The earthquake in Haiti recently prompted me to recall these memories about survival of a different sort.
I grew up with the stories of my family – their courageous attempts to save themselves and those around them during the 10 plus years of the Nazi onslaught:
There was the German soldier who waved my mother away from the ghetto where German soldiers were rounding up Jews.
The Hungarian couple, Gozon neni and Gozon baci who found work for my aunt Lilly as a maid with a Hungarian family, and accepted my teenage uncles to stay in his home when they escaped the Nazi soldiers who were marching their school group through Budapest saying to anyone who asked, “these are our cousins visiting us from the country.” I visited the home of this dear man, five years ago when I and my sister Anita and her two sons Noam and Yair and their wives, Maya and Ilana, visited Hungary with my Mom, Edith, who was then in her eighties. During the war, Gozon baci was the superintendant of a small apartment building in fashionable Buda on the way to the national park overlooking the Danube, which still exists with its monuments and overlook, and which had been the billeting site for the German army. Gozon baci’s daughter was dating a German officer and he would come to the house.
All these people, my aunt Lilli, my aunt Margit, my uncles,Tibi, and André as well as my dear Mother, Edith are alive today due to the bravery of this man and his wife and sister. Sadly Gozon neni and Gozon baci and even their children are long gone, but their memory will always be with me and with my family, and I hope through this blog with you.
Abigail Hirsch
Montreal, 1/27/2010
AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la guérison en communauté
Blogger: http://askabigail.blogspot.com/
Twitter:
http://twitter.com/AskAbigail
facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/askabigail
Linkedin: http://ca.linkedin.com/in/askabigail
Feelings and thoughts about the earthquake in Haiti
Thoughts about the earthquake in Haiti
As I watch the unfolding of the events in Haiti. I feel numb. I was not alive in 1945 but I think to myself this is what the coverage of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima would have been like, only much worse due to the tremendous pain caused by any burning flesh.
As much as nature’s cruelty is awesome, I am reminded that man’s can be worse. I was born after the second world war, but my parents survived the Nazi onslaught in Hungary, both the invading armies, German and Russian, and the Nazi drive to exterminate Jews and others deemed “inferior”, gypsies, the handicapped, democrats, communists, and all those who did not support their ideology which lasted over 10 years from 1933 - 1945. I have spent my life trying to understand how something like this could have actually been put into place by the likes of Eichmann, Hitler, and Goering, and the silent acquiescence of those who did not speak up to oppose them.
On Sunday the day after the earthquake I joined an internet gratitude site. Yesterday morning, they sent me a notice asking why I had not posted anything. As much as I wanted to, I was numb: and then as I left the house yesterday morning on my way to a rehearsal with my camera equipment (I am videotaping the process of the creation of a play about human rights initiated by a class of autistic boys and girls and jointly produced by them and several non-autistic boys and girls from the same school, and a group of boys and girls from Herzliyah High school in Montreal which is on exactly this same theme: connâitre l’histoire pour ne pas conter des histoires) the following words came to me:
Moda ani lefaneha, Melech Hai ve Kayam, shehehezarta bi nishmati behemlah, rabah emunateha (and my friend Miriam Ohevetel adds the word bi.)
I am grateful to You, Living and Ongoing Source of All, for restoring my breath,(my soul) to me this morning. How great is your compassion and courageous faith: and my friend Miriam adds the word “bi” Hebrew for “in me”.
This is the formula for the start of all morning Jewish prayer. And I felt the revival of my spirit, the sudden revival of hope that is so necessary especially in the darkest of times as recently pointed out by Rabbi Steinmetz in his talk on the parsha relating to the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt (Vaeerah)
I am still here and I can do good in this world.
Abigail Hirsch
514-792-6065
Blogger: http://askabigail.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/AskAbigail
AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la Guérison des communautés
As I watch the unfolding of the events in Haiti. I feel numb. I was not alive in 1945 but I think to myself this is what the coverage of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima would have been like, only much worse due to the tremendous pain caused by any burning flesh.
As much as nature’s cruelty is awesome, I am reminded that man’s can be worse. I was born after the second world war, but my parents survived the Nazi onslaught in Hungary, both the invading armies, German and Russian, and the Nazi drive to exterminate Jews and others deemed “inferior”, gypsies, the handicapped, democrats, communists, and all those who did not support their ideology which lasted over 10 years from 1933 - 1945. I have spent my life trying to understand how something like this could have actually been put into place by the likes of Eichmann, Hitler, and Goering, and the silent acquiescence of those who did not speak up to oppose them.
On Sunday the day after the earthquake I joined an internet gratitude site. Yesterday morning, they sent me a notice asking why I had not posted anything. As much as I wanted to, I was numb: and then as I left the house yesterday morning on my way to a rehearsal with my camera equipment (I am videotaping the process of the creation of a play about human rights initiated by a class of autistic boys and girls and jointly produced by them and several non-autistic boys and girls from the same school, and a group of boys and girls from Herzliyah High school in Montreal which is on exactly this same theme: connâitre l’histoire pour ne pas conter des histoires) the following words came to me:
Moda ani lefaneha, Melech Hai ve Kayam, shehehezarta bi nishmati behemlah, rabah emunateha (and my friend Miriam Ohevetel adds the word bi.)
I am grateful to You, Living and Ongoing Source of All, for restoring my breath,(my soul) to me this morning. How great is your compassion and courageous faith: and my friend Miriam adds the word “bi” Hebrew for “in me”.
This is the formula for the start of all morning Jewish prayer. And I felt the revival of my spirit, the sudden revival of hope that is so necessary especially in the darkest of times as recently pointed out by Rabbi Steinmetz in his talk on the parsha relating to the enslavement of the Jews in Egypt (Vaeerah)
I am still here and I can do good in this world.
Abigail Hirsch
514-792-6065
Blogger: http://askabigail.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/AskAbigail
AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la Guérison des communautés
Campus Ahead Program: free: Feb 2nd 6:30- 8:30 Cote St.Luc
The next Campus Ahead session will be held from 6:30-8:30pm on Tuesday, February 2nd at the Beth Israel Beth Aaron Synagogue on Mackle (in Cote Saint Luc). This session will explore, differentiate and grapple with traditional antisemitism, the new antisemitism and anti-Israelism. Through a mix of interactive polling, discussions and real-life experiences from student leaders, we will explore the implications, responses and trends on campus.
This session is free for all post-secondary school students as well as students in Secondary V (grade 11) who are likely to be on a college campus next year. Supper will be served. So we can prepare properly, please register
online. For more information, please contact Jason (514.845.9171).
Tell your friends!
This session is free for all post-secondary school students as well as students in Secondary V (grade 11) who are likely to be on a college campus next year. Supper will be served. So we can prepare properly, please register
online. For more information, please contact Jason (514.845.9171).
Tell your friends!
About two films:Defamation and Norman Finkelstein
Iletters@guardian.co.uk
about the film "Defamation"
I actually saw this film and the film about the life of Norman Finkelstein, both shown at the documentary film festival in Montreal and I was appalled.
I too am a filmmaker. Askabigail Productions
Filmmaking can take a very narrow window on any issue and do it very convincingly.
Can we forget the films of Reifenshtahl, the Nazi filmmaker.
I also saw the film about the life of Norman Finkelstein which claims that Finkelstein was not granted tenure at two different universities because of the "Jewish Lobby" namely a letter from Allan Dershowitz.
As another professor shared with me on this point: If Finkelstein did not contest his rejection it was because he knew that there were things he did not want exposed in his university file: and after watching the film I think I understand what they might be.
Finkelstein has been the darling of the virulent anti-Israel campaign mounted by the Left, the same left that supports the Israel/apartheid week on campuses, and promotes The Israel boycott movement all over the world touting Israel as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Sadly, Finkelstein too is Jewish and the child of two holocaust survivors.
Anti-semitism is a dirty word: But not facing it is worse.
Since Jews live all over the world, including in Israel, and have every political persuasion, it is not difficult to find Jews such as the film maker himself, misunderstanding the issues, defaming Israel, and poo-poohing the very real dangers of anti-semitism, the very essence of defamation. This film really does not get it right, and through its biased coverage is defamatory of Jews and of Israel and of the very real issues of anti-semitism, currently thriving in the Moslem world and whose seed has not been extinguished in the western world.
Abigail Hirsch
Blogger: http://askabigail.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/AskAbigail
AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la Guérison des communautés
about the film "Defamation"
I actually saw this film and the film about the life of Norman Finkelstein, both shown at the documentary film festival in Montreal and I was appalled.
I too am a filmmaker. Askabigail Productions
Filmmaking can take a very narrow window on any issue and do it very convincingly.
Can we forget the films of Reifenshtahl, the Nazi filmmaker.
I also saw the film about the life of Norman Finkelstein which claims that Finkelstein was not granted tenure at two different universities because of the "Jewish Lobby" namely a letter from Allan Dershowitz.
As another professor shared with me on this point: If Finkelstein did not contest his rejection it was because he knew that there were things he did not want exposed in his university file: and after watching the film I think I understand what they might be.
Finkelstein has been the darling of the virulent anti-Israel campaign mounted by the Left, the same left that supports the Israel/apartheid week on campuses, and promotes The Israel boycott movement all over the world touting Israel as one of the worst human rights violators in the world. Sadly, Finkelstein too is Jewish and the child of two holocaust survivors.
Anti-semitism is a dirty word: But not facing it is worse.
Since Jews live all over the world, including in Israel, and have every political persuasion, it is not difficult to find Jews such as the film maker himself, misunderstanding the issues, defaming Israel, and poo-poohing the very real dangers of anti-semitism, the very essence of defamation. This film really does not get it right, and through its biased coverage is defamatory of Jews and of Israel and of the very real issues of anti-semitism, currently thriving in the Moslem world and whose seed has not been extinguished in the western world.
Abigail Hirsch
Blogger: http://askabigail.blogspot.com/
Twitter:http://twitter.com/AskAbigail
AskAbigail Productions
Shalom Foundation for Healing in Community: Fondation Shalom pour la Guérison des communautés
Thoughts about the Earthquake in Haiti
As I watch the unfolding of the events in Haiti, I feel numb. I was not alive in 1945 but I think to myself this is what the coverage of the nuclear bombing of Nagasaki and Hiroshima would have been like, only much worse due to the tremendous pain caused by burning flesh:
As much as nature’s cruelty is awesome, I am reminded that man’s can be worse. I was born after the second world war, but my parents survived the Nazi onslaught in Hungary, both the invading armies, German and Russian, and the Nazi drive to exterminate Jews and others deemed “inferior”, gypsies, the handicapped, democrats, communists, and all those who did not support the Nazi ideology which lasted over ten years from 1933 - 1945. I have spent my life trying to understand how something like the Nazi death factories, also known as concentration camps, could have actually been put into place by the likes of Eichmann, Hitler, and Goering, and the silent acquiescence of those who did not speak up to oppose them. Is it only me who is thinking of Ahmedinajad and his threat to "wipe Israel off the map?", the same Ahmedinajad who is using Hitlerian strategies against her own people, torturing and imprisoning those who would protest, and actively seeking to acquire nuclear weapons.
I was listening to a radio program on bullying, and it appears that bullying can be easily stopped if even one bystander speaks up against it. This has to be taught to our children the most fearfully affected by bullying in our time: but we all need to know it and governments need to understand this as well: We must not acquiesce to the bullying of Iran or Al Quaeda wherever they find safe haven.
On Sunday the day after the earthquake I joined an internet gratitude site. Yesterday morning, they sent me a notice asking why I had not posted anything. As much as I wanted to, I was numb: and then as I left the house yesterday morning on my way to a rehearsal with my camera equipment: (I am videotaping the process of the creation of a play on exactly this theme: being aware of history in order not to repeat it: connaîitre l’histoire pour ne pas se conter des histoires: Initiated by a class of autistic boys and girls, and jointly produced by them and several non-autistic boys and girls from the same school, école de la Magdeleine in Brossard and a group of boys and girls from Herzliyah High school in Montreal, suddenly the following words came to me:
Moda ani lefaneha, Melech Hai ve Kayam, shehehezarta bi nishmati behemlah, rabah emunateha (and my friend Miriam Ohevetel adds the word bi.)
I am grateful to You, Living and Ongoing Source of All, for restoring my breath,(my soul) to me this morning. How great is your compassion and courageous faith: and my friend Miriam adds the word “bi” Hebrew for “in me”.
This is the formula for the start of all morning Jewish prayer. And I felt the revival of my spirit, the sudden revival of hope that is so necessary especially in the darkest of times. I am still here and I can do good in this world. for more on this theme of irrational hope in the darkest times see Rabbi Steinmetz' five minute you tube talk http://www.youtube.com/user/dalfppp.
I grew up with the stories of my family – their courageous attempts to save themselves and those around them during the ten plus years of the Nazi onslaught:
There was the German soldier who waved my mother away from the ghetto where German soldiers were rounding up Jews.
The Hungarian couple, Gozon neni and Gozon baci who found work for my aunt Lilly as a maid with a Hungarian family, and accepted my teenage uncles to stay in his home when they escaped the Nazi soldiers who were marching their school group through Budapest saying to anyone who asked, “these are our cousins visiting us from the country.” I visited the home of this dear man, five years ago when I and my sister Anita and her two sons Noam and Yair and their wives, Maya and Ilana, visited Hungary with my Mom, Edith, who was then in her eighties. During the war, Gozon baci was the superintendant of a small apartment building in fashionable Buda on the way to the national park overlooking the Danube, which still exists with its monuments and overlook, and which had been the billeting site for the German army. Gozon baci’s daughter was dating a German officer and he would come to the house.
All these people, my aunt Lilli, my aunt Margit, my uncles,Tibi, and André as well as my dear Mother, Edith are alive today due to the bravery of this man and his wife and sister. Sadly Gozon neni and Gozon baci and even their children are long gone, but their memory will always be with me and with my family, and I hope through this blog with you.
I have more to share about my experiences of yesterday: About my discussion with the Morrocan Moslem cab driver who drove me to Herzliya who could recall the earthquake in Agadir:...
About the first full rehearsal with the all of the students and with Andre Michel, and Alby, an African Canadian singer, both participants in the same play. More postings on this as we proceed.
And about reading the tribute to Raoul Wallenberg with my Mom, the very same day from her computer in her own home.
I had a very full day:
But these will be the next instalments.
And also watch for the posting of an interview by Sonia Sarah Lipsyc with Rabbi Sandy Sasso, a celebrated author of children’s books dealing with childrens’ understanding of G-d and the Jewish tradition and also one of the first female rabbis in the United States which we hope to share with you as a video post.
Let us all work to increase peace, hope, and love in this world.
Together we can make a difference.
À BIENTÔT,
Thoughts and Reflections on the Erev of Yom Kippur
A few short weeks ago on August 23rd, 2009 I attended and videotaped an amazing conference here in Montreal.Rabbi Abraham Cooper of the Wiesenthal Center gave the lunchtime address. He started by commenting that in the face of intellectual giants who were presenting during the day such as Professor Wistrich of Hebrew University and Professor Small of Yale University, he did not feel compelled to exert himself on the intellectual plane. And so he shared three incidents which resonated powerfully with me, one of which I will share with you today, as it feels particularly apt on the eve of our annual Yom Kippur observation.
Rabbi Cooper shared that he has traveled extensively internationally, meeting with government officials, the Pope, and the public on issues of concern to the Jewish people. For example, he shared that he has traveled to Japan and many other countries to educate about the dissemination of “The Protocols of the Elders of Zion” and to shut down its publication.
After one of these talks to a group of Japanese businessman, the Rabbi respectfully asked, “Are there any questions?” As Japanese audiences are known for their polite reticence, he was very surprised as one CEO stood up and said ‘Yes, Rabbi, I have a question. Rabbi Cooper, we understand now that Jews don’t get together to plot world conspiracies and financial domination in their synagogue, but can you tell us what do Jews do in synagogue? Do Jews pray?” This question stopped him in his tracks, and it stopped me in my tracks as well. I think of it especially now as we Jews begin our twenty-five hour annual stint of fasting and prayer. How do we explain what happened there?
How do you share a five thousand year tradition while standing on one leg?
For now I refer you to the following website of Beliefnet: (a site I have subscribed to for many years) for a hands-on explanation of the key elements of Yom Kippur and even some virtual synagogue services for the curious: http://blog.beliefnet.com/windowsanddoors/?source=NEWSLETTER&nlsource=12&ppc=75147&utm_campaign=Jewish&utm_source=NL&utm_medium=newsletter
But on a deeper level, how does one share a five thousand year practice that has evolved with each generation continuing to maintain its loyalty both to the past and the future?
On September 10th, 2009, I participated in a webinar with Rabbi Yitz Greenberg on the prayer service of Yom Kippur. I refer you to his class which has been published on the web: www.OurLearning.com/AskYitzAndReuven/bonuses938)
There Rabbi Yitz Greenberg and Rabbi Kimmelman share how the ritual of the Yom Kippur prayer service is connected not only to the individual Jew but also to the community and all nations. He shows us how the prayers are carefully crafted to pray for peace not just for the individual but for all nations and all people in the universe, and to be realized under the rule of law, truth, and justice. And these are not mere empty words but also a prescription for achieving it.
The amazing thing about our tradition is that it has been evolving for five thousand years with loyalty to the past, the present, and the future. (More about this proposition in a future blog)
The main refrain on Yom Kippur is “Tshuva, tefillah and tzedaka, maavirin et roah hagzera.” I say this in Hebrew transliteration because each word is multilayered, powerful, and significant and difficult to translate but I will attempt it. Tshuva, (return to our sources) tefillah (prayer) and tzedaka (doing just acts) can have the power to mollify evil outcomes.
To be continued… gmar tov: may our prayers be fulfilled for good in the next year and within our lifetimes.
May we all pray together this Yom Kippur for the tshuva (improved behaviour) of every Jew, every human being, every government, and all peoples in the Universe. Even a slight improvement in each individual’s awareness and behavior can have a major impact on all of us.
Shana tova oometukah.
Wishing you a good and sweet year during this coming year, the five thousand, seven hundred, and seventieth (5770) year in the Jewish calendar.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
