obituaries
Obituaries from page 76
Knesset Members'
Emotional Journey
Haviv Rettig Gur
Times
of Israel
I
D
ozens of Israeli Knesset mem-
bers visited the Auschwitz-
Birkenau death camps in Poland
in honor of International Holocaust
Commemoration Day, Jan. 27.
One after another — at Birkenau in
the afternoon or in a joint parliamentary
meeting with the Polish parliament in
Krakow in the evening — they began to
tell of their own ties to the Holocaust.
In speech after halting speech, through-
out a day of touring and memorial services,
it was hard to find an MK (Knesset mem-
ber) for whom the Holocaust wasn't first
and foremost a personal experience, a name
of a family member lost in the flames.
Michal Rozin (Meretz Party) spoke
proudly about her father, who survived
seven camps, including Auschwitz and
Dachau, and then went on to make aliyah
on the famous Exodus ship in 1948. He later
became a doctor, published books of poetry
and lived to see his great-grandchildren.
Tzachi Hanegby (Likud) spoke movingly
about his grandfather, who left Poland
just ahead of the Nazi invasion, leaving his
entire family behind.
"There's a chilling feeling to being here
Hilik Bar (Labor) said. "We are witnesses
here to this atrocity, for my grandfather,
his father and mother and his sisters, all of
whom survived Auschwitz. It's shaking me
to the core:'
Bar's grandfather fought as a partisan in
the frozen forests of Poland, battling the
Nazi occupation that had taken away his
parents to die.
MK Menachem Eliezer Mozes (United
Torah Judaism) nearly wept when he
spoke of the "70 souls from my family"
who perished in the Holocaust, including
at Auschwitz-Birkenau.
Deputy Minister for Religious Affairs
Eli Ben Dahan (Jewish Home) recalled his
wife's grandfather, a rabbi, who died with
the hope and belief that Jews would con-
tinue to be Jews, Ben Dahan said.
"I remember the words of my mother-
in-law, who for years taught my daughters
Knesset members visit Birkenau death camp.
that we must never travel to Poland, to that
impure land. She was herself [an inmate] at
Auschwitz. Since then she hasn't returned.
On the other hand, I'm here as a deputy
minister now, as an MK, as a representa-
tive of the government of Israel. There is
no greater revenge. We're here to teach the
world that we live. Here you can feel that
fact in the depths of your soul:'
Housing Minister Uri Ariel (Jewish
Home) spoke of his grandparents who
perished, while opposition leader Isaac
Herzog (Labor) spoke of his aunt.
Deputy Interior Minister Faina
Kirshenbaum (Yisrael Beytenu) read a list
of the names of family members who were
killed during the Holocaust. Her husband's
father, she told fellow MKs, was rescued
from Auschwitz at the end of the war — by
which time he weighed just 77 pounds.
And Eitan Cabel (Labor) spoke of being
"the messenger for a subject that became
taboo" in his wife's family: the family
members killed in the Holocaust. "We're
here to retrieve their memory, as brothers
and sisters of our people he said.
It was Supreme Court Justice Elyakim
Rubinstein who first noticed the refrain:
the incredible closeness of so many MKs
to actual victims of the Holocaust.
"Maybe you noticed:' he said to Polish
lawmakers when the two parliaments met
in Krakow Monday night, "that the Israelis
are all telling similar stories. The personal
family stories, they're not coordinated.
They come from deep in the heart, from
the DNA of our experience:'
And he added his own connection: "Most
of my wife's extended family was lost in the
Shoah in Poland. My grandfather and grand-
mother were shot in a mass grave in a village
in what was then east Poland, today Belarus.
My own father survived the war serving in
the Polish army and then came to Israel:'
❑
WHEN YOU NEED US,
YOU'LL REALLY TALK TO US
In our more than 70 years, we have never
employed an answering service.
Our commitment to this community is to be
available 24/7. Whether inquiring about
details of a funeral or reporting a death, you
will always speak to a member of our staff,
who is a member of this community and
always available.
We are proud to be the only Jewish funeral
home in Metro Detroit that will not turn you
over to a call center. We choose to be there
for you and your family at all times.
THE IRA KAUFMAN CHAPEL
Bringing Together Family, Faith & Community
18325 W. 9 Mile Rd Southfield, MI 48075 • 248.569.0020 • IraKaufman.com
1816870
78
January 30 • 2014
Obituaries