Leon Weinstein, the last surviving Warsaw Ghetto fighter

On Physical And Spiritual Resistance

The story of Leon Weinstein, last surviving Warsaw ghetto fighter, has a little bit of everything: drama, history, heroism, escape, discovery, life, death, etc.

Be that as it may, the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising itself became a controversial topic almost immediately after the war when many anti-religious Jews hijacked it to promote their values. We address the controversy in a sidebar (“Spiritual Resistance”).

I got a taste of the controversy last summer when I visited Warsaw and saw the large monument that the Communists dedicated to the uprising. It was disturbing to see that whereas the west side of the monument boasts a raised sculpture of young, physically strong, heroic-looking Jewish fighters, the east side displays caricatures of old, weak, long-suffering religious Jews.

The message was clearly meant to promote the ideal of the “New Jew,” the term Zionist-Socialists/Communists used to contrast with what they believed to be its polar opposite: the old ghetto Jew. Whereas the latter was downtrodden, stooped and weak, the “New Jew” was strong, aggressive and free; he was not beholden to halachah, the rabbis or even G-d. In short, he was the epitome of kochi v’otzem yadi (Devarim 8:17).

In the Post-Zionism world, culture clashes like this have simmered somewhat. Nevertheless, it still needs to be hammered home that while not denying bravery in a physical sense we do not glorify it at the expense of spiritual bravery and resistance, which the Holocaust produced in quantities and with a quality arguably unmatched in history.

Let me share just one small sample of spiritual resistance, from the Holocaust book, Sisters In The Storm (CIS), whose author lived through the horrors of the Lodz ghetto:

I remember one time when my mother prepared seudah shelishis for the entire group [of her brother’s friends]…. They sang Shabbos zemiros to the haunting chassidishe melodies. Their enthusiasm kindled a spiritual light in our house. For a moment, as I listened to their voices sweeping upwards and praising Hashem for all His good works, I forgot my own hunger….

The bachurim lifted themselves out of the ghetto darkness. They spontaneously jumped up from the benches to dance around the table…. They were in a transcendent, spiritual realm, much closer to heaven than to earth. That seudah shelishis will forever be one of the few bright spots in the memory of my life in the ghetto.

After Binyamin and his friends left the apartment to go to Maariv, I realized that their gathering had actually been an act of rebellion. They had completely defied the Nazis. The suffering, the fear, the pain and hunger that we all felt did not drive them to despair…. Instead of following the orders of the Germans, they followed the orders of the Torah. They were able to find strength, meaning and light in the darkness that enveloped us….

Similarly, Leon Weinstein’s story is remarkable not only for its feats of incredible physical bravery, but for the spiritual bravery that ultimately led Leon to become a baal teshuvah, making his story combination of the best of all worlds.

When Islam erupted onto the tapestry of history about 1400 years ago the monumental upheaval it caused changed the face of civilization with astonishing speed.

Even while Mohammed lived, Muslim armies swept up from the Saudi Arabian peninsula through Eretz Yisrael into Babylonia and Syria, all the way up into Turkey. Then they swept east into what is today Iraq, Iran and Afghanistan. Next, they swept west into what is today Egypt, Sudan and the northern coast of Africa, including Libya, the subject of this month’s cover story.

Our cover story is fascinating for numerous reasons, not the least of which is that it is told through the eyes of Raphael Luzon, whose family roots in Libya stretch back to shortly after the expulsion from Spain and Portugal in the 1490s. Almost five centuries of history were wiped out in 1967 when Arab rioting forced all but a few thousand Jews to leave Libya, including Luzon’s family. In 1969, when the other main character in this month’s cover story, Muammar Qaddafi, ordered the destruction of virtually all remaining vestiges of Jewish life the job was complete. Libyan Jewry had become an echo of the past, a rumor.

Or so he thought.

Hashgachah worked it so that almost a decade before he met his well-deserved demise, Qaddafi felt he needed to make contact with a prominent former Libyan Jew and make amends. Whether he did so exclusively for selfish political motivations or also for some spark of humanity buried deeply in his troubled soul (President Reagan had dubbed him the “mad dog of the Middle East”) is irrelevant. In an impossible-to-predict way that only the Playwright of history could author, Hashem planted in one of modern Jewry’s worst villains the idea to reach out to Raphael Luzon.

Luzon saw the invitation — first to correspond by letter and later to personally visit Qaddafi — as an opportunity to advocate for the return of stolen Jewish property, and the protection of the remaining Jewish historical sites in Libya.

It’s a fascinating story told with Zman’s characteristic depth, one you are sure to enjoy and learn much from.

As we go to print, the headlines are dominated by turmoil in the Middle East. The “Arab Spring” has not brought prosperity, stability or real change to any of the countries swept up in the fervor of the past months. Even Libya, whose overthrow of Qaddafi was widely heralded as a triumph for democracy, is beset by political unrest and the ever-present threat of militant Islamists taking over. Having been ruled by despots for centuries, and with corruption and cronyism endemic to their societies, the “Arab Spring” is looking much more like just another bleak and bloody chapter in the “Arab Winter” of their discontent.

Be that as it may, there is only one piece of information we need to know to maintain our equilibrium: The same Playwright who manipulated Qaddafi into listening to Raphael Luzon orchestrates all events. Whatever else we may think we need to do, we first and foremost need to address our concerns to the King of Kings. Our cover story reminds of that in the most profound way.

Occupy Wall Street Now And Then

Reading this month’s cover story, one cannot help but hear echoes of it in today’s news, specifically the Occupy Wall Street protests that have been taking place since September.

Seventy-five years ago a group of British Fascists organized a march through the Jewish quarter of London’s East End, shouting slogans like “No More Jewish Corruption!” They made claims such as, “You have bad houses because the Jews have the good houses. You have bad jobs because the Jews have the good jobs.”

Baruch Hashem – with an emphasis on Hashem – the British people literally stood up to them, and the rest is history. But how scary it is that even those we counted as our allies were so close to siding with the likes of Hitler.

Of course, although anti-Semitic slurs have been documented, today’s Occupy Wall Street is nothing like London 1936. Nevertheless, that it even exists at all illustrates how fragile our sense of security is, reminding us how thin the barrier is between the Dr. Jekyll and the Mr. Hyde of the Gentile world.

This serves as a paradigm of the prophetic vision for the end of time, Milchemes Gog Umagog, the “War of Gog and Magog,” the ultimate conflict between good and evil. Before Mashiach succeeds, the armies of Gog and Magog will join forces and war against Klal Yisrael. It will be a terrifying time, but Gog and his collaborators will be vanquished, and the long foretold era of peace among nations will be ushered in.

The identification of Gog and Magogis complex, however as Rabbi Moshe Eisemann explains in his brilliant analysis (Yechezkal, Chapter 38; Artscroll) Gog is an individual from the arch-enemy of the Jews, Amalek (from Noach’s son, Shem), who will rise to power amidst the people/culture of Magog(from Noach’s son, Yefes) and incite them against the Jews.

Yefes, which means “beauty,” is the forerunner of Greece, the foundation of Western civilization. Beautyis morally neutral. It can inspire to good or intoxicate to destruction. Yefes can place his gifts at Amalek’s feet as readily as he can subordinate them in the service of holiness.

As Rabbi Eisemann explains, “throughout history, we find Yefes fluctuating between the poles of true spirituality and the grossest sensuality. The same Yefes who allowed himself to be turned to holiness by his brother Shem was able, centuries later, to allow a Haman to control his empire, and attempt to wipe out Shem’s descendants. When Gog will seek supporters in his final war against holiness and Godliness, he will turn to the pliable Yefes.”

Milchemes Gog Umagogrepresents a tug-of-war that has replayed itself throughout history. When good people prevail the forces of Yefes become vehicles for light. When they slacken the dark side takes them over.

Despite Amalek/Gog’s apparent power, he only exercises it according to Hashem’s will and in accordance with the spiritual stature of the Jewish people. An external event – political, military or otherwise – reflects our internal state. The cover story this month illustrates that poignantly. May we take it to heart and focus on internals before externals.

Even though Sholom Rubashkin’s 27-year sentence is ludicrous and unprecedented for the crimes he was charged with, it was not death by hanging given to Leo Frank. Even though many believe anti-Semitism influenced (and influences) the Rubashkin case, the proceedings were not conducted as a mob shouted, “Hang the Jew!”

Nevertheless, one is struck by this similarity between the cases: Each was a grave miscarriage of justice where the justice system itself was/is blind to its own shortcomings. (At least in the Leo Frank case, the State of Georgia eventually admitted its blindness, albeit 70 years later.)

I, like so many others, find it incredible that the judge whose judgment was being questioned in the recent appeal was a backup and had influence on the court that reviewed the appeal!

This was the same judge, Linda Reade, who was discovered to have had several secret meetings with law enforcement long before the arrests at Agriprocessors (for more details see Zman Sivan 5770/June 2010)! It was Judge Reade whom ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) memoranda indicated had taken an organizational role in the immigration raid; attended weekly meetings; personally requested a meeting with personnel from the many branches of law enforcement who would participate in the raid; and requested updates and final game plans.

How can a person work with law enforcement, which worked with the prosecution, and then serve a judge in that case?!?

Yet, Reade denied having performed any functions that fall within the executive branch (i.e. law enforcement) which may have reflected an irreconcilable stain on her impartiality.

I don’t claim to know American law. Maybe according to the US justice system this is perfectly legal. But, that’s the difference between a man-made law and a Divine one.

The Torah tells us: “Don’t take a bribe, for bribery blinds the eyes of the wise and perverts the words of the righteous” (Devarim 16:19). The emphasis is on “the wise” and “the righteous.” Even they can be blinded by impartiality.

The Gemara offers several cases of Jewish judges who disqualified themselves for even the minutest influences. When Shmuel was walking on a bridge and a man lent him a hand, Shmuel disqualified himself from judging his case.

When Rebbi Yishmael b’Rebbi Yossi encountered a sharecropper who did him the tiny favor of bringing him his fruit a day earlier than usual he disqualified himself from judging his case. Indeed, as Rabbi Yishmael listened to the case (as an observer) he found himself conjuring up arguments in favor of the sharecropper.

“I didn’t take a bribe,” Rebbi Yishmael declared, “and had I taken the fruit, it would have been mine – yet I was biased!”

This issue of Zman comes out during the Yemei HaDin, “Days Judgment.” If we make an extra effort to painfully examine where we are being moreh heter on ourselves, maybe in that merit a measure of objectivity will descend upon those with power over Sholom Rubashkin’s life and help them come to their senses long before they did in the case of Leo Frank.

It launched the Ku Klux Klan and the Anti-Defamation League. It inflamed a community and ignited a nation. It brought out the worst in people and the best in people….

It is the tragic story of Leo Frank – and it happened in America.

Standing trial for murdering a Christian girl as crowds outside the courtroom screamed for his blood — intimidating witnesses, jury members, judges and politicians — the evidence against Leo Frank was so full of holes that the judge later declared that he was innocent. The lawyer of his main accuser eventually acknowledged that the accuser himself was the murderer.

Yet, none of that was able to stem the tsunami of anti-Semitism. Even as convincing new evidence demonstrating his innocence came to surface, a mob – later discovered to include high-ranking politicians and prominent Georgian community members – abducted Frank right out of prison and lynched him.

Terrifying and infuriating, the story of Leo Frank touches on so many raw nerves that even today, almost a century later, people are afraid to bring up the subject for fear of inflaming old passions and stirring old hatreds.

August 6, 1913. The atmosphere in the streets is fraught with tension. Frenzied hordes march around government buildings, wielding rifles and other weapons. They surround the courthouse where the trial of a Jew falsely accused of murdering a young Christian girl is taking place.

“Hang the Jew or we’ll hang you!” the crowds shout raucously, brandishing their weapons.

“Kill the Jews who killed our savior!” resonates in the street.

The atmosphere is reminiscent of the medieval pogroms of Europe. Rabble-rousing sermons by local priests and other anti-Semitic leaders have aroused the passions of the ignorant masses. And the minority of rational, level-headed individuals are simply too intimidated to take a stand against the blatant injustice and rabid anti-Semitism. It is just too risky.

It reads like an old-world legend from the Middle Ages, but incredibly this happened in the twentieth century in the United States – land of the free and home of the brave.

The city was Atlanta, capital of Georgia. The frenzied hordes wielding rifles and other weapons were red-blooded American citizens. The government building they surrounded was the Fulton County Superior Court House of Atlanta.

The governor of Georgia, a respected and popular man, is trying desperately to keep the situation under control. He has called in the National Guard and the military to protect Jewish neighborhoods. Privately, he has prayed that justice prevail and that he will not have to use force. However, he does not, at that point, fathom how deep the hatred runs and how inflamed the passions have become. Neither does he know the steep price he will pay for trying to help the hapless Jew.

Then, just like now, the Jews of Atlanta felt safe and secure as American citizens with equal rights to pursue the American dream of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They lived under the illusion that their non-Jewish neighbors regarded them as equals, and that anti-Semitism was relatively non-existent in America. Then their illusion was shattered. Abruptly, they were faced with the shocking realization that even after doing their utmost to assimilate into the American melting pot, they were no less immune from virulent anti-Semitism than their openly Jewish relatives in the “alte heim.”

This past August 17 marked the 96^th anniversary of that dark chapter in American history, when an innocent Jew named Leo Frank was lynched by a group of Americans, not exclusively by low-class, uneducated street ruffians, but by the elite of Atlanta society, including elected officials and judges.  Zman headed south on a fact-finding mission to the Jewish community in Atlanta to speak with community leaders, relatives and others well-read in the Leo Frank saga who have invested much effort clearing Frank’s name decades after his brutal murder.

Read the entire story in this month’s issue…

Now, as America marks the tenth anniversary of the tragic attacks that have changed the nation forever, Zman has contacted a former CIA officer who played a critical role in the war against terror. This officer has spent a large chunk of his career inside a secret CIA prison, where he was even the lead investigator overseeing the imprisonment of nearly 20 captured Al Qaeda members high on the list of the CIA’s most-wanted.

His name is Glenn Carle. He is the type of character one would read about in books, mostly novels, but would never dream of meeting in real life. Until the day of the September 11 attacks, Carle’s expertise lay in intelligence gathering. For most of his career, he was a clandestine operations officer, or, in layman’s terms, a spy. He was a secret agent who would travel around the world on missions for the US, recruiting other spies, organizing operations, etc. More than once, his missions required him to risk his own life.

In a recently published book authored by Glenn, entitled “The Interrogator,” he succinctly describes the gist of his duties as an officer in the CIA:

I was a spy. I broke laws. I stole. I lied every day, about almost everything: to my family, to my friends, to my colleagues, to everyone around me. I almost never was who I said I was, or did what I claimed to be doing.

Sometimes I was not American. I exploited people’s deepest hopes, won their deepest trust, so that they provided me what my government wanted. I was an angel who made men’s dreams come true, but my name was Faust.

I healed a father’s desperately ill child, helped a frustrated employee do in his boss, or the organization that slighted him. Sometimes I was a revolutionary, nodding my head as some worked to overthrow oppressive governments; sometimes I sympathized with racists; sometimes I suppressed insurgents.

…

I bounced around mines in a jeep, carried a weapon, wore a keffiyah over my face to conceal my identity and offer a less obvious Western target to snipers, and almost got shot. Some were ruined from what I did. Some were saved; others died. Few of the living, and none of the dead, knew I had anything to do with their fates.

…

I was faceless, all-powerful, and omnipotent: I was unknown but could destroy people’s lives or cause an international scandal, and yet often I could not even control minor details of my daily life.

…

I paid people off. I deluded men and convinced them they were acting against the United States, or one of their personal enemies, when in fact they were serving me and my country, so that we could undermine the causes in which they believed.

…

I made it possible for American children to sleep safe at night, and for American adults to ignore that I existed or to disdain or hate me, and to forget or never learn that the world was full of men and forces that would harm or destroy them, and our way of life.

It is particularly thrilling to meet with a man who has conducted spy missions so intriguing that he cannot talk about them. Though he is already retired, Carle is still legally bound by CIA regulations to remain mum about sensitive information he is privy too, including information that has already been leaked to the public, both through the CIA itself, or through its enemies.

During our conversation with him, it was obvious that Mr. Carle was speaking very guardedly, taking great care not to inadvertently let slip any information that would reveal any the CIA’s espionage activities or its interrogation techniques of terror suspects. Nevertheless, we sat glued to our seats in suspense as Glenn regaled us with fascinating details aboutAmerica’s war on terror. The CIA veteran allowed us a glimpse deep inside the secret corridors of CIA facilities all over the world, taking us as far as he safely could without compromisingAmerica’s security, or violating any CIA regulations even if he disagrees with them.

Rescuing a Jewish Girl

Glenn Carle was born and raised in Brookline, Massachusetts, a suburb in Boston where approximately 70% of the residents were Jewish. He has very fond memories of his childhood and recounts his admiration and respect for the local Jewish population. Because of their majority status in Brookline, Carle came into frequent contact with Jews.

Carle’s father, Owen, had many close Jewish friends and in fact spoke a passable Yiddish, which he picked up from his friends. Carle picked up some words here and there, and they have become a part of his vocabulary, like oy, zaftig, and shpilkes.

Owen Carle was a successful accountant who eventually established his own business, which really prospered. Carle credits his father’s Jewish friends with much of his success:

My father went into business for himself because his Jewish friends told him, “Listen, Owen. Why are you working for someone else? Why are you investing your labor to make another man rich? You must use a Yiddishe kopf. Work for yourself. Start your own business.

 Glenn Carle was a bright boy who excelled at his studies. He was always among the top students. He smiles. “I was always the only goy in my classes, because I was in honor classes….”

When Carle was ready for college, he attended the prestigious Harvard University, where he graduated with honors. That was when he encountered an unusual opportunity to save a Jewish girl from communists. This is a saga he still recounts with pride.

From 1979 to 1981, Carle studied in France as a graduate student. The USSR was then under communist rule. Carle was studying international relations and government and decided to try to sneak behind the “Iron Curtain” to discover what life was really like there.

He attempted to travel to Albania, but wasn’t even allowed entry into the embassy. He then tried getting into Russia itself, but wasn’t granted a visa. Eventually, he managed to procure a visa toCzechoslovakia. He toured a number of sites around the country, including the Jewish ghetto in Prague, where some 75,000 Jews resided before the war (almost all of whom were murdered in the Holocaust) — though at the time of Glenn’s visit the city’s entire Jewish population consisted of no more than 200 families. Glenn visited the Jewish museum in the city where he says the Jewish symbols on display were pleasantly familiar, transporting him back to his childhood in Jewish Brookline.

The Jewish director of the museum was clearly excited at the unusual visit by the young American. After making sure that no one else was around, she pulled Glenn aside and began crying uncontrollably. She introduced herself as Blanca Svatkova, and proceeded to relate a horrific saga of pain and suffering, which she and her family endured under the communists.

“My father is a scientist. The regime has destroyed our lives because of our Jewish origins and has barred my father from his profession because he is Jewish. I’m 18 years old. I recently graduated high school and my parents and I have decided that we will not allow the communists to ruin my future as well. I must see myself out of this wretched country at any price. I cannot stay in this hostile atmosphere any longer. There is no future for me here.”

Carle was taken aback. At first, he wondered if this was some kind of provocation engineered by the communist government, which was notorious for its use of underhanded tactics in order to shame America and the West. But the Jewish girl’s sincerity and genuine pain gradually convinced him that she was speaking the truth.

Carle could not stand idly by in the face of this girl’s suffering. After much thought, he settled on a plan. He would return to Paris, and, posing as the girl’s uncle, send her an invitation to come visit him in France.

The young student traveled back toFrancefrom where he wrote a formal letter to Blanca Svatkova and to the Czech authorities, and included a round-trip ticket. In the letter, Carle introduced himself as her uncle and said that he would love to spend some time together with his niece. He was requesting that she be allowed to visit him inParisand was personally guaranteeing her safe return to her family after one week.

Before mailing the letter, Carle went down to the French police and told officials about his plan. “I want to help this Jewish girl get a visa in order to enable her escape the persecution she is suffering there because of her Judaism.”

“I was certain they would throw me out of the police station,” Glenn relates, “but instead, they remarked, ‘That’s a great idea. Give us the letter.’ They took the document and stamped it with official looking signatures and symbols of the French government. They returned the letter to me and told me, ‘Here you go. We, the French police, have confirmed your identity. You are an elderly man who is married and lives with his wife inParis. You are inviting your niece for a week’s vacation at your home, and we will ensure that the girl returns once her vacation is over.’”

Carle mailed the letter, but, to his disappointment, his clever scheme failed, and the Soviet authorities refused to grant the Jewish girl an exit-visa.

He was deeply frustrated by the failure of his plan, but three years later, already having returned to the US, he got good news. Blanca called him from New York and told him that she had just landed in the US with the assistance of a Jewish religious organization in New York.

Apparently, the Soviet authorities had finally granted her permission to visit her uncle….

Aushwitz-Birkenau. The main Nazi guard tower is the highest point, offering a view of virtually the entire camp. In that tower, we davened mincha...

Last month, I joined a group of 24 educators visiting the concentration camps in Poland. It was the culminating leg of a year-long fellowship program sponsored by Zechor Yemos Olam, the Holocaust education branch of Torah U’Mesorah. Its director, Rabbi Sholom Freidmann, and I worked all year with these highly experienced and accomplished teachers helping them to become in effect the vanguard of a new generation of Holocaust educators.

From the remains of the Warsaw Ghetto to the death camps at Treblinka and Majdanek to the Yeshiva Chachmei Lublin (presently being rebuilt) to the kevarim of the Remah, Sfas Emes, Chozeh of Lublin, Maharal and others – none of us came back the same.

Undoubtedly, the most moving experience was Auschwitz…

Auschwitz – its name alone sends a chill down the spine.

Peering through the barbed-wire fence for the first time, the thing that struck me was its size. Nothing had prepared me to grasp the sheer expanse of Birkenau, Auschwitz’s main death camp. Besides the unimaginable numbers murdered there, it housed 80,000 slave laborers.

80,000!

That’s larger than most Jewish communities today; think of a medium-sized town.

Row after row of barracks stretched almost as far as the eye could see. Straight ahead, the infamous railroad tracks extended into the distance further than I had imagined until they veered off to the equally infamous disembarkation point where Dr. Mengele conducted the Selektion, deciding who would live and who would die….

A chilling thought as we head into the days of Elul and Yemei HaDin….

It took hours to tour the camp. Terrifying… horrifying… yet uplifting don’t properly convey the emotions… especially by the “Pool of Ashes,” a marsh-like area of human ash next to the tangled concrete and metal of the now destroyed gas chambers and crematoria, listening to Rabbi Shmuel Klein talk about Kiddush Hashem… which was followed by a rousing kaddish.

Kiddush Hashem – it’s hard to explain to the uninitiated the connection between Auschwitz and Kiddush Hashem. But, nowhere more than the depths of the deepest darkness can the brightest light of spiritual heroism emerge.

By day’s end, we were the only group remaining in this Empire of Evil. That was eerie enough. But then we were given special permission to ascend the main Nazi guard tower. And there, high above Hitler’s Valley of Death, we turned east, bowed and poured our hearts out to Hashem.

After mincha, the guard tower became engulfed in a supernatural orange glow of the now set sun. Spontaneously, we formed a circle and danced — silhouetted against heaven’s glow — singing Aleh Varechev, Ani Ma’amim and L’shana Habah b’Yerushalayim.

View from atop the guard tower where we davened micha. (View is west; we prayed facing east.)

It was a flash of light in the Kingdom of Darkness. A moment of triumph. A proclamation! The Thousand Year Reich is dead… Om Yisrael chai….

Elul is a time for introspection… and inspiration… to make light, not darkness… to choose life… to live lives of Kiddush Hashem… for the six million kedoshim… for ourselves.

National Tragedies on Tisha B’Av in History

“Then the entire congregation raised a loud cry, and the people wept that night.” (Bamidbar 14:1)

Rabbah said in the name of Rabbi Yochanan: “That night was Tisha B’Av. Hakodosh Baruch Hu, said, ‘They cried for no valid reason; I will establish for them [this night as] a weeping for generations.’” (Sotah 35a)

***

On the ninth of Av it was decreed that our fathers should not enter the [Promised] Land, the First and Second Temples were destroyed, Beitar was captured and the City [Jerusalem] was ploughed up. (Mishnah Taanis 4:6)

***

• Bnai Yisrael were told they would not live to enter the Land of Israel (Mishnah Taanis 4:6)
• The First Bais HaMikdash was destroyed (Mishnah Taanis 4:6)
• The Second Bais HaMikdash was destroyed (Mishnah Taanis 4:6)
• The City of Beitar was captured^[1] (Mishnah Taanis 4:6)
• The Temple Mount was ploughed[2] (Mishnah Taanis 4:6)
• On Tisha B’Av — July 18, 1290 — Edward I (1272-1307) issued an edict of expulsion for the Jews from England
• Tisha B’Av, 1492, was the deadline of the Royal Decree expelling the Jews of Spain on pain of death
• World War I began on Tisha B’Av – August 1, 1914[3]
• The Final Solution was unleashed in full force on Tisha B’Av 1942 as the first Jews of the Warsaw[4] Ghetto were gassed at Treblinka (see The Hidden Hand – The Holocaust by Yaakov Astor)

Healing through our Wounds

“I [Hashem] will heal you with your own wounds” (Yirmiyahu 30:17). Hashem not only heals us from our wounds but heals us with our wounds. By the same token, says the Midrash, Yosef fell into great misfortune because of his dreams, but dreams also brought about his salvation. If we are far-seeing enough, we will see that Hashem not only heals us from our wounds but heals us with our wounds.

Even more so, He prepares the healing in advance of the wound (Megillah 13b). Rabbi Berel Wein illustrates this via the events of Tisha B’Av, 1492:

OnAugust 2, 1492,Spainbecame a graveyard of Jewish hopes and lives. The Talmud teaches, however, that God provides the cure before giving the illness, and that black day had a ray of light in it; a ray of light borne on three small ships that many feared would fall over the edge of the world. OnAugust 3, 1492,Columbusset out on his historic voyage. He, in fact, writes in his log how he was delayed in the harbor by the traffic of ships evacuating the Jews….

The journey of Christopher Columbus across the frighteningAtlanticmust be reckoned as one of the turning points in the history of civilization….America, and all that it would later come to represent, would masterEurope, inexorably change it, and itself usurp the dominant role in the story of man. But all of this was not yet visible even to the most far-seeing savants ofEurope, in 1492….

Only later would the irony of the Divine plan be seen: on that very day when Spain chose to close out six centuries of intense and productive Jewish life on its soil, Columbus sailed to discover a new continent where there would be a safe haven for Jews (and others) and where the people of Israel would once again be able to rise to a preeminent role in general society. That black day in August 1492 had a ray of brightness to it. Pity that this did not become apparent for another four centuries. (Triumph of Survival, pp. 38-9)

Thus, the wheels of the Divine Plan were already in motion. As the epoch of Spanish Jewry was coming to a close, the seeds of American Jewry were to be planted. The healing was prepared before the wound.

King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella decreed a deadline beyond which all Jews remaining in Spainmust either convert or die at the stake – a day that fell on the ninth day of the Hebrew month of Av, the anniversary of the destruction of both Templesin Jerusalem. To the tens of thousands of Jews crossing the border to lives of suffering and uncertainty, the date was a Divine omen, signifying that though God was angry with them, He had not forgotten them. (Triumph of Survival, p. 3)

Tisha B’Av teaches us that though Hashem allows the Jewish people to suffer, He is nevertheless with us. He wants us to learn our lessons and benefit from the knowledge won. We may not understand why Hashem allows national tragedies to occur, but we are comforted by the knowledge that He has a plan and ultimately it will be for our good… even if we cannot see it at the time.

(Excerpted from The Hidden Hand – The Holocaust by Yaakov Astor)

"I had 3 million Jews in my hands and they were torn away."

In This Issue

Striking It Rich… In The Catskills?

You’ve heard of Texas oil magnates. Now, allow us to introduce you to… Catskill gas magnates. Yes, you’ve heard right. Beneath the soil of our beloved Catskill Mountains, the yearly summer refuge for thousands of Jewish vacationers, lies a hidden treasure – a large reservoir of natural gas that can possibly spawn a new generation of Jewish tycoons and Torah philanthropists. How will this affect the myriad religious summer camps and bungalow colonies across the Catskills?

On the Trail of the Tylenol Terrorist

In 1982, a coldblooded murderer slipped cyanide into bottles of Tylenol, resulting in seven deaths. The entire nation was thrown into a panic that nearly spelled the end for Tylenol and many other medicines — and spawned “copycat” incidents that killed more. After 29 years with no convictions, is the FBI at last “On the Trail of the Tylenol Terrorist”?

 “The World Is Coming To An End!”

On May 21, 2011, the world almost stopped – well, not really. However, that was the day the world was supposed to stop according to a famous American Christian preacher. Of course, May 21 came and went, and so did the millions of dollars his supporters had donated to advertise the end of the world. In the year 1524, millions of people were also convinced that the world was about to come to an end. Read about the Great Panic of 1524 and other strange panics that teach us more about human psychology than the apocalypse.

The Dark Side of FDR

While America and her allies deserve great credit for ending the hellish reign of the Nazis, and thus playing a crucial role in the survival of the remnant of European Jews, they failed to act and even at times prevented actions that could have saved countless Jewish lives! Shockingly, it was one of America’s most beloved presidents, Franklin D. Roosevelt, who was responsible for bureaucracy and decisions that resulted in countless preventable deaths. Even more shockingly, he did so with the full backing and even the proactive involvement of some of America’s most prominent Jewish “leaders”!

Soul on Fire

Already a legend in his lifetime, Rabbi Michoel Ber Weissmandl rose to even greater heights when the circumstances of the Holocaust forced him into the role of rescue worker. Often maligned by the secular world, efforts to refute his claims and minimize his efforts have been disproven time and again.Zman had the privilege of an exclusive interview with one of Reb Michoel Ber’s sons, who undertook to uphold his father’s legacy, defending him against those who sought to diminish the undeniable influence of his fiery father in the field of wartime rescue.

A Ride with Ohio’s State Police Aviation Unit

They are not your typical state police traversing the highways for speeding drivers. Rather they are a division of the police that do their work from 1,500 feet or higher. Find out what a day in the life of an airborne Ohio traffic cop is like, how they work and what the type of driver behavior they are looking for that will trigger a ticket.

All You Ever Wanted To Know About Smoking

When Columbus sailed from Spain in search of spices and gold, he hardly expected that among his most treasured finds would be… tobacco. A Marrano Jew traveling with Columbus was the first European to take a puff of tobacco. Seven years later, smoking had become common in Spain. Zman presents this important and informative article, authored by a highly respected oncologist, that covers not only on the history of smoking, but current information about its medical and halachic aspects (the latter reviewed by our Rabbinic authority).

Table of Contents

Below is the table of contents for this month’s Zman. 

The Rosenbergs… Revisited

Zman’s article on the execution of the Rosenbergs (February 2011) elicited numerous responses from readers, including a plethora of letters to the editor. Two of those letters were particularly well thought out and detailed, and critical of certain aspects. We, in turn, forwarded the letters to David Alman, one of the original advocates of the Rosenbergs when they were alive, and a person from whom we gleaned much information for the article. Below are the two letters to the editor and David Alman’s replies.

Robbing Lincoln’s Grave

It was one of the most unthinkable crimes in American history. A group of outlaws dared to steal the body of arguably the most popular American president of all time. Incredibly enough, this bizarre story was overlooked by the media due to a more pressing issue that affected the country at the time — the election crisis of 1876.

Ghost Towns of the World

Populated with buildings and all the trappings of a city — but no residents to be found…. One upon a time they reverberated with life, homes and businesses sprouting up everywhere, but now they lie listless and lifeless. Zman takes you on a visit to a few of the ghost towns scattered around the world to learn how they appeared and what caused them to empty out.

The Stuff of Champions

Alan Veingrad is apparently the only person in the history of professional team sports to become a fully Torah observant Jew. And he was not just any type of player, but a starting member of the Super Bowl XXVII champion Dallas Cowboys. Today he has traded in his helmets for a yarmulke, his uniform for tzitzis, his clean-shaven all-American face for a long, gray beard. Instead of playing to the cheers of 70,000 crazed fans and millions of viewers he travels around inspiring Jews of all types to take on a life of Torah and mitzvos.

Operation Mincemeat

What should the Nazis have done when they discovered the corpse of a British army officer floating in the sea, with an attaché case chained to his coat? Leave it alone! Read the riveting account of one of the most successful tricks played by the Allies against the Nazis, by creating a secret officer who never existed and sending him on a secret mission that was never ordered, bearing military secrets that never existed. The top German generals, and even Hitler himself, were completely taken in by this ruse.

FDIC Bank Takeover

No, they are not bank robbers. They are federal agents who take over banks that are on the verge of bankruptcy. At the height of the recent economic crisis, they were working at a rate of one bank takeover per week. To prevent widespread panic, they operate in utmost secrecy. Read about the federal agency that promises Americans that their money in American banks is safe.

Oops!

Sometimes the most seemingly inconsequential mistakes can have the most far-reaching consequences. Here is a sampling of five of them: The expensive masterpiece accidentally damaged by a slight motion of the hand, the heavily armed British Marines who landed with weapons drawn… in the wrong country, a minor error by a renowned engineering firm that cost $125 Million, the original manuscript of a literary masterpiece that was incinerated by the maid and the most skyscraper… whose windows kept crashing to the street below.