Page 16 - HaMizrachi Chanukah 2021 - USA

1937 1938 1939
The first Mizrachi kibbutz, Tirat Following a public debate, The first Bnei Akiva high
Tzvi, is established, named after Melbourne Jews vote to school Yeshiva is founded by
Rabbi Tzvi Hirsch Kalischer establish Mizrachi Australia Rabbi Neria in Kfar HaRo'eh

I<ibbutz

Buchenwald

Dr. Rafael Medoff

Rabbi Schacter was approached by a days there was now another kibbutz of
'' H ow different it is from
the holiday at Buch- group of young survivors who sought those very Jews whom Hitler sought to
enwald!" a Holocaust his help to obtain a tract of land in the destroy. They were again building the
survivor marveled vicinity. Some had been members of ideal of Zionism and of a new Jewish
at the Chanukah celebrations in Kib- the Mizrachi youth movement HaSho- life which the Nazis attempted to
butz Afikim, in the Jordan Valley, in mer HaDati or other Zionist youth annihilate."
1945. "Rows of free people, marching groups, and they were anxious to Rabbi Schacter titled his essay "A
in a procession ... standing erect ... An resume training for their future lives Message from the Chalutzim of Kib-
in Eretz Yisrael.
armed Hebrew watchman makes his butz Buchenwald to the Chalutzim of
rounds, protecting and guarding us ... What happened next was described by HaShomer HaDati." He understood
At the top of the tower, a comforting Schacter in the pages of HaMigdal, the that he was addressing an audience of
fire glows, spreading light and faith ... " magazine of HaShomer HaDati's U.S. potential olim, and so he emphasized
However, this survivor and his friends wing. Here, from the pen of an Amer- themes of Zionist pioneering, idealism,
were not entirely strangers to kibbutz ican rabbi, came an inspiring story of and triumph over tragedy.
life because they had recently taken hope among the ruins. "I will never forget the afternoon when
part in a remarkable hachshara project Schacter explained to his American we celebrated the Chanukat Habayit of
in postwar Germany called "Kibbutz readers how U.S. military officials this, the first hachshara in Germany
Buchenwald." The story of Kibbutz agreed to requisition a farm at Ger- after the destruction of Nazism," he
Buchenwald involves a group of stub- ingshof, 100 miles southwest of Buch- wrote. "The inspired songs and ani-
bornly idealistic young Holocaust enwald, where a pre-war hachshara mated Horas which these people had
survivors, a feisty American military group had once labored. Soon after not sung or danced for so many tragic
chaplain, and an interesting connec- the "kibbutzniks" arrived, they came years reverberated, I am sure, for miles
across torn pages from a Torah scroll, around. A huge Zionist flag was hoisted
tion to the history of the Religious
which they gathered and buried. On the on a long flag-pole over the roof of the
Zionist movement.
rear wall of a shack, they discovered farmhouse."
The chaplain was Herschel Schacter, that someone had written the words
"Of course, their songs were mingled
an Orthodox rabbi from Brooklyn "We Will Yet Return" - the final pledge
with sorrow and their smiling faces
and future president of the Religious of the previous residents, members were dampened by the bitterness of
Zionists of America (Mizrachi USA). of Bachad, a Religious Zionist youth their tears," Rabbi Schacter contin-
Schacter's unit liberated Buchenwald movement. ued. "For how could they forget the
in April 1945, and he chose to remain "There is a remarkable element of overwhelming losses that they had
in the camp for more than two months, historic justice in this fact," Schacter sustained? ... Not one had a father or
counseling and assisting the survi- wrote. "For on the very site where mother. No one knew of sisters or
vors. there had been a kibbutz in pre-Hitler brothers. They were completely alone,

16 I HANjlZRACHI