Page 4 - HaMizrachi Yom HaAtzmaut 5782 USA

I Owe My Life to the

Zionist Movement:

Rabbi Doron
Perez
German Youth Sport and a

Mother’s Cunning and Courage

ow many grandparents sports festival in the Baltic Sea region games were over, she gathered the
leave all their children that would alter his life forever. The family together and said in Yiddish
and grandchildren young German Jews told him about “mir muzen pakn, di kinder zugen dem
H behind to make Aliyah? Nazi Germany’s antisemitic laws and ames,” “we must pack up, the children
I will never forget the time when, as the degradation they were forced to speak the truth.”
an eight-year-old boy in Johannesburg, endure as the Nazis consolidated their They left Lithuania in December 1937
my maternal grandfather gathered our power throughout the 1930s. with the intention of going to Pales-
family together and told us that, as a Deeply impacted by what he heard, tine, but were barred from entry due to
Zionist leader and the head of Maccabi my grandfather felt that his astute the infamous White Paper restrictions
South Africa, he believed it was his mother needed to hear firsthand what of the British Mandate. Fortunately,
responsibility to move to Israel. And the young German Jews had to say. they managed to gain entry to South
so, in their late 50s, Louis and Minnie The challenge was that his mother was Africa, and were thus spared from the
Gecelter moved to a tiny, one-and-a- hundreds of kilometers away, running horrors of the Holocaust.
half-bedroom apartment in Tel Aviv. a kiosk along Lithuania’s Nemanus Incredibly, my grandfather’s encoun-
As Zionist as they were, it was unusual River, where steamboats traveling ter with these young German Jews
for grandparents to leave all their from the Baltic Sea to Kovno would at a Maccabi sports festival saved his
children and grandchildren behind; stop for supplies. Young Louis, how- life, and my entire family is alive today
normally it is parents who follow ever, was undaunted; he went to the because of it. If not for his wisdom and
their children on Aliyah. Acknowledg- docks, met with one of the captains proactive nature and my great-grand-
ing this, he emphasized that he had and asked for a personal favor – to mother’s great courage and willing-
always been driven first and foremost deliver a note to Mrs. Sonia Gecelter, ness to leave Lithuania for an uncer-
by principles, and that it was his life- the lady who ran the kiosk in Kovno. tain future, my family’s future would
long dream to participate in building Receiving the note, my great-grand- have been very different.
the Jewish state. He hoped and prayed mother got on the next steam boat and
that we would all follow suit. Incredi- came to the Maccabi games to meet A leader and lover of Israel
bly, within twelve years of their Aliyah, these German Jewish teenagers. She In 1942, Louis married Minnie Shrog
all of their children and grandchildren sat with them for hours and heard and built a family alongside tens of
had joined them in Israel. for herself what they were enduring thousands of other Lithuanian Jews in
in Nazi Germany. After the Maccabi South Africa, a community that grew
Sport saving lives
to 120,000 at its zenith in the 1960s.
As a young boy in Kovno, Lithuania, Louis was known fondly as “Mr. Mac-
my grandfather’s love of Israel was cabi” because of his lifelong dedication
already palpable. A talented sports- to Israel and sport, which he believed
man, his membership in Maccabi Lith- played a critical role in strengthening
uania provided him an opportunity to Jewish identity and pride. In 1957,
combine his love for Israel, the Jewish when Jews were not allowed to join
people, and sport. many sports clubs in South Africa,
In 1937, at the age of 16, he had an he built Johannesburg’s first Jewish
encounter with German Jewish The Gecelter family traveling via Nazi-occupied country club with a large array of
youth at a Maccabi youth summer territory from Lithuania to South Africa sports facilities. Everyone in Jewish

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