Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record remarks on behalf of my constituent, Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman. Rabbi Zoberman is the Founding Rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Born in Chu, Kazakhstan (USSR) in 1945, he…
Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record remarks on behalf of my constituent, Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman. Rabbi Zoberman is the Founding Rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Born in Chu, Kazakhstan (USSR) in 1945, he is the son of Polish Holocaust Survivors.
``It was early Sunday morning and I was leaving the house
on the way to preach at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church
in Virginia Beach. I am, gratefully, this historic church's
Honorary Senior Rabbi Scholar. Having visited Poland,
Lithuania, and Israel earlier this summer, I was eager to
share my unsettling and transforming experiences from the
trip, experiences that still keep me up at night. My 97-year-
old mom's call from Haifa, Israel, 6,000 miles away, alarmed
me. My indomitable mom, a Holocaust survivor from the
Ukraine, worriedly uttered, ``What's happening in Virginia?''
She was referring, of course, to the tragic events that
unfolded in Charlottesville due to the neo-Nazi, white
supremacist, and KKK (What an unholy alliance!) repulsive
rally.
That truly anti-American, vile anti-Semitic rally
resurrected history's worst images which led to untold pain
and loss. My mom's keen conscience and life's trying legacy,
prompted her to be deeply concerned about what transpires in
America 2017. After all, she is a witness that hatred of the
other, fueled by prejudice, bigotry and jealousy, can end up,
as it did, in gas chambers and mass executions of millions.
The presence of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum
in our nation's capital is a poignant statement and a timely
warning that democracies, even our great one, are vulnerable
institutions; that poisonous ideas and pernicious minds can
undermine all that we so cherish.
Virginia and the entire United States are ``For Lovers''
and not haters! Had the blessings of our uniquely American
interfaith relations existed back then in Europe the
magnitude of the Holocaust would surely be diminished. It is
high time to revisit our educational system to ensure our
basic American values of democracy, diversity and decency
that have made America a leader, are taught on all levels
lest the American dream becomes a nightmare.
When I examined the Ayelet Tours' June 2017 advertised trip
to Poland and Lithuania accompanied by Professor Natan Meir
of Portland State University (what an added bonus to a
pilgrimage of sacred witness!), I couldn't but notice that my
father's hometown of Zamosc in southeastern Poland was on the
itinerary. My first exposure to Poland was at age six months
old in 1946 when my family of Polish Holocaust survivors
returned home from Siberia and Kazakhstan (then USSR) where I
was born. However, we left after only four months. Some 1500
Jews were murdered by Poles who begrudged our survival and
eyed our properties.
I visited Poland in February 1992 for a packed three-day
trip sponsored by the Chicago Board of Rabbis. I recall
seeing the sign leading to Zamosc and my frustration of not
going there. This time I was in Zamosc and I am still
overtaken by breathing the same air generations of my
ancestors breathed, loved and labored till the tragic
onslaught of Nazi terror. Imagine my speechless elation at
being in the restored Sephardic ``Renaissance Synagogue''
built in the early 17th century, the only such edifice in
Poland, which officially opened on April 5, 2011 with
Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski in attendance as
Honorary Patron.
After all, my great-grandma Dina Menzis Zoberman was a
descendent of Spanish and Portuguese Jews whose industrial
and communal leadership in Zamosc was immense. Dina and her
husband Rabbi Yaakov Zoberman perished in the Belzec death
camp along with other family members and many of Zamosc's
14,000 Jews. I led our 17-member group in the memorial
kaddish prayer. Half a million entered this latest of the six
major Nazi death camps to be cared for (the American Jewish
Committee played a pivotal role) and only three survived at
war's end with two of them murdered following testifying in
court!
Poland was the world center of Jewish life before WWII.
Less than half a million Polish Jews survived out of 3.5
million, about half of the Holocaust's six million victims.
Warsaw, Poland's capital has been rebuilt from its ruins and
is now a thriving international metropolis. Its new Museum of
the History of Polish Jews is called The Polin Museum. Polin
is the Hebrew word for Poland meaning ``here we sleep and
stay.'' This state-of-the-art museum is promising testimony
to the new Poland which is free from both Nazism and
Communism, proudly acknowledging its 1,000 years of Jewish
life which contributed so much to Poland. It is significantly
located next to the imposing Warsaw Ghetto Monument. How
moved I was that after emerging from the breathtaking museum
tour, the large IDF (Israel Defense Forces) annual delegation
of ``Witnesses in Uniform'' conducted a memorial ceremony at
the monument. It is an educational attempt to bond Israelis
with past heroism and sacrifice. The servicemen and women
also assist in cemetery work. We welcomed Shabbat at the
Progressive synagogue of Beit Warszawa and in the morning, we
joined at the Orthodox Nozyk Synagogue, the only one that
survived the war, and met there Poland's Chief Rabbi who is
American, Rabbi Michael Schudrich. We encountered Israeli
tourists who took the 3 1/2-hour flight from Tel-Aviv to
Warsaw on attractive ``deals'' with also a shopping spree in
mind. The Chopin piano recital by Anna Kubicz was an elegant
touch of Polish culture.
A memorable visit to Lodz with its reminders of a great
industrial past of Jewish input. The former large
Litzmannstadt Ghetto, the last of Poland's to be liquidated
and second in size only to the Warsaw Ghetto, is a stark
reminder of a tragic end. Controversial Chaim Rumkowski was
the head of the Judenrat, the Jewish Council appointed by the
Germans. In Lublin, we were at the once renowned Chachmei
Lublin Yeshiva and the touching Brama Grozdka-NN Theater in
the old Jewish quarter which preserves the rich Jewish past
by very dedicated Gentile Poles. I'm still haunted by the
photo of a Lublin Jewish boy who resembles by own grandson
Danny, and the grim struggle and fate of the Jewish children
and their helpless parents in the ghettos and camps. At the
Majdanek death camp, the first major one to be liberated by
the Russians as part of the Allied Forces, I mentioned in
Hebrew to a number of Israeli officers from the delegation
that they arrived 70 plus years too late. They responded that
there was then no State of Israel, ``that's the point'' I
retorted. Of the 360,000 lost lives, there, 120,000 were
Jewish.
I was enchanted in Krakow by the largest Market Square in
Europe, Wawel Castle, the Jagiellonian University with its
Institute of Jewish Studies, the Cathedral which was home to
Pope John Paul II and more. In the medieval Jewish Quarter of
Kaziemierz there are restaurants offering Jewish dishes and
Klezmer music in Yiddish and Hebrew by Poles who capture the
Jewish spirit. I was moved by hundreds of American Jewish
youth who celebrated Jewish life, connecting to both a
glorious and painful past as they continued to Israel's
Jewish rebirth. Being in Oskar Schindler's life-saving
factory turned museum was an important reminder of those
Righteous Gentiles who heroically stood by us. The Krakow JCC
established with the aid of Prince Charles of England is
uplifting indeed, and the instructive Galicia Jewish Museum
where Professor Edyta Gaworn, its academic advisor, addressed
us. The city is host to the famous annual Jewish Culture
Festival. Visiting vast Auschwitz-Birkenau (symbol of evil's
essence) where the Nazi death machine claimed a million and
one-half Jewish lives was an eerie experience of shock and
numbness. How monstrously deceptive is the infamous welcoming
sign, ``Arbeit Macht Frei'' (work makes you free).
We witnessed the sites of once vibrant small Jewish
communities in Poland's pastoral countryside, and the
creative and noble synagogues' restoration as Jewish museums
and cultural centers thou sadly without Jews; Sejny's neo-
Baroque synagogue is home to the Borderland Foundation
dedicated to Poland's rich multi-cultural heritage that is
Polish, Jewish, Lithuanian, Belaurussian and Russian;
Tykocin's 17th century Baroque synagogue; picturesque
Sandomierz with its cathedral depicting a medieval blood-
libel painting of rabbis sacrificing a Christian baby for
matza baking. However, following much Jewish protest there is
a recently placed plaque testifying that the alleged never
took place; Chmielnik with its uniquely renovated synagogue-
museum, a bima encased in glass and memorabilia of a once
flourishing community.
Captivating Vilnius (Vilna), Lithuania's capital, evokes
memories of Jewish religious and cultural heights. We
attended the burial place of the Vilna Gaon, delighted that
one of our fellow travelers from New York had recently
discovered he was a descendent of this great rabbi. We
visited the former ghetto as well as the Ponar Forest where
70,000 Jews were murdered, and the site of the famous escape
tunnel dug by Jews who were ordered to burn the exhumed
bodies. The calm forest belies the indescribable slaughter
that should have shaken heaven and earth. Faina Kukliansky,
Chair of Lithuanian Jewish Communities addressed us. At the
Genocide Museum (a former KGB prison) we were exposed to the
bloody brutalities of the Soviets toward Lithuanians in
general along with mass deportations to Siberia, all regarded
by Lithuania as genocidal policy. Lakeside Trakai, the
medieval capital of Lithuania, offered us a respite, and we
were enlightened at the Karaite museum, learning how this
sect escaped Nazi persecution.
We are grateful to The Foundation for the Preservation of
Jewish Heritage in Poland for its remarkable initiatives and
accomplishments! The observed signs of Jewish renewal are
encouraging and heartwarming, but surely this amazing journey
was bound to stir deep and mixed emotions.
I continued by myself to Israel and how rewarding it was to
know that there is a welcoming Jewish state following
unfathomable destruction! To top it all, the aircraft carrier
USS H. W. Bush whose homeport is Norfolk arrived in Haifa, my
hometown, with close to 6,000 sailors and pilots aboard
following bombing ISIS targets. It was the first American
carrier to arrive in Israel in 17 years, spending July 4th in
Israel. It was greeted enthusiastically, reaffirming the
special bond between the two democratic allies. I fondly
recall being present when a Torah Scroll (democracy's
foundation) originally from Germany was presented to this
incredible vessel, symbol of American freedom's resolve.''