I PURELY COMMENTARY
Martydom On A Daily Basis: Chronicled Jewish Agonies
PHILIP SLOMOVITZ
Editor Emeritus
Every Yom Kippur, every concern-
ed Jewish congregant who lives in the
synagogue for the entire day must read
the supplementary historic record of the
Ten Martyrs. It is under the heading
"Eleh Ezkerah." The title derived from
Psalm 42:5 has the meaning: "These
martyrs are recalled and my soul is
melting with secret sorrow . ."
The names of the martyrs are listed.
Their sufferings are recalled. The
reading of that portion of the Machzor
is agonizing, but necessary. It is a way
of knowing that martyrology is not
strange to Jews. Simon Wiesenthal pro-
ves it in: Every Day Remembrance Day:
A Chronicle of Jewish Martyrdom
(Henry Holt Co.).
The Wiesenthal calendar of horrors
experienced by the Jewish people is a
day-by-day occurrence, without a single
interruption, from January 1
throughout the entire year. It is a
chronology of the miseries in a destiny
of martyrdom.
Continents and generations are
sharing in the chronicled terrors and
humiliations. Hundreds — many hun-
dreds — of communities are in the listed
massacres that account for the millions
of martyrs.
In the isolated instances, when
Christian and Islamic hearts were mov-
ed to compassion, there were the
human expressions that were not to be
ignored.
The Wiesenthal record took the ex-
ceptions into account. These acts of
humanism did not reduce martyrology.
In his impressive work — it is one
of Wiesenthal's major accomplishments
— Wiesenthal is in a new role. He is
recognized and respected as the "Nazi
Hunter." He had a share in rounding up
and bringing to justice Adolf Eichmann.
He did not spare exposing Kurt
Waldheim and his ilk. In his account of
the martyrdom imposed on Jewry he is
also historian, sociologist, accumulator
of the factual history of anti-Semitism.
It is a noteworthy gathering of facts in
essays supplementing the martyrology
chronology.
In his analyses of causes of persecu-
tion, Wiesenthal ascribes six factors.
They are outlined by him as: hatred,
dictatorship, scapegoating of a minori-
ty, bureaucracy, technology and crisis of
war.
The probing of this entire group
represents reasoning that encourages
further study and evaluation. It is an
assembling of experiences that have un-
questioned relationships to historical
Jewish developments.
For an understanding and apprecia-
tion of the extent of the chronological
listings of the martyrological occur-
rences, samples from Wiesenthal's book
gain importance. Here are two brief
excerpts:
September 11
1942 The liquidation of
the 11,000 Jews in the ghetto of
Lida, district of Novogrodek,
Poland (today Belorussia S.S.R.),
begins. It will take nine days.
Many Jews are murdered and
and the Lida, Belorussian
S.S.R., begins and will last for
three days.
September 17
Simon Wiesenthal
the others are deported to the
Treblinka extermination camp.
Jews numbering 235 leave
the ghetto of Horochov, district
of Luzk, Poland, to join the par-
tisans in the forest who are
fighting against the Germans.
From the Westerbork transit
camp in the Dutch province of
Drenthe 874 Jewish inmates are
deported to Auschwitz.
1943 Jews are deported
from the Theresienstadt concen-
tration camp in Czechoslovakia
to Auschwitz.
The liquidation of the ghet-
tos of Minsk. Belorussia S.S.R.,
1942 The Jews of Sokal,
Lvov province, Poland (today
Ukrainian S.S.R.), have been
deported to do forced labor and
suffer under economic restric-
tions and assaults on their lives.
On September 17, a large-scale
Aktion takes place in the course
of which 2,000 Jews are
deported to the Belzec exter-
mination camp.
The first transport of four
with 200 Jews from Morayska
Ostrava Moravia province.
Czechoslovakia, is carried out.
A total of 8,000 Jews are
deported from Morayska
Ostrava and its vicinity.
1943 Lejzor Stolicki, the chief
of the Jewish ghetto police who
has continuously supported the
Jewish partisans in the forest, is
killed during the last Aktion
carried out in the ghetto of Lida,
Poland (today Belorussian
S.S.R.). The Jews who remain in
the ghetto are murdered, but
300 Jewish partisans who join
the Soviets in fighting the Ger-
mans will survive the Nazi era.
A special reason attaches to the
utilization of these excerpts. They in-
clude the tragedies of Lida, now in
Byelorussia, identified in the Minsk
region. It was in Lida, which was in the
Continued on Page 30
Mobility In Orthodoxy: Guides To Jewish Unity
Observe the waters: when
they flow together, they
sweep along stones, trees,
earth, and other things; but
if they are divided into
many streams, the earth
swallows them up, and they
vanish. So shall ye also be if
ye be divided.
Apocrypha: Patriarchs Zebulun,
9.1-3
Orthodox leadership. rabbinic and
lay, rises to commendable heights when
it succeeds in mobilizing its member-
ships and communicators. Every effort
to attain cooperation for the uplifting
of the spirit and devotion of the Jewish
people merits acclaim.
In a single sense, the unifying of
Jewish ranks is a duty that is all-
embracing. It is a dominant Jewish
responsibility.
Unification of Jewry can not be
treated as a limitation to a few, to five
percent or to ninety-five percent. It is
a totality. There are no imaginable
exceptions.
Therefore the urgency of pleading
with Orthodoxy, as with all affiliates in
Jewry, to make unity a workable factor.
Therefore the agonies, in mind and
heart, when divisiveness disrupts the
2
FRIDAY, AUG. 7, 1987
very basis for unity, when there are ex- them. I have great respect and admira-
tremisms, in whatever ranks, that ex- tion for Rabbi Emanuel Rackman,
clude many Jews from the unity that chancellor of Bar-Ilan University in
should be paramount in the life of the Israel; for Rabbi Norman Lamm, presi-
Jew.
dent of Yeshiva University in this coun-
It is cause for deep regret that much try; for Rabbi Irving Greenberg, who in-
of the evidence of disunity should come spires the National Jewish Center for
from Israel, that the militancy in ex- Learning and Leadedrship — CLAL.
cluding some Jewish elements from the They honor Orthodoxy and they do not
religious functions should be enforced defame those who differ with them.
in the Jewish autonomous state.
Without apologies for frequently
It is this animosity that is the referring to him as My Teacher, on the
source of resentment in the non- contrary, with emphasis on this recogni-
Orthodox circles.
tion of a very learned friend, I find it
But it also embraces the secularists, necessary to call attention to Rabbi
and who is to say that they are to be Rackman's definition of those who dif-
ostracized while they labor for roles in fer with the opponents we call "ex-
the Jewish community?
tremists."
There is much more to account for.
Dr. Rackman authored a most im-
The struggle for a democratic way of portant article in Jewish Week of New
life, for a free press, for freedom of ex- York under the title "The Future Does
pression are all ideals rooted in Jewish Not Belong to Orthodoxy's Zealots."
traditions and must be aimed for under That is where he took into account
all circumstances. It is the intervention other elements in the extremism we
with them that arouses the protests. take exception to. That's where he also
These protests must not be misinter- emphasized the validity of the "modern
preted. There is need for a recognition Orthodox" trends. Here are the impor-
of the forces within Orthodoxy who tant declarations made by Rabbi
strive to retain the high idealism. It is Rackman, calling attention to the
not all repression, either in Israel or in "modern Orthodox" validities. He
the Diaspora. There are those who stated in this essay:
define unity without bias.
In Israel, there are about 20
I have special regard for many of
religious kibbutzim, and they
are organized in the Hakibutz
Hadati. Their convention this
year was opened by a woman,
brilliant and eloquent. On
nobody's part was there hesitan-
cy to listen because she was a
woman or because she might ex-
press dangerous views on
religion.
Her analysis of Israel's
religious situation covered
every conceivable aspect, and
her challenges were truly pro-
vocative. What male could
cavalierly dismiss a female's
right to be represented in a
religious council after hearing
her! Most important of all, her
description of a future that
might be was as inspiring as her
description of the present was
depressing. One should add that
this is one group of kibbutzim
that did not pressure the
government to bail it out of debt.
Also, how many Jews in the
Diaspora have heard of the
Neamaney Torah va-Avodah, an
organization of Orthodox in-
tellectuals — brilliant scientists,
academicians and Torah
scholars — which is trying
Continued on Page 30