The Wandering Jew Germany

By Hershel Lieber

like me, after our grandfather, Hershel. Their son also shared the same secular name as me, Harry, and that was what he was called. Joel visited us twice in my parents were from Krakow and my maternal grandmother was from Munkatch and Yiddish was my first language, we had relatives that conversed with my

Munich 1967

(see my article: January 23, 2020)

About a year before I married, right after my father, a”h, was niftar, I went for a three-week trip to Europe which included spending a couple of days with my Uncle Joel, his wife Miriam and Harry.

Munich 1972

(see my article: June 6, 2019)

New York, once when my father was still alive and the second time soon after he was niftar. Joel corresponded often with my parents in the German language, and I read many of his letters. Though parents in German and the language was not foreign to me. I also took two semesters of German when I was in college. In some way, I always felt a connection to my German birthplace.

About three years after we got married, we went on a delayed honeymoon trip to Israel. At the same time, Harry was having his bar mitzvah in Munich, and we went there after our trip to Israel.

Berlin 1983

(see my article: August 1, 2019)

After I started traveling to Poland in the late ‘70s and ‘80s on various missions, I made a three-day detour to both West and East Berlin.

Wiesbaden 1987

I always kept in contact with my cousin Harry. We wrote letters to each other in German, and once or twice a year we spoke on the telephone. Since I began traveling to Poland on a regular basis, I had hoped that we could meet more often. Many flights that I took were with a stopover, and sometimes the stop was in Frankfurt. The round-trip flight between Frankfurt and Munich was very expensive, and I was reluctant to spend that much. Harry was not in a financial position to spend money on a flight. He came up with an idea that he would drive to Frankfurt and pick me up at the airport. We would go to Wiesbaden and spend a night together catching up on our lives. That is exactly what we did in September 1987.

The morning after davening as the shliach tzibbur in Warsaw for Yom Kippur, I flew to Frankfurt where Harry was waiting for me and we checked into an inexpensive hotel in Wiesbaden where we spent most of the night talking. Harry also brought along albums with family photos of his wife Iris and their son Dani. Although Harry picked up some local food, I had to subsist on bread and sardines from the Jewish Community Kitchen in Warsaw. We stayed up for hours and bonded well. I have very fond memories of the conversations we had then.

Munich 1997 & 1999

Unfortunately, my cousin Harry became paralyzed a year or two after we met in Wiesbaden in 1987. He was either confined to a wheelchair or laid up in bed. We wrote each other letters, sent emails, and occasionally talked on the phone. After a trip to Poland in February of 1997, I visited him and stayed overnight. Harry and his family, which now included a daughter Deborah, moved to a special building which had specialized features for people with disabilities. I visited him in that apartment in June 1999.

A few years later, his hearing became limited and speaking on the phone was not possible anymore. He suffered a lot from various medical conditions during the next ten years and was niftar at the young age of 51 in 2010.

Frankfurt 1999

The truth is that I was in Frankfurt a number of times, sometimes as a stop - over on my way to Warsaw or Kishinev, but on a few occasions, I or Pesi and I went into the city or for a couple of hours between flights and for an overnight stay.

In 1999, I was returning from Kishinev with Rabbi Yitzchok Aron Fischer, the famed mohel, when we stopped in Frankfurt for a few hours. We had lunch at the Kehilla’s Sacher restaurant and then borrowed the keys to get into the old Bais Hachaim. We said Tehillim at the kevorim of many famed rabbonim that are interred there – the Hafluh, the Pnei Yehoshua, Rav Nosson Adler and the Maharam Schick among others. Some members of the Rothschild families are buried there as well. Most of the kevorim were reduced to rubble under the Nazis but the sites of these great rabbis were somewhat restored and are now preserved.

Berlin 2005

My involvement with the Yeshiva of Kishinev was in partnership with Rav Moshe Eisemann, the former mashgiach of Ner Yisroel of Baltimore. For over twelve years, beginning in 1996, we took over the project which was initiated by the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel. We traveled to Kishinev, Moldova, very often as part of our responsibility to oversee the yeshiva’s needs and progress. Rav Moshe at the same time was involved with the Rabbinical Seminary in Berlin under the direction of Rabbi Josh Spinner from the Ronald Lauder Foundation. Rav Moshe traveled there on a regular basis to give shiurim and administrate exams. Most students of the seminary originated from Eastern Europe and were preparing for semicha to become rabbonim in German cities where many emigrees from the former Soviet Union resided.

Rav Moshe invited me to join him at the seminary for five days, including a Shabbos, before we continued on to Kishinev. This was an unbelievably enriching trip for me. We stayed at the dormitory across the street from the massive seminary building in East Berlin. While Rav Moshe gave a number of shiurim to the talmidim, I learned b’chavrusa with individual young men or as part of a larger chaburah group. I was also asked to give a shiur for the entire Beis Medrash. The Shabbos was enhanced with presence of a delegation from the leadership of the Orthodox Union. The elite group included the President

NCSY, Steven Berg. Besides for the beautiful davening and seudos with divrei Torah from the guests, there was a gala Melava Malke with a group of married couples who spoke about their decision to embrace Torah Yiddishkeit and their struggles and achievements.

On Sunday morning, one bochur offered to take me on a short tour of Berlin. This included the Brandenburg Gate and the Reichstag, the home of the Bundestag, the German parliament. Both of these sites were also associated with Hitler, ym”sh, but are now symbol- ic of German democracy. We also went to see the Holocaust Memorial, which was composed of 2,711 concrete slabs in an area of 19,000 square meters. The sheer size and the prime location of this memorial brings the tragedy of the murdered Jews to the forefront of awareness for every German. It is a very startling and moving monument, and it left me overwhelmed with sadness.

Worms 2005

Before heading to Kishinev by way of Frankfurt, I insisted that Rav Moshe

Eisemann join me on a side excursion to Worms. Worms is a small city and is associated with some of earliest Jewish kehillos of Germany, dating back to the 11th century. Some of the greatest luminaries of our history are forever linked with this town. The Maharam Rothenburg and the Maharil are just two of the best known among the many great rabbonim.

We visited the Bais Olam and the rebuilt shul and yeshiva named after Rashi. The female guide who gave us the tour in German showed us the replicated indentation in an outer wall of the shul and told us about the legend about Rashi’s mother who was pregnant with him at the time. While Rashi’s mother was walking along the wall, two horsedrawn carriages imperiled her and miraculously the shul’s wall moved inwards to give her protection. I retorted in my best German and said, “Warum sagen Sie das sei ist nur eine Legende?” (Why do you say that this is only a legend?) She answered me with a smile, “Because Rashi was actually born in Troyes, France, and it is highly unlikely that his pregnant mother came here.” Rashi did study in the Yeshiva of Worms for about six years from when he was seventeen years old, and that could be the reason that the yeshiva carries his name.

We also descended a steep stairwell on the outside of the building to see a recently discovered mikvah. The picturesque town of Worms and its Jewish legacy left an indelible impression on both of us.

Michelstadt 2006

In December 2006, Rav Moshe Eisemann and I traveled to Kishinev again. During a stopover in Frankfurt, I convinced Rav Moshe to join me in traveling to the kever of Rav Sekl Loeb Wormser, known as the Baal Shem of Michelstadt. Rav Sekl was a talmid of Rav Nosson Adler and followed in his footsteps, leading an ascetic lifestyle. He had a Yeshiva which included teaching secular subjects in addition to Torah studies. He conducted his life in a chassidic style and was a total vegetarian. There are several stories of miracles attributed to him, though he had many detractors. We said some Tehillim and left kvitlech at his kever.

Though I have been in Germany well over ten times, I still have some uneasiness being in the country that wiped out most of my family. Still, I do not assume that everyone I see on the street is an antisemite or even a descendant of Nazis. I am generally positive and non-judgmental, yet Germany’s not-sorecent history is hard to ignore.

Hershel Lieber has been involved in kiruv activities for over 30 years. As a founding member of the Vaad L’Hatzolas Nidchei Yisroel he has traveled with his wife, Pesi, to the Soviet Union during the harsh years of the Communist regimes to advance Yiddishkeit. He has spearheaded a yeshiva in the city of Kishinev that had 12 successful years with many students making Torah their way of life. In Poland, he lectured in the summers at the Ronald S. Lauder Foundation camp for nearly 30 years. He still travels to Warsaw every year – since 1979 – to be the chazzan for Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur for the Jews there. Together with Pesi, he organized and led trips to Europe on behalf of Gateways and Aish Hatorah for college students finding their paths to Jewish identity. His passion for travel has taken them to many interesting places and afforded them unique experiences. Their open home gave them opportunities to meet and develop relationships with a variety of people. Hershel’s column will appear in The Jewish Home on a bi-weekly basis.