Double dose of good news

There is joy in Mudville this week, with two home runs at bat.

Triumph over adversity, and the victory of good over evil, are recurring themes in the secular culture as well as in Judaism; we’re especially delighted when they play out close to home.

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On Monday night, as Lawrence’s Rambam Mesivta presented an honorary degree to Holocaust survivor Jack Ratz, the futility of the 20th century evil hatched by Hitler, yemach shemo, was evident, along with our responsibility to remind the world that evil will always be overcome and that Am Israel will triumph.

Ratz’s early life, as a child of the Holocaust, was one of unmitigated distress; most of his family was lost. After the war, he came to America and restarted his life. A Yehudi with a mission, he told his story to anyone who would listen, publishing a book, “Endless Miracles.”

Endless, indeed.

He raised a new family in America, sealing his triumph over the Nazis. This week, he received an honorary diploma at the same Rambam Mesivta graduation ceremony where his grandson Brian received his. Literally, in the Ratz family, Am Israel chai.

While stories of the Holocaust will survive its tellers, we should fear that something may be lost in the translation. Will new generations internalize the truth of what happened, and join the cry of “Never Again”?

Judy Fine of West Hempstead, Jack’s daughter and the mother of Jack’s graduating grandson Brian, said that a TV reporter who covered the Rambam Mesivta event was perplexed as to why Jack never went to high school.

“Don’t you understand what this man went through?” the bewildered woman asked the reporter.

If such a question needs to be asked today, Jack Ratz’s work — which is now our work — is incomplete.

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The lead story in this week’s Jewish Star is about the comeback in Belle Harbor.

The west Rockaway community, a quiet enclave sandwiched between an ocean beachfront and Jamaica Bay, eight miles from the Five Towns, suffered massive destruction at the hands of Hurricane Sandy. Homes were demolished by the ferocious powers of both water and fire.

Its largest Orthodox synagogue, Ohab Zedek, was ravaged, and it still suffers with unrepaired damage. Its yeshiva had to relocate to Flatbush. Two sifrei Torah were lost.

The people of Belle Harbor are a hearty bunch, blessed with both emunah and spunk, and over the years they produced some really good people, many of whom have moved on to other communities with solid Orthodox foundations, including the Five Towns, Flatbush and Teaneck.

In Sandy’s wake, the old homestead in Belle Harbor beckoned, and its sons and daughters heeded the call. As our editor Malka Eisenberg reports:

The “kids” of Belle Harbor grew up and moved away but, in Barbara Berg’s words, they “still have sand in their shoes.” They all remember the small, warm cohesive community, almost like a shtetl, where everyone knew everyone else.

This Sunday, the “kids” are coming home, hosting a benefit concert — which will headline Benny Friedman — in the beautiful sanctuary of Ohab Zedek. The Belle Harbor congregation is a Kiddush H’ashem; may Sunday’s concert magnify this, and bring blessings to all who participate.

Shabbat Shalom,

Ed Weintrob