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OCTOBER 29, 2015 | The Jewish Home
July 20, 2017
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Jewish Heroes of the Holocaust
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By Tammy Mark
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“I
out.” Author and educator Dr. Mordecai Paldiel dedicated over two decades of his life seeking out and honoring the Righteous among the Nations, the valiant gentile men and women who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. It was a mission that he undertook with the deepest of devotion and appreciation. Throughout this journey Paldiel came across numerous stories of other heroes: the courageous Jewish heroes that put themselves in a danger even graver to save their fellow Jews from death.
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Having written eight books on the subject of the Righteous Gentiles, Paldiel has now compiled some of the most inspiring and noteworthy stories of these unsung heroes into his latest book, Saving One’s Own – Jewish Rescuers during the Holocaust. Paldiel believes that it is due time to pay honor to these little known and virtually forgotten brave souls. Himself saved by a Catholic priest as a young child, Paldiel worked for Yad Vashem for 24 years. Yad Vashem - The World Holocaust Remembrance Center in Jerusalem, Israel, is known as the ultimate source for Holocaust education, documentation and research, and was the first of its kind. As director of the Department of Righteous
among the Nations, Paldiel’s job was to identify and honor non-Jews who risked their lives to save Jews during the Holocaust. During his time there Paldiel added 18,000 names to the registry, leaving Yad Vashem in 2007 with a total of 22,000 names of documented Righteous Gentiles. Today, there are over 26,000 names on record. Through these many years of intense research and verification, Paldiel would often learn of Jews involved in various rescue efforts. While in some instances the non-Jewish rescuers worked in tandem with the Jewish rescuers, in many others the Jewish rescuers were actually the prominent ones in the operation. “I kept wondering to myself, here
I am at Yad Vashem,” recalls Paldiel, “and how come nobody talks about the Jewish rescuers?” When he initially went to speak with the scholars and historians at Yad Vashem, Dr. Paldiel was told that there were very many instances of Jews helping Jews, and that one Jew helping another Jew is not a big deal – and in fact they were obligated to do that. Since a gentile that helped a Jew was not obligated to do pg it at all, the belief is if a gentile did indeed help then he must certainly be saluted. Paldiel explains that although under the Yad Vashem program of Righteous among the Nations a gentile saving one Jew is actually sufficient criteria for recognition, that wasn’t quite what he had in mind for
Nine Days Mix ‘n’ Match Menu
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Kollel Chatzos Arranges Ketores Segulah
believe that acts of goodness, no matter Jew or non-Jew, need to be portrayed and need to stand
Is Respect for Authority History? pg
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