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November 16, 2023

Many of my friends have immigrated to Israel throughout my lifetime in search of their Jewish roots.  In Hebrew, the pilgrimage is known as “Aliyah.”  Although it originally meant traveling to Jerusalem to observe Jewish holidays, in recent years, it has come to signify Jews returning to the Land of Israel.

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Many North American Jews move to Israel each year.  I’ve observed my Aliyah-seeking friends finding fulfilling careers, welcoming neighborhoods, and a balanced lifestyle. 

I have traveled to Israel five times, sometimes as a government guest.  I’ve cried at the Western Wall, walked the same streets as King David, and dined with dignitaries.  I feel honored and humbled, having merited to make not one trip, but five.

Recently, I was exposed to the life of Yekusiel Yehudah Halberstam, the Klausenberger Rebbe.  He embodied the essence of the Aliyah journey.  The Klausenberger Rebbe moved to Israel in 1955, and his passage was anything but easy.  It was extraordinary.

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In the biography entitled The Klausenberger Rebbe, the Rebbe is described as a spiritual giant who maintained a fierce devotion to God and the Jewish people despite losing his wife and eleven children at Auschwitz.

The Rebbe, a descendant of a distinguished Hasidic dynasty, was born in Rudnik, Poland in 1905.  He showed remarkable charisma, kindness, and Torah knowledge from a young age.  He earned the moniker “genius of Rudnik” at 13, after his father died.

At 17, The Rebbe wedded Chana Teitelbaum, his second cousin.  He was named rabbi of a devout Hasidic congregation in Klausenburg, Romania, at just 22. 

He was well known for his profound knowledge and sincere affection for Jews from all backgrounds.  He slept only three hours every night on a hard synagogue bench and ate only one meal daily because he was so focused on prayer.  While still only in his mid-twenties, his special love for the children in his community led him to found a school for 100 students.

The Rebbe, his wife, and their eleven children were arrested and separated in 1941.  The Rebbe was freed thanks to the efforts of his supporters, but his family was deported to Auschwitz.  Between 1941 and 1944, the Rebbe devoted himself to prayer, Torah study, and aiding refugees rather than abandoning his followers in Hungary.

It is hard to fathom the gruesome atrocities done to Jewish victims by German Nazis.  I was exposed to a tiny glimpse during a reporting trip to Belarus in 2011, including visiting the Khatyn Holocaust Memorial.  The memorial, the size of 10 football fields, was haunting.  Three million civilians, including 800,000 Jews, were killed by the Nazis in Belarus.  The memorial includes soil from each of the 186 villages that were destroyed.