By Walder Jewish Education
Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Klein, Director of Publications and Communications for Torah Umesorah Currently he also heads the Zechor Yemos Olam – Holocaust Education – Division of Torah Umesorah
Rabbi Reuven Gross, Rav, Shar'arrei Tzedek Mishkan Yair
Asara B’Teves Holocaust Program at Walder Education Pavilion of Torah Umesorah
On Tuesday, December 30th, 2014 The Walder Education Pavilion of Torah Umesorah held its annual community-wide Asara B’Teves Holocaust Program. It proved to be a most memorable and meaningful evening for the packed audience, leaving an indelible impact on everyone who attended.
The topic of the evening was Jewish Survival and the Continuity of Torah and Yiddishkeit. Rabbi Shmuel Shapiro of the Walder Pavilion, and an experienced educator who teaches Holocaust Studies in many of the Jewish High Schools and Yeshivos in Chicago, served as MC for the evening, introducing the distinguished speakers.
Rabbi Reuven Gross, Mora D’Asrah of Sha’arei Tzedek Mishkan Yair, spoke passionately and eloquently of the mission of continuity that the Second Generation Survivors’ have – connecting with the past and continuing the rebuilding that their Survivor parents started. He described the individual sufferings of each of his parents during the Holocaust; and how afterwards, his mother, a Bais Yaakov teacher, taught girls who survived the war, and his father worked for Agudas Yisroel. They rebuilt not only their own lives by starting a family, but they contributed to the rebuilding of Klal Yisroel through their communal work. Rabbi Gross stressed that we must cling to our minhagim and values because they define our identity and our connection to generations past. Our future generations are depending on us to convey the mesorah and continue the rebuilding. Rabbi Gross emphasized transmitting the Emunah Peshuta of the previous generations – including the Survivors — to our own children. In these ways we are the link between the past and the future.
Rabbi Shmuel Yaakov Klein, Director of Zechor Yemos Olam of Torah Umesorah spoke movingly and persuasively on the theme of survival and what true Jewish Survival is. His message was that the deeper meaning of survival was when it led to spiritual growth and the successful attempts at growing Torah and Yiddishkeit after the war. This definition of survival ensures the transmission of the mesorah to the next and future generations. He told of an encounter he had with a sad elderly woman, a Holocaust survivor, at a local grocery store. She had tried to talk with Rabbi Klein and get chizuk, but her husband would not let her, “Why are you talking to him?” roared her husband angrily. Rabbi Klein explained, “There were some who physically emerged from the Holocaust but turned their backs on their pasts after it. Though we dare not judge such people in light of their suffering, we do note that true survival is contingent on a Jew's forging a stronger link with his heritage.”
Following these prominent presenters, the Walder Pavilion showed the moving video, Shanghai Miracle, an original movie produced by Zechor Yemos Olam of Torah Umesorah that tells the inspiring story of “how hundreds of yeshiva bochurim escaped the fires of Europe in Shanghai, and lived to rebuild Torah throughout the world.” The video presented many interviews of actual survivors who lived through the Shanghai experience.
The Walder Education Pavilion of Torah Umesorah, under the accomplished leadership of Dr. Yosef Walder, President and Mrs. Rouhama Garelick, Director, is committed to promoting Holocaust Education as part of its overall mission, working closely with Project Witness and Zechor Yemos Olam. The Walder Pavilion holds Holocaust Programs several times a year as well as provides Holocaust studies in the Chicago Jewish High Schools and Yeshivos.
© 2016 Walder Education