A few weeks ago we commemorated the 11th Yarzheit of our beloved Zeidi, our father Leon Broitman z” l.  The words on his headstone read: “Loving Zeidi”, “Patriarch” and “Survivor”.

 

A story we heard repeatedly from our father is that after WW2 when surviving Jews travelled on trains, they would confirm the identify of another Jew by asking in a triumphant yet defeated like tone a one worded question- “Umcha”?  This Hebrew word means: Are you one of our nation?  An exhausted and affirming nod would confirm the inquiry.

 

As I ride on public transportation this summer in Vancouver, Canada in 2024, ironically, I too find myself looking for signs of who looks Jewish or who is wearing a Jewish amulet. Jewish people in Vancouver have lost friends and jobs in this percolating antisemitic climate.

 

I recently had a conversation with a woman in a coffee shop that denied that many of the atrocities of October 7th. During this one-sided conversation I proclaimed that my father was a Holocaust Survivor. She retorted back that many of the Holocaust Survivors are identifying with the plight of the civilians in Gaza. She added at the end of this encounter that I should get my family out of the region.  To this I finally had words to utter, and I replied: “I am going back to that region to my country in that region.”

In a week I will be heading back to my home in Pardes Hanna in Israel. I will feel again the resilience of a country who is traumatized and aching and exhausted.

 

I will have my Aba in my heart and the words on his gravestone etched in my heart.  I often wonder what he would say if he was alive. One of the things that he repeatedly proclaimed to many was that he was a “Committed Jew”.  I wanted to add those words to his gravestone, but it wasn’t a favorite among my siblings.

 

I think that what we need to do now is to be committed to what will keep us alive to survive and to thrive while listening to people who think differently.

 

May the Hebrew new month of Elul bring us renewal of life’s blood flow and strengthen us as we commemorate those who have fallen in battle, been massacred, and the recently executed hostages z” l.

Everything exists in our existing State of Israel for the living and for the neshamot (Hebrew word for souls).  May their memories be of a blessing and an eternal legacy.

 

May the memory of my beloved Aba (father in Hebrew) our loving Zeidi, Patriarch and Survivor be a lifeline of memories to keep us strong and here in Israel forever and also in Vancouver, Canada!

 

“Um Israel Chai”.

 

Shana Tova,

 

Rachel Devorah Broitman Havusha