The Yamim Noraim, or Days of Awe, is a 10-day period of introspection and soul searching in the Jewish calendar, starting on Rosh Hashanah and culminating on Yom Kippur. For Menachem Z. Rosensaft, this period holds great personal significance. His father, Josef Rosensaft, a Holocaust survivor, died 51 years ago during the Yamei Noraim. His mother, Dr. Hadassah Bimko Rosensaft, a Holocaust survivor and hero, died 22 years later.
Josef Rosensaft was a leader of Holocaust survivors in the Displaced Persons camp of Bergen-Belsen after World War II. Dr. Hadassah Bimko Rosensaft saved countless lives at Auschwitz-Birkenau and Bergen-Belsen. She performed surgeries in the camp's infirmary and sent women on work details ahead of selections for the gas chambers. At Bergen-Belsen, she helped keep 149 Jewish children alive during a typhus epidemic.
Rosensaft's memories of his parents are bittersweet. On Rosh Hashanah in 1975, he spoke with his parents by phone, and they planned to be together for Kol Nidre. However, his father passed away before that could happen. In 1997, Rosensaft's mother died at NYU Hospital in New York on the last day of Rosh Hashanah.
Recently, Cantor Azi Schwartz's recitation of the Hineni meditation during Rosh Hashanah services brought back memories of Rosensaft's father. The melody used by Schwartz was reminiscent of the niggunim, or Chassidic melodies, that Rosensaft's father loved to listen to. This sparked a flood of memories, including sitting with his father, listening to these melodies, and feeling a sense of connection to his heritage.
On his father's yahrzeit, Rosensaft received an article from The Washington Post about a woman who used an AI chatbot to locate an article written by her grandmother in the Yiddish newspaper of the Bergen-Belsen DP camp. The article described the liberation of the camp on April 15, 1945, and brought back memories of Rosensaft's mother describing the same scene.
Rosensaft's mother devoted herself to saving lives after her liberation from Bergen-Belsen. She worked with a team of doctors and volunteers to save the lives of thousands of critically ill former inmates. This experience replaced her hopelessness with a sense of control and purpose.
This year, Rosensaft approached Yom Kippur with a new perspective, reflecting on who his parents were and what it was like to be with them. The memories that came to him during Rosh Hashanah and his father's yahrzeit brought his parents back to him, if only for a brief moment, as the towering, loving, forward-looking individuals they were.
Key points
- Menachem Z. Rosensaft reflects on his parents' experiences during the Holocaust and their legacy.
- The author finds solace in the memories of his parents during the Days of Awe.
- The Yamim Noraim hold great personal significance for Rosensaft, reminding him of his parents' stories and experiences.
