In the last few days two 95 year old Jewish heroes passed away, one in the suburbs of Boston and one thousands of miles away in Jerusalem.
Each one of them made a profound impact on the world in their own unique way and certainly helped make a better and brighter world. Perhaps by taking a moment to read their stories we can honor their memory and what they stood for and help continue the messages that they stood for and shared with us.
Binyamin Wertzburger was a young survivor of a Concentration Camp who remembered being tormented by a Nazi Guard and told how he will die in the camp and never see Jerusalem. Yet miraculously despite having weighed just 26kg and going through so much, he survived the war and made it to Israel and built up a family.
In his later years after he retired he was determined to keep the promise he made in the concentration camp and begged to get a job at the Western Wall. At first they thought he couldn't do anything, but he was determined and eventually he began to clean the stones, pick up the garbage, place people's letters in the wall and spend many hours each and every day, taking care of this place which meant so much to him. In later years he became such a fixture of the Wall, and it became routine for him to be introduced and asked to share his story with many visiting world leaders and dignitaries.
I encourage you to watch this small video about his story.
Last night, Aaron Fuerestein also known as the Mentch of Malden Mills passed away at the age of 95. Years ago we had the honor of hosting Aaron at a Jewish Business Network event we were hosting in Sudbury where he shared his story.
When the Malden Mills factory burnt down on December 11, 1995, Feuerstein spent millions keeping all 3,000 employees on the payroll with full benefits for six months. Feuerstein said that he could not have taken another course of action due to his study of the Torah and the lessons he learned there.
In his words "I have a responsibility to the worker, both blue-collar and white-collar. I have an equal responsibility to the community. It would have been unconscionable to put 3,000 people on the streets and deliver a deathblow to the cities of Lawrence and Methuen. Maybe on paper our company is worthless to Wall Street, but I can tell you it's worth more".
In this week's Torah portion of Toldot we read about the importance of passing on values and morals to the generations that follow. For me the stories of these two individuals who passed this week represent the best of humanity and the Jewish people as they lived life with a love and passion for what was right and beautiful, even if it wasn't easy and always fun.
May their memories be a blessing and may the messages that they lived by be an inspiration to all of us, to continue living by and passing on the morality and values of our Jewish heritage.
Shabbat Shalom & Good Shabbos
Yisroel