[Congressional Record Volume 170, Number 16 (Monday, January 29, 2024)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E86]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                              YES TO LIFE

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                        HON. JENNIFER A. KIGGANS

                              of virginia

                    in the house of representatives

                        Monday, January 29, 2024

  Mrs. KIGGANS of Virginia. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record 
remarks submitted at the request of a Virginia Beach constituent, Rabbi 
Dr. Israel Zoberman of Temple Lev Tikvah, and are a reflection of his 
views.

                International Holocaust Remembrance Day

       Saying ``Yes to Life'' Published for the first time in 
     English, Yes To Life (In Spite of Everything) Boston: Beacon 
     Press. 2020, originally appeared in German in 1946 following 
     public lectures delivered in Vienna, Austria in March and 
     April 1946 by the renowned psychiatrist and author Dr. Viktor 
     E. Frankl (1905-1997), the iconic founder of Logotherapy, the 
     third school of Viennese psychotherapy. His thirty-nine books 
     were translated into fifty languages. His classic Man's 
     Search For Meaning was reconstructed during nine days in 1946 
     from bits of paper he had ``obtained'' during his internment 
     since the original manuscript sown into his coat was 
     confiscated upon arrival in Auschwitz.
       An Austrian Jew, Dr. Frankl was deported by the Nazis in 
     1942 to Terezin, Auschwitz, Dachau, Buchenwald and Turkheim 
     from which he was liberated by the American forces in 1945. 
     His pregnant wife, parents and brother who were deported with 
     him did not survive. Dr. Frankl chose to remain in Vienna 
     after the war--though the majority of survivors left with 
     understandable cause--to head a neurology department in a 
     major hospital and, I believe to prove the limits of Nazism 
     and the power of the individual to contend with great 
     suffering, asserting the human will while serving as a 
     personal exemplar. Already back in 1946, still reeling and 
     recovering from the unfathomable horrors of the Holocaust, 
     Dr. Frankl's insights remain most relevant, pointing at the 
     critical difference a single human being can make whether for 
     good or evil in face of mass ideologies proven empty and 
     utterly destructive.
       While the inmates in the camp, testifies Dr. Frankl, were 
     told by their tormentors as a means to dehumanize them that 
     they ``were `not worth the soup' '' they were given following 
     a trying day, never mind that the poor-quality soup was the 
     only food they ate that day. Nazism sought to reduce humanity 
     to meaninglessness. Juxtapose it with Dr. Frankl's noble 
     assertion ``of life's unconditional meaning'' which is rooted 
     in Judaism's affirmation that human life is a precious divine 
     gift, partaking of God's sacred image; that saving one human 
     life is tantamount to saving an entire world, and destroying 
     one human life is tantamount to destroying an entire world. 
     No wonder saving a life, our own included, is a paramount 
     Mitzvah overriding all but three Commandments. Each of us is 
     unique and irreplaceable, including one's weaknesses. Each 
     human life is of infinite worth and meaning that none can rub 
     us off. Indeed, God's divinity and human dignity are 
     indivisible. Dr. Frankl's personal experience in the camps 
     led to his conviction that having a sense of purpose while in 
     dire circumstances of suffering can make a critical 
     difference for one's very survival.
       The book's title Yes To Life is intimately intertwined with 
     Judaism's clarion call ``L'Chaim! `` ``To Life!'' as well as 
     the Biblical admonition, ``U'Varachta Bachaim,''``Choose 
     life.'' ``Yes To Life'' was forcibly and ironically sung as a 
     hymn by the camps' inmates, originating in a camp song 
     ordered by one of Buchenwald's commanders. Yes, saying 
     ``yes'' to life in face of imminent death is both 
     courageously encouraging and foolishly disappointing, 
     reminiscent of the Nazi deceiving ``Arbeit Macht Frei,'' 
     ``Work Will Free You,'' upon entering hell's gates. Judaism's 
     endless optimism manifested in Dr. Frankl's approach, 
     captured the Rabbinic teaching not to lose hope even if a 
     sword is placed on your neck. However, the odds do not 
     support it. The same heroic thrust but rarely realistic 
     prevailed in the paradoxical reassuring though not accurate 
     message atop a shtiebel's entrance in the Warsaw Ghetto, 
     ``Jews, do not despair!'' Is not hope against hope all that 
     we have left when the chips are down, providing us with an 
     extra measure of strength to endure?

  Rabbi Dr. Israel Zoberman is the founder of Temple Lev Tikvah in 
Virginia Beach. Kazakhstan's only born rabbi, he is the son of Polish 
Holocaust Survivors and spent his early childhood in transit and DP 
Camps in Austria and Germany. He grew up in Haifa, Israel.

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