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HOLIDAY READING

Rabbi Dov Lipman

Bubby Knew

dreaded having to make the phone She continued that she appreciates how Auerbach – all signed a letter in 1949
call. It was February 2004 and we America welcomed the Jewish people, which said: “the first buds of the begin-
I had just decided to make aliyah. We but concluded, “to see my grandchil- ning of the redemption through the
lived in Maryland and my grandmother dren and great-children settling in establishment of the State of Israel.”
lived in New York, and we made the Israel, I have nothing but thanks to G-d.” They understood the magnitude of
effort for her to see our children quite Ten years later, my Bubby came to Israel what was happening. My grandmother,
regularly. and all Holocaust survivors understood
and visited me in my Knesset office,
A survivor of Auschwitz, she was close to 70 years after her liberation the magnitude of what happened on the
in the golden years of her life enjoy- from Auschwitz. 5th of Iyar 5708. Everyone who lived
ing her children, grandchildren, and She sat down, during the era of the Holocaust and the
great-grandchildren. Now I was about looked around and ensuing years recognized the miracu-
lous significance of what it means to
to tell her that we were moving her said, “This doesn’t
great-grandchildren thousands of miles make any sense. have a State of Israel. This adds deeper
away. A Jewish State? meaning to the transition from Yom
Israel? The Jewish HaShoah to Yom HaZikaron to Yom
I picked up the phone and put it down HaAtzmaut.
a few times before I finally dialed. After capital? Yerusha-
some small talk I said, “Bubby, I have layim? A Jewish parliament? The Knes- My Bubby, Ethel Kleinman, passed away
some news for you. With G-d’s help we set? My grandson as a member of the last year at the age of 95. She lived to
are making aliyah this summer. We are Knesset? This just doesn’t make any see great-great-grandchildren and
radiated with joy
sense.”
moving to Israel.” when she saw her
There was a pause on the other side 70 years earlier, she had arrived at Aus- great-grandson,
of the line and I braced myself for my chwitz-Birkenau in a cattle car along my son, in uniform
with her parents, some of her siblings,
grandmother to be very legitimately as a commander
upset. But she broke the silence with and many nieces and nephews. That in an IDF combat
ְ
ְ
these words: ם ָ לֹוע ָ ה ך ֶ ל ֶ מ ּוני ֵ קלֹ־ ֱ א 'ה ה ָּ ת ַ א ךּור ָּ ב night, Shavuot 1944, all but she and one unit.
הֶּז ַ ה ן ָ מְּז ַ ל ּונ ָ עי ִּג ִ ה ְ ו ּונ ָ מְּי ִ ק ְ ו ּונָי ֱ ח ֶ ה ֶ ׁש. of her sisters were exterminated in the
gas chambers. And here she was in my In my grandmother’s memory, please
After a moment of speechlessness, I Knesset office, 70 years later. My Bubby take a step back to truly internalize and
asked, “Bubby, where did that come was right. It doesn’t make any sense. rejoice over the remarkable times in
from?” And yet here we are – with Yerusha- which we live with the establishment of
She explained: “It is going to be very layim and all of Israel available for all the State of Israel and follow my Bubby’s
painful to have you so far away and not Jews – to visit or to move to whenever example to channel that happiness into
to see your children growing up. But they choose to do so. G-d is “hard at heartfelt thanks to G-d.
when we were on the boat coming to work” making the impossible come true
America from DP camp in Germany in the Holy Land.
after the War, I asked myself the entire There is no reason for any controversy
way, ‘Why are we going in this direc- about the magnitude of what happened
tion to another foreign country to on Yom HaAtzmaut. Rav Ovadia Yosef Rabbi Dov Lipman is a former MK and the
the Jewish people, when we could be records (Yabia Omer, Orach Chayim author of seven books about Judaism and
going in the other direction, where a 6:41) that three great Charedi rabbis – Israel.
new Jewish State is being established in Rabbi Chatzkel Sarna, Rabbi Zalman
our Biblical and ancestral homeland?’” Sorotzkin, and Rabbi Shlomo Zalman A member of the Mizrachi Speakers Bureau
mizrachi.org/speakers

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