I. Exploring Our Roots

This Chapter And You...

The Rabbis of the Mishnah spoke of a chain of tradition which began when God gave the Torah to Moses. Moses then gave the Torah to Joshua. Joshua accepted it and passed it on to the elders, the elders to the prophets, and the prophets handed it down to the men of the Great Assembly. They handed it on to the rabbis of every generation who, in turn, gave it to us.

Look at the chain that surrounds this page. Imagine it as the chain of Jewish History from the beginning and extending well into the future. Try to imagine as you look at it where Abraham might be on the chain, or Rashi, or Golda Meir or Albert Einstein. Find your link. In pencil, put a small "X" on your link.

There are some doom and gloom sociologists today who suggest that the Jewish people face extinction in the next few generations. Yet, if asked, none of us would want to even consider the possibility that the Jewish people could ever end with us, would we? Where did you put your "X"? Is your link somewhere in the middle or near the end of the chain? Do you realize that "where" you chose to put your "X" is making a very powerful statement?

Every link in any chain is important, because a chain is only as strong as its weakest link. Each link is important, because it is the bridge to the links behind as well as to the links ahead. If each of us is a strong link, then we strengthen the entire chain.

The March of the Living is a part of the story of that chain. It is the story of how that chain came into being, and of the links which gave it strength. It is the story of how some of the links were forcibly excised from the chain, and of our continued fight to bridge the gap and re-link the chain as a strong, reliant and dependable chain for the future.

A significant link in this chain of Jewish History is YOU.

In the readings in this chapter, you will encounter your own personal connectedness, genealogy and hope for the future, your future, as you create the next generation.

Objectives

1. The March of the Living will take you back to Poland, a place where many of your relatives either lived or perished.

2. You will recognize the names of cities and towns of which your parents and grandparents talked.

3. You will see, with your own eyes, the small villages, many of which appear today almost exactly as they did during the Holocaust, except ... without Jews.

4. You will learn on the March from Auschwitz to Birkenau that this represents another bonding agent for the link in that unbroken chain of Jewish survival.

5. This chapter should give you an opportunity to re-explore your family history, roots and migrations.

6. You should be able to explore the reasons for your participation in the March.

"(But every individual also) ... forms a link in the chain of the generations. He is also a link in his own generation... A Jew cannot live as a Jew unless he forms part of the national community... There are two conditions for the materialization of the great mission (the achievement of the Messianic era): A continuous broken activity of all generations in a joint uniform activity in each generation. That is why `the community of Israel' occupies such an important place in the legislation of the Torah.

"`It is not incumbent upon thee to finish the task; nor art thou free to desist from it.' (Sayings of the Fathers II, 21). The individual Jew must appreciate that he does not act alone, but within his people, within the community which is close to him in character and in task. The common national memories unite and strengthen; they also insure that the efforts will continue and will be renewed from generation to generation. It is worth the individual's while to take even small steps if he knows that together with him many others are marching towards the same goal. What remains unachieved in the present generation will be continued in generations to come. The individual must therefore be a link in the chain of his own generation and, together with all his contemporaries, form a link in the vast chain of the ages...

"There is a law in Physics that says the strength of a chain is determined by the strength of its weakest link. It is incumbent, therefore, upon every individual Jew to gain strength and to develop all his faculties for the fulfillment of the holy work incumbent upon the generations of his people. He must realize that it is upon him that success depends. Every individual must keep in mind that `it is for his sake that the world was created.'"

Dr. Aron Barth, The Modern Jew Faces Eternal Problems

The Search for Knowledge

The Jewish commitment to pursuit of God's truth makes education a prime value. The entire Book of Proverbs is a hymn to wisdom, the beginning of which is reverence for God (Proverbs I:7). Since the Bible demands that families educate their young (Deuteronomy 6:7), the Land of Israel was noted in ancient times for one of the earliest public school systems in the world (Baba Batra 21a; Josephus). Thus it was natural throughout the ages that even in the worst of situations Jewish communities would devote whatever resources were available to the support of Jewish learning. In modern times, Jews excel in all areas of education - arts, sciences, languages, and mathematics -- despite severe disadvantages which were placed on them by many majority cultures. The world suffered tragically because so many Jewish intellectuals were unable to escape Hitler's death camps. Fortunately, some, like Sigmund Freud and Albert Einstein, were able to flee. Even in the death camps themselves classes were conducted for the young, and discussion groups were held so that adults could continue their studies. Jewish historians wrote minutely detailed accounts of the Holocaust even as they were themselves caught in it, and Jewish scientists studied the behavior of their fellow inmates in the camps.

Hitler's War Against the Jews - Altshuller & Dawidowicz

Jacob in blessing his grandchildren comments,

"h,uct oacu hnac o,ut trehu"

Let them be called by my name and the name of my ancestors."

Father Jacob wasn't suggesting that his grandchildren be renamed. Rather, that they may understand what he had stood for; that they learned to possess his traits and character. In short, that they develop a way of life so that he would continue to live through them.

His desire for such continuity showed his great concern for linkage. He well understood that a chain is only as strong as its weakest link and that it is far easier to strengthen a chain than to repair one.

"He shall be as a tree planted by the waters (TORAH) and that spreads out its roots by the river, and shall not fear when heat comes and his leaves shall be green, and shall not concern itself in the year of drought neither shall cease from yielding fruit."

Jeremiah

When the individual values the community as his own life and strives after its happiness as though it were his individual well-being, he finds satisfaction and no longer feels so keenly the bitterness of his individual existence, because he sees the end for which he lives and suffers."

Achad HaAm

Activity A

Read and complete the charts which follow. They are for you to create a genealogical chart of your family. Complete them with the help of your family. You may have to go to several members to get all the information. Survey the completed sheet and see how you were affected by the Holocaust either directly (family members perished) or indirectly (some branches of the family escaped via migration).

Reading #1

Our Rabbis say, "Kol Yisrael Areivim Zeh BaZeh" - All Israel is connected (responsible to/for the other). This reading should help you understand the "connectedness" which was lost in the Holocaust. You will understand your role in the historical chain of Judaism.

Look at the picture above. Notice how the roots go down deep into the ground. The tree's roots give it strength and stability. They make it sturdy and allow it to produce good and healthy fruit.

Just as a tree's roots give it solidity so do your roots give you permanence, steadiness and vitality. Remember that we as a people, small and for a long time without a country to call our own, have survived whereas many much more powerful nations -- some who ruled the entire civilized world - have fallen into obscurity or have completely vanished.

The Ethics of the Fathers directs us to be as "a tree whose branches are few but whose roots are many, so that even if all the winds in the world come, it cannot be blown from its place." Our roots give us a source of our strength but they also give us a sense of what and who we are. Knowing where we came from provides us with road signs directing us where we are going. Producing good fruit gives us purpose. It makes us the protagonists to forge and mold our own future. These are detailed in the picture by the lightning bolts reaching outward and upward.

Look at the picture once again. Note the roots and the bolts. The person in the center is YOU.

Activity B

My Generations - Arthur Kurzweil

This is a facsimile of a birth certificate. If you cannot locate your own, fill in the spaces to record the information usually found on birth certificates. If you have your actual birth certificate, photocopy it and paste it over the one provided.

Birth Registration Certificate

City of ________________________
County of:______________________

Name:______________________________
Sex: M F
Place of Birth:______________________________

Date of Birth:______________________________
Day of Week:______________________________
Time of Birth:____________________________

Father's Name:______________________________
Age:______________________________
Birthplace:______________________________

Mother's Name:______________________________ Age:______________________________ Birthplace: ______________________________

My Hebrew Name

Doctor:______________________________

State of______________________________

Activity C

Activity D

On the March you will visit cemeteries where you will see tombstones with names on them. Maybe you will find your family name on one of them. "Where Are You" helps you understand that you are more than just a name. Many decisions helped make you who you are. Maybe that is what the March is all about?

Where Are You? - Arthur Kurzweil - My Generations

Where are you -- right now? Are you sitting in a classroom? Are you at home in your room? Are you on a bus? in a car? Sitting at the kitchen table? There are over four billion (4,000,000,000) people in the world and each of us is somewhere.

You have been traveling - in history- until this very moment. Each day goes by and with each passing day, you do more things, go more places, and think more thoughts. You are moving along -- with history. And for some reason right at this moment, you have ended up exactly where you are!

One of the realities of history is that people travel from place to place making new homes for themselves along the way. People have been leaving home and making new homes elsewhere since the beginning of time. In fact, one could say that history is, in part, the story of people and families moving from one place to another. At one point, your parents married and established a home together. Then, you were born and joined their migration.

Almost every person living in the United States is an immigrant, or a descendant of immigrants. Most Jewish families in America have not been here very long at all. In fact, it probably was either your grandparents or your great grandparents who were the immigrants in your family. Of course, this does not apply to everyone. You may be an immigrant yourself. It is also possible that your family was in America long before your great grandparents were born. Some Jewish families have been in America for a few hundred years.

Your move - from your last home to your present home - is part of the history of Jewish migration. In the same way that we write about Jews in the 1600's by saying "Where did Jews live in those days?", so too, will people one hundred years from now ask about the Jews of today. Your story will become a part of Jewish history!

Throughout our lives we constantly make decisions.

Each of us has the right to make our own choices about our Jewish lives, but we must remember that some choices have already been made for us. And the choices we make will affect those who come after us.

For instance, I live in the United States and my second cousin lives in Budapest, Hungary. Life in Budapest is very different from life in the U.S.A. My grandmother decided to come to America seventy five years ago, while my cousin's grandmother chose to stay in Hungary. The two grandmothers made decisions that determined where their grandchildren would be born and what their lives would be like.

As I look back on my personal Jewish history, I see that it is made up of many people with different ways of doing things. My parents influenced my opinions, beliefs, and choices just as their parents contributed to theirs. As I examine my Jewish family history I obtain a better and better understanding of the people who made me the person I am and what my choices are.

The people in your family who came from another country to live in the United States are your "immigrant ancestors." Perhaps you yourself are an immigrant. Who were the individuals in your family who made the decision to leave their homes and travel to America?

Not only is this information interesting in itself (their decisions certainly had great impact on your life) but it will....(Complete the thought)

Reading #2

You will have a chance on the March to do some family research. You might never have thought it to be important. Reading #2 says "think again!"

Encyclopedia of Jewish Genealogy - Arthur Kurzweil & Miriam Weiner

The search for roots, even in the simplest genealogical sense, is likely to be a meaningful experience on both the personal and religious levels. But it is important to pursue it even if the meaning is elusive. Lineage is not just a matter of empty self-congratulation. All lineage, and not just that of nobility, carries with it a certain responsibility. A great person discovered among one's ancestors is not just a cause for bragging but something that must be related to and learned from. The sense of kinship with such a figure can be a source of strength and encouragement to one suffering spiritual distress of self-doubt. It need not be a famous or distinguished figure; even a person -- remembered or reconstructed -- who was at one with himself and with the world can serve as an anchor point and source of commitment. Such connections represent, in a sense, a broadening of the commandment to "honor thy father and they mother," a commandment described through the ages in terms of the obligation of the "branch" toward the "root" from which it sprang and that nourished it. Honor of parents and of earlier generations of forebears is connected, in turn, with Kibbud Hamakom, honoring the source of all human life. Strengthening one's ties with one's own past is part of renewing one's connection with the sources of Jewish life in general.

Rabbi Adin Steinsaltz

Questions:

1. What do you see as the connection between genealogy and the fifth commandment?

2. What's so important about "strengthening one's ties with one's own past?"

Activity E

Note on the map below where your family came from in their immigration to America. Consider what might have occurred had those choices not been made.

Reading #3

We march never to forget. Santayana, born in 1863, offered this caveat. Read and consider the questions below.

George Santayana wrote: "The Nation which forgets its past is destined to repeat it."

Questions:

a. What was Santayana telling us? How does it relate to our study?

b. What does it tell us of all our responsibilities to future generations?

c. Could it happen again? Could it happen here? Have you heard of Aryan Nations? The skinheads? Compare their thinking to Hitler's.

d. Have you heard anti-Semitic jokes? Anti-Semitic rap? Jap-baiting? "Restricted" clubs? How are each a source of concern?

Reflections

1. What does linkage with the past mean to you now?

2. Can you understand what the attempt to break the chain of continuity would have meant to our people had Hitler succeeded?