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SPIRITUALITY

Strong Faith

Manny Mittleman is the rock of Young Israel of Oak Park.

Lynne Meredith Schreiber

Special to the Jewish News

anny Mittelman, who
turned 80 this spring, •
has seen six rabbis
come and go at Young Israel of
Oak Park (YIOP). But he remains
a constant fixture in the congre-
gation, taking over when the
rabbi, gabbai (sexton) or other
.
leaders are absent.
The octogenarian has a palpa-
ble faith, which has only grown
stronger since his liberation
from Auschwitz 60 years ago.
"If a person lived through
what we lived through, the easi-
est thing to do is to say, `God, go
where you came from, throw off
the yoke," says. Mittelman. "It put
in me faith stronger than when I
came in."
Indeed, Mittelman has built a
life he is proud of. He has six
children, 22 grandchildren and
13 great-grandchildren. His
heating, cooling and electrical
business has thrived since 1960.
The key, says Mittelman, is to fill
every minute in the day "because
it lets you forget you have prob-
lems and gives you a sense of
accomplishment!'
"Nothing in this world that
happens is catastrophic:' he says.
"We have to maintain our yid-
dishkeit to the point where we
should be a beacon of light to
the world. It's important that we
maintain our religion to prove to
all these Jew-haters that you're
never going to erase us."

M

that were silent on Shabbat.
"Jewish life was very much
alive there remembers .
Mittelman. "The Slovakian gov-
ernment was Catholic, so they
enforced the rule that every Jew
has to belong to a congregation."
He grew up in a three-room
house with a stable and a gar-
den. The family churned its own
butter and made cheese. As wine
merchants, they kept a small cel-
lar from which other families
purchased their Shabbat wine.
Although Mittelman attended
Catholic schools, peyot dangling
beside his ears, he studied Torah
at 6 a.m. and sang in the choir at
the majestic Main shul. At age
13, he went away to yeshiva,
where he studied until age 17,
when he was taken by the Nazis
to Majdanek concentration
camp. He and three siblings sur-
vived 37 months in the camps; .
his parents and other siblings
were killed in a Polish ghetto.
After the war, Mittelman
returned to his village where he
was reunited with his siblings.
They wanted to emigrate to
Israel, but Mittelman had tuber-
culosis. He spent three years in
hospitals and sanitoriums before
being cured.
• In a Swiss hospital, he met
Bessie, the Viennese woman who
would become his wife. They
married in 1950, and Mittelman
became a kosher milkman in
Zurich. They lived the good life,
with a maid and three children,
before the Swiss government
learned they had an unused visa
to America.
That's when they "kicked us
out:' he says. "I had been the envy
of all the refugees. We got $15 a
month for incidentals, and I made
$150 a month from my job."

.

In The Beginning
Emanuel Mittelman was born in
Michalovce, Czechoslovakia, the
fifth of seven children. His vil-
lage was home to 5,000 Jewish
families, with store-filled streets

Strong Faith on page 20

December 8 * 2005

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