Shaarey Tikvah, B’nai Jeshurun to commemorate Kristallnacht

JANE KAUFMAN | STAFF REPORTER jkaufman@cjn.org |

@jkaufmancjn

In commemoration of the 80th anniversary of Kristallnacht, a scholar of German studies will detail the lives of three mothers who emigrated to Shanghai, China, as a direct result of the “Night of Shattered Glass.”

Two of the women, Auguste Sternberg and Ida Abraham., eventually lived in Cleveland. Grete Gabler, the third, settled in Australia, but her son, Eric Kisch also came to Cleveland.

Kevin Ostoyich, associate professor and chair of the department of history at Valparaiso University in Valparaiso, Ind., will speak at 2:30 p.m. Nov. 4 at Congregation Shaarey Tikvah in Beachwood in a joint program with B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in Pepper Pike.

The night of Nov. 9, 1938, became a turning point for thousands of Jews in Germany. Tens of thousands of Jews were sent to concentration camps that night. Nearly 200 synagogues were destroyed, and more than 8,000 shops owned by Jews were looted and ransacked.

“This changed everything,” Ostoyich said of Kristallnacht. “Their lives were literally changed overnight. You have fathers being transported to concentration camps where they’re treated horribly.”

Ostoyich said it is estimated that between 16,000 and 18,000 Jews made their way to Shanghai to escape persecution. Shanghai became a refuge because it did not require visas, but it was not the first choice among the refugees. Most would have preferred to go to the United States, where there was a “paper wall,” he said.

“It was the place of last resort,” he said of Shanghai.

Ostoyich interviewed the sons of all three women: Gary Sternberg, Eric Kisch and Harry Abraham.

He found common themes among the three women he studied.

Many of the women were used to being taken care of both by their

The Women of Kristallnacht

WHERE: Congregation Shaarey Tikvah, 26811 Fairmount Blvd., Beachwood

WHEN: 2:30 p.m. Nov. 4

TICKETS: Free INFO: 216-765-8300 husbands and by their servants.

“A lot of them have been, I guess we would say, kind of pampered up to that point in that they sometimes had servants and even chauffeurs.”

The reality of their plight forced women, many living without their husbands, to do things they had never done before in order to take care of their families, including finding their husbands and arranging for emigration.

“Women are really forced to take on roles in the families that were often taken on by their husbands,” Ostoyich said. “They find that they’re very resourceful, and they find that they’re capable of doing this.”

Ostoyich said the changes in the roles of women were permanent.

“It’s just a complete change in the whole dynamic of the household,” Ostoyich. “Once that happens, you find you never really can go back to what the household had been.”

He chose to focus on the stories of women as a way of thinking about the Holocaust in a different way.

”I think this story is often forgotten as people focus on the men in the concentration camps,” Ostoyich said.

The event also will feature a dramatic reading from the book by Andrea von Treuenfeld, “Going Back: 16 Jewish Women Tell Their Life Stories, and Why They Returned to Germany – The Country that Once Wanted to Kill Them.”

Rabbi Stephen Weiss of B’nai Jeshurun Congregation, said, “With less and less survivors alive who can tell their stories, it becomes urgent that we all stand together and make sure the memory of the horrors of the Holocaust and its many lessons never fade away. By paying tribute to these heroic women, we honor both victims and survivors and take a vital stand against those who seek to promote hatred still in our day.”

Rabbi Scott Roland of Shaarey Tikvah said, “Kristallnacht still haunts the memories of many in our community. Because it indelibly marks what may have been the tragic spark that led to the spreading firestorm of oppression of Jews in Europe. Hopefully this reading helps future generations to never forget.”