Using Modern Technology to Transmit Timeless Jewish Stories at Museums

I was in Poland this past summer to officiate a b’nai mitzvah for two brothers from Miami. My wife joined me, and together we toured Poland with the bar mitzvah brothers, their parents and their extended family. The meaningful bar mitzvah ceremony took place in their ancestral homeland of Łódź, but first our journey took us from the solemn ground of the Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camps to the historic streets of Kraków.

We then ventured to Warsaw. Given its communist past, I did not expect Warsaw to showcase cutting-edge technology, so the POLIN Museum of the History of Polish Jews’ multimedia exhibits were a striking surprise. What many expected to be a quick one-hour walk through the sprawling museum became a four-hour experience, fully immersing us in the remarkable space. It was powerful how 21st-century technology could bring a millennium of Polish Jewish history vividly to life.

From the moment you enter, the museum communicates in both design and substance. The cavernous main hall, framed by soaring glass and copper walls, sets a reflective tone before you even begin exploring. The exhibit then unfolds across eight galleries, tracing Jewish life in Poland from its medieval roots through the Reformation, the Shoah and into the present. The Holocaust is treated with care and depth, using powerful survivor testimonies, poignant archival footage and interactive displays, yet it is placed within the broader continuum of Jewish history.

The Holocaust and Antisemitism

When I was in college I took a course called "The Holocaust and Antisemitism." The professor, Ken Waltzer, explained that you can't learn about the Holocaust without having a thorough understanding of the history of antisemitism. He was correct.

I'm now teaching my own college course about the Holocaust and much of my syllabus is based on Professor Waltzer's course from over twenty years ago. A few weeks ago I took my class on a tour of the Holocaust Memorial Center of Metropolitan Detroit (the nation's first freestanding Holocaust museum). As we walked around the museum I explained to the students that while the Holocaust is a historical event that happened decades ago, the antisemitism that led up to it continues to this day.

There were 1,879 acts of antisemitism in 2018 according to the Anti-Defamation League, including the attack on the three congregations sharing the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh. Over the past week alone, we have seen the antisemitic incident of anti-Semitic graffiti carved into a door and drawn on a stairway at the Sixth & I Historic Synagogue in Washington. We have seen Amazon.com selling Christmas ornaments, towels and mousepads with glorified photos of the Auschwitz death camp. Jewish students are threatened on college campuses and the Jews in London are considering emigrating en masse if Jeremy Corbyn is elected.

Yesterday, as I was on a conference call discussing the upcoming #WeRemember campaign that the World Jewish Congress is launching for the 4th straight year in observance of International Holocaust Remembrance Day, I walked into the university building where I teach my weekly Holocaust class at the University of Detroit Mercy. It was ironic that I was about to teach 34 non-Jewish students about the Holocaust while I was talking about the need for more Holocaust education so the atrocities of the Shoah won't be repeated. Still on the phone, I walked down a stairwell and saw a swastika drawn on the wall next to six neo-Nazi Wolfsangel symbols.

I brought my entire class into the stairwell and we crowded there as I showed them the symbols of hate on the wall of their university. I asked them what they thought we should do about it. I asked them how they would take what they learned over the course of the past semester in our Holocaust class and use that knowledge to educate their peers, their future children, and their future coworkers. How sad is that only seven decades since the Holocaust there is still so much senseless hate in this world?

Remembering Dick Lobenthal - A Legend

And the king said to his soldiers, “You well know that a prince, a great man of the Jewish people, has fallen this day" (II Samuel, 2:38).

I took Richard Lobenthal out for breakfast six years ago with the purpose of interviewing him about his life. My editor at The Detroit Jewish News gave me the go-ahead to write an extensive article about Dick's career with the ADL (Anti-Defamation League), which spanned four decades. At that breakfast I took copious notes -- over 10 pages filled with anecdotes from a decades-long mission of fighting hate. Several times over the past 6 years I considered writing that article, but it always felt too soon. I felt that if the article was published, he would soon die. So, I never wrote that article, but I still have the notes and plan to write it this year.

With Dick Lobenthal at the Anti-Defamation League's Centennial Celebration in 2013

I first met Dick Lobenthal at Michigan State University because he was the guy we called whenever there was anti-Semitism on campus or an anti-Israel speaker was coming. I got to know him very well in the summer of 1996 when Daniel Harold and I were his interns at the ADL office in Southfield. After that summer, I returned to MSU to discuss my summer "field experience" with my professor, Michael Schechter. He asked what I thought of my time at the ADL and I said something to the effect of, "This summer I had the honor to get to know a Living Legend."

Watching as Abe Foxman greets Richard Lobenthal at the ADL's Centennial Celebration in Detroit

The last time I saw Dick was when I took him out for lunch before his surgery. He seemed so brave about his prognosis and kept saying that he'd rather talk about me and my family. I honestly didn't think he'd live this long after the surgery, but it shows what a determined fighter he was. Dick's daughter, Lisabeth, asked me to share some stories about this great man at his funeral:

When the Detroit Jewish News emailed me yesterday and asked me to write Dick’s obituary for the paper, I did the normal thing. I went to the Jewish News archives online and did a search for Dick’s name. My eyes got about this big! Dick Lobenthal is mentioned in about 600 different issues of the Detroit Jewish News from the early 1960's to as recently as a couple years ago. Now, that’s pretty impressive considering it means that he’s mentioned in something like 10% of all issues printed during his time here in Metro Detroit.

Now, if you think that’s impressive, consider that, in addition to being quoted in articles – mostly about combating anti-Semitic attacks both locally and abroad – and the mentions about basic ADL business, the vast majority of those mentions are promoting Dick’s speaking engagements. In addition to the radio shows, the phone calls, the letter writing, the op-ed publishing, the advocacy work, the fundraising, the reading and research that he was doing, Dick Lobenthal was doing speaking engagements all the time. Those speaking engagements were not because Dick Lobenthal liked to hear himself talk. They were because he was teaching… he was an educator. He was teaching people to love, not hate. He was preaching tolerance and understanding. And he was indefatigable in this work. Our world, as we all know, is still a very fractured place, BUT, I truly believe the world is a BETTER place because of Dick Lobenthal and the godly work that he did.

In 2005, I invited Dick Lobenthal to speak to students at the University of Michigan Hillel

Two Stories:

It was my Freshman year at Michigan State. Admittedly, I was a naïve, Jewish kid from Metro Detroit who hadn’t been exposed to anything! I went to Hillel Day School, was active in a Synagogue Youth Group, went to Camp Tamarack, etc. Now, here I was an 18-year-old at MSU and now involved with the Jewish Student Union. It seemed like each week that Fall, another Nation of Islam representative, Israel-basher or Holocaust denier was coming to campus. Put simply, there was A LOT of “Hate on campus.” We college kids didn’t know what to do. Do we sit in silently in the audience to witness these speeches? Do we protest? Picket outside? Sit down in the crowd and wait for them to say something offensive and then get up and walk out?

Denial Brings Deborah Lipstadt's Victory Over Holocaust Denying Bully to Big Screen

I had the opportunity to see an advanced screening of the new movie "Denial" last week. It was the night before Erev Yom Kippur and my wife tried to convince me to stay home and finish writing my Yom Kippur sermons. However, knowing my Kol Nidrei sermon was on the topic of bullying, and being familiar with the story of how Professor Deborah Lipstadt was bullied by a menacing, Holocaust denier, it seemed like a wise idea to see the film. And I was correct.

There aren't many Hollywood feature movies that are made about college professors. The best of them can be counted on one hand: "Dead Poet's Society," "Good Will Hunting" and "A Beautiful Mind." In "Denial," Rachel Weisz brilliantly plays Emory University Holocaust historian and author Deborah Lipstadt. The film is based on Lipstadt's book and focuses on her legal defense against a noted Holocaust denier, David Irving.

I first encountered Professor Lipstadt during my undergraduate years when I took several Holocaust courses as part of my minor in Jewish Studies when I read her book and scholarly articles. I also had the chance to attend a lecture she gave at a Rabbinical Assembly convention, where I first met her in person. This was following her long trial in London after she had published History on Trial: My Day in Court with a Holocaust Denier -- her memoir of the experience defending herself against this libel charge from the Holocaust denier. I've since had the chance to talk with her on a few occasions and each time I feel blessed just to be in her presence. She's brilliant, charismatic and has arguably done more than any other Holocaust historian to ensure the Nazis don't get a posthumous victory.

Actress Rachel Weisz with Professor Deborah Lipstadt

"Denial" a very well done film and even though we already know the outcome, there's a good deal of suspense throughout. The acting is excellent and Rachel Weisz, herself Jewish, does an Oscar-worthy job as Lipstadt.

Honoring Elie Wiesel

Jewish tradition tells us that Joseph, Moses and King David all died on Shabbat. Thus, it should be no surprise that the modern day prophet Elie Wiesel passed away on Shabbat as well. Wiesel, an educator, writer, humanitarian and visionary, died on Shabbat, July 2, 2016. He was the voice of the survivors of the Holocaust, as well as the voice for those who perished in the Shoah.

Like so many, I was fortunate to have the honor of meeting Elie Wiesel and hearing his words of wisdom on several occasions. He was an inspiration to millions around the globe. His books occupy a section of their own in my library because they seem to be their own genre. Wiesel was a leader, but more important he was a voice of reason in our fragile, broken world.

Rather than trying to write a blog post to honor Wiesel, which feels impossible with everything he accomplished in his life and all of the deserving accolades he received, I'd rather share his own words below. What follows is Elie Wiesel's speech upon receiving the Nobel Peace Price in 1996.

Holocaust Survivor Sings National Anthem at Detroit Tigers Game

It's not unusual for a big name celebrity to sing the National Anthem at a Detroit Tigers' home game at Comerica Park if it's the Postseason. I've heard the Four Tops, Aretha Franklin, Zooey Deschanel, Demi Lovato and several others during the playoffs. However, when it's a regular season game, the National Anthem is usually sung by someone local who has a good voice. This can be a military veteran, a local cantor, a school choir or even the cast of a local stage performance (the cast of Mitch Albom's "Hockey, the Musical" sang the National Anthem before a Tigers home game last week.

Across town at Joe Louis Arena, the Detroit Red Wings don't invite anyone to sing the National Anthem. Singer Karen Newman has had a lock on that job at Red Wings games for over 20 years. The fans love Karen Newman's rendition and the players consider it a good luck charm before games.

Perhaps the most famous rendition of the National Anthem was by Jose Feliciano, who set off a firestorm when he performed his own soulful arrangement of The Star Spangled Banner at Detroit's Tiger Stadium before Game 5 of the 1968 World Series. He had been invited by Tigers' broadcasting legend Ernie Harwell and many around the nation were outraged by his rendition. Harwell stood up for Feliciano and the two became lifelong friends.

It's unusual for the National Anthem at a sporting event to get much media attention unless something goes horribly wrong like the singer is off key, forgets a line, inserts a different word or trips on the way out to the field or court. Whitney Houston's Super Bowl rendition garnered national attention because it was so beautiful, but that is unique. This past Saturday afternoon's rendition of the National Anthem before a Detroit Tigers' home game at Comerica Park has been covered by CNN, People Magazine and a host of other media outlets -- and for good reason.

Hermina Hirsch with Detroit Tigers mascot "Paws"

Holocaust survivor Hermina Hirsch, age 89, had singing the National Anthem before a Detroit Tigers game on her bucket list for many years. She's a native of Czechoslovakia and has been a lifelong Detroit Tigers fan. When Hermina was was only 17-years-old, her family members were sent to different concentration camps. She and her older sister were shuffled between five concentration camps, including Auschwitz, before finally being liberated in January 1945. Hermina has lived in Metro Detroit for over 60 years and currently lives in Southfield.

Before the Tigers' season began in April, Hermina's family, including her granddaughter Stacey Hirsch, with whom I attended Bloomfield Hills Andover High School, began a social media campaign to get the Detroit Tigers organization to invite Hermina to sing the National Anthem before a home game. A few people, including Stacey's cousin Amy Gantz Gers, asked me for help and I was glad to get the word out on my social networks and also suggested the names of two executives in the Tigers organization who might be able to expedite the request. After the local Detroit news media picked up on the story, as well as a few national media outlets, the Tigers acted quickly to invite Hermina to sing the National Anthem.

Hermina was escorted to the game this past Saturday at Comerica Park against the Tampa Bay Rays by her husband Bernard Hirsch of 69 years (who is also a big Tigers fan) and other members of her family. She did a wonderful job singing the National Anthem and the Tigers got a big win, beating the Rays 5-4 with home runs by Cameron Maybin, James McCann and J.D. Martinez. After the game Hermina told CBS Detroit News, "At my age, I figure that this would do it. I don’t want to die before I sing at a baseball game."

Even People Magazine picked up the story and included a photo of Hermina by my friend Jorge Lemus. Unfortunately no one at People Magazine caught the error in the magazine stating it was a Detroit Lions game rather than a Tigers game! Oh well, the bottom line is that Hermina Hirsch can cross this momentous experience off her bucket list.

Governor Rick Snyder's Flip Flop on Refugees is Shameful

I first learned about the Holocaust as a middle school student at Hillel Day School in metro Detroit, but it wasn't until high school that I became aware that the United States could have done more to help European Jews looking for safe haven. As a high school student studying the Holocaust I remember being shocked that the U.S. State Department clung to its strict application of the 1924 Immigration Law during the Holocaust, which made it very difficult for Jewish refugees of Nazi Europe to obtain entry visas.

Later, as a college student I devoted an entire semester to researching the restrictive immigration policies maintained by U.S. consuls, which delayed and rejected granting visas to the Jewish refugees fleeing persecution for national security reasons. By the time the U.S. realized it needed to take in these refugees, it was too late.

That was a harsh lesson that our nation learned in the middle of the last century. However, it's now more than seventy years since that time and our country seems to have forgotten our responsibility to refugees who are fleeing persecution.

Just over a month ago, Michigan's Governor Rick Snyder, who I think has served our state well, said he was working with the federal government to figure out the best process for Michigan to accept refugees from Syria. Of course, he made the caveat that these refugees would have to be carefully screened to assure they were not security threats and that makes complete sense. I am very disappointed, however, that today Governor Snyder, like several other governors, has done a complete 180 on Michigan's policy toward these Syrian refugees.

Efforts to bring Syrian refugees to Michigan have now been delayed following Friday's terrorist attacks in Paris. Governor Snyder has continued to say that Michigan is a welcoming state is proud of its rich history of immigration, but as of now he is unwilling to welcome in the hopeless refugees from the Middle East.

While this might sound like the most cogent policy in order to ensure the security of Michigan, I'm not convinced it's the right policy. In fact, it's the same excuse the U.S. government used in the 1940s when our country could have provided a safe refuge to the thousands of Jewish men, women and children fleeing Hitler's Europe. It certainly isn't the right moral choice and I would think that Governor Snyder would know better. We cannot allow Islamic State's threat of terrorism to prevent us from doing the right thing, which is participating in potential Syrian refugee resettlement efforts and serving as a safe haven for Syrian refugees. Governor Synder: Michigan's better than that!

Tip of the Hat to My College Professor, Ken Waltzer

Yesterday morning I found myself in a room with about 30 Jewish teens. I had spent Shabbat as scholar-in-residence at Congregation Beth El, a Conservative synagogue in Phoenix, and was asked to talk about college life to these high school students.

I began by sharing with these teens -- some of whom will be off to college in the Fall -- what no one ever told me before I embarked on my college experience twenty years ago. I told them that as I headed off to college I didn't even understand what the differences would be between my future college professors and the school teachers I had encountered to that point. I didn't understand the concept of office hours or that many professors would treat their students as adults. No one told me that professors would invite students to have lunch with them in the cafeteria or actually be interested in your life outside of the classroom.

Rabbi Jason Miller with Prof. Ken Waltzer (2009)

With the Rise of Anti-Semitism, I Won't Be Silent

There are certain blog posts and articles that I feel inspired to write and simply sit down at my computer, type it out, and publish it in the same day. With other blog posts and articles, I allow my feelings to sit with me for several months, watching as current news events inform my opinion. The latter was the case with my recent article on TIME.com.

Over the past few months I've been jarred by the anti-Semitic violence around the world and felt the strong need to speak out about it. When Islamist gunman Amedy Coulibaly murdered four Jewish hostages on January 9 in Hyper Cacher, the Paris kosher grocery store, I thought of the many American rabbis who didn't speak out about the brewing storm in Europe back in the early 1930s. I knew I didn't want to be a silent rabbi who didn't speak out about the rising anti-Semitism that we're currently witnessing.

My article in TIME, titled It’s Time to Stop Ignoring the New Wave of Anti-Semitism: I Won't Be a 1930s Rabbi, has already created a buzz on social media. Perhaps the best way to know if I was correct that anti-Semitism is on the rise, in Europe as well as in the rest of the world including in America, is by reading the pernicious anti-Semitic comments that appear on TIME's Facebook page under the post linking to my article. Of the hundreds of comments, most mention Israel even though my argument was about the rise of anti-Semitism around the globe and not about the Israeli-Palestinian situation. Several use the term "Zionism" in their comments and equate it with racism that justifies global hatred of Jews.

A comment from Eton Ziner-Cohen, a Jewish man in Toronto, offered his appreciation for TIME publishing my article: "Thank you Time for having the courage and decency, unlike all other mainstream news outlets and commentary hubs, to finally call this pernicious and pervasive rise in anti-semitism what it is and for denouncing thinly veiled manifestations of it, such as anti-zionism." His comment received the following reply from Aditya Sapovadia of Gujarat, India, who wrote: "Oh please. Six Jewish-led companies control 96% of the world's media. Maybe stupid Jews like you is the reason why Gentiles will be able to break the Jewish domination."

This Detroit Highway Sign Lists Holocaust Museum With Video Arcade Centers

I am not usually one to complain about how my local tax dollars are allocated. However, as I was driving along the I-696 West highway this morning in Farmington Hills, Michigan (outside of Detroit), I saw a new sign that almost made me drive off the road. I'm guessing that there was not a lot of consultation before this new sign was produced. It is a highway exit sign that lists local lodging and attractions in the area.

The top half of the sign has three logos of hotels just off the highway, while the lower half of the sign bears the heading "ATTRACTION EXIT 5" and then displays the logos of a well-known local video arcade, Marvin's Marvelous Mechanical Museum, and Zap Zone, which has mini-golf, go-karts, video games and Laser Tag. In between those two logos is the logo for the Holocaust Memorial Center, which is the nation's first Holocaust museum. What?! I couldn't believe my eyes. This immediately struck me as tacky and distasteful. A museum that stands in memory of the six million who perished in the Shoah shouldn't be in the same "attraction" category as places where little kids have their birthday parties.

In Metro Detroit, a new highway sign puts the Holocaust Museum between two video arcade centers

Sitting in traffic waiting to exit, I grabbed my phone and quickly shot a photo out of the passenger side window of my car. And then I drove on and saw a second sign. This one -- a vertical sign -- again listed the three "attractions" with the Holocaust Museum in between Marvin's and Zap Zone. I pulled to the side of the road to take another photo. 

Jewish History Through Baseball

I was recently asked to review Irwin Cohen's new book, Jewish History in the Time of Baseball’s Jews: Life On Both Sides of the Ocean, for the Michigan Jewish Historical Society's upcoming annual journal. Cohen, who writes for the Jewish Press, is a baseball maven and a history buff who has chronicled Detroit's Jewish history and also worked for a time in the front office of the Detroit Tigers organization. I immediately agreed to write the review and an inscribed copy of the book arrived at my office a few days later.

Holocaust Memorial Center director Stephen Goldman addresses members of the Detroit Tigers organization

As I sat down to read Cohen's book, which focuses on both baseball history and modern Jewish history with a special emphasis on the Holocaust, I thought back to this past winter when members of the Detroit Tigers coaching staff and front office were invited to the Holocaust Memorial Center here in Detroit, the country's first free-standing Holocaust memorial museum. The HMC was included for a site visit on the Detroit Tigers Winter Caravan, a week-long publicity tour to get local fans in Michigan excited for the upcoming season. 

I Believe - The Most Meaningful Yom Hashoah Yet

Today is Yom Hashoah, the annual day of remembrance for victims of the Holocaust. While it is still morning it has already been the most meaningful Yom Hashoah experience for me.

I actually had a feeling that Yom Hashoah 2013 wouldn't be like past experiences. On Thursday, February 7 of this year the Shoah hit me like never before. I was freezing cold as I stood over the ravine at Babi Yar in Ukraine with two dozen of my rabbinic colleagues. Our shoes sunk into the snow as we stared out into the forest where 33,771 Jews were killed in a single operation between September 29–30, 1941.

The memorial at Babi Yar

This was not my first visit to Babi Yar. I had visited there eight years earlier, but this time was different. I have visited concentration camps and seen gas chambers, but this was different. Our brief memorial program consisted of lighting candles, throwing flowers into the ravine, reading poems, singing songs and reciting prayers in tribute to the memory of those who perished on that site. But it was the music that did it for me.

Humor and the Holocaust: Where the Line's Drawn

The New York Times article in yesterday's Sunday Review section titled "The Holocaust Just Got More Shocking" uncovers the recent scholarly discoveries that the Holocaust was in fact even more catastrophic than researchers once thought. Such news almost 70 years after the Shoah reaffirms what a horrific, devastating era this was in human history.

The Holocaust researchers, according to the Times article, "have cataloged some 42,500 Nazi ghettos and camps throughout Europe, spanning German-controlled areas from France to Russia and Germany itself, during Hitler’s reign of brutality from 1933 to 1945. The figure is so staggering that even fellow Holocaust scholars had to make sure they had heard it correctly when the lead researchers previewed their findings at an academic forum in late January at the German Historical Institute in Washington."

It is evident that while we are several generations removed from the Holocaust there is still new information coming to light about this dark period in European Jewish history. This makes it even more difficult to find humor in comedy from such tragedy and yet there has not been a single tragedy in the world that has been free from the reach of comedy. Comedians crack jokes about 9/11, worldwide natural disasters, the Chernobyl incident, plane crashes, Space Shuttle tragedies, and horrific mass murders. A common refrain following such off-color jokes is "Too soon?" But, when really is it not "too soon" to tell a joke about a catastrophe on par with the Shoah? Where is the line of taste when it comes to humor about the Holocaust and who do we trust to draw such a line?

An Austrian actor plays Hitler during a Berlin production of Mel Brooks' musical The Producers (AFP/GETTY)

Holocaust Tattoos, Settlers and Quaker State Oil

I've written before on this blog about tattoos in the Jewish tradition. In fact, my 2008 blog post explaining that it's only a bubba meisa (old wives' tale) that Jewish people can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery if they have a tattoo remains one of the most popular posts on this blog.

Well, tattoos on Jews are back in the news (that rhymes). This time the story is about grandchildren of Holocaust survivors getting their grandparent's Auschwitz inmate numbers tattooed on their arm as a memorial. The article in the NY Times opens with the story of Eli Sagir who had the number 157622 permanently inked on her arm. That same number was forcefully tattooed on her grandfather's arm by the Nazis at Auschwitz 70 years earlier. Sagir's mother, brother, and uncle also had the numbers inscribed onto their forearms.

Photo by Uriel Sinai | NY Times

Ki Tetzei: Our Names, Our Heritage

As a rabbi, one of my favorite phone calls to receive is from expectant parents who are in search of Hebrew names for their future child. Before even suggesting any potential names, I always preface my response with an explanation of how important names are to us as Jewish people. Our name is our legacy. It is not only our identifying label in the community, but it is also how we will be remembered.

"Crown of a Good Name" by Artist Mordechai Rosenstei

When you go up to the Torah for an aliyah, you are beckoned before the minyan and before God with your moniker including your parents’ names. You are not receiving this kavod (honor) alone, but rather with your entire heritage. In many lifecycle events, our Hebrew name is invoked and thereby our heritage is invoked as well. For our name is more than mere nomenclature, a classifying label – it is who we are, what we stand for, and from where we have come.

In Pirkei Avot, the Teachings of our Sages, R. Shimon taught: “There are three crowns. The crown of Torah, the crown of priesthood, and the crown of kingship. But the crown of a good name exceeds them all.” To become a king or a priest, one must be born into this position. However, to achieve the crown of Torah, one must have a quick mind and a sound memory. One must be willing to learn and to grow. Thus, the crown of a good name transcends them all, for it is open to all.

Parashat Ki Tetze ends with the famous commandment to remember what Amalek did to our ancestors and to blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Timche et-zecher Amalek mitachat hashamayim. Lo Tishkach. We must at the same time remember what the Amalekites did to our ancestors and also blot out their name. As the commentary in the Etz Hayim translation explains, we are not being commanded here to eradicate all recollection of the Amalekites. Indeed, we are commanded to remember forever what the Amalekites did. We must both remember what they did as well as erase their name. That, the Torah seems to be teaching us, is the ultimate revenge – to eliminate or wipe out a name.

On Purim, when we hear the name of Haman, the descendent of Amalek, read from the Megillah, we literally drown out the name. So too, when we utter the name of Hitler, arguably another descendent of Amalek, we make sure to add the words “yimach shmo,” that his name should be erased. But these stand as negatives; ways to blot out the name of evil individuals. If we look back only a few verses before the mitzvah to eradicate the name of Amalek, we learn of another mitzvah concerning names; but in this instance, it is a positive commandment. It is to carry on the name of an individual – the man who dies childless.

Levirate marriage or yibum is the commandment stating that the brother of a childless husband is obligated to marry his widowed sister-in-law and the first son that she bears shall be accounted to the dead brother that his name should not be blotted out in Israel. Thus, the underlying intention of this mitzvah is that a man’s name should not disappear forever if he dies leaving no children to carry on his name. His legacy will be assured. We learn in the Book of Ruth, when Ruth’s relative Boaz marries the widower Naomi, that yibum is considered the ultimate in loving-kindness.

There is simply no better way to honor ones memory than by perpetuating ones name. Inherent in a person’s name are all of their achievements, their beliefs, and their ethical creed. Indeed, the memory of our loved ones is bound up in their name. When we remember their name, we maintain an enduring nearness to their neshama, to their soul.

On Yom Hashoah – Holocaust Remembrance Day – throughout the Jewish community, on college campuses, in Jewish day schools, and in synagogues, the names of all six million Jews who perished during the Shoah are read to show respect to the dead by helping their names live on. Pronouncing these names, the names of those whose lives were cut short during the darkest time in our people’s history, is not only one of the greatest way we can carry on their legacy, but also the greatest way we can ensure that we remember what Amalek did to us and blot out their name. Zakhor, remembrance, can be for both good and evil. In remembering the good, we too, erase the evil.

We understand that while our body will eventually cease to function, our name will continue on. As a community, we have the mitzvah to perpetuate the name, the legacy, of others by carrying their name forward throughout the generations. Francis Bacon, the famous English essayist, lawyer, philosopher, and statesman, once said: “I bequeath my soul to God… My body to be buried obscurely. For my name and memory, I leave it to men’s charitable speeches, and to foreign nations, and the next age.”

Welcome to the Tribe Csanad Szegedi

Hungarian politician Csanad Szegedi would likely have stayed out of the media spotlight in the U.S. were it not for a recent revelation about his past. Szegedi, according to articles in the AP and Wall Street Journal, was a proud member of a far-right wing political party in Hungary that wasn't shy about its wanton antisemitism. Szegedi's party often complained about the "Jewishness" of other politicians and referred to Israelis as "lice-infested, dirty murderers."

That in and of itself isn't very newsworthy as antisemitism is still alive and well in Europe. What is newsworthy is the detail about his own history that Szegedi learned recently. He is the Jewish grandchild of Holocaust survivors. As Dave Pell, creator of NextDraft, wrote: "Mazel Tov, you idiot."

After discovering his Jewish roots last December and going public about the discovery earlier this summer, the Hungarian politician met Hungary’s chief orthodox rabbi. Szegedi revealed this in an interview earlier this summer. The head of Jobbik, the far-right party with which Szegedi affliates, commemorated the 130th anniversary of the Tiszaeszlar blood libel, seen as one of the first anti-Semitic events in modern-era Hungary.

Szeged promised to step down from all party positions but hold on to his seat in the European Parliament. This story could end well however since Szegedi has promised to visit Auschwitz, where his grandmother had been held by Nazi soldiers. Perhaps, he'll make the transformation of being an anti-Semite to helping to educate his Hungarian people about Judaism and the lessons of the Holocaust.

The Jewish Flavor of Maurice Sendak

Originally published on JTA.org

A few months after my first child was born, I went to a bookstore to buy a few books that I thought needed to be on the bookshelf of my new baby’s nursery. Maurice Sendak's "Where the Wild Things Are" was one of those books.

A childhood favorite of mine, I knew the day would come when I would read it to my son as part of our bedtime ritual. I immediately recalled that bookstore visit when I heard the news that Sendak had died Tuesday from complications of a stroke. He was 83.

Much has been written about Sendak’s imagination and his uncanny ability to create characters to whom children can relate. Many of the characters in his books were developed based on the Torah stories that his father told him as a child. Sendak has said that he embellished those stories to make them more interesting for children.

It wasn’t until I was an adult that I saw the Jewish flavor that peppers Sendak’s works.

The characters in his most well-known children’s story are based on his old Jewish relatives. In some of his stories, Yiddish words are interspersed with his poetic English.

“Where the Wild Things Are” is even based on the Yiddish vilde chaya (wild beast), which Jewish parents for generations have used to describe rambunctious children.

Some of Sendak’s stories, including “In the Night Kitchen,” speak to his own fears of the Holocaust. His immigrant parents lost most of their family members in the Holocaust and reminded him that he would have had many more cousins were it not for the Nazis.

Having learned that Sendak was influenced by his father’s nightly bedtime stories drawn from the Torah, I have found real value and meaning in reading Sendak’s books to my own children at bedtime. His children’s stories are my kids' most requested bedtime books.

Over the years, I've read “Where the Wild Things Are” to my children many times. In fact, I recently read it to them in Hebrew.

Just a week ago, my daughter brought home a Hebrew version of Sendak’s masterpiece. His brilliance comes through no matter the language.

Turning the pages of the Hebrew translation, I began to laugh as I recalled the author’s uproarious appearance on "The Colbert Report" earlier this year.

Even at 83, Sendak was still entertaining both children and their parents.

His memorable illustrations and ability to turn scary monsters into lovable friends will live on into future generations, and I look forward to the day when my own children will read the stories of Sendak’s wonderful imagination to my grandchildren.

Evan Kaufmann - Jewish Hockey Player for Germany

Originally published at JTA.org

More than 65 years ago, Evan Kaufmann's great-grandparents were murdered in the Auschwitz death camp. Now he is taking the ice for the German national hockey team.

Following a successful hockey career at the University of Minnesota, Kaufmann tried out for several professional clubs in the United States before being advised by his agent that his best option was to play for a team in the German Ice Hockey League, or the DEL. His late grandfather’s German roots enabled Kaufmann to receive German citizenship quickly, and he and his wife, Danielle, relocated to Dusseldorf in 2008.

This weekend, the 27-year-old forward will represent the German national team in the Minsk Cup, a four-nation tournament. He also plans to compete with the national team in May’s world championships, and hopes to have a chance to make the German Olympic squad that will compete in the 2014 games in Sochi, Russia.

During his first years playing for the DEG Metro Stars, Kaufmann kept his Judaism to himself and didn’t tell his teammates that he was the grandson of a survivor or that his great-grandparents perished in the Holocaust.

“At first I was pretty uncomfortable expressing that I was Jewish and speaking about my family’s background, but that was true even in America," Kaufmann told JTA. "It’s not something in the hockey world that is really talked about. It’s not something I was comfortable sharing with most people. But I’ve found that the younger generation here in Germany is open to differences, and from my experience they’ve all been interested in knowing more about being Jewish, including the holidays and traditions.”

Kaufmann and his wife are expecting their first child, a son, in June and will be relocating from Dusseldorf to Nuremberg, where Kaufmann recently signed a three-year contract with the local team, one of 14 in the German hockey league. [The Nuremberg team's arena is located on the same grounds as the Nazi Party's rally grounds]

How did his parents react when he decided to play professional hockey in Germany?

“They were a little unsure initially just because of everything that happened [in Germany], but they knew it was my lifelong goal to be a professional hockey player and I committed so much time to it,” Kaufman said.

“It’s an issue not just for them but for a lot of American Jews in general. Germany is so different today than it was back then. I wish more people could come over here today so they wouldn’t have to carry that stereotype forever."

Being chosen to play for the national team carried with it mixed emotions for Kaufmann.

“A lot of the time I was thinking whether my grandpa would be happy about this or sad or mad," he said. "The more I thought about it, I know he had plans to come back to Germany before he died. He wasn’t able to, but that helped me get over those initial fears. I feel more pride with the association of feeling German than I ever thought I’d have.”

Observing Judaism has been a challenge for the young Kaufmanns as well.

“The first year we were in Dusseldorf, we went to a small Orthodox synagogue. We had a tough experience," he recalled. "We were taking photos from the outside and we were questioned and had to show our passports because there was an incident there a few years prior. That spoiled it for us.”

The couple makes a point of trying to keep the Jewish traditions alive. They share holiday dinners together and observe Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and the Passover seder. They had met at Adath Jeshurun Congregation in Minnetonka, Minn., the Conservative synagogue where their families are members.

“They took notice of each other in our sanctuary when they were at High Holiday services a few years ago and started to date," Rabbi Harold Kravitz recalls. "They married in our sanctuary a few years later.”

Since becoming more open about his Judaism and his family’s ties to the Holocaust, Kaufmann’s teammates have become more curious.

“They want to know what everything means for me compared to them, but ultimately they know who I am as a person," he said. "Our friendships were established without religion, so it doesn’t change anything. I was always hesitant to talk about it, but now that I’m being more public about it, I’ve become more comfortable with the history. I think it’s a good story to express.”

While his teammates tell him that anti-Semitism still exists in certain regions in Germany, Kaufmann hasn’t experienced any firsthand.

“I don’t think it’s any different than in America or any other country," he said. "There’s always going to be people who have their own beliefs. Personally, I’ve only had good experiences in Germany."

Kaufmann knows that he has his detractors in the Jewish community who find it troubling that someone who lost members of his family in the Holocaust could be playing for the German national team.

“Initially there was a part of me that thought that way," Kaufmann said. But, he added, "I’ve always been taught to give people a second chance."

He adds, "Everything that happened was so long ago and in a country that was so different. Obviously I never want to forget what happened, and that’s why I tell my story. But to hold that against a whole country of people who had nothing to do with it would not be right.”

Kaufmann has considered that he could be competing against the United States in May at the world championships, but he’s not concerned.

“I’m focused on helping this team and playing my role within the squad to help us win hockey games, and I don’t think it matters who the opponent is,” he said.

In addition to fulfilling his dream of playing on the Olympic team in two years, Kaufmann also expressed his desire to get his son skating when he’s 3 years old, a year earlier than his own first time on the ice.

Update: The German National Team lost both of its games in this weekend's tournament, but Evan Kaufmann was named player of the game in one of the losses. 

Auschwitz Survivor's Jewish Grandson Evan Kaufmann Plays For Germany's National Hockey Team

One year ago today I waited in line to enter the Reichstag. The moment wasn't lost on me. Almost seventy years prior, the Nazi government made every effort to wipe my people off the face of this earth. And there I was, with a dozen other American rabbis, about to walk into the historic Berlin building that is the seat of the current German government as Chancellor Angela Merkel was addressing Parliament. I smiled as I handed my passport to the German officer and placed my watch and wallet into the bin before walking through the metal detector. What an interesting world we live in.

Several people asked me how I was able to travel to Berlin and spend money in the same country in which the Holocaust was conceived and planned. I'm sure those same people are asking how American-born hockey player Evan Kaufmann can represent the German national team this weekend. Several of Evan Kaufmann's relatives perished in the Nazi Holocaust. His grandfather Kurt survived Auschwitz before fleeing to the United States.

Evan Kauffman - DEG Metro Stars (Photo by Christof Koepsel/Bongarts/Getty Images)

Kaufmann moved to Germany in 2008, but word is just getting out about this Jewish hockey player whose great-grandparents perished in the Holocaust playing for DEG Metro Stars of the Deutsche Eishockey Liga. The 28-year-old forward hopes to bring Germany a victory in the Belarus Cup in Minsk this weekend when he plays for the German national team. Kaufmann, who is married to Danielle (the couple is expecting their first child in June), received German citizenship in order to play for the national team and is among the top scorers in the German ice hockey league. Kaufmann admits that his teammates are very curious about him being Jewish and often ask him questions. Kaufmann told the UK's Daily Mail, "I didn't have to think hard about it. It is a great honour but it will also be a very emotional moment for me when I hear the national anthem played."

Evan Kaufmann's bio on the DEG Metro Stars website explains:

Evan Kaufmann joined the team in the summer of 2008. He was the great unknown to the team of DEG Metro Stars. A college player with had no experience in professional hockey made​​, received a German passport has in a very short time captured the hearts of the audience. His technical finesse and his speed made ​​him a major player in the third line of attack in Dusseldorf. So it was no surprise that his contract was extended for a few months ahead of schedule for two more years. It should be worth it. In the 2010-11 season Kauffman became the second-leading scorer behind Patrick Reimer. Together with Tyler Beechey and James Connor, he made a splendid swirling storm formation, which has established itself as the second offensive series and was instrumental in moving into the playoff semi-final. Kaufmann, whose grandfather came from Germany, began his career in the American Junior League for the River City Lancers. After a very strong year Kaufmann moved to the University of Minnesota to study and play Hockey. After his four years at the University of Minnesota, he devoted himself entirely to hockey.

While Evan Kaufmann isn't the first Jewish individual to compete for Germany in the post-Holocaust era (a Jewish man swam for Germany in the 1952 Olympics and a Jewish woman swam for Germany in the 2004 Olympics), he is the most notable. It is certainly an interesting story that seven decades after his great-grandparents and other relatives were murdered by the Nazis, Kaufmann is proud to represent Germany on the ice. This is just one more way in which the Jewish community will come to view Germany differently. Never forgetting the massive tragedy of the Holocaust, we understand that this is a new Germany... A Germany we can cheer for proudly in this weekend's Belarus Cup. Good luck to Evan Kaufmann and his DEG Metro Stars.

Newt Gingrich's Robo Call Not Kosher

Mitt Romney managed to win the Florida primary today despite Newt Gingrich's attempt to convince Florida's Jewish population that Romney forced Holocaust survivors to eat non-kosher food.

Gingrich's Robocall emanated from a 2003 veto that Mitt Romney cast while he was governor of Massachusetts for denying $600,000 in additional funds for poor Jewish nursing-home residents to receive kosher meals. Last week, the the New York Post reported that Romney prevented the funding of $5 per day because he thought it would "unnecessarily" lead to an "increased rate for nursing facilities." (Eventually, the Massachusetts State Legislature approved an amendment to restore the funding for the Jewish nursing home facilities.)

What is funny is that four days ago Zach Silberman wrote on JTA.org about Romney's 2003 veto leading to kosher meal cuts for poor nursing-home seniors and concluded with this question: "Will Romney opponents try to make hay of the story in a state loaded with elderly Jewish voters?" The answer was: Of course they will.

Here is the text of Newt Gingrich's Robocall:

As governor of Massachusetts, Mitt Romney vetoed a bill paying for kosher food for our seniors in nursing homes. Holocaust survivors, who for the first time, were forced to eat non-kosher, because Romney thought $5 was too much to pay for our grandparents to eat kosher. Where is Mitt Romney's compassion for our seniors? Tuesday you can end Mitt Romney's hypocrisy on religious freedom, with a vote for Newt Gingrich. Paid for by Newt 2012.

Here's Newt Gingrich's Robocall: