The honorable Japanese ambassador sat and stared at the presentation, as if history was standing before his very eyes.

The students played their roles with great talent. The Japanese ambassador, Mr. Mizushima Koichi and his wife, accompanied by their entourage, listened to the professional translation of the presentation, but it was evident that they understood the language of the heart even better.

“The Journey to Shanghai”, was the name of the unique project, the result of a wonderful collaboration between Ganzach Kiddush Hashem and the Beit Chana Chabad (Lubavitch) high school in Jerusalem.

On March 4th, the school was given a new appearance. The building was transformed into a Japanese enclave, or rather a “Shanghai”, in the middle of the holy city of Jerusalem.

Geographically, the Beit Chana school is very close to the Mir Yeshiva, maybe a three minute walk separates them. The Mir Yeshiva is the yeshiva that historically is most associated with the escape to Shanghai. On the other hand, to the east of the school, is the Old City and the Western Wall, to which the refugees in Shanghai thought about both day and night. The Lubavitcher chassidim, who were also refugees in Shanghai, and their Torah-oriented, chassidic, and yeshiva activities there, will never be forgotten.

Suddenly, Shanghai came to life and began to tell its unknown story.

Ganzach Kiddush Hashem provided the tools, documents, historical data, and the pedagogical guidance, with many years of experience. The students of Beit Chana, under the direction of the educational staff, set up the exhibitions and performed, this after months of fruitful study.

The result: a miraculous rescue mission, crossing countries and continents, took shape and came to life before the amazed eyes of the many visitors, including prominently, as mentioned, the Japanese ambassador to Israel and his entourage.

The journey was divided into five stations, and at each one, the students presented the war refugees in a natural and touching way.

Station 1

Poland – a country bustling with a lively and cheerful Jewish life until the outbreak of the war – and the dilemma of escape.

The show and the exhibition changed from bright and pleasant colors, which expressed a happy and calm everyday life, to somber colors, dark backgrounds, and images of destruction and harsh decrees.

In this section, a heartbreaking film is shown in which two yeshiva students are seen debating and struggling with where they will escape too, and how they will leave their families.

Station 2

Vilna – a (temporary) place of refuge for the Torah world.

We walked into a hall full of books, in the center of which was a Torah scroll lying in “flames.” A heated discussion arose among those present about the possibilities that faced those fleeing, what was the meaning of the escape to Vilna – a city that represented the world of Torah, and what was the meaning of the Torah that the wicked were threatening to burn?What does the Torah book represent for us, and what are Jews willing to do to save the Torah from the flames?

In this station, by visual means, we were told about the young men’s escape journey to Vilna, about the reception of those who observed the Torah and their support for the refugees, and about their decision to flee further.

Station 3

Kovno – here shines the light of the Righteous Among the Nations, Chiune Sugihara, whose name was often mentioned during the days of the “Rise from the Dust” exhibition.

This room was painted and decorated with Japanese motifs: landscape photos from Japan, the Japanese green colour, Japanese flags, and a cart full of traditional Japanese food (sushi).

At the front, stood a a real photo of the fence, beyond which Jews stood waiting to receive a visa.

In this room, the amazing story of the Righteous Among the Nations, the Japanese consul in Lithuania, Mr. Chiune Sugihara, who lived in Kovno at the time, is told. Spectacular video clips and presentations tell the amazing story of the rescue, and here, we can say, we detected real excitement on the face of the Japanese ambassador and his companions.

In a particularly moving segment, a large and branched family is observed, all descendants of one man who was saved from death thanks to the visa granted to him by the Japanese consul, Mr. Sugihara. They all look at each other with tears in their eyes and say: “Thank you.”

Thanks to Sugihara’s visas, thousands of Jews were saved. At the climax of the performance, Sugihara’s Righteous Among the Nations “certificate” ws presented to the ambassador, to the applause and excitement of those present.

Station 4

“Between the Railways and the Waterways” – the ways of rescue

A transcontinental journey, which began with a train car (those present were surprised to suddenly discover a train car built especially for the exhibition) and continued by ship to the shores of Japan (the ship built by the students of Beit Chana is similar to the ship on which the refugees sailed eighty years ago, from Lithuania to Japan).

Station 5

Shanghai – The Torah world found rest in the big city and in the alleys of the ghetto.

In the center, was a model of the city of Shanghai with its various districts and the synagogues where the refugees found rest, as well as a model of the ghetto district, and more.

All around were life-sized figures from life in Shanghai during that fateful period.

A presentation projected on the wall told, in an exciting and tangible way, the story of six historical figures of Shanghai. The Shanghai atmosphere of eighty years ago filled the dark room, and especially the hearts of the viewers: the routine of a Bais Yaakov school student, a refugee in Shanghai, and the nature of her struggles; the Amshinover Rebbe who also lived in Shanghai and breathed into it the spirit of Torah and chasidism; the chassid, Rabbi Meir Ashkenazi, the rabbi of Shanghai, and his extensive activities in all areas related to Torah, kindness, and helping others; the genius, Rabbi Chaim Shmulewitz, the head of the Mir Yeshiva; a righteous convert to Judaism who discovered his people and G-d during this period; and a Japanese officer who was in charge of the Jews in the ghetto.

The exhibition, with its many presentations and elaborate screenings, is a perfect production full of hope, faith, and gratitude.

In addition to the exhibition created by the girls, there were also mobile exhibits from Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, which added a rich and emotional historical Jewish touch and were meaningful and interesting. One such exhibit was the “Light from Lublin” exhibit that decorated the space of the third floor and in the center of it was the miniature and illuminated model of the building of the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva. Many young men from the students of the yeshiva, and this is already the subject of a special article, also found refuge in Shanghai.

Yeshiva students in Shanghai (From the book “Derech Eretz Seen,” courtesy of The Librarians blog)

Here is an excerpt from the press of the time about the influence of the Lublin students on the Jewish community in Shanghai (“HaTzofeh” newspaper, October 29, 1946):

The masses of refugees were alienated from Jewish values, especially the desecration of Shabbat, but the situation changed for the better in 1941, when over 1000 Jewish refugees from Poland arrived in Shanghai, over half of them rabbis and yeshiva students… under the influence of the yeshiva students (namely: the Mir Yeshiva, the Lubavitch Yeshiva, and the Chachmei Lublin Yeshiva) and their institutions, 350 boys and girls created a revolution in their parents’ homes and convinced their parents to close their shops on Shabbat, install a kosher kitchen at home, and break all the unkosher utensils. Thanks to them, the face of the Jewish community in Shanghai changed completely.

The administration of the school, led by the principal Rabbi Peretz Beloy, which took an active part in all of the stages of the preparation and production, movingly expressed their gratitude and appreciation to the professional staff of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem for their guidance, for providing the material with endless kindness and patience, for the detailed explanations, and in general, for a listening hear and for sticking to the goal. From the bottom of their hearts, the administration thanked the CEO of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, Rabbi Zvi Skulsky; the COO, Mrs. Rachel Yud; and the production coordinator Mrs. Tova Yoskovitz, for the joint initiative and initiating the connection, which was crucial to the historical educational production, whose results were evident to the hundreds of students during the entire time of study and preparation, and especially on the days of the exhibition, when they reaped the fruits of their labour.

The ambassador and his entourage spent long hours within the walls of the school, and when it was time to say goodbye, he wished to express his feelings. In his short words he told about his sympathy for the Jews and his interest since his youth in the Jewish people and its history. “Today I saw in a tangible way what I learned many years ago.” He praised the wonderful work and the clear and professional presentation of the historical materials that is so necessary, lest they be forgotten.

Ms. Batsheva Porat from the Claims Conference in Jerusalem, who came to be impressed by the activity, praised the involvement of the students in setting up the exhibits and running the entire study day, a fact that resulted in significant learning and a deeper understanding of the material.

At the end, Mrs. Rachel Yud, stated that the great success of the exhibition is due to the fact that the team of teachers, led by the history coordinator Mrs. Malka Eisenbach and the teacher, Mrs. Lichtschein, together with select students, worked hard day and night in full cooperation with Ganzach Kiddush Hashem’s team. The combination of the school’s teaching staff with the educational staff of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem was a recipe for success.

The response was impressive and the lectures were fascinating. The employees of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem moved through the wings of the building that overlooks the walls of the Old City and the tomb of King David z”l. In ancient Jerusalem, the employees were impressed by the innovative activities of the Begin Center and drew appropriate conclusions.

The lectures revolved around the form of presentation of the museum’s content and in the training center, emphasizing a modern learning environment on the one hand, and ensuring proper and appropriate content on the other hand.

Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, whose leaders and managers now hold in their hands the reality of a new building and its development, connect to the mishnaic teaching that “the wise man learns from everyone.” The amazing plans are frequently updated, and based on the effort and diligence put into the project, it can be concluded that with God’s help, the Creator of the World will complete this building in a perfect and eye-catching way, so that its benefit will be clear and tangible, and so that every Jew, of every age and level, will find something he connects to within it.

The pogram was clear and scheduled in advance, and the benefit, as mentioned, was great, but at the end of the study day, when the heart-wrenching presentation of one hundred and fifty new photos from the dying Warsaw ghetto, which were transferred by the Warsaw Ghetto Uprising Museum (which maintains close cooperation with the Menachem Begin Heritage Center) to the Begin Center, those present could not withstand the emotional load and many of them shed tears of grief, bewilderment, and shock.

Suddenly figures appeared in front of the eyes; faces, foreheads and eyes of our own chasidic Jews, in the most tragic moments in our history. Suddenly the people with the chasidic hats were seen, humiliated by the Nazis, beaten to the ground and battered, degraded. Their heads were lowered and their eyes were beaming. The Jewish spirit was never broken, but the grief is piercing for the heartache caused to them, to those beautiful and pure Jews. For the first time, those present saw such clear, new, and unfamiliar pictures of respectable Jews crowding the places that all exist today and are known to most of the Ganzach Kiddush Hashem employees as they know the back of their hands…

We suddenly see the familiar streets of dying Warsaw and there are good Jews, chasidim and people of action, kneeling under their burden, enduring the hardships of the decrees, but their eyes are righteous and pure. A kind of Jewish pride that did not leave them until the last moment, a pride that stems from the stubborn faith of the people of a stiff-necked nation, those who are strong and steadfast, those who never yielded!

A heartfelt thank you goes to Ganzach Kiddush Hashem CEO Rabbi Zvi Skulsky and COO Mrs. Rachel Yud for organizing the event and its contents. Thank you to all the employees of the holy Ganzach Kiddush Hashem institute; as usual, their participation was full and impressive. Once again they proved dedication and commitment to our goals. With such a team, we will G-d willing go far. Special thanks to our academic advisor, Rebbetzin Esther Farbstein, for her respectful and helpful personal participation, and last but not least, to Mrs. Devorah Surasky – the professional development coordinator of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, who spared no effort to produce a meaningul study day full of content.

Thank you to our dear hosts: Ms. Adi Farkas – deputy director general, Mr. Lior Gelbard – head of the education and museum department, Mr. Yossi Swed – the center’s content developer, and Ms. Chani Klein – director of education, and the rest of the staff and guides of the Menachem Begin Heritage Center for their great hospitality and wonderful guidance.

Mr. Bing and his entourage were interested in the “rescue project” that is currently underway at Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, a project that is all about obtaining Holocaust survivors’ testimonies, before it is too late.

Ganzach Kiddush Hashem is working on the lists of Holocaust survivors who have not yet given testimony, and according to the report given by our CEO, Rabbi Skulsky, to the delegation, in 2023 more than 150 testimonies of Holocaust survivors whose stories have not been recorded at all were added to the testimony database!

It is holy work, in which our staff, with determination and sensitivity, work around the clock and reach unbelievable achievements.

Before the delegation, the efforts and resources invested in this project were reviewed, as well as the interview transcription operation that is currently being completed, as part of which over sixty thousand (!) minutes of conversations with Holocaust survivors were written and edited, each such conversation – a whole world; Every testimony of a Holocaust survivor sheds light on a hidden point from that dark period that we must never forget.

Mrs. Rachel Yud, our COO, praised the cooperation with Yad Vashem – a practical and beneficial partnership that drives the unique documentation project and propels it to its current dimensions.

She also praised Mr. Shalom Bohbot, the “projector doer” of the Ministry of Economic Equality, whose contribution is crucial to the advancement of the project.

At the conclusion of the long visit, the CEO of the Ministry of Social Equality, Mr. Meir Bing, expressed his great appreciation for the documentation project in the private sector and for the impressive professionalism of the operations of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, who carry out the holy work with dedication and devotion to the goal, in the hope that the project will continue in the years to come.

Holocaust survivor, Mr. Meir Urich, praised the testimony project and suggested that the COO of the ministry, Mr. Meir Bing, join with more and more Holocaust survivors in state events.

At the end of the visit, the heads of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem once again called upon the Holocaust survivors whose stories have not yet been recorded, and their families, to join the project as soon as possible, so that future generations will know what occured.

To mark International Holocaust Remembrance Day (January 27th), Ganzach Kiddush Hashem held a two part online lecture titled “Trains to Life and Trains to Destruction.” The event took place on January 29th, 2024. To listen to the lectures (Hebrew), please click here.

The Torah was aquired by the grandfather, Avraham Schijveschuurder, may G-d avenge his blood, in 1937 from a Jewish refugee from Poland.

Upon the outbreak of war in Holland, the Schijveschuurder family transferred the Torah and other holy books to the home of their neighbour, a Righteous Among the Nations, and he hid them in the fireplace of his home.

Their sons Joop and Lock, who miraculously hid in during the war years, returned to their home in Harlem.

They did not find their parents, but the Torah that was hidden along with other holy books was taken out of hiding.

In 1983, Joop-Joseph Schijveschuurder arrived in Israel with the Torah

He sewed two covers for the Torah: one in memory of his mother, Yent bat (daughter of) Yehuda, and the other cover in memory of Holocaust victims.

To watch the presentation (Hebrew) please click here.

Even after the Holocaust, they kept their faith that had helped them in difficult circumstances. A portion of them never gave testimony over the years simply because there was nobody who would understand their culture. In honour of Asara B’Tevet (the 10th of Tevet fast day), the general day of Kaddish recitation, we visited Ganzach Kiddush Hashem which operates in the charedi (strictly or ultra-Orthodox) society and documents Holocaust survivors over the years for commemorative and education purposes. This year, the organization collected more than 100 testimonies from survivors who had never been interviewed before about their stories.

The question of “Where was G-d during the Holocaust?” has occupied many throughout the years, until this very day. On the day after World War II, in the face of the magnitude of the disaster and the destruction of communities, believing Jews picked up the pieces and were left with many unanswered questions. Among them was also the Rebbe of Vizhnitzer chasidism, Rabbi Chaim Meir Hager, who was known as the “Imrei Chaim” after the title of his book.

In his first video testimony about his family story during and after the Holocaust, Mordechai Edell – a native of Antwerp who was only one year old when the Nazi Germany’s forces invaded Belgium – told about an event that took place after the war: “The Rebbe of Vizhnitz came to Antwerp and settled there in preparation for moving to the Land of Israel. On the first Yom Kippur after the war, the whole synagogue was full and the Rebbe came on stage to speak words of awakening. It was a difficult time, people were very sad about what happened. There are those who lost their entire family and were left alone.”

“Then the Rebbe opened the Ark of the Covenant and began to say: ‘Master of the World, look at what you have done to us. We came back broken and torn from this whole story.’ He began to cry and speak; I was a child then but I remember it. People cried, and when I remember, I cry myself. He finished: ‘Master of the World, we forgive you for what happened – now you forgive us,’ Then he said to the prayer leader: ‘Begin the Kol Nidrei prayer,’ and that is how the prayer began.”

Edell’s father enlisted in the Belgian army. He was captured by the Germans, was released after a few months, and then fled to Vichy France and from there to Switzerland. Little Mordechai and his mother fled to England. Later, the family returned to Belgium, and in 1950, immigrated to Israel. Edell’s testimony from the past year is one of many documented by Ganzach Kiddush Hashem, the leading Holocaust archive and commemoration institution in charedi society.

Tova Yoskovich, who established the video testimony project at Ganzach Kiddush Hashem: “There was apprehension, and it was difficult to reach this community. We needed the consent of the rabbis for those Holocaust survivors to provide these testimonies, so that future generations would know.”

Collecting testimonies from Holocaust survivors who belong to the charedi sector often involves unique challenges. Tova Yoskovich founded the Ganzach Kiddush Hashem video testimony project 23 years ago, and says that it was not easy to recruit witnesses at the beginning. “It’s visual, on video, and it’s about people who didn’t have a television at home. There was apprehension, and it was difficult to reach this community. We needed consent from rabbis for these Holocaust survivors to do it, so that future generations would know,” she says. “The voice of the charedi community was not heard enough, and the general public did not understand the language of this sector enough – when talking about life before the war, the shtetl (Jewish town), and their concepts.”

Testimonies That Have Not Yet Been Heard

Ganzach Kiddush Hashem was established in 1964 by the Holocaust researcher, Moshe Prager, for the purpose of commemorating the Jewish spiritual strength during the Holocaust. The baseline concept of the organization is that heroism in the terrible days of the Holocaust manifested not only in rebellions in the ghettos, but also in the dedication of the soul and the insistence on maintaining the Jewish way of life under the terror of the Nazis, even in the extermination camps. The organization is supported by the government by the Ministry of Culture and the Ministry of Education, and is also assisted by donations and assistance from the Claims Conference. The video testimonies from the past decades were added to the written evidence collected earlier.

Zvi Skulski, CEO Ganzach Kiddush Hashem. “Yad Vashem enounters difficulty reaching charedi Holocaust survivors” (Photo: M. Mosbacher, Gazach Kiddush Hashem)

In honour of Asara B’Tevet, the general day of Kaddish recitation for Holocaust victims whose date of death are unknown, we went to visit Ganzach in Bnei Brak. Rare for a charedi institution, on the wall hangs a framed scan of the Declaration of Independence with the signature of David Ben-Gurion, given to Moshe Prager on the 25th anniversary of the State of Israel. Zvi Skulsky, the CEO of Ganzach, is a Ger chasid with a bushy beard and curly sidelocks. “Today we have over 3,000 testimonies,” he says. “700 testimonies were taken in cooperation with Steven Spielberg’s Shoah Foundation. Several hundred more testimonies were filmed in cooperation with Yad Vashem, who contacted us and said they were having trouble entering the charedi community.”

“Spielberg saw at the time that the testimonies of Torah and mitzvah observing people were not included enough in his testimony collection project, because they were not aware of its publication or because they were suspicious,” Yoskovich points out. This is where the organization comes into play. Tehila Dror, the director of the archive, explains that “every piece of evidence and item that comes here is saved with keywords, in the most detailed way possible. Researchers and students come here, go through the material, and prepare papers and research studies from them.”

This year, Ganzach collected testimonies of many Holocaust survivors who were interviewed about their stories for the first time in their lives. “Last year, the Ministry of Social Equality launched a project to document Holocaust survivors, and allocated a sum of several million shekels to document those who had not yet been interviewed. Yad Vashem encountered difficulty in reaching charedi Holocaust survivors, and it approached us with a request to cooperate. This year we have already interviewed about 150 new Holocaust survivors that haven’t been interviewed anywhere before. This is a huge achievement for our archive,” says Skulski.

“I decided to go with the Jews, unexplainedly”

89-year-old Michael Urich was born in Tarnopol, Poland (currently Ukraine) in 1934. He was orphaned as a child and lived in disguise in the home of a Pole, Helena Stachowicz, a Righteous Among the Nations. In 1944, after the Polish uprising in Warsaw, the Stachowicz family was deported to the Buchenwald camp. Michael survived the Holocaust and immigrated to the Land of Israel in 1946.

Michael Urich. Survivor of Buchenwald and founder of an information centre for Holocaust survivors in Bnei Brak (Photo: M. Mosbacher, Ganzach Kiddush Hashem)

He has lived in Bnei Brak for almost 80 years already, and there he became closer to religion and wears a black kipa. For five years, he lived in the Institution for Child Holocaust Refugees founded by Rabbi Yosef Shlomo Kahaneman, head of the Ponivezh Yeshiva. “What happened to me gave me perspective and led me to believe and to be faithful to the path I chose,” he says. Later, Urich established an information centre for Holocaust survivors in Bnei Brak, and for many years he has been assisting survivors in exercising their rights. At the state opening ceremony in Yad Vashem to mark Holocaust Remembrance Day 5762 (2002), he lit one of the six torches.

“When the Buchenwald camp was liberated, I was with Ms. Helena. Rabbi Yaakov Avigdor, who after the liberation of the camp was a rabbi in the Polish army and later was the rabbi of Mexico, asked Ms. Stachowicz: ‘Do you have a Jewish child?’ And she answered: Yes. Then she said to me: ‘You have the option of going with the Jews, or staying with me.’ What would a normal person do? She did my laundry, looked after me, gave me food, and I knew her. I had no one in the world, but at the age of ten and a half I decided to go with the Jews, without any logical explanation. I saw that Providence that was watching over me,” he tells.

Holocaust survivor, Michael Urich: “I was amongst the first who studied in the Ponevezh Yeshiva after the Holocaust. In my opinion, the fact that there is a certain sector that sits calmly on the tradition that was and continues to be, gives inspiration to the people of Israel.”

What do you think about the attitude of charedi society to Yom HaShoah in Nissan? There are those who do not stand for the siren and prefer, for example, to read Psalms instead. “Anything that mentions the Holocaust – on the tenth of Tevet, on January 27 or on the 27th of Nisan – keeps the memory of the Holocaust alive. If they did not write about Tisha B’Av in the books, and did not fast during it, it would also be forgotten. As much as can be done – should be done. Six million perished in the Holocaust, and the memory is being forgotten. By the way, I suggested that on International Holocaust Remembrance Day, on January 27, a Holocaust survivor should come to the Knesset and speak before the elected officials – but they didn’t get back to me.”

The Torah world suffered a heavy blow in the Holocaust. Against the backdrop of the desire to preserve the embers of Judaism, to what extent do you think it is particularly important to preserve the world of yeshivot, which is often attacked in light of the recruitment issue? “I was among the first to study at the Ponovezh Yeshiva after the Holocaust. Rabbi Kahaneman, of blessed memory, was affected by the Holocaust himself – his wife and children perished in Lithuania. He and one other son were saved. In my view, the fact that there is a certain sector that sits calmly on the tradition that was and continues to be, inspires the people of Israel, which is divided and faces all kinds of problems.”

Regarding the massacre carried out by Hamas terrorists on October 7th, Urich says: “It’s destruction, it’s not a Holocaust. When there’s a state, there’s security and there’s an army, it’s a destruction. In the Holocaust, it was done systematically over five years, and there was no way to defend myself. I was in the Yom Kippur war, I helped the chevra kadisha (the group that prepares bodies for burial) as part of the military rabbinate, and there were close to 2,700 dead. This magnitude is more similar to the war that is happening now.”

Since the beginning of the current war, we have seen a disturbing increase in antisemitism in the world. There is a feeling that the world has not learned any lesson from the Holocaust. “The world will never learn. Antisemitism was covered with a blanket, and as soon as there is an outbreak – everyone jumps on the bandwagon. This is not a novelty. Abroad, I don’t walk in the street with a kippa either. I’m going with a casket hat.”

Conversations with the Master of the World

One of the examples of the attitude of a believer who clung to his faith even during and after the Holocaust can be found in the video testimony of Elyakim Holland, the son of a Satmar chasidic father and a mother whose parents were Vizhnitzer chasidim. He survived Auschwitz, but his parents perished in the extermination camp. When he was asked about the faith that remained with him as a child and a young man in hell, he replied: “From childhood, I learned and received Torah and fear of Heaven. This sustained me during this difficult period. I knew many Psalms by heart and also the book of Song of Songs, I prayed Shabbat prayers, I sang the Shabbat songs to myself. There were times when I talked to G-d. I saw a bird chirping on a tree, I said to it: ‘Go up and tell G-d what is going on here’. I felt close to G-d, and that is what gave me life and allowed me to endure.”

Another documented testimony was given by Sarah Feigenbaum, born in 1927, who was saved thanks to the Hungarian army officer László Očkaj – a Righteous Among the Nations, who employed Jewish women in the Jewish gymnasium of Budapest, working for the German army. “One day one of the girls took out a candle from her bag and said: ‘Girls, today is when the first candle of Chanuka should be lit, and we will light a candle,'” Feigenbaum recalled in her testimony. “We were terribly afraid because we didn’t know if we were allowed to or not. We were afraid because the Nazis could burst in at any moment. We sat on the concrete floor with one single candle in front of us. This girl told us about the Land of Israel, that there is some place in the world where Jews live and try to build a Jewish state, where there are no Nazis and no antisemitism. We heard it like a story from the moon, like a legend.”

In the testimony, she repeated excitedly: “I remember me sitting in front of this lonely candle and having conversations with G-d. In my most brazen manner, I said: ‘Master of the World, if You save it from this hell, I will immigrate to the Land of Israel.’ At that moment, on the night of the first candle of Hanukkah, the decision was made. I didn’t know anything about the Land of Israel, but I knew I wanted to be there.”

Tova Yoskovich clarifies that the main goal of Ganzach Kiddush Hashem is educational. “We bring the evidence to yeshivas, to Talmud Torahs (schools), to seminaries,” she elaborates. “It’s important to emphasize that everything is done with historical accuracy. These are not just stories and tales of righteous people. We bring the evidence with precision in details and facts.” Skulsky says that in one year, nearly 120,000 students go through the educational department of Ganzach.

Yoskovich mentions that even nowadays, around the Simchat Torah massacre in the Western Negev, there are stories that express the Jewish spirit in its full force. One example is the story of the boy Ariel Zohar, whose parents and sisters were murdered by terrorists in Nachal Oz. Before his bar mitzvah, the boy asked for his tefillin (phylacteries) that he received form his grandfather, who survived the Holocaust, to be rescued from the kibbutz – and so it was.

The charedi writer Sarah Zweibel interviews Holocaust survivors as part of the Ganzach project. “I am the coordinator of a day center for the elderly in Bnei Brak, and we had a large group of charedi Holocaust survivors. Unfortunately, a large portion of them passed away,” she shares. “Some of the survivors came from Europe, but there were also many from the countries of the Maghreb. From the stories I heard about the Holocaust of North African Jews, I wrote a nonfiction book (in Hebrew) for youth and adults, called ‘The Golden Island,’ which focuses mainly on the island of Djerba in Tunisia. As a member of the third-generation since the Holocaust, I feel that the encounter with Holocaust survivors really shaped my inner world.”

Teibi Vilman, one of the interviewers in the project, concludes: “I see this as a rescue operation. I also interviewed survivors who had already been interviewed by Yad Vashem, and there are things that did not come up in the testimonies there. The question is where to direct the spotlight. In such cases, we illuminate points that were not illuminated before. Like Prager z”l said: I don’t want to tell just what they did to the Jews, I want to tell what the Jews did.”

One of the most difficult experiences these days is the uncertainty that surrounds us, starting with the actual brutal invasion of our country, and continuing with the uncertainty regarding the fate of hundreds of Jews, from young to old.

Jewish heroism, based on the belief that “God will not abandon his people” is passed down from generation to generation, as evidenced by the thousands of testimonies that we keep for generations to come.

This week, this heroism was revealed for all to see in the most difficult situations.

We call for a strengthening of prayer for the heroes of Israel on the front and on the homefront, for the sick, and for those in captivity

“Guardian of Israel, guard the remnant of Israel.” (Tachanun prayer)

“Look from Heaven and see, and be mindful of this vine, and of the foundation that Your right hand has planted” (Psalms 80:15-16)

The Slonimer Rebbe, known as the “Netivot Shalom,” referred to similar situations after the Yom Kippur War, and his words are strong and relevant to our situation today.

We present these words (in Hebrew) as in the original, praying that the darkness and the fog will be removed and we will soon reach “a new light on Zion” (Shacharit prayer)

Please click here to view the Slonimer Rebbe’s writings (in Hebrew).