Today's story is of a Rabbi in 1930s Germany who was able to correctly read the times and warn the people ~ Jew and Gentile~ of what was coming. May we all have this gift from G-d and the willingness to follow through.
From Nazi Germany to Beit Shemesh: The Mansbach Hanukiyah
by David Lev
Each year before Hanukkah, the Mansbach family drops by the Yad Vashem Holocaust Memorial Museum to pick up the family Hanukiyah (Hanukkah Menorah) – an item rich with history, symbolism, and sentimental value. Because, family member Yehuda Mansbach told Israel National News in an interview, “This Hanukiyah is the only remaining memory of the congregation my Grandfather, Rabbi Dr. Akiva Baruch Pozner, led before escaping Germany.”
 |
| View from Rabbi Pozner's window. |
The photo attached tells much of that history, says Mansbach, a resident of Beit Shemesh. “In this photo you see the Hanukiyah stationed at a window, with a Nazi flag across the street.” The photo was taken in 1931, says Mansbach, long before the Nazis came to power. But, as it happened, the house of Rabbi Posner, who led the community of Kiel in Germany, was right across the street from the local headquarters of the Nazi Party.
“It was on a Friday afternoon right before Shabbat that this photo was taken,” says Mansbach. “My grandmother realized that this was a historic photo, and she wrote on the back of the photo : ‘Their flag wishes to see the death of Judah, but Judah will always survive, and our light will outlast their flag.'”
As Rabbi of the Kiel community, Rabbi Posner did everything he could to encourage Jews to escape Germany.
“Already in 1933, he was making many speeches, both to Jews and Germans. To the Germans he warned that the road they were embarking on was not good for Jews or Germans, and to the Jews he warned that something terrible was brewing, and they would do well to leave Germany.” Indeed, Mansbach says, many did leave, and by the time the Nazis came to power, some half of the congregation had already emigrated, mostly to the U.S. and the Land of Israel.
The Hanukiyah made it to Israel as well, and ended up in Yad Vashem. But each year they make sure to “borrow” if for their family Chanukah celebration. “My grandparents understood what was going to happen, and this Hanukiyah is a message to us – and to Jews in the Diaspora today – as well. It tells them to come to the Land of Israel now, before it's too late. No one knows what will be tomorrow.”
(IsraelNationalNews.com) http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140986
(IsraelNationalNews.com) http://www.israelnationalnews.com/News/News.aspx/140986
This is a story and picture I want to keep-a constant reminder:
ReplyDelete"For Zion's sake I will not keep silent, for Jerusalem's sake I will not remain quiet, till her righteousness shines out like the dawn, her salvation like a blazing torch."Isaiah 62:1
December 5th 2010 (14)
ReplyDeleteIn the wrirings in the Book of Revelation (17:10) we read:
"They are also seven kings. Five have fallen, one is, the other has not yet come; but when he does come, he must remain for a little while."
The, 'seven kings,' refer to the seven man-made kingdoms that throughout history will rise up against Israel. The, 'five that have fallen,' refer to the empires of the Chaldees, Egypt, Babylon, Medo-Persia and Greece; the, 'one' to the Roman Empire at the time of writing (c100); whilst,'the other has not yet come,' speaks of the empire still to rise, ie the resurrected Roman Empire, viz the present-day European Union.
Though empire number seven, 'must remain for a little while,' we can be assured of two incontravertible things:
(1) that the EU, like the previous man-made kingdoms against Israel will fade from the pages of history and
(2) that Israel will be standing long after the EU has gone.
"The LORD your God is with you, He is mighty to save. He will take great delight in you, He will quiet you with His love, He will rejoice over you with singing." [Zeph 3:17]
Hallelu Yah!
Steve Perry (UK) <><