| Dear OZ family,
The United States remembered its fallen soldiers yesterday on a day we call Memorial Day. In Israel, the translated, Yom Hazikaron is immediately followed by Independence Day. The losses and tragedies that many Israeli families remember is immediately followed by the reminder that freedom and independence came to us at a steep price, as 1% of the Israeli population in 1948 died in the war that brought us our independence.
We Jews spend a lot of time remembering. We have Yizkor 4 times a year, and the only Yom Tov that doesn’t have Yizkor, Rosh Hashana, is itself, called Yom HaZikaron. We remember Shabbos every day of the week and we remember the Egyptian redemption every day of our lives. We remember not to forget what Amalek did to us as we were leaving Egypt, and that many others have acted similarly over the millennia.
One of our members, Renee Slotkin, stared at Amalek face to face for many months. Renee, his twin sister and their parents, Ita and Herbert Guttmann arrived in Auschwitz on Purim in 1943. His parents were murdered that same day, and the 5 year old twins would surely have perished with them if not for the diabolical obsession the Auschwitz angel of death, Josef Mengele (may his memory be forever cursed) had with experimenting on twins. Renee’s twin sister, Irene was the one on whom the experiments were performed, and Renee was the control child. These experiments lasted until liberation, and Renee is actually one of the children showing the number on his arm in a Russian-made film after the camp was liberated.
After the war, Renee was the face of the thousands of children orphaned by the war, as he appeared on the cover of LOOK magazine. Dinah and Meyer Slotkin, who lived on Long Island, saw the young child on the magazine cover, and took the extraordinary effort to bring him to America, and to adopt him. As the boy began to learn his new language, he informed his new family that he had a twin sister, and that he did not know what had happened to her after the war. The Slotkin’s tracked her down and Renee and his sister Irene, were reunited at the age of 11. Together, after what they had experienced, they had as close as they could get to a happy, normal childhood. Irene suffered from multiple sclerosis, from the inhuman experiments performed on her, and passed away a few years ago, after a long life of profoundly inspirational work and activity. A movie of her life with Renee was shown here on Yom Hashoah, some years ago, called “Irene and I”.
Renee is a long-time very beloved member of our community, with his wife, June, who is also a twin. Their family picture spans four generations and is filled with many children of all ages. I relate these memories because, yesterday, Renee’s adopted sister, Debbie Slotkin Horowitz passed away. The Slotkin’s gave Renee and Irene a new lease on life, denied to so many orphans who remained in Europe. Please join me in extending consolation to Renee over his loss. Renee and June can be called at 212-222-6055. If you have a chance to see the film “Irene and I”, you’ll be inspired.
Be safe and be healthy.
Rabbi Allen Schwartz
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Rabbi Allen Schwartz
Congregation Ohab Zedek
118 West 95th Street
New York, NY 10025-6604
Phone 212.749-5150, ext 200
E-mail ras@ozny.org
Website: www.ozny.org
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