Louis Golden:
"Never forget who
you are."
0"
01 *
shared his last few dollars
with members of the
moshay. "Your grandfather
saved my life," he said.
Mr. Golden also learned
from Dr. Carmel that his
grandfather had been buried
in the Mt. of Olives
Cemetery in eastern
Jerusalem. But the Jorda-
nians had removed his
headstone and used it in
road building.
Mr. Golden's final stop was
a square in the middle of
Afula, where his grand-
father had once built his
house. "The minute I saw
the spot, I knew he had been
there," he says.
Since finding this new in-
formation about his grand-
father, Mr. Golden has
renewed his commitment to
Israel, always with
Herschel's words "Never
forget who you are" in mind.
He supports Haifa Univer-
sity, the Technion, the
Weizmann Institute, the
Kaplan Medical Center and
the Jewish National Fund,
among others. He was a
founder of Temple Kol Ami.
He visits Israel at least once
a year and often does busi-
ness there.
A string of subsequent
events would further
strengthen Mr. Golden's
dedication. Eating dinner
one evening, he began chok-
ing to death and pleaded
R
abbi Yaakov Emden,
an 18th century
halachic authority
from Germany, had no doubts
he had witnessed a miracle. It
was called the survival of the
Jewish people.
That Jews continued
despite their persecution,
despite life in the Diaspora,
was a greater miracle even
that God's divine interven-
tion in Egypt, Rabbi Emden
said.
Machon L'Torah Director
Rabbi Avraham Jacobovitz
agrees that the continued
existence of the Jewish peo-
ple is a miracle. Jewish sur-
vival, including the estab-
lishment of Israel and the
resettlement of Jewish im-
with God, "There are things
I need to do. Give me an-
other chance and I'll do
them." He suddenly found
his breath.
Another time, he was look-
ing for an answer to com-
plicated personal issues. A
friend ask Mr. Golden to buy
a raffle ticket for an expen-
sive brooch, with proceeds
benefitting Haifa Univer-
sity. He bought the ticket,
but vowed he would return
it, with funds from its sale
going to the school, if he
won. At the same time, he
told God, "I need a sign'
about which course to take.
If I win the brooch, I'll take
this course. If I don't, I take
the other." Three months
later, he heard he had won
the brooch. He returned the
jewel and received the an-
swer to his question.
These stories always begin
and end with his grand-
father.
Mr. Golden remembers
once standing underneath a
tree in Israel, not long before
he would stumble onto the
curious series of events that
led to his discovery of the
lost pages of Herschel's life.
"I was thinking about my
grandfather," he says, "and
I knew that he was smiling. I
was sure he was saying, 'I'm
glad you're here. And I know
that eventually you'll find
me.' "
Eating dinner
one evening, he
began choking
to death and
pleaded with
God, "There are
things I need to
do. Give me
another chance
and I'll do
them." He
suddenly found
his breath.
A MASTER PLAN
migrants from throughout
the world, is anything but an
ordinary occurrence, he said.
At the same time, Judaism
does not advocate relying on
miracles for proof of God's
existence, he said. Instead,
Jews should consider such
events "a reminder that
HaShem runs the world."
In the Amidah prayer,
Jews thank God for "Thy
miracles which are daily
with us." And indeed, Rabbi
Jacobovitz said, seemingly
everyday occurrences like
conception and breathing
are miracles.
More obvious miracles —
the parting of the Red Sea
and the oil in the Chanukah
lamp — also occur in
Judaism, but only when the
Jewish people were on a
terrible spiritual decline.
Finally, Judaism recog-
nizes as miracles more sub-
tle happenings, "unusual
events that normally
wouldn't occur" and that
may at first appear only to
be interesting stories, Rabbi
Jacobovitz said. Purim is a
case in point. That Queen
Esther managed to save the
Jewish people may not seem
as dramatic as a sea split-
ting open, but it is not just a
story of remarkable coin-
cidences.
"There is no such thing as
coincidence in Judaism,"
Rabbi Jacobovitz explained.
"God has a master plan for
the world."
Man should be as amazed
by these more subtle
miracles as he is by the oil in
the Chanukah lamp, he add-
ed. "It is the obligation of
every Jew to look into such
situations and not interpret
them as 'natural' events,"
he said. "For everything
there is a reason and a pur-
pose."
THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS
27