By Dr. Amnon Eldar
During the counting of the Omer, a period in which we work on ourselves and strive to improve our interpersonal skills and care for others, we would like to focus on hakarat ha’tov, being thankful for all that we have been blessed. The mourning of Rabbi Akiva’s 24,000 students, who treated each other with disrespect, reminds us of the words of their teacher, “Love your neighbor as yourself. This is an important principle in the Torah.” Loving and caring for others teaches us that gratitude is a basic trait of utmost importance that should be carried out for all of our lives.
During the coronavirus pandemic, when we are covered in a veil of uncertainty, we aim to take care of those who are nearest and dearest to us, both on a personal and national level. The words of Israeli singer Naomi Shemer accurately depict our prayers: “G-d, watch over our home, our garden, our wall from sorrow and sudden fear, and war.”
During a week when we remember the six million Jews who were murdered in the Holocaust, I would like to focus on a unique story of true remembrance, a model of education for all of us. Rav Shalom Malul, principal of Yeshivat AMIT Ashdod, together with his students, adopts Holocaust survivors, and throughout the year they plan and create birthday celebrations for these individuals.
Rav Shalom has been guiding trips to Poland for many years and has met a variety of survivors who accompanied these educational trips as living witnesses. They, together with our students, can proclaim, “We have won. We are here.” The survivors are aging, and Rav Shalom and his students decided to celebrate their birthdays at the yeshiva high school.
Each celebration is a symbol of victory, of light overcoming darkness, of the revival of the Jewish people in their homeland, and of the words of the prophets: “Arise from dust, get dressed in majestic clothing, my people,” describing the journey of the survivors from the barracks of Auschwitz to the flourishing modern State of Israel.
Recently, the yeshiva hosted a surprise 90th birthday party for survivor Tzvi Wiesel. Wiesel, a twin who underwent Mengele’s horrific and inhumane experiments, was saved from Auschwitz-Birkenau. He accompanied 11th and 12th-grade AMIT students on their Poland journey this year and last year. When he was invited to share his story at the yeshiva, he entered the auditorium and quickly understood that he had arrived at his own surprise birthday party. He was very moved and excited. He embraced the students, danced with them, and joined them in singing, “Am Yisrael Chai.”
Tzvi’s remarks at the party will be remembered by all who were present. “If you would have told me as a boy in Auschwitz that I would celebrate my 90th birthday with hundreds of yeshiva students in the Jewish homeland in Israel, I would have been sure you were describing a dream. And yet, dreams come true.” He added, “You give me the strength to continue. That is why I keep going on trip after trip to Poland, to embrace and strengthen you. To tell you about the horrors that the Jewish people experienced, so you never forget. But at the same time, alongside the pain, Israeli youth must move forward with joy and optimism, seeing the good in one another, respecting and loving one another. When we are unified, nobody can defeat us.”
During this period of the coronavirus pandemic, Rav Shalom and his students make sure to be in daily contact with Holocaust survivors, the individuals who built our country and who are so worthy of support during these days of isolation. The contact with students is the least we can do to repay them.
Rav Shalom sees these survivors as educational symbols, passing along the Jewish heritage. He searches for survivors in order to hear their stories and share them with his students. “These are the true lessons of Jewish faith,” he says, “because despite everything they went through, they are a symbol of joy, optimism, and tremendous belief in G-d. Their strength, and the understanding that they represent the eternity of the Jewish people, brings a strong spirit to today’s youth and ensures the continuity of the Jewish spirit.”
But Rav Shalom does not just remember the survivors on their birthdays and at celebratory times. He also attends funerals of survivors, sometimes together with his students. Several months ago, he officiated the funeral service for Dora, a 100-year-old childless survivor who was adopted by the local B’nei Akiva youth movement in Ashdod. Hundreds of young people from Ashdod attended the funeral at Rav Shalom’s request, and following the burial, sang Hatikvah as a last farewell.
Rav Shalom eulogized her lovingly, saying, “With pain and love we accompany Dora on her final journey. Dora, who survived the horrors of the Holocaust and merited seeing the establishment of the State of Israel. Dora dreamed to continue her victory over the Nazis by building a family, but unfortunately, she was not blessed with children. Her comfort was the love that she was able to provide to all of the local children, and the special connection she had with the B’nei Akiva branch in Ashdod.”
Every educator teaches hundreds of lessons during his or her life. Very few of these lessons will be remembered by their students. The lifelong lesson that Rav Shalom teaches his students by embracing these survivors and saluting them, is something they will never forget.
Dr. Amnon Eldar is director general of AMIT network.
