COMMUNITY Judy Rakowsky’s talk about her book ‘Jews in the Garden’ draws a crowd

BY GIOVANNA WISEMAN

PROVIDENCE – On the evening of July 11, 50 people crowded into Books on the Square to hear from Judy Rakowsky, the author of “Jews in the Garden.”

The book, which is part memoir, part detective story and part family history, explores the true story of Rakowsky’s family members who were sheltered by non-Jewish Poles on a remote farm during World War II but were never heard from after the war.

While reconnecting with her cousin, Holocaust survivor Sam Ron, Rakowsky uncovers the story – which everyone seemed to know about but no one wanted to talk about. The intrepid duo traveled to Poland to find out why.

Through Ron’s eyes, “Jews in the Garden” explores the complicated relationship that Poland has to Holocaust history. To be sure, the country proudly touts its record of resistance against the Nazis, and Poland has the largest percentage of European “Righteous Gentiles” who are recognized by the Yad Vashem Holocaust remembrance center in Israel. However, in recent years, the Polish government has taken a hard-line approach to free speech, which includes the strict prohibition of any assertion that Poles collaborated with the Nazis, regardless of historical accuracy. Doing so is punishable by imprisonment of up to three years.

As is usually true, reality lies somewhere in the murky middle; while the vast majority of Poles detested Nazi rule, the country has a long- standing history of antisemitism. Despite individual heroics, the Polish resistance movement was ultimately more focused on achieving self-determination than protecting the Jewish population from genocide. This dichotomy is well represented in Rakowsky’s book when she and Ron encounter locals and former neighbors who view them with a mixture of suspicion and fascination.

During the book talk, Rakowsky answered a variety of questions from the audience, including how she processed these dual reactions to her Jewish identity. She advised audience members to tune out the noise, follow their intuition and never stop trying to find the truth, regardless of the obstacles in their way.

The book talk was a collaboration with the Sandra

Donniel Hartman sees a brighter Israeli future — in 2026

CONTINUED FROM PAGE 15

The Palestinian Authority controls the Mukata [the P.A. headquarters in Ramallah] and three upper-middle-class towns in Judea and Samaria. Hamas and Islamic Jihad would run away with any election.

It’s very hard to even have a conversation about Palestinian rights in Israel, when you feel you’re talking about a society that wants to kill you.

I just finished a book that is getting published in November, and I have a whole section on it challenging North American liberal Jews to recognize that they have liberal partners in Israel, even though they don’t agree with you on Judea and Samaria, or the West Bank, or what you even call it.

And yet, for a lot of American Jews – as well as for American anti- Zionists and a lot of progressives – Israel is judged only to the degree that it solves the Palestinian problem. Liberal Zionists define themselves around their commitment to a two-state solution, but you’re asking them to see common ground around other liberal issues.

I distinguish between tolerable occupiers and intolerable occupiers. Intolerable occupiers are those who believe that we have a right to all of Israel, and that Palestinian lives don’t matter. It’s a combination of ultra-nationalism, fascism and messianism. That’s one group. Then there’s a whole massive group for whom the only reason why the occupation continues is that they believe that there is no peace partner and that Israel’s survival is in danger if we do anything.

People think I’m liberal. I’m more or less liberal. I’m for a two-state solution. I just don’t know how to implement it. Tell me what I could do now? I’m willing to stop settlements. I’m willing to curb settlements. I’m willing to do everything. I used to be for unilateral withdrawal. What would happen if you had unilateral withdrawal from Judea and Samaria?

Now, when you have a government that is not willing to admit that Palestinians have rights, or is not yearning for a peaceful solution, then of course we lose. That’s what Netanyahu’s doing since he sits with these [far-right] people. He has quieted all moral conversation when it comes to Israeli political life. So when that happens, of course, people with a moral voice would say, “What’s going on here?” Because it’s true, as you said, Zionism has ceded the moral conversation to the anti-Zionist camp.

Still, I think we can create a unified liberal Zionist conversation even though North American Jews and Israeli Jews might have a different opinion on what is the most viable solution right now. Since we’re talking on Tisha B’Av, I went to services last night and the person who led the services gave a scorchedearth lament for Israel, basically saying his dreams for Israel are dying and he tied the week’s events, as a lot of people have, to the cataclysms that we acknowledge on the fast day, including the destruction of the First and Second Temples. What are you telling either Israelis or Diaspora supporters of Israel who are talking in apocalyptic terms about this week’s vote and the push for judicial reform by this government?

Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, where staff and volunteers work daily to combat Holocaust misinformation, largely through personal testimony like Ron’s.

Like Holocaust education, “Jews in the Garden” shows us that even if all else is lost, we still have the sanctity of fact –and we must insist on it.

“Jews in the Garden” is available for purchase at Books on the Square, 471 Angell St., Providence, or at https://www.judyrakowsky.com.

GIOVANNA WISEMAN is the director of programming and community outreach at the Sandra Bornstein Holocaust Education Center, in Providence.

We mourn the destruction of the Temple. We learn from the destruction of the Temple. But we don’t declare the Temple destroyed before it’s destroyed.

Everything in Jewish history is about hope. It’s about working under impossible conditions. And Israel is now working under impossible conditions. That’s true. There is a government which is advocating for an Israel that half of Israel and 90% of North American Jewry wants nothing to do with. But Israel is not defined by its government alone, as you discovered when it came to Trump. People have a voice. What the demonstrations make clear is that the vast majority of Israelis do not support these proposals.

It’s one thing to turn your back on the Israeli government. But we’re out there marching. We don’t embrace destruction before it happens, but we get to work. There is a blueprint forward. The vast majority of Israelis now are embracing a liberal Zionism of the type I mentioned. North American Jews now have partners. They might not be perfect partners, but they have partners. Why walk away from Israel, when the majority of Israelis are now saying things they never said before: “I care about the Supreme Court. I care about human rights. I care about the rights of minorities”? This is what they’re talking about at every demonstration. So I would go back to your [prayer leader] and say to him, “We waited 2,000 freaking years to have this country. Could you wait three more years? And could you fight for three years?” Because if you fight and you stand up and you don’t walk away, there are partners in Israel who are looking at you and who feel encouraged by you. We can build it.

The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of JTA, its parent company, 70 Faces Media, or Jewish Rhode Island.

ANDREW SILOW-CARROLL is editor at large of the New York Jewish Week and managing editor for Ideas for the Jewish Telegraphic Agency.

BY FRAN OSTENDORF

FORMER U.S. AMBASSADOR and Frances Lehman Loeb, Loeb said he knows he had a privileged upbringing, but he experienced antisemitism and bullying as a high school student at a New England prep school in the mid-1940s.

John L. Loeb Jr. is a true believer in religious freedom and tolerance: He’s put his name on institutions that promote these values, such as the Loeb Visitors Center at Touro Synagogue, in Newport, the Loeb Institute for Religious Freedom at George Washington University, and a foundation he has established in his name.

Jewish Rhode Island recently interviewed the 93-year-old businessman, public servant, philanthropist, art collector and former U.S. ambassador to Denmark about his early experiences with antisemitism, his family and his thoughts on religious freedom.

“I’m the ninth generation of our family to be in America, which is amazing, particularly if you are Jewish,” Loeb said.

The son of John L. Loeb Sr.

Loeb recalled that during a Sunday movie night, he was shocked as he watched a newsreel of German concentration camps with disturbing images of the emaciated men, women and children imprisoned there. His classmates cheered and hooted, he said, and told him that they didn’t like Hitler, but at least he had killed Jews. This experience would influence the rest of his life.

Loeb’s focus on Newport was spurred by his interest in George Washington’s “Letter to the Hebrew Congregation in Newport, Rhode Island,” which he encountered as a college student. He also discovered that some of his ancestors had come to Newport from the Caribbean, he said, and helped found Touro Synagogue.

Loeb said he felt that the George Washington Letter was so important to the concept of religious freedom and tolerance, that everyone should read it. In 2011, he read the letter aloud at the annual August reading held at Touro Synagogue (this year’s reading takes place Aug. 20 at 1 p.m.).

His interest in his ancestors led to a fascination with the research and work on a book about his grandmother, “An American Experience: Adeline Moses Loeb (18761953) and Her Early American Jewish Ancestors.” (New York: Sons of the Revolution, 2009)

And Loeb, who lives in Purchase, New York, isn’t done with his good works. In May, he was presented with the American-Scandinavian Foundation’s Cultural Award in recognition of “his outstanding accomplishments as a collector of art and for his decades-long efforts to support and promote awareness and appreciation of Danish art in the U.S.,” according to the ASF website.

Another of his most recent philanthropic projects is adjacent to the Loeb Visitors Center in Newport – he has contributed to the creation of the Spring Park, situated on the site of the natural spring where Newport was founded. The park, which is set to open in the late fall, commemorates the importance of religious tolerance and the separation of church and state.

FRAN OSTENDORF (fostendorf@

jewishallianceri.

org) is the editor of Jewish Rhode Island.