Chag Shavuot Sameach!
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The Jewish National Edition Post &Opinion Presenting a broad spectrum of Jewish News and Opinions since 1935. Volume 78, Number 8 • May 23, 2012 • 2 Sivan 5772 www.jewishpostopinion.com ChagChag ShavuotShavuot Sameach!Sameach! Cover Art by Eric Jabloner See About the Cover, p.3. 2 The Jewish Post & Opinion May 23, 2012 Letter to the Editor of this Editorial the Indianapolis Star Inside Issue April 24, 2012 Editorial.....................................................2 In our last issue, I wrote about an article Letter to Star Editor ................................2 that appeared in the Indianapolis Star on the As a son of Holocaust survivors who Rabbi Benzion Cohen topic of a local Holocaust commemoration. has devoted a lifetime of scholarship to (Chassidic Rabbi).....................................3 Included with that article were three photos, the horrible events of the 1930’s and About the Cover ......................................3 one depicting a candlelighting.The caption 1940’s that annihilated two thirds of all Amy Hirshberg Lederman read: “Alex Star lights a candle to remember living Jews in Europe, it was startling to (Jewish Educator) ....................................4 family members who died. The six candles read the article that appeared to the left 18 Reasons to be Jewish.........................4 represent the 6 million Jews who perished.” of two photos published in your April 19, Seth Ben-Mordecai However, in the article to the left of that 2012 edition. You referred to the six (The Roads from Babel) ...........................5 photo was written: “The six candles that candles being lit at a commemorative Rabbi Irwin Wiener were lit represent the 6 million Jews who are ceremony as representing the 6 million (Wiener’s Wisdom)..................................5 thought to have perished in the Holocaust.” Jews “who are thought to have perished Rabbi Sandy Eisenberg Sasso ..............6 I wrote that the Star’s choice of such in the Holocaust.” These benign and Rabbi Jon Adland watered-down words as “thought to have thoughtless words suggest that the (Shabbat Shalom).....................................6 perished” is offensive. I asked my readers methodical, well documented, and Howard Karsh if a Letter to the Editor was in order. I historically recorded annihilation of (Jewish America) .....................................7 received 26 responses. All of the messages Jews may simply reside in some peoples’ Jim Shipley except three said a letter was needed. mind – a mere thought. (Shipley Speaks) ......................................7 Miriam Zimmerman, who has been Please allow me to inform your readers Rabbi Moshe ben Asher and writing for this newspaper since 1988, that the murder of my grandparents, my Magidah Khulda bat Sarah and is a daughter of a survivor and a aunts and uncles and their children (my (Gather the People)..................................8 Holocaust educator, responsed: “Yes, cousins), and the children of my cousins, is Kaddish......................................................9 definitely send a letter to the editor. not some “thought.” It is a painful reality Irene Backalenick The issue is so important that they should that resulted from the anti-Semitic venom (Jewish Theater).....................................10 know: with the opening of additional spewed by Hitler and executed by his Nazi Sybil Kaplan archives with the fall of the iron curtain in German minions and their collaborators. (Seen on the Israel Scene)......................12 1990, new information became available. My family and relatives did not “perish.” Melinda Ribner There is some evidence that more than They were cruelly decimated, killed, and (Kabbalah of the Month) .......................13 six million were destroyed. There might not allowed to exist because of only one Eliyahu McLean never be a final audit, but there is reason – they were Jews. (Jerusalem Peacemaker).........................13 scholarly consensus that six million is the The events relating to the murder of Rabbi Elliot B. Gertel appropriate number.” Jews in the 1930’s and 1940’s are the most (Media Watch).......................................14 Not long after I had emailed several of documented events of the 20th century. Morton Gold those responses to Marcia Goldstone, There are still millions of pages of archival (As I Heard It).......................................15 executive director of our Jewish documents that have not been examined Rabbi Israel Zoberman Community Relations Council (JCRC), I (see Letter, page 3) (Book Review)........................................16 received a powerful “Letter to Editor” Dr. Morton I. Teicher written by Isaiah Kuperstein. It has not j i (Book Reviews) ......................................17 appeared in the Indianapolis Star but he men were sent to Boune La Rolande, a Sybil Kaplan gave me permission to publish it here (see detention camp. On a visit to the camp by (My Kosher Kitchen).............................18 the top of the next column, this page). his mother, his father gave her his wedding Rabbi David Wolpe For that same Yom HaShoah issue, I had ring. That and a few photos are all that (Why Faith Matters) .............................18 interviewed a Holocaust survivor, Harry Cybulski has left from his father who was Jerusalem Hug 2012 ..............................20 Cybulski of Flint, Mich., but because of eventually transported to Auschwitz.There computer challenges. I did not finish it were no survivors from that group of men. The Jewish in time. He and his older sister, Dora His mother took him and his sister to Goldberg of South Bend, Ind., are a small farm village 25 miles from Paris. Post &Opinion longtime subscribers. It is a fascinating She thought they would have a better 1427 W. 86th St. #228 story, but I only have space for a few chance of blending in because other Indianapolis, IN 46260 key points. He has given a much more Polish families lived there. email: [email protected] detailed version to the Shoah Foundation. Out of the goodness of their hearts, a phone and fax: (317) 405-8084 Cybulski and his sister were born in Catholic farmer and his wife with older website: www.jewishpostopinion.com Paris, she in 1932 and he in 1937. children risked their lives and allowed Their parents, Eli Cybulski and Jenta the Cybulski’s to stay with them. They safely. A neighboring farmer helped him (Kershenblatt) Cybulski had moved there pretended that he and his sister were escape but then the Germans came and from Poland in 1931. The Germans first their children. killed the farmer. came into Paris in 1940 when Cybulski He told me just how risky that was. For His mother went back to Paris on occasion was three. When his parents were example, one day he heard a noise. In the to visit her sister who was still living there. overwrought, he thought it was because sky Cybulski saw a struggle between a Some months later she went and never of something he had done. German and a Canadian plane. He could came back. Cybulski found out years later It took the Germans some months to see smoke and then a parachute. The that she was sent to Drancy Detention Camp find out who was Jewish, but in 1941 his Canadian plane was shot down but the and eventually to a concentration camp in father along with 1,000 other Jewish pilot was able to parachute out and land (see Editorial, page 11) May 23, 2012 The Jewish Post & Opinion 3 LETTER Chassidic Rabbi About the Cover (continued from 2) ….Miriam, Aaron, and Moses…. BY RABBI BENZION COHEN “A Family Portrait” yet by scholars.There are countless photos, diaries, testimonies, official records and B.H. Mazal Tov BY ERIC JABLONER recorded names. There is historical film footage. There are thousands of books on This was at first a the history of these events. And, the Baruch Hashem we have a mazal tov,a simple idea of what the Holocaust continues to be studied and new grandson, born to my son Motti and best known siblings of pondered in all forms of the arts. his wife Natti. The bris was last week. Israel’s exodus would look like if they There is no greater eyewitness to the Every bris is special, but this one was more were together and encountered a vision of committed atrocities than General so. They named the baby Gavriel Moshe. G-d. It led to my own encounter with Eisenhower, the former Supreme This is the Hebrew name of our dear father what I envisioned. My hope is that it helps Commander of the Allied Forces in World of blessed memory, Gabriel (Gabe) Cohen, the viewer see and feel what could be an War II and President of the United States. who edited and published this National awesome encounter. He visited the liberated concentration Jewish Post & Opinion for 75 years. The original 16” x 20” painting is sold, camp of Ohrdruf in Gotha, Germany, My father passed away five years ago. but prints are available. The painting is on April 12, 1945, where he personally We have other grandchildren named after part of a New Haven, Conn., synagogue’s witnessed the thousands of piled bodies him: Gavriel Moshe Kalman, Moshe art collection. that were shot and burnt beyond Yisroel Noach, and Moshe Mordechai, and With 30 years of painting small canvas recognition. The stench alone was now a nephew Moshe. However, this is as fine art or large canvas for a theatrical overwhelming. He wrote to his wife our first Gavriel Moshe, named only after production, I have had the honor to use Mamie, “I never dreamed that such our father. I love my father dearly. I was my talent for the empowering of Jewish cruelty, bestiality, and savagery could very fortunate to have a warm and loving learning and our heritage. As a young really exist in this world.” relationship with him for 57 years. Now I designer I worked on projects for the And to General Marshall he wrote,“The have a new grandson named after him. Jewish Museum in New York City, visual evidence and the verbal testimony The day after the bris I had another Hartford, Conn., and many other venues.