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As long as there is a community of interests we need have no fears
over Jewish identification.
There is such deep-rooted concern over the fate of Russian Jewry,
and the recollections of what had happened under Hitlerism arouse so many
emotions, that it is unnecessary to introduce despair over the alleged in-
difference in Jewish ranks.
On the eve of Passover we are bombarded with requests for texts
of the prayer for Russian Jewry and the ceremony that was introduced for
the reading of a special tribute to those who resisted the Nazi murderers.
Preparatory to the Passover sedorim which will be observed next
Friday and Saturday evenings we share the two prayers with our readers.
The "Seder Ritual of Remembrance" remains an indelible tribute
to the memory of an eminent Jewish scholar, the author Israel Goldberg
who had written both under his full name and that of his pen name Rufus
Learsi—Learsi being Israel spelled backwards and Rufus to indicate his
red headedness.
Our kinsmen in English-speaking countries utilized this prayer to
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Solidarity in Faith Expressed in Jewish
Concern Over Fate of Russian Jewry and
in Remembering the Tragedy Under Nazism
By Philip
Siomovitz
assert their interest in the events of the past and as an emphasis on their
refusal to forget what had happened to the Six Million.
Then came the awakening to the needs of Russian Jewry. Coupled
with the courage of the Jews in the Soviet Union, there has been created
the determined movement to arouse public opinion against the discrimina-
tions that are practiced by the Communists in the USSR.
Before gaining public interest then - is need for Jewish concern, and
the Passover adds to the demonstrative pleadings with the Soviet author-
ities not to perpetuate the prejudices against their Jewish citizens, to grant
them their religious and cultural rights and the human freedoms that are
essential for all citizens if they choose to remain in Russia—and to permit
them to go to Israel if that is their desire.
Thus, as we are readying for the sedorim, we have available the
two new prayers that have such great importance for our generation.
The past must never be forgotten, just as the horrors of current inhuman-
ities of man to man must not be ignored. Yet we pray that what we do
here now will help mark an end to the terrors that enslave men and
that the inerasable pages of history that will record our
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having acted in defense of the downtrodden will serve always
to remind generations to be on the alert and to labor that
the indignities of a tragic past shall never be repeated.
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Liberation Based on Will to Live
What we will do at the ,seder next Friday night, and
the inspirations that will motivate our recollections of the
past and the obligations of the present, are rooted in one
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basic idea: the will to live.
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If that principle were missing we would have no seder,
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the Hagada would be relegated to the museum, Jews would
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be viewed as relics of a past who are remembered only as
actors in ancient history.
But we are a living people, we are a functioning society,
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we
keep
creating new chapters in a rich history.
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While reciting a special ritual of remembrance in recall-
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ing the martyrdom of the Six Million, and as we pray for the
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honor of an additional surviving Three Million, we give cre-
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dence to the will to carry on. With that will we are inde-
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Prof. Yehuda Bauer of the Hebrew University, author of
"Flight and Rescue: Brichah (Flight)" and "From Diplomacy
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to Resistance," describing the flight of Jews to freedom after
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the horrors of the Nazi era and the concentration camps and
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the
subsequent displacd persons camps, had this to say about
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the consequences as well as motivations of the "Brichah"
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movement, the mass effort toward independence and the
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right to share the freedoms that are man's heritage:
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"Brichah turned the DP countries into temporary havens
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for
Jewish
men and women and children who could not find
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any permanent home. The fact that no country was willing
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to receive these homeless Jews ultimately led to the opening
of Palestine and its metamorphosis into Israel . . . Russian in-
This matzo, which we set aside as a symbol of hope for the three and a half million terest in seeing the British removed from Palestine and
Jews of the Soviet Union, reminds us of the indestructible links that exist between us.
American desire to settle the refugee question, coupled with
As we observe this festival of freedom, we know that Soviet Jews are not free—not the pressure of Jewish and non-Jewish public opinion in the-
free to leave, not free to learn of their Jewish past or to hand it down to their children. They tition Palestine and establish a Jewish state_
"The important point was that Brichas leaders Were
cannot learn the languages of their fathers.
aware of the general trend of the historical events in
They cannot teach their children to be the teachers and the rabbis of future generations. fully
which they were taking part. At the same time; while they
As their voices rise in Jewish affirmation and protest, we add our voices to theirs, and directed the flow of people they did not instigate the exodus.
we shall be joined by all whose consciences are aroused by the wrongs inflicted on Soviet In a very real sense, they were themselves the product of
Jews. Thus shall they know that they have not been forgotten and they yet emerge into the the mass movement—not its prime movers. The movement
light of freedom.
was conditioned by anti-Semitism and economic deprivation,
by the mass murders that pre-
Perform this Ritual
ceded it and their political and
English rendition of the Hebrew:
after the THIRD of the Four Ceremonial Cups,
psychological consequences.
just before the door is opened
The originators and leaders of
On this night of the Seder we remember with reverence and love the
Brichah, and behind them the
for the symbolic entrance of the Prophet Elijah.
six millions of our people of the European exile who perished at the
leaders of the Zionist move-
All rise,
ment, were duty-bound to help
hands of a tyrant more wicked than the Pharaoh who enslaved our
and the leader of the Seder recites the following:
their brethren, fleeing panic-
fathers in Egypt. Come, said he to his minions, let us cut them off from
stricken from Eastern Europe.
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What they did. was to channel
And they slew the blameless and pure, men and women and little ones,
this
flow intelligently into a
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reservoir that :would turn the
we abstain from
very misery of the people into
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a powerful weapon that would
in which man was created.
lead them to a new and better
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life, and thus achieve a basic
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humanitarian aim by political
Now, the remnants of our people who were left in the ghettos and
and national means. In the
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end it was the people, the
Jewish survivors themselves,
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who had to show indomitable
day of Passover the remnants in the Ghetto of Warsaw rose up against
will to live in order to sur-
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stacles they faced. The will to
live, fortunately,was there."
divided,
and
they
brought
redemption
to
the
name
of
Israel
through
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With the will to live, the
all the world.
seder is among the glorifying
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joys in our lives. In that spirit
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And from the depths of their affliction the martyrs lifted their voices
we welcome it, and our mem-
ories are alert to all the con-
in a song of faith in the coming of the Messiah, when justice and
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ditions that affect the life of
a
Jew.
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All sing AM MAAMIN ("1 Believe"),
All sing ANI MAAMIN C . / Believe"),
the song of the martyrs in the ghettos and liquidation camps:
the song of the martyrs in the ghettos and liquidation camps:
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I believe with perfect faith in the coming of the Messiah:
And though he carry, none the less do l believe!
Seder Ritual
of Remembrance
For the Six Million Jews
who perished at the hands of
the Naz' nit for th4 13„gro.es
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