Year: 2023

I have always been on target regarding antisemitism and antizionism.
People need to know.

Germany’s antisemitism commissioner, Felix Klein, warned in an interview with The Guardian that the country’s recent increase in anti-Jewish violence risks transporting the country back to its “most horrific times”.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg

The Nazi mentality still exists; we dare not naively believe that anti-Semitism has vanished. Hatred and bigotry are a cancer that eventually returns to haunt its innocent victims. Unless intense treatment and annual diagnostic tests occur, tragedy is inevitable.
Some naively believe that public denunciations and continued documentaries will awaken latent Nazi tendencies. Allow me to suggest the opposite. Those who truly wish to destroy the Jewish nation certainly do not need additional incentives.

Like parasites, they survive at the expense of others. These cannibals of society eagerly await to devour their prey; they feed upon fear and desperately search for defenseless scapegoats. An apathetic approach combined with the fear of retaliation merely furnishes fuel for those seeking scapegoats. Too often we dismiss the obvious in order to achieve peace of mind. 

 The ramification of the war with HAMAS is the same as the Holocaust.  Many will seek all their lives for survivors not knowing they are dead or alive. Numerous families lost children to these barbarians and in some cases will have to remarry, just like in the Holocaust. 

During that night Nov. 9 1938, mobs burned synagogues; destroyed Jewish  businesses; vandalized Jewish hospitals, orphanages and cemeteries, and dragged thousands of Jewish men. women and children into the streets; where they were beaten and humiliated.

The Germans later called this night Kristallnacht — The Night of Broken Glass — because of the tons of shattered glass that scattered throughout German cities. 

In response to Kristallnacht, the New York Times observed: “It is assumed that the Jews, who have now lost most of their possessions and livelihood, will either be thrown into the streets or put into ghettos and concentration camps or impressed into labor brigades and put to work for the Third Reich. As the children of Israel were once before the Pharaohs.” Following the atrocities of Kristallnacht, the London Times exclaimed, “It is not to be believed that the nations cannot find the means of assisting unwarranted citizens to leave Germany and of providing the territory in which those Jews can find a liberated community and recover the right to live and prosper. There is no difficulty which a common will and common action cannot overcome.”

Now we can openly admit, too little too late! Fear and appeasement provided the Nazi party with the subterfuge they eagerly sought. Isolationism blinded the eyes of our so called leadership.

Various pleas remained unheard and unanswered. 

The war with Amalek was not a one-time affair, to be forgotten as soon as it was over. The Jewish people are commanded by G‑d to always remember Amalek’s evil actions, and to destroy his memory utterly.

Torah is most explicit:

‘Remember what Amalek did to you on the way as you came out of Egypt; how he met you on the way, and cut down all the weak who struggled behind you, when you were weary and exhausted; and he did not fear G‑d. Therefore, when the L‑rd your G‑d will relieve you of all your enemies around you, in the land which the L‑rd your G‑d gives you as a hereditary portion, you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven. Do not forget!’”

In essence, to forgive is also to forget, and, once again, we are reminded by G-d’s Command never to do so. Imbued in Torah are the instructions for leading an ethical life, and G-d provides us with the blueprints to do so through His laws and also with the Free Will to choose whether or not to follow the path He has set. Suffice it to say, if we are to choose to live by His laws, tolerance and forgiveness are not to apply to the incarnation of evil. Otherwise, we make no distinctions between good and evil or right from wrong, and there is nothing to set us apart, as the following passage clearly denotes:

Whoever is compassionate to the cruel will ultimately become cruel to the compassionate.

Iranian leadership in responding to criticisms of its program to acquire nuclear weapons, sounded much like Hitler when they proclaimed, “Israel must be wiped off the map!” and that the Holocaust is a “myth!” What’s most amazing to me is that this war with Amalek continues—that the world is still so concerned with the fate of Israel and the small number of Jews in the world who do not even amount to a percentage of error when calculating the world’s population. The rhetoric is apocalyptic, even Biblical. Why care about Israel and the Jews? It must be a spiritual struggle of the generations. The Torah then has been proven to be incredibly wise in warning us never to forget or worse, to underestimate Amalek the anti-Semite—no matter how he may appear.

Rabbi Dr. Bernhard Rosenberg

We Holocaust survivors’ children — who call ourselves second generation or 2G — are aware that except in history books, few epic tragedies seem to endure beyond the lives of the victims and perpetrators.

Elie Wiesel, said he thought the survivors’ children were in a privileged position.

”I believe a person who listens to a witness becomes a witness,” he said in an interview.

Survivors’ children such as I, have dedicated much of our lives to keeping their parents’ stories alive — by writing books, making films, even forming therapy groups. Calling ourselves 2nd generation Holocaust prolongs the need to remember the shoah . Yes, we are not the survivors, but hopefully we who are alive because they survived the Shoah, will use the term to keep the memory of the HOLOCAUST alive. from one generation to another.

RABBI DR. Bernhard Rosenberg

So many of the Holocaust survivors who I grew up with have passed away. They were all so important to me and they conveyed a special feeling that no others could. To the second and third generation I offer this comfort before the High Holidays.

I have been an orphan too long. My dad died over 35 years ago, my mother over 25. Recently I discovered that in addition to the death of most of my family in the Holocaust, I also had two half siblings. Recently I discovered family in ISRAEL from the holocaust. Never give up searching.

My story is similar to many of yours. I ask that G-d comfort us today as we remember parents and other loved ones. For those who possess holocaust guilt I pray you will listen to me. Most of us were too young to understand the misery experienced by our parents, we could not empathize nor did most of us ask the questions we could have. We simply were afraid of hurting our parents and could not bear seeing them suffer.

I have spent a lifetime trying to find out what I simply could have asked them about our family. I am certain many of you are in the same boat. I beg you, your parents and mine lived for us. They sacrificed everything for us.

REMEMBER the good you experienced with them. I will say Yizkor and Kaddish for those of you who can not go to a synagogue.

Love your families and your children and grandchildren. Look at them and have nachas. For those who do not have children or family, please seek friends today and give and receive love. For those who had a different experience, one filled with only joy and good memories, you are very fortunate. For those who experience pain and still do, I pray for you. G-d bless you all and may our loved ones rest in heaven. They already experienced Hell.

If you still have holocaust survivors who are alive, give them a hug and a kiss. G-d granted me a beautiful wife, 4 children and so far 14 grand children. My youngest went on Aliyah with his family. The newest baby was born in Jerusalem six months ago. I only wish my parents were alive to witness this nachas. I am not a psychologist but merely a 2G still struggling.

Many of you still have pain because you think you could have done more to help your parents or acted differently towards them. I learned years ago not to generalize 2Gs. It is very dangerous since some become very upset so I will only speak about myself. My personality manifests itself in my always having to be in control of every situation. When my father was dying thirty five years ago, I thought I could save his life by literally asking him to live for me.

My parents sacrificed everything for me. He died and I still have not forgiven myself for not producing a miracle. Regarding my mother, after my father’s death I did everything possible for her; she lived with us for many years, but I still feel I could have been more understanding and patient with her.

Please forgive yourselves Your parents would not want you in anguish.