THE JEWISH NEWS

BRIAN AND DAVID OSTREICHER

MITZVAH

PEARLENA BODZIN

I

collect stories. In my journal, I
write down things that so impress
me I want to keep them forever.
Usually they are true stories
about remarkable events.
This is one such story.
A young Jewish boy in Poland, let's call
him Jack, was growing up amid the Nazi
rise to power. Hoping to save their son's
life, Jack's parents took him to a gentile
couple, who agreed to call the boy their
own.
The Nazis weren't fooled. When they
stormed into Poland, they sent Jack to a
death camp. He was about 9 years old.
Jack survived the war. When the camp
was liberated, he and two other young
men walked out the gates to freedom.
They were starved, filthy, their hair filled
with lice.
Approaching the camp gates as the boys
left were a group of American soldiers.
One sat atop his tank. He was eating from
a tin.
As Jack passed by, he and the soldier
caught each other's eyes. The soldier
jumped down from the tank and handed
the boy the food tin. Jack fell to the
ground and kissed the man's feet.
The soldier helped Jack up, then
hugged him and handed him an Ameri-
can flag. "Nobody is going to hurt you
again," he told the boy.
"Imagine that," Jack said years later.
"I was so dirty and covered with lice and
this soldier hugged me."
I love this story because it illustrates
the remarkable power a good deed can
have. The soldier's kind act literally
changed a boy's life. Today, Jack is a so-
cial worker — in large part, he says, be-

cause of that afternoon when he met the
U.S. soldier.
The men and women, boys and girls
portrayed in the Mitzvah Heroes section
are the kind of people for whom perform-
ing good deeds is an everyday event.
Nobody asks them to help out; they just
do it. Nobody puts on a big fanfare when
they aid the disabled, fix dinner for a
lonely soul, spend hours with the aged.
And the Mitzvah Heroes don't expect fan-
fare. They don't want it. For they see
their acts as anything but extraordinary
—which is precisely what makes them
remarkable.
Because human nature is not a science,
we can't measure the kind of influence
this year's Mitzvah Heroes — Pearlena
Bodzin, Brian and David Ostreicher, Neil,
Kalef — have had on the lives of others.
But we can be sure it was profound, be-
cause we all know how acts of goodness
have affected our own lives.
The Jewish News received more than 60
submissions for the 1991 Mitzvah Heroes.
The winners were selected after a lengthy
screening process that included a panel
comprising myself and Rae Sharfman, a
Soviet Jewry activist and 1990 Mitzvah
Hero; Alan Goodman, executive director
of the Jewish Family Service; Rabbi
Norman ROman of Temple Kol Ann; and
Arthur Horwitz, associate publisher of
The Jewish News.
We at The Jewish News express our
thanks to all those who helped with the
section, to all those who sent in nomina-
tions, and to our 1991 Mitzvah Heroes.
May they serve as examples to us all.
Elizabeth Applebaum
assistant editor

NEIL KALEF

