Xazy

After seeing the topic Healthy male role models, I decided to give over a little about my grandfather. To me he is a true role model, and his story makes me cry now when I think of him, and his amazing life.

He is 92 years old, and until recently did more in a single day then I ever did. He was the Rav, the Rabbi of a synagogue, services in morning at 6am, and the evening services were 9pm every day (Saturday started at 9am). Chaplin in the police force, and until about 15 years ago he was the only Orthodox Rabbi who was a Chaplin at Beaumont hospital (which he used to walk the entire hospital visiting people twice a week). He served on countless community boards, was involved heavily in helping tens of thousands of Russian Jews who came to America with very little knowledge of their religion. I can go on listing the things he has done (did I mention he speaks 9 languages), and with not taking one day ever in his life a vacation for himself, we his children and grandchildren great grandchildren are his vacation.

But this is the part that has me up and crying tonight. Here explains to me about the soul inside of him the words below I will gloss over almost everythign about the war and get to the part that has me in tears now. The clip below is a song written about him (but not a video of him just put together by others he is not in there) and about what I am about to post.



He was born in in 1918 in Poland, became a Rabbi in 1936 in Zvil Poland by the son of the Riis (an amazing Rabbi who can have his own thread). The stories about the war can go on for pages, but he survived he was an officer in the Russian army, was injured several times, and even today still has shrapnel in his body that they could not remove.

At the end of the war in 1945 he made it to Vilna in time for the Jewish holiday of Simchot Torah, which is when we celebrate literally the holy Torah scrolls. It is customary for us to take all the scrolls out and dance and sing with them. But the synagogue was shot up, there was no scrolls for him to dance with when he saw in the corner a little 5 year old boy, who he picked up and danced with he was our torah the future, the future receptacle of the torah.

I grew up with this story and think on it every year when the holiday comes up, and the song about 12 years ago came out after a man met my grandfather on an airplane, and wrote it.

Fast forward to about 3 years ago, when Abe Foxman the head of the ADL, spoke at the holacaust musuem in Israel, he said the story over, but from the view point of 5 year old little boy being held by a Jewish Russian soldier and danced with after the war and how it changed him. A man there put it together 5 months ago and realized now we now know who the 2 child was, and who the Russian soldier was. On April 8 of this year 65 years later the two finally met again.

I can say a lot more on my grandfather and his life (which b'h thank G-d is still being added to), but to me his life is one of a true role model.

An article about it.

KellyC

Thank you for sharing this. I'm gonna end my day with good thoughts in my head.

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genuinegirly

What an incredible role model!

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seamaiden

It's amazing how much your grandfather has done in a life full of hardship and conflict. Most of us just fumble along trying to figure out how to get what we want, for ourselves, out of life. He's a remarkably, unselfish man...an angel among men.

Idyllic

Xazy, Thank you for sharing your grandfather with us, that was truly inspiring. B'H - Blessings to you and your family.

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p.s. I contradict my contradictions, with or without intention, sometimes.

Craven Morehead

What a wonderful story. Thanks for sharing it.

dlish

a great story indeed Xazy. Thanks for sharing.

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GreyWolf

Heartwarming, and a testament to the indomitability of the human spirit. He sounds like an incredibly interesting man.

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macmanmike6100

Great story; what this should remind us all of is, as adults, the little things we do to recognize and empower the younger generation are often more memorable and impactful than we realize.

guy44

Wow, what an amazing life, an amazing story. Truly an inspiration. I love that your grandfather carried around the child in place of the Torah for Simchat Torah!

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