of organizations fighting it. But still, even now, no one is saying what the Rebbe said – not explicitly but implicitly in everything he did.

If you want to fight sinas yisrael [hatred of your fellow], then practice ahavas yisroel [love of your fellow].

Providentially, the 27th of January, the day of the Holocaust memorial is Rosh Chodesh, the beginning of the Jewish month of Shevat. World Jewry marks a special anniversary during the month of Shevat. On Shevat 10 (February 5th) we will mark the seventieth anniversary since the beginning of the Lubavitcher Rebbe’s leadership of the Chabad-Lubavitch movement.

The Rebbe’s stated goal was to promulgate Ahavat Yisrael – love of Jews. Through outreach, social services and anything and everything that could be helpful to fellow Jews anywhere they may be. 

The Rebbe’s far reaching vision to have legions of ‘Shluchim’ -‘do-gooders’, representing him and his vision throughout the world, started small. A shliach was sent to Morocco. Another to Italy. Another to Michigan. Australia, Brazil and other cities and countries followed on. 

Today the world is dotted with Shluchim, emissaries of the Rebbe whose stated goal is to do whatever is needed to build, nurture and reach out to every single Jew they can reach. One Jew at a time, one mitzvah at a time.

The Rebbe saw to it that when a Jewish soul awakens, be it in Jerusalem, New York or even a village in Southern Thailand, someone should be there to nurture their Jewish soul. 

Seventy years is indeed an anniversary worthy of being noted. 

When one turns seventy, thoughts often turn to retirement or slowing down.

The Rebbe taught that seventy is a time to start to plan even more achievement.

What can we do more? 

YOU, my dear friend holds the answer to that question in your hands. 

The impact and reach of the Rebbe’s vision of love can be instantly multiplied and quantified by thousands and tens of thousands. 

Dear Friend, YOU can and must view yourself as an ambassador of that vision of love. As a lighthouse that shines forth welcoming beacons of light and love to your fellow Jews. 

You may meet a Jew through your business, on plane, train bus or just in the street. He/she looks Jewish? Find out, maybe they are. Connect with them. See if you can help them in any way materially. Maybe with some advice on how to navigate life in Thailand if they are newcomers and you are veteran. Perhaps they would welcome an invitation to a Friday night dinner (in Bangkok you can always invite people to our dinner and say the rabbi would love to have you, you don’t need to ask us first). Even getting their name and email to have them on the local Jewish events list may massage their Jewish soul.

Yes, the liberation of Auschwitz is a day that should not be glossed over. But it should not just be remembered for history’s sake. Rather, we must learn the obvious lesson of the tragic consequences of unbridled hate. 

Moreover, the unspeakable events of those calamitous and tragic years must continue to fuel our indefatigable push towards true world peace. Peace of an everlasting and universal nature. A new world order that can make the word ‘utopia’ look like an understatement. 

The Rebbe stated his goals as nothing less than bringing the world to the coming of Mashiach. This can only be done if we all participate, unite and join forces to give the final push. One more mitzvah, one more act of goodness and kindness. Your one act may be the one that ‘tips the scales’ and causes the coming of Mashiach AMEN.

Shabbat Shalom

Rabbi Yosef Kantor

 


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