There is general agreement that Steven Spielberg’s film, Schindler’s List, is one of the greatest films of all time. For many, it was their main, and perhaps only, introduction to the Jewish experience. In Germany, for example, it was released simultaneously to 500 theaters, and 100,000 people saw it in the first week. Eventually, that number rose to (ironically) 6 million Germans. As a gut-wrenching depiction of the brutality and horror of the Holocaust, one could hardly hope for better.
What the film does not depict, though (and this is an observation, not a critique), is the incredible richness and vibrancy of Jewish life in Poland before the abyss of evil opened and swallowed that entire world. Even in the Warsaw ghetto, there was a symphony orchestra and clandestine lectures offered by world experts in numerous fields. But beyond those spectacular examples of cultural creativity in conditions of extreme stress, Polish Jewry built a civilization for a thousand years before the Holocaust. Phenomenal synagogues. Great foods. Profound rabbis and teachers. And, most important, communal institutions of remarkable strength, resiliency, and, in the case of religious institutions, spirituality.
In Schindler’s List, all of that and so much more is depicted, poignantly and powerfully, in a few seconds, by the flame of a Shabbat candle burning out, smoldering, and going dark.
Survey after survey has shown that remembering the Holocaust is considered to be the most generally shared marker of modern Jewish identity. But this is a mixed blessing. Of course, we must remember the Holocaust—that should never be in question. But even more important than remembering the Holocaust is remembering what was there before the Holocaust. The victims of the Holocaust were not “just” human beings (although the murder of “just” human beings is, obviously, bad enough). These victims were not murdered because they were human. They were murdered because they were Jews, and representatives of that 1000 year old Polish Jewish civilization (and, to be sure, the 4,000 year old Jewish civilization as a whole). If we wish to remember, that is what we need to remember.
And with this in mind, I am delighted to call your attention to our upcoming Yom Hashoah program on Sunday, April 11, at 1 PM. CBT Sisterhood and Men’s Club will co-sponsor a virtual tour of Jewish life in Poland on Sunday, April 11, at 1 PM. Here is a short description:
Explore 1000 years of Jewish life and culture in Poland via the gravestones of influential personalities, from great Chassidic rebbes to Yiddish theater actors and secular Hebrew writers. Visit the only remains of the Warsaw Ghetto wall, walk the Ghetto Heroes Trail, stop at Mila 18, and see the Rapaport memorial. We will end our visit at Nozyk synagogue, the only surviving prewar Jewish house of prayer in Warsaw, Poland, and conclude with a memorial prayer in memory of the victims, z”l.
If we wish to honor their memory, we must especially honor who they were. How they lived is even more important than how they died. And how we live is the greatest testament to their memory, may it be for a blessing.
Rabbi Robert L. Wolkoff