By Rabbi Leonard Rosenthal
SAN DIEGO — On Tuesday night I shared a fascinating lesson plan from Yad Vashem (Israel’s Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Authority) with my Community Jewish High students. The lesson juxtaposed two reports from a transport that carried Jews from Dusseldorf, Germany to Riga, Latvia that left on December 11, 1941.
One of the reports was written by Paul Salitter, a German officer in charge of the transport. The other report was written by Hilde Sherman, a young Jewish woman who was one of the 1007 deported Jews. The comparison is fascinating. Salitter writes clinically and dispassionately, his primary concern being the swift transport of his charges and the comfort of his guards. Sherman, on the other hand describes the horrors and deaths on the journey, of which Salitter breathes not a word.
The lesson focuses not on the actions of Salitter alone, but has us consider all of the other people who were actively and passively Nazi Transportinvolved in the murder of Jews. These include not only the cleaning woman who turned in a Jewish woman who tried to escape, and the Latvians who killed their fair share of Jews and looted the belongings of others, but the railroad workers and officials who made sure the trains moved efficiently, and the countless bystanders who stood idly by out of fear, complacency, or because they supported the Nazis’ efforts.
We often focus on Hitler and his Nazis as the perpetrators of the Holocaust but truly, it took a village.
This week we celebrate a modern miracle: the rebirth of the State of Israel. No longer do Jews who wish to flee oppression have no place to go. Israel has taken in not only refugees from Eastern Europe after the Holocaust, but from Arab-governed lands, the former Soviet Union, and Ethiopia, as well.
Israel is far from perfect, but she is also not the pariah apartheid state that her enemies label her. Watching the persecution and oppression of countless people in the world, including Muslims in the Sudan and pro-democracy forces in Syria and Iran, I shake my head in disbelief every time Israel is accused of being the greatest violator of human rights in the world.
Today Israel is constantly under attack and living under threat of attack, not only by Arab terrorists but also the sovereign state of Iran.
The question for us is: will we sit idly by and allow Israel’s very right to exist to be challenged?
One of the ways we can show our support for Israel is by attending San Diego’s Yom Ha’atzmaut celebration next Sunday, April 29, from 11:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at Ski Beach. Tifereth Israel Synagogue is one of the proud sponsors of this year’s celebration which includes activities as diverse as musical performances, circus performers, Israeli Dance, and a Hummus cook off!
The Jewish Federation has worked diligently to revamp and upgrade this event, and it sounds like it is going to be fun and exciting.
I invite you to be part of the village that supports Israel at next Sunday’s celebration. Let us not be accused of sitting idly by while she is under attack.
I look forward to seeing you there.
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Rabbi Rosenthal is spiritual leader of Tifereth Israel Synagogue in San Diego. He may be contacted at leonard.rosenthal@sdjewishworld.com