60th Anniversary of Auschwitz

Rabbi Melanie Aron

Saturday, January 29, 2005

Following the coverage this week of the ceremonies associated with the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, I was reminded of an experience I had about 20 years ago.

In the 1980’s, TV miniseries and docudramas had become very popular. There was Roots and there was a 6, 8, 10 hour TV show on 3 or 4 nights in a row, on the Holocaust.

The Jewish community had many criticisms of this TV movie – it was too pretty for starters- even in the concentration camps everyone looked great, but for many average Americans, this TV movie was their first real exposure to the Holocaust.

A week or so after the move, I got a call from a non-Jewish man who said he needed to speak to a rabbi. He came in and met with me and this was his story.

As an enlisted man in the Army in World War II, he and his platoon had happened upon one of the death camps. He had grown up in a small town and didn’t know any Jews. As a young man, he wasn’t very worldly and didn’t follow politics, so he had no awareness really of Hitler’s Anti-Semitism.

The shock on encountering the camp was profound. Nothing had prepared him for this reality. He was a basically good man; he had never confronted this kind of evil. Also because he and the men he was with had no training, in the hours and days after liberation, inmates of the concentration camp continued to die of starvation and illness, and the Americans naïve attempts to help were ineffective.

When he was discharged at the end of the war, he set aside his war experiences, moved to New Jersey and went on with his life.

But now this movie, and some TV discussions he had seen about Holocaust deniers, caused him to step forward. He showed me a few things he had kept, reminders of his war experiences, and evidence that the Holocaust had occurred.

He went on to speak to our religious students, and then to high school students across the state. His testimony as a non-Jewish American soldier was often effective in reaching people who were unmoved by the stories of the survivors themselves.

As Mira explained earlier, this week’s Torah portion, one of the most important portions in the entire Torah, is named for a non-Jew, Yitro-Jethro, Moses’ father-in-law.

It’s quite an honor.

There’s no Torah portion named for Moses or Abraham, Jacob or Aaron. In fact there is none named for any important male Jewish figure in the Torah. There is Chaye Sarah, but it’s less about the life of Sarah and more about her burial. There’s Balak, named for a Moabite King, but he’s an enemy and a bit-player, just an excuse for Got to cause Bilaam to bless the Israelites.

Why did Jethro merit this unique honor?

Rabbi Pinchas Peli, an Orthodox Rabbi in Israel, who for many years wrote a column in the Jerusalem Post, offers this explanation. Jews sometimes have the attitude the whole world is against us and Jethro disproves this. He came to rejoice with the Israelites after God had delivered them at the sea. His grandsons would grow up a part of the Jewish people and he wished them well.

It’s even better than that, Rabbi Abraham Twerski points out. The text tells us Jethro came after the deliverance at the sea and the attack of the Amalekites at the end of Parashat Beshallach. He wasn’t just a fair weather friend who came for the celebration. He was a friend who stepped forward also when Israel was attacked.

As Mira told us, Jethro offered Moses good advice in reorganizing the court system. He also taught us one additional thing – to thank God. The very familiar phrase – Baruch Ha Shem – originated in the mouth of a non-Jew, a priest of Midian, but has become the hallmark of Jewish piety.

Parashat Yitro, the portion named for Moses’s non-Jewish father-in-law, is a reminder that in every generation there have been non-Jews who have stepped forward to aide and advise, to teach and to testify for the good of our people.