It has been an event-filled six months for our family, with the arrival of two new grandsons, and my formal retirement. After thirty-five years in corporate life, I am looking forward to a different pace, as my avocations move to the center stage. Chief among these, continues to be my work on the translation of the Yizkor Books of the Holocaust. I can report to you with satisfaction, that the work on the Dereczin Memorial Book was successfully completed with publication in March 2000. Thanks to many of you who contributed, we were able to have a sizeable first production run, and your personal support through gifts, has caused this book to be placed in over 45 libraries, archives and museums around the world.

As previously mentioned, my next target of opportunity will be Volkovysk, the principal city west of Zelva. Interestingly,  three separate Yizkor Books were written for this city, and I plan to translate them all. I hope to invite your participation to another ëevent' sometime late in 2001.

There is an issue surrounding the disposition of the one thousand  or so volumes of Holocaust literature, which I have summarized separately in this Newsletter.  Also, don't miss David Siskind's brief summary of a trip he made to Dereczin this past summer.

Liha in 4Q99 to Gal & Yael Korn-Freidin, sister to the twins Yotam & Yariv. Mazel Tov to the parents, grandfather, Dr. Nahum Freidin and great-grandmother, Miriam Freidin.

Carol & Jack Berger are delighted to announce the birth of their two grandsons, A to Z:

Zachary Evan, on 20Feb00 to David Berger & Dana Spanger in San Mateo, CA. Named Zechariah Eliyahu in Hebrew for Dana's late great-uncle Sander Ostrowiak, and grandmother, Edith Ostrowiak Greenberg. Mazel Tov to the parents, grandfather Gerry Spanger and grandmother Frances Spanger.
 

Adam Cole, on 31May00 to Dr. Daniel Berger and Monique Monokoff in Pensacola, FL. Named Chaim-Jonah Aharon in Hebrew for our beloved cousins Chaim Jonah Gilony of Israel, and Arnold Freed of the USA. Mazel Tov to the grandparents, Ishaya & Josephine Monokoff, and great-grandmother Hannah Monokoff.

Judy Helman, in Boston on January 12, of cancer at age 58. Wife of  Rabbi Boruch Koppel Helman, mother of Yonina Siegal and Rachel Quint, sister-in-law to Rabbi Eddie & Toby Gershfield, grandmother of five.

Miriam (Michlah) Sabarov during April 2000, after a prolonged illness. Wife of Shmuel Sabarov and sister of Moshe Freidin, and the late Chaim Jonah Gilony, Aharon & Yehoshua Freidin. Pre-deceased by son, Roni,  mother of Yoram & Uri,grandmother of nine.

Sam Krugman on May 16, 2000 at age 77 from complications of heart disease. Husband of Sylvia Krugman, father of Mark Krugman & Fran Rosenblatt, grandfather of four. Cousin to the Freidins descended from Bubbeh Genendel.
 
 

Inside Feature

Zvika Freidin wrote in February that his "Little Girl" Shani, joined the Israeli Defense Forces and took her first steps into the army. In May, Belle Millo wrote: At dawn this morning, my son Ari, and his Golani unit was one of the last soldiers to leave Lebanon. I am of course overjoyed and relieved. Ari had been in Lebanon for the last several months.

Those of us, in the relative comfort and security of a North American democracy, should never forget those of our flesh and blood who ñ without being asked ñ go to the front lines and risk their lives. They do so that a Jewish state may continue to exist, and that a place will always be there for all members of our faith.

Coming of age in the cauldron of the Middle East places a special burden on parents and children alike. As the New Year approaches, let us all pray for the peace that will lift that burden from all our hearts.
 
 

The brit milah of Zachary Evan Berger was over, and we had returned home from California to New Jersey. Scrupulous as ever, father David Berger took note of the fact that his first-born was a candidate for a Pidyon HaBen. This, surprisingly uncommon event, is a brief ëceremony of redemption' where certain first-born sons are redeemed from a kohen, or member of the priestly family descended from the High Priest Aaron, brother of Moses. The father of the baby ëredeems' his son for five pieces of silver, freeing him from a biblical injunction to enter the service of the Lord in the Temple. The ceremony is normally held when a candidate male infant is thirty days old, but can be done anytime thereafter.

So, David goes off merrily trying to find a kohen. While I am certain there is no lack of such in the Bay Area, he encounters some difficulty. I take this subject up with my good friend Seymour Ratner, by day a mild-mannered technology professional, but in his spare time the Very Reverend Shimon ben Yitzhak haKohen Ratner. Never one to overlook an interesting opportunity, Sy consults with a suitable rabbinic authority, and determines that it is ritually legitimate to conduct a Pidyon Haben at long-distance over the telephone. The plot thickens...

And so one fine Sunday afternoon, Sy and wife Leslie Ratner come to our house, and we place a call to California. At the other end, are not only David, Dana & Zachary Evan Berger, but also Rod, Corey & Zachary Aaron Cherkas. In addition, Great-great uncle & aunt Joshua & Harriet Freed are visiting.  The Cherkas family identifies that ZAC is also a candidate, in addition to ZEB. So what's a kohen to do? Easy enough: Sy does a ëdouble-header,' one after another over the phone, electing as is his option, to return the five silver dollars to me after the recitation over each baby.

I suppose if I had a webcam and internet phone facility, we could have turned this into a real multimedia extravaganza. As it was, we all got a big kick out of bringing an ancient ceremony into the 21st century.

David Siskind is a scion of a Dereczin Family who recently traveled to Belarus. He used the opportunity to visit his ancestral shtetl.

I was in Dereczin for ½ a day last July. I passed through, but did not stop in Zelva. We spent some time tromping around the cemetery and talking to the senior citizens of Dereczin. Contrary to my expectations, the locals were very enthusiastic about relating their memories of their former Jewish citizens. It was almost like we couldn't shut them up! They all spoke fondly about the Jews and wanted to show off how much they remembered of Jewish customs and culture - i.e. Matzoh for the "Jewish Easter," and one guy started to recite some Yiddish words he remembered from 62 years ago (he got drafted into the army in 1938)! They also claimed that they tried to save them in some cases. In one anecdote, a guy had some Jews holed up in his attic but they had heard that Jews in Zelva were not being harmed so they left and were killed. Interestingly, this rumor about Zelva appears in the Dereczin Memorial Book.  The locals also gave me lots of names that they remembered of Jewish families in the town, with some anecdotes. I will convey these at some later point.

As to the sincerity of their nostalgic recollections, its hard to say but I was certainly  moved by them. Clearly the present condition of Dereczin is sad, and these people may be looking back at a mythical past, before war and Communism. On the other hand, the Yizkor Book speaks of relatively cordial relations between the Belarussians and the Jews, both of whom suffered under Polish oppression. Further the stories of the Jews they told me clearly indicated an intimate knowledge of their lives.

The story about the cemetery is that the Nazis used the newer (post WW-I) tombstones for a road construction project. This explains why I couldn't find the grave sites of my relatives. What is interesting, is that someone recently (earlier this year) mowed some of the underbrush away in the cemetery. I got the sense from the locals that they paid attention, at some small level, to the condition of the site.
 

The one thousand or so Holocaust Memorial Books in existence are predominantly written in Yiddish, some in Hebrew. Complete collections exist at Yad VaShem, The Library of Congress, and the NY Public Library. I have come to recognize that few have been translated into English.  A terrible irony has emerged as a result of the language decisions made a half century ago. It was easy for people of Eastern European origin to put down their memories in their own mameloshn. Yet,  in Israel and North America, Yiddish failed to be transmitted meaningfully to coming generations. Ben Fogel, of Delray Beach Florida recently captured the essence of this issue, when he wrote about the Brzezin Yizkor Book:

The future generations now exist and they cannot read Yiddish.  Most of them understand little, if any spoken Yiddish.  They are orphans in history.  My children and grandchildren are deprived of the history in this book written in part by my mother and uncle.

Individual efforts, such as my own, only dent the larger problem. Yiddish skills are inexorably vanishing.  Access to this rich body of history and lore risks being sealed behind a language barrier that can be penetrated only by those few who choose to become Yiddish scholars, and not the majority of our future progeny. From a conversation with Mark Swiatlo, the Judaica Curator of Florida Atlantic University, it is not clear whether the world Jewish community perceives this as an issue. He has asked me to  raise this matter in correspondence, to see if added resources need to be focused on this matter. Stay tuned!

 Don't Forget Those Who Need You

As the New Year is upon us, I wanted to take some space to remind you of the Children at the ALEH Foundation in Israel.  As you will recall, from many years of writing, The ALEH Foundation looks after children born with congenital problems that  require the continuous attention of dedicated, compassionate care-givers. This is sacred work, and immeasurably eases the burden of those families so afflicted.

You will be interested to know that Senator Joseph I. Lieberman is a member of the Honorary Board of ALEH.

Be kind, and remember ALEHat this time of year. Give them whatever the heart moves within your means.  Their US address is at:
 

ALEH Foundation
5317 13th Avenue
Brooklyn, NY 11219

May the New Year bring us all the blessings of
Good Health, Prosperity and Enduring Peace