[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 149 (Thursday, September 14, 2017)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1229-E1230]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SUMMER 2017 TRIP TO POLAND, LITHUANIA, AND ISRAEL

                                 ______
                                 

                           HON. SCOTT TAYLOR

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                      Thursday, September 14, 2017

  Mr. TAYLOR. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record remarks on behalf of 
my constituent, Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman. Rabbi Zoberman is the 
Founding Rabbi of Congregation Beth Chaverim in Virginia Beach, 
Virginia. Born in Chu, Kazakhstan (USSR) in 1945, he is the son of 
Polish Holocaust Survivors.

       ``It was early Sunday morning and I was leaving the house 
     on the way to preach at Eastern Shore Chapel Episcopal Church 
     in Virginia Beach. I am, gratefully, this historic church's 
     Honorary Senior Rabbi Scholar. Having visited Poland, 
     Lithuania, and Israel earlier this summer, I was eager to 
     share my unsettling and transforming experiences from the 
     trip, experiences that still keep me up at night. My 97-year-
     old mom's call from Haifa, Israel, 6,000 miles away, alarmed 
     me. My indomitable mom, a Holocaust survivor from the 
     Ukraine, worriedly uttered, ``What's happening in Virginia?'' 
     She was referring, of course, to the tragic events that 
     unfolded in Charlottesville due to the neo-Nazi, white 
     supremacist, and KKK (What an unholy alliance!) repulsive 
     rally.
       That truly anti-American, vile anti-Semitic rally 
     resurrected history's worst images which led to untold pain 
     and loss. My mom's keen conscience and life's trying legacy, 
     prompted her to be deeply concerned about what transpires in 
     America 2017. After all, she is a witness that hatred of the 
     other, fueled by prejudice, bigotry and jealousy, can end up, 
     as it did, in gas chambers and mass executions of millions. 
     The presence of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum 
     in our nation's capital is a poignant statement and a timely 
     warning that democracies, even our great one, are vulnerable 
     institutions; that poisonous ideas and pernicious minds can 
     undermine all that we so cherish.

[[Page E1230]]

       Virginia and the entire United States are ``For Lovers'' 
     and not haters! Had the blessings of our uniquely American 
     interfaith relations existed back then in Europe the 
     magnitude of the Holocaust would surely be diminished. It is 
     high time to revisit our educational system to ensure our 
     basic American values of democracy, diversity and decency 
     that have made America a leader, are taught on all levels 
     lest the American dream becomes a nightmare.
       When I examined the Ayelet Tours' June 2017 advertised trip 
     to Poland and Lithuania accompanied by Professor Natan Meir 
     of Portland State University (what an added bonus to a 
     pilgrimage of sacred witness!), I couldn't but notice that my 
     father's hometown of Zamosc in southeastern Poland was on the 
     itinerary. My first exposure to Poland was at age six months 
     old in 1946 when my family of Polish Holocaust survivors 
     returned home from Siberia and Kazakhstan (then USSR) where I 
     was born. However, we left after only four months. Some 1500 
     Jews were murdered by Poles who begrudged our survival and 
     eyed our properties.
       I visited Poland in February 1992 for a packed three-day 
     trip sponsored by the Chicago Board of Rabbis. I recall 
     seeing the sign leading to Zamosc and my frustration of not 
     going there. This time I was in Zamosc and I am still 
     overtaken by breathing the same air generations of my 
     ancestors breathed, loved and labored till the tragic 
     onslaught of Nazi terror. Imagine my speechless elation at 
     being in the restored Sephardic ``Renaissance Synagogue'' 
     built in the early 17th century, the only such edifice in 
     Poland, which officially opened on April 5, 2011 with 
     Poland's President Bronislaw Komorowski in attendance as 
     Honorary Patron.
       After all, my great-grandma Dina Menzis Zoberman was a 
     descendent of Spanish and Portuguese Jews whose industrial 
     and communal leadership in Zamosc was immense. Dina and her 
     husband Rabbi Yaakov Zoberman perished in the Belzec death 
     camp along with other family members and many of Zamosc's 
     14,000 Jews. I led our 17-member group in the memorial 
     kaddish prayer. Half a million entered this latest of the six 
     major Nazi death camps to be cared for (the American Jewish 
     Committee played a pivotal role) and only three survived at 
     war's end with two of them murdered following testifying in 
     court!
       Poland was the world center of Jewish life before WWII. 
     Less than half a million Polish Jews survived out of 3.5 
     million, about half of the Holocaust's six million victims. 
     Warsaw, Poland's capital has been rebuilt from its ruins and 
     is now a thriving international metropolis. Its new Museum of 
     the History of Polish Jews is called The Polin Museum. Polin 
     is the Hebrew word for Poland meaning ``here we sleep and 
     stay.'' This state-of-the-art museum is promising testimony 
     to the new Poland which is free from both Nazism and 
     Communism, proudly acknowledging its 1,000 years of Jewish 
     life which contributed so much to Poland. It is significantly 
     located next to the imposing Warsaw Ghetto Monument. How 
     moved I was that after emerging from the breathtaking museum 
     tour, the large IDF (Israel Defense Forces) annual delegation 
     of ``Witnesses in Uniform'' conducted a memorial ceremony at 
     the monument. It is an educational attempt to bond Israelis 
     with past heroism and sacrifice. The servicemen and women 
     also assist in cemetery work. We welcomed Shabbat at the 
     Progressive synagogue of Beit Warszawa and in the morning, we 
     joined at the Orthodox Nozyk Synagogue, the only one that 
     survived the war, and met there Poland's Chief Rabbi who is 
     American, Rabbi Michael Schudrich. We encountered Israeli 
     tourists who took the 3 1/2-hour flight from Tel-Aviv to 
     Warsaw on attractive ``deals'' with also a shopping spree in 
     mind. The Chopin piano recital by Anna Kubicz was an elegant 
     touch of Polish culture.
       A memorable visit to Lodz with its reminders of a great 
     industrial past of Jewish input. The former large 
     Litzmannstadt Ghetto, the last of Poland's to be liquidated 
     and second in size only to the Warsaw Ghetto, is a stark 
     reminder of a tragic end. Controversial Chaim Rumkowski was 
     the head of the Judenrat, the Jewish Council appointed by the 
     Germans. In Lublin, we were at the once renowned Chachmei 
     Lublin Yeshiva and the touching Brama Grozdka-NN Theater in 
     the old Jewish quarter which preserves the rich Jewish past 
     by very dedicated Gentile Poles. I'm still haunted by the 
     photo of a Lublin Jewish boy who resembles by own grandson 
     Danny, and the grim struggle and fate of the Jewish children 
     and their helpless parents in the ghettos and camps. At the 
     Majdanek death camp, the first major one to be liberated by 
     the Russians as part of the Allied Forces, I mentioned in 
     Hebrew to a number of Israeli officers from the delegation 
     that they arrived 70 plus years too late. They responded that 
     there was then no State of Israel, ``that's the point'' I 
     retorted. Of the 360,000 lost lives, there, 120,000 were 
     Jewish.
       I was enchanted in Krakow by the largest Market Square in 
     Europe, Wawel Castle, the Jagiellonian University with its 
     Institute of Jewish Studies, the Cathedral which was home to 
     Pope John Paul II and more. In the medieval Jewish Quarter of 
     Kaziemierz there are restaurants offering Jewish dishes and 
     Klezmer music in Yiddish and Hebrew by Poles who capture the 
     Jewish spirit. I was moved by hundreds of American Jewish 
     youth who celebrated Jewish life, connecting to both a 
     glorious and painful past as they continued to Israel's 
     Jewish rebirth. Being in Oskar Schindler's life-saving 
     factory turned museum was an important reminder of those 
     Righteous Gentiles who heroically stood by us. The Krakow JCC 
     established with the aid of Prince Charles of England is 
     uplifting indeed, and the instructive Galicia Jewish Museum 
     where Professor Edyta Gaworn, its academic advisor, addressed 
     us. The city is host to the famous annual Jewish Culture 
     Festival. Visiting vast Auschwitz-Birkenau (symbol of evil's 
     essence) where the Nazi death machine claimed a million and 
     one-half Jewish lives was an eerie experience of shock and 
     numbness. How monstrously deceptive is the infamous welcoming 
     sign, ``Arbeit Macht Frei'' (work makes you free).
       We witnessed the sites of once vibrant small Jewish 
     communities in Poland's pastoral countryside, and the 
     creative and noble synagogues' restoration as Jewish museums 
     and cultural centers thou sadly without Jews; Sejny's neo-
     Baroque synagogue is home to the Borderland Foundation 
     dedicated to Poland's rich multi-cultural heritage that is 
     Polish, Jewish, Lithuanian, Belaurussian and Russian; 
     Tykocin's 17th century Baroque synagogue; picturesque 
     Sandomierz with its cathedral depicting a medieval blood-
     libel painting of rabbis sacrificing a Christian baby for 
     matza baking. However, following much Jewish protest there is 
     a recently placed plaque testifying that the alleged never 
     took place; Chmielnik with its uniquely renovated synagogue-
     museum, a bima encased in glass and memorabilia of a once 
     flourishing community.
       Captivating Vilnius (Vilna), Lithuania's capital, evokes 
     memories of Jewish religious and cultural heights. We 
     attended the burial place of the Vilna Gaon, delighted that 
     one of our fellow travelers from New York had recently 
     discovered he was a descendent of this great rabbi. We 
     visited the former ghetto as well as the Ponar Forest where 
     70,000 Jews were murdered, and the site of the famous escape 
     tunnel dug by Jews who were ordered to burn the exhumed 
     bodies. The calm forest belies the indescribable slaughter 
     that should have shaken heaven and earth. Faina Kukliansky, 
     Chair of Lithuanian Jewish Communities addressed us. At the 
     Genocide Museum (a former KGB prison) we were exposed to the 
     bloody brutalities of the Soviets toward Lithuanians in 
     general along with mass deportations to Siberia, all regarded 
     by Lithuania as genocidal policy. Lakeside Trakai, the 
     medieval capital of Lithuania, offered us a respite, and we 
     were enlightened at the Karaite museum, learning how this 
     sect escaped Nazi persecution.
       We are grateful to The Foundation for the Preservation of 
     Jewish Heritage in Poland for its remarkable initiatives and 
     accomplishments! The observed signs of Jewish renewal are 
     encouraging and heartwarming, but surely this amazing journey 
     was bound to stir deep and mixed emotions.
       I continued by myself to Israel and how rewarding it was to 
     know that there is a welcoming Jewish state following 
     unfathomable destruction! To top it all, the aircraft carrier 
     USS H. W. Bush whose homeport is Norfolk arrived in Haifa, my 
     hometown, with close to 6,000 sailors and pilots aboard 
     following bombing ISIS targets. It was the first American 
     carrier to arrive in Israel in 17 years, spending July 4th in 
     Israel. It was greeted enthusiastically, reaffirming the 
     special bond between the two democratic allies. I fondly 
     recall being present when a Torah Scroll (democracy's 
     foundation) originally from Germany was presented to this 
     incredible vessel, symbol of American freedom's resolve.''

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