והיא שעמדה לאבותינו ולנו

“And this has stood for our fathers and for us…”

The blueprint of Jewish history was revealed to Abraham during the Brit Bein Habesarim, the sublime moment of revelation and Covenant between our forefather and the Creator.  Chazal tell us that the first Jew foresaw the agonizing trail of oppression, so familiar to us for thousands of years; at the same time, he was promised that the day will come when the suffering of his children would end and they would be brought to their Land to live in peace, reunited with Hashem and His Torah. It is this vow that has supported us and given us the strength to endure through the ages.

The following articles do not attempt to describe or explain the Holocaust; numerous tomes have been written on the subject and we have yet to fully grasp it. Our focus, however, is on the lessons of strength that we can learn from the experience and its place in our history. In these brief articles, we witness extraordinary faith, spirit and character in men and women, ignorant and learned, Jew and non-Jew.  We see a fortitude that has grappled with evil for generations and continues to inspire us to this day.  May the holy promise to our Father Abraham soon be fulfilled.

Faith in the Shadow of Death by Judith Bleich

The Story of a Prayer by Sarah Shapiro

The Great Karpati by Sandor Slomovits

Grappling with Lingering Pain, Lingering Questions by Joseph Grunblatt