Othello clearly states that murder is wrong; “Klinghoffer” says that murdering American Jews is justified.
Morton A. Klein
President
Elizabeth Berney, Esq.
Director of Special Projects
Zionist Organization of America
A Praiseworthy Life
There was a burial recently. Except for the presence of a fairly large family, some friends, and several acquaintances, it would have gone as relatively unnoticed as the levayah of any other non-celebrity. Yet there is reason to remark about it.
The place was Lakewood, New Jersey, home to the Harvard of yeshivas and to a lady of whom it can be truthfully said no one had a bad word. No one. She simply was adored and respected by all who had the privilege to meet her. She was that fine a soul.
What of it? Well, there’s the personal side of her story: the contemporary bubbie who had supper on the table and a real breakfast in its place every morning, a devoted and exceptional student of Rebbetzin Kaplan and others of the Bais Yaakov school, a smile and attentive ear for every grandchild, a personal touch given every patient she treated at the nursing home where she worked for so many years. She was what some used to call in Yiddish a berrier, someone who does so many things for so many people.
As eulogized, there was no “self” in her life and yet nothing was missing.
The personal story, however, is not the reason for writing. No, this is about what this Gutte Chaya (her namesake and way of life) represents for Jews in America – the legacy of Yiddishkeit that survived the Nazi catastrophe and very much prospered since. It is about an only child who turned the American motto E Pluribus Unum inside out – from one, many, by counting dozens of children and grandchildren to mourn her, all of them students and teachers of Torah.
The Pew Report shocked the Jewish community with its finding of a nearly 75 percent intermarriage rate among non-observant American Jews. What is simply glorious, however, is that we have families such as the one that mourned this wonderful woman while celebrating the triumph of the will to live a full Jewish life.
When asked why he approved of favors for haredim, a secular Israeli leader reportedly responded that he couldn’t be sure what would become of secular Israelis in the future, but he was certain that Yiddishkeit would continue to flourish among the others. For that reason, he said, deference was due.
Arnold S. Mazur
(Via E-Mail)
Editor’s Note: The writer, an occasional op-ed contributor to The Jewish Press, is a former attorney and business executive who retired at an early age, in his words, “to do nothing.” Occasionally, he writes.