Here in Tel Aviv Israel Daily News’ CEO and host Shanna Fuld, yours truly, was called upon to read a poem by Abba Kovner called “Yizkor” which translates to “We shall Remember.” Kovner was a revolutionary character in Jewish history who planned a number of uprisings during the Holocaust, stood by the Jewish people and then went on to build the new State of Israel. He became a poet and writer.
The event was organized by Adopt-A-Safta which would translate to (Adopt- A -Grandmother) and the event had more than 1,000 internationals and Israelis for a large English-language program. It included a Holocaust survivor testimony which was very moving. I’ll tell you a bit about Avraham Roet who spoke for upwards of an hour without taking a breath. The man is 96 years old and is a Holocaust survivor from Holland. He shared his life story with his disturbing, but resilient tale of survival. Roet lived in ghettos in Holland while Dutch officials opened the county to Germans and offered up names and home addresses of their Jews in the 1930’s. Roet’s family home was approached by officers one night and his mother temporarily scared them off, telling them her children had typhus. His sisters were killed in camps (one died from typhus after liberation,) but he and his brothers survived by moving from house to house living with Christian families.
Tears came to his eyes when he spoke about his boat docking in the Haifa port in what was then British Palestine. He said he felt he had a new life and a new opportunity. Roet became one of the first IDF soldiers, worked at Osem, a film production house in Haifa and later opened four businesses. His sons operate them today.
At the end of his talk, Jonny Daniels of “From the Depths Foundation”revealed a Torah scroll that had been held by a Christian family for some 70 years. It was incredibly moving, Roet penned a single letter using a feather quill and said he had written a Kuf for kehila, which is a hebrew word that translates to “community.” He dedicated his letter to all the young Olim (new immigrants) in the room. Toward the end of the program, Rabbi Shlomo Chayen asked people to stand and shout the names of their loved ones who perished in the Holocaust. There were too many names for everyone in the room to have a chance. This was very moving. Rabbi Chayen said there’s three deaths — the first time you learn what death is, the day you die and the last time someone ever utters your name. This was very emotional for me to come to understand and I contemplated it while seated in the audience. No one said the truth was easy.
