This is how you write a thank-you letter

Here I am, in Budapest, with my colleague Taly, who pulls out of our offices one of the most stunning and moving books I’ve ever seen. It’s a collection of acknowledgements from different Jewish communities to celebrate 25 years of the Joint.

So it’s November 1939 … and everything is about to change. Most of those who wrote these letters – certainly those living outside of Budapest – would be killed in the Shoah.

But there is a timeless beauty, an elegance, and a wondrous gratitude in some of these letters. They speak of hope, of help, of relief. They are amazing to read.

“There is no Jew, who would not demand God’s blessing to your work, but thousands and thousands of mothers and children are praying fervently, because they had direct opportunity to enjoy your extreme kindness and nobility.”

“… Where danger was most despairing, [and help] the most urgent, you appeared and brought help. Who would be able to thank you? God sees and has seen all you did…”

“There are many who are preaching humanity. It is easy to proclaim it by words, but difficult to prove in deeds. You have chosen the more difficult and also the most noble way, when you protected and helped our social establishments, giving them possibilities to act.”

I’ve put photos of the documents here, and you can click on them to see them better. But hopefully we’ll get more copies – there are many – and upload them to our archives so they can be accessed and viewed by many more people. It’s a privilege, and a rare opportunity, to see this  aspect of our history.

Yet another reason why I love my job

I spent an hour this morning visiting one of the most amazing Jewish women in Budapest. 

Erzabet (Elizabeth) is 90 and was one of the Shoah survivors saved by the Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg. She was caught several times by the Arrow Cross (the Nazi-backed Hungarian fascists) and the Nazis, but each time managed to escape. "They kept capturing me, so I kept escaping, " she said.

And she was telling us about the food packages she received from the Joint.... and suddenly we realized that she wasn't talking about the food packages she receives now, but rather the ones she received from us in the 1940s, with her first coat, and the taste of chocolate.

Restitution and Renewal

My drash at Temple Beth-El Mekor Chayim in Cranford, NJ, this Shabbat ...

Shabbat shalom.

So, there I was, about a year ago, in downtown Vilnius, Lithuania.

And I was standing with a small group in a communal building courtyard.

Around us were several huge apartment buildings, several hundred apartments in all. Nearly all owned before the war by Jews. Now all owned by Lithuanians.

We had a Lithuanian-Jewish tour guide who, uniquely for most Lithuanian Jews actually spoke Lithuanian as his mother-tongue and not Russian.

And it was particularly useful to have a Lithuanian-speaker with us, to translate those interesting moments that otherwise we may have missed.

For example, standing in that courtyard, we noticed two fourth-floor windows opening on each end of the courtyard. Two neighbors shouting hello to each other, some forty feet above us.

And looking down on this small group of American Jews, they waved to us.

And what did they say to each other?

Our guide translated: “Look,” said one to the other. “The Jews are here, coming to take back your apartment.”

It took me a few minutes to realize the history behind that comment.

The Jews are here. Coming to take back your apartment.

So that was Lithuania.

And a couple of weeks ago, I visited the Hungarian Jewish community. I’ve been there before. I seem to find myself at least six or seven times a year in currently communist or former communist dictatorships.

And in Hungary I found an interesting continuation of that Lithuanian story.

In 2010 the opposition center-right party – Fidesz - received 53% of the vote. But because of the electoral system they got 2/3 of the seats in the Hungarian Parliament.

Here’s where it got interesting: the Constitution allowed for a 2/3 majority in parliament to make changes – but no one ever thought that one party would receive that kind of a majority.

And they have made good use – or bad use – of that majority. They have changed the courts, the constitution, the election system. All of this in ways that smack of corruption, nepotism and one-party dictatorship.

What frightened everyone at the time wasn’t the massive 2/3 Fidesz victory – even though it should have. Instead, what frightened people was the surprising rise of the far-right Jobbik party, which succeeded on a xenophobic and racist platform in gaining 17 per cent of the vote.

And on the surface, being afraid of the far-right party seemed like a legitimate conclusion.

Jobbik excelled in making scapegoats out of Jews and Roma – what we used to call Gypsies.

One of the reasons that the far-right in Hungary is so much more viciously anti-Semitic than its counterparts in other European countries is that there’s no real Moslem presence in Hungary.
But there are some 120,000 Jews and maybe 700,000 Roma.

So Jews and Roma are basically the only visible and identifiable minorities in Hungary.

And if you live in a country like Hungary, with high unemployment, almost zero economic growth, and a traditional tendency to blame your troubles on others … then the Jews and the Roma are perfect for your needs.

There was a famous case last winter where one of the heads of the Jobbik party, Marton Gyongyosy, stood up in Parliament and said ‘now is the time to make a list of all those Hungarian Jews who are too loyal to Israel and not loyal enough to Hungary.’

It’s important to note that the issue of lists for the Hungarian Jewish community is particularly sensitive.

The Shoah, the Holocaust, in Hungary only lasted six weeks.

From May to July 1944, the Nazis rounded up hundreds of thousands of Jews and sent them to Auschwitz.

A Hungarian Jew living in the countryside in 1944 had less than a ten percent chance of surviving the following 12 months.

And how did they succeed in killing so many, so fast?

They took the lists of Jews from the Jewish community. Which is why the issue of lists is so sensitive.

So the problem last year wasn’t so much the noise of a few far-right fascists in Partliament who called for a list of Jews.

The problem was that the 2/3 majority government party said nothing.

And the reason for that is, in some ways, the real challenge ahead of us.

For Hungarian Jews, the Soviets were liberators in 1944.

When the Soviet Red Army overthrew the Nazi regime, Hungarian Jews were quite literally saved by the Soviet Union.

Without question.

But for most Hungarians, who weren’t affected by the Shoah or by Nazi repression, the opposite was the case: the Soviets were evil foreign invaders, and clearly unwelcome.

So … in a case like this, when the issue of reparations – the restitution of stolen property from the Jewish community comes up, there are two layers to the conversation.

Because: in many cases the government is working to restitute property that was stolen from Hungarians by the Soviets.

This was property that was “nationalized” and stolen from Hungarians.

But … some of these same Hungarian “victims” were themselves the beneficiaries of the same property that was “aryanized” maybe ten or twenty years earlier when it was stolen from Jews.

And sometimes they themselves were the ones who stole it from those Jews!

So …let’s review:

A significant number of Hungarians supported the Nazis. They saw the Soviet occupation as unwelcome. The Jews, on the other hand, saw the Soviets as liberators and life-savers.

So … there's an actual debate in Hungarian society on whether fascist rule and communist rule were essentially “the same” in terms of their moral depravity.

I was walking through a museum in Budapest and looking at some really shocking attempts to make a direct equivalence between German Nazi rule and Russian Communist rule. Particularly striking was a rotating set of two bodies, in fascist and Communist uniforms, meant to show how similar they were.

It was particularly graphic.

And completely unjustified.

It’s perfectly ok to insist that there were atrocities committed by the Communists, and to say that the lack of respect for human life in Communist times was appallingly low.

There were atrocities, and there wasn’t enough respect for human life.

But to jump from there to say that, essentially, there was no difference between the Fascists and the Communists, is too far.

To jump even further, and claim that Hungary was the victim of foreign occupation is also morally unacceptable. It ignores the dedication and enthusiasm of so many Hungarians from the right and left to turn to evil.

And it helps you understand, I think, why there is a tendency in some of these countries to feel that they have no personal or national responsibility for what happened.

Why, for example, they aren’t standing up against a small fascist growth in Parliament to stand up for minority rights.

And this is happening far too much around Europe today.

Because what you have here is a sleight of hand.

First you equate Fascism with Communism, and then you say that both are foreign intrusions.

Hungary has no responsibility.

Lithuania had nothing to do with it.

Austria was innocent.

This is the challenge that the organized Jewish community faces today.

If the Holocaust Death Camp is “the same as” the Communist Gulag  - then there’s not only a moral failure here, there’s also never going to be a genuine move to full reparation of stolen Jewish property and a decent reckoning with their past and responsibility.

And why is this still so important today?

Because there’s a very clear and – when you think about it – a very obvious – reason for why so many Jewish communities are so weak and so under-developed.

It’s because they had everything stolen from them.

By the Nazis and by the Communists.

And once you start restituting that property, bringing it back to the community – then you can start to see the beginnings of revitalization.

Because you can renovate restituted property, and turn it, for example, into rental apartments or gyms or retail stores.

And with the monthly income you can start to build community centers, and leadership programs, and send kids to summer camp and Sunday school.

But only if you get that first step started.

So, therefore ... two conclusions:

First, sometimes the enemy of democracy isn’t always what it appears to be.

Sometimes it can be much stealthier and quieter than what you’d expect.

Sometimes things aren’t what they seem.

And second, the weight of history can be so burdensome, so awful, that it will take us a very long time to recover, and correct the evils of the past.

But we know how to get there.

Thank you.

Shabbat shalom.


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The Weight of History

I’m here in Budapest with a terrific group from CJP (Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston). And one of the issues we’re grappling with is the history that’s all around us.

Our (Jewish) guide made a fascinating reference to how she loves going for a swim in the beautiful Danube river … that same river into which were shot and killed so many Jews in 1944.

And we’re walking around a city around homes which belonged to Jews, from where Jews were expelled. So much of the city was built by Jews. So much of the Jewish story here is tragic.

In the building in which the federation of Jewish communities sits, you hear that Adolph Eichmann had his offices there.

As you walk through the central streets you learn how much was built by Jews, who were killed and persecuted (and not just during the fascist period).

The weight of history can be oppressive. Even though so many Hungarian Jews survived. Even though there is a real story of renewal and revitalization. There is also a past.

Hungary

I’m taking a mission from CJP (Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston) to Hungary this weekend, so this was of particular interest …

After Years of Stalling, Hungary Resumes Social Welfare Funding to Holocaust Survivors

Following protracted discussions over the course of several years, the Hungarian government has agreed to release $5.6 million in previously committed funds for social welfare services for needy Holocaust survivors of Hungarian origin living outside of Hungary. These funds will be distributed through the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (Claims Conference). That organization can now resume its worldwide distribution to social services agencies outside of Hungary that assist Hungarian Holocaust survivors with daily living. Additionally, the Hungarian government committed to continuing negotiations for the restitution of assets.

“Nearly 70 years after the persecution and mass murder of Hungarian Jews by the Nazis and their local collaborators, the government has fulfilled its previous agreement to support elderly Hungarian survivors,” said Greg Schneider, Claims Conference Executive Vice President. “We very much appreciate the critical support of State Secretary Janos Lazar for this significant initiative that will enable elderly survivors in need to live with an added measure of dignity and comfort.”

The money will be a lifeline for survivors who require homecare, medicine, meal delivery, transportation, emergency cash grants, winter relief, case management and socialization programs. Such services enable survivors to remain living in their own homes for as long as possible, a primary goal of the Claims Conference.

Earlier this year, with the appointment of Janos Lazar to the position of State Secretary in the Office of the Prime Minister, a new tone was taken by the government, which seemed to change course from placing obstacles in the way of transferring the funds, to trying to work cooperatively to resolve whatever issues remained in the way of the funds’ transfer.

In 2007, the Hungarian government pledged $21 million to be distributed over the course of five years to assist Holocaust survivors in Hungary and abroad. The Jewish Heritage of Hungary Public Endowment (MAZSOK) – a restitution foundation in Hungary composed of local Hungarian Jews, government officials and the World Jewish Organization (WJRO) – was tasked with administering one-third of the funds to survivors currently living in Hungary, while two-thirds of the funds were transferred to the Claims Conference to fund social welfare services for needy survivors living outside of Hungary.

But in 2010, a new government came to power in Hungary, and the transfer of funds to the Claims Conference in the final two years of a five-year commitment was suddenly suspended in 2012, leaving survivors deprived of the assistance they had come to expect and which they so desperately need. The $21 million represents an advance payment on a hoped-for larger agreement to provide compensation for the heirless and unclaimed formerly Jewish-owned assets confiscated by the Nazis during the Holocaust and/or subsequently nationalized by the Communist regime after the war.

-         See more at: http://ejewishphilanthropy.com/after-years-of-stalling-hungary-resumes-social-welfare-funding-to-holocaust-survivor/#sthash.a39PWpPX.dpuf

Survivors and Rescuers

We had an astonishing, moving and inspiring meeting today, during the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA) Campaign Chairs and Directors Mission (CCD): a number of elderly Shoah (Holocaust) survivors joined us, along with Righteous Among the Nations (non-Jews who saved Jews and risked their own lives in so doing). It was an incredible privilege to introduce this session. Several people asked me for a copy of my speech, reprinted below ...

Primo Levi, describing his rescuer, Lorenzo Perrone, in his masterpiece “If This Is A Man,” said:

"I believe that it was really due to Lorenzo that I am alive today;

and not so much for his material aid, as for his having constantly reminded me by his presence…

that there still existed a just world outside our own, something and someone still pure and whole…

for which it was worth surviving"

Many were indifferent.

Many were hostile.

During the Shoah, the Holocaust, the majority watched as their former neighbors were rounded up and killed.

Some collaborated.

Many benefited.

In a world of total moral collapse … there was a small minority who mustered extraordinary courage to uphold human values.

There were survivors, several of whom bless us with their presence today.

There were Righteous Among the Nations, some of whom honor us with their participation here.

They stand in stark contrast to the indifference and hostility that prevailed during the Shoah.

Who are these rescuers?

The term “Righteous Among the Nations” (Chasidei Umot HaOlam) comes from Jewish tradition – from the literature of the Sages.

Non-Jews who help the Jewish people in times of danger.

The Yad Vashem Law in Israel, which guides the global recognition of these remarkable individuals, characterizes the Righteous Among the Nations as those who not only saved Jews but risked their lives in doing so.

Most of these rescuers were ordinary people.

Some acted from deep political or religious convictions.

Others just cared about the people around them.

They could have been killed. Their children could have been killed. Everything they had and loved would have been lost and destroyed.

For people that perhaps, probably, they didn’t even know!

Bystanders were the rule.

Rescuers were the exception.

However difficult and frightening, the fact that some found the courage to become rescuers demonstrates that some freedom of choice existed.

The Righteous Among the Nations teach us that each and every person – each one of us – can make a difference.

Each and every one of us has the ability to save, to rescue, to change lives.

This may be one of the most unique and important encounters we can give you. Here in Minsk. In the former Soviet Union. In the Jewish world.

Because there are heroes in this room.

Jewish heroes, and heroes from the Righteous Among the Nations.

Some of our honored guests here are heroic Jewish survivors of the Shoah.

Some of them were saved by the Righteous Among the Nations.

Our responsibility to care includes all those here.

With Hesed.

What is Hesed? Not just the technical name we give to our federation-supported JDC welfare program, which you’ll see tomorrow.

Hesed means kindness.

It means caring.

It means love.

It means that the Survivors and the Righteous Among the Nations are equally our clients. We have a commitment to all of them.

With food programs, and medicine, and homecare … and the warmth and love of our community.

So we are honored, and privileged, to welcome all of you here today … and I invite the young leader at each table to begin the conversation.

Thank you.

 After the discussions with the Survivors and Righteous Among the Nations, we were thrilled to have Vera Goffman sing with us. Vera was born in 1936 in Bobruisk, which is some 90 miles southeast of Minsk. During the Second World War, as a five-year old girl, she was evacuated to Uzbekistan with her mother. She graduated from Brest Music College and is the lead of our Hesed Minsk Choir. Her singing was beautiful.

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The Handbook

This is one of the most fascinating aspects of the Shoah (Holocaust) I’ve ever seen. 

In the Tkuma Center for Holocaust Studies, in Dnepropetrovsk, they have a Wehrmacht (German Infantry) officer’s handbook guide to the Nuremberg Laws.

The chart was called the Mischling Test - which the Nazi's used under the Nuremberg Laws to check if you were Jewish, Aryan, or a "Mischling," a hybrid.

It shows a pseudo-scientific basis for racial identification. Only people with four German grandparents (four white circles in middle of the page) were of "German blood". A Jew is someone who descends from three or four Jewish grandparents (black circles in middle of the page). Then there were people of "mixed blood" of the "first or second degree." A Jewish grandparent was defined as a person who is or was a member of a Jewish religious community. Also includes a list of allowed marriages ("Ehe gestattet") and forbidden marriages ("Ehe verboten").

What's fascinating, I think, is that this isn’t an SS or Gestapo guidebook. This was an army officer’s handbook. Everyone in the Wehrmacht carried it. 

This was the banality and evil of the Shoah.