'RaJ5f5i· or:'1!)hl:itfian'sa~ ' ·· Purim Perspectives, Rabbi Yaakov Feitman Ashes to Renewal: The Story of a Nation's Immortality is intended .to be a representation ofthe entire Torah community's struggle and victory over the ultimate evil that sought to destroy us. Every Torah Jew is invited and encouraged to take part in this monumental YOU TO profect through participation in the commemorative book. Ashes to Renewal: The Story of a Nation's Immortality will be PARTICIPATE preserved for posterity in the National Orthodox]ewish Archives. THE FAMILY ALBUM. Your family's MEGILLAS ZnmRON/SCROLL OF DEDICATIONS. Individual pages in story will be told through words REMEMBRANCE. Everyone is invi­ the book can be dedicated in honor and photographs that you provide ted to become a Shomer Zikm·on or in memory of persons, places or on a per page design. Each page will and submit the names of relatives occasions. include photographs, documents or friends who perished during Your name and dedications will and/or short story.' the Churban. Participants who appear in the Churban U'Binyan contribute $118 to this section The financial commitment section. We cannot guarantee will receive a complimentary copy for this section is: placement on specific pages or in of Ashes to Renewal: The Story of $10,000 - for 4 pages, specific sections. a Nation's Immortality. $5,000 - for 2 pages, full page: $1,000 $2,500 - for a single page. Half page: $ 500 Please use the enclosed envelope to confirn1 If the envelope is 111issing, please call Agudath your participation in the ASHES TO RENEWAL: Israel of America at 212-797 -9000 to confirm The Story of a Nation's Immortality project. Artifacts. Agudath Israel is photos and artifacts to: seeking photographs, Ashes to Renewal, docu1nents, artifacts c/o Agudath Israel and personal reflections 84 William Street, of pre-war Europe and New York, of lite in the ghettos N.Y.,10038. and camps - as well as "They will be of the early years of returned in the the rebuilding of same condition Jewish communal within six months. institutions in the *Sulnnissions may be edited for United States. Please readability or to cot~fOnn 11'ith spaCl limitations. send all documents, * .. Iii protect your artifacts, we sug­ gest thC}' be sent to Alfudath ls1·ad Fia 1tlJistcrcd mail or Fcdh'x, or centuries, great they were sustained by the Jewish communities lessons and images of their flourished in Europe; parents, grandparents and communities that, together rebbeim during the darkest with their institutions of years of the war. Finally, it Torah and many of their will follow these families to inhabitants, were wiped out America, where they resisted during the horrific years of A project of Agudath Israel of America the temptation to assimilate Chm-ban Europe. and instead built new mosdos Despite the destruction and the despair, the Hatorah and became ardent followers and supporters of slaughter and the sacrifice, great ycshivos and kehillos the great post-war spiritual leaders. The film will be a were rebuilt in America after the war. resource for educational initiatives on the Churban. The courage of the survivors who emerged from •ASHES TO RENEWAL: The Story of a Nation's the ashes to rebuild Yiddish/eeit and change the face of Immortality, the film's companion volume, will retell American Jewry has never been adeguatelv told. Now, the story of that dark era in words and pictures fifty years after the end of that terrible tragedy, through the eyes of Torah Jews. This coffee table-sized, Agudath Israel is spearheading a major dfort to coin­ hardcover book is intended to be an important addi­ cide with the 50th Anniversary ofV-E Day, to docu­ tion to everv Jewish home library. The book will ment both the destruction of Europe's great Torah . include three major sections. The first, Churban centers and their renewal in the United States and U'binyan, will chronicle the destruction of the major Eretz Yisroel. Jewish centers in Europe and the inspiring rebirth of Kial Yisroel on new shores, through the prism of spe­ ASHES TO RENEWAL: The Story of a Nation's Immortality will tell the story of the Churban cific families' personal histories. The second, the Family through the eyes of several families that survived the Album, will focus on the stories and memorabilia of horror and devastation to build their lives and commu­ individual families who survived the horror and rebuilt nities in the United States. It examines how the lives their lives in America. The third, Megillas Zikoron/Scroll and words of their ancestors and Torah leaders were of Remembmnce, will list the names of thousands of able to sustain and inspire them to rebuild and loved ones, friends and relatives, who were murdered strengthen Torah in America. during the years of the Churban and will be preserved in the National Orthodox Jewish Archives. • Siyum Mishnayos ASHES TO RENEWAL: The Story of a Nation's Immortality Individuals throughout the country will learn encompasses three major undertakings, each designed mishnayos in memory of the kedoshim, culminating in to provide compelling documentation of the lives of Siyumim during Chodesh Iyar. Learning participants Torah Jews before, during and after the Chttrban. will be recorded in the Yovcl Mishnayos Registry. • A major audio-visual presentation will tell the ASHES TO RENEWAL: The Story of a Nation's story of chur/Jan Europe and the subsequent years Immortality will be unveiled at the Agudath Israel of rebuilding through the personal struggles, chal­ of America's 73rd Anniversary Annual dinner on lenges, and re-establishment of families in Sunday, May 21, 1995. A national Siyum Mishnayos the United States. It will elicit a picture of the " 1'r>lt"h will take place at the dinner. Dinner participants Yiddish/1cit the survivors experienced during will view the premiere of the film and will receive their youths before the war, and show how r.-iari,~'l a personal copy of the commemorative volume. THE JEWISH OBSERVER (ISSN) 0021-6615 is published monthly except July and August by theAgUdath Israel of America, 84 William Street, New York, N.Y. 10038. Second class postage paid in New York, N.Y. Subscription$24.00per year; two years, $44.00; three years, $60.00. Outside of the United States (US funds drawn on a US bank only) $12.00 surcharge per year. Single copy $3.50; foreign $4.50. Churban Europe and The Spiritual Survival of the Jews, POSTMASTER: Send address changes to: Joseph Geliebter, Ph.D. The Jewish Observer, 84 William Street, N.Y., N.Y.10038. Tel: 212-797-9000. Fax: 212-269-2843 They're Still Saying Those Things: Printed in the U.S.A. A Journalism Outrage Update RABBI NISSON WOLPIN, EDITOR Rabbi Avi Shafran EDtrORtAl BOARD DR. ERNST L. BODENHEIMER Chalnn1r111 From Government Oppression To American Freedom Bo111ch Shubert RABBI JOSEPH ELIAS JOSEPH FRIEDENSON RABBI NOSSON SCHERMAN The Torah Challenge MANAGEMENT BOARD Rabbi Dr. Jonathan Sacks AVIFISHOF NAFTOLI HIRSCH ISAAC KIRZNER RABBI SHLOMO LESIN Planting the Seeds of Joy: Perspectives on the Simcha of Adar NACHUM STEIN Rabbi Yaakov Feitman RABBI YOSEF C. GOLDING Buslnes. Mtiinager SECOND LoOKS ON THE JEWISH SCENE Published by Like Yom Kippurim?-or Halloween with a Yarmulke? Agudath Israel of America Elimelech Meisels RABBI MOSHE SHERER PRESIDENT SOLE U.S. TftAOEOISTRIBUTOR EUROPEAN REPRESENTATIVE Feldhelm Publishers M.T.Blbelman It Almost Paid To Wait, Avrolwm Stone 200 Airport Executive Park Grosvenor Works Spring Valley. N.Y.10977 Mount Pleasant Hill London ES 9NE, ENGLAND ISRAELI DISTRIBUTOR AUSTRALIAN DISTRIBUTOR PosTScruPr: Nechemla Rosenberg Gold's Boot & Gilt Co. Kiryat Telshe Stone, 108A 36 William Street An Open Letter to My Friend on the Slide O.N. Hare! Yehuda, !SRAEL Balaclava 3183, Vk:., AUSTRALIA THE JEWISH OBSERVER does not BOOKS IN REvIEW: assume responsibility for the Kashrus Iyov/Rebbetzin Grunfeld./To Vanquish the Dragon/Going of any product, publication, or service advertised in its pages Fon»ard/Two Sides of a Coin/Aishel C> Copyright 1995 Yisroel Yehuda Pollack, Miriam Margoshes. Laibish Becker MARCH 1995 VOLUME XXVlll / NO. 2 Letters To The Editor RABBI SHIMON SCHWAB, n:to7 ~~ -ot s we go to press, we record His first Rabbanus with a profound sense ofloss was in Darmstadt, A the passing on 13 Adar /Feb­ then in Ichenhausen. ruary 13 of Rabbi Shimon Schwab, In 1935, his rabbinical ;i;n:i?j7"7ll"OT, Mora d'Asra of K'hal career in Germany Adath Jeshurun of Washington was cut short by the Heights, New York City, master Nazis. He moved with teacher, prototype Rav, and articulate his young family to spokesman for uncompromising Or­ Baltimore, to become thodoxy. Rav of Congregation Born and raised in Kehilla She'arith Israel, a posi­ KedoshaofFrankfurt-am-Main-"an tion he maintained island in a sea of assimilation... rising until 1957, when he was called by Agudath Israel of America during this above 100 years of Reform domi­ Rabbi Joseph Breuer to share the past decade were invariably one of the nance," in his own words--he was a Rabbonus of K'hal Adath Jeshurun highlights of the annual gatherings. shining exponent of the teachings with him. Rabbi Schwab eventually His subject matter would vruy from and ideology of Rabbi Samson succeeded Rabbi Breuer, as the sym­ year to year, from calls to integrity in Raphael Hirsch. In many ways, how­ bol of integrity and eloquent exposi­ business dealings, to condemnation ever, Rabbi Schwab was a transi­ tion of the Hirschian ideal. He guided of the invasive presence of television tional figure who bridged various cus­ the Kehilla'syeshlva to a new plateau, sets in Jewish homes, to analyses of toms and traditions within Torah and founded a beis midrash, kolleL current issues and trends in the Jewry.