In commemoration of the 6th Yahrzeit of our father and Zaidie, Cecil A. Labow- Zisse Alexander ben Yisrael Meir HaLevi Z”L on the 3rd of Av
Martin S. Labow and Devorah Bat Sheva Abenhaim
The Book of Bamidbar(Numbers) concludes this week, with the reading of two Parshiot. We read of the circumstances when vows can be made, and when and how they may be annulled. We learn of the guile of the Midianites, and the price that they paid for their sins against G-d and the Israelites. The settlement of the land of Israel is discussed in detail, with the stipulation that tribes of Reuven, Gad, and the half-tribe of Menashe would first have to help their brethren with the conquest of the West side of the Jordan, before they themselves could settle on the Eastern side. We are instructed as to how, and why Cities of Refuge are to be set up, and the difference on how we treat manslaughter and murder .We conclude the Parshiot with the interesting tale of “Bnot Tzelophad”, which was unique in that era, when women had virtually no say in the inheritance of their families properties.
This article is being written on May 5, 2016, when we solemnly observe Yom Hashoah. This past week, Aug 2, marked the 74thanniversary of a day, that began a shameful, and obscene rewrite of our history, and of world history. The book, Strange Gods, A Secular History of Conversion, by Susan Jacoby(Pantheon 2016) details how individuals were persuaded, threatened, and coerced into conversion, beginning from the period of the Roman Empire to the modern day.
Sister Teresa Benedicta of the Cross began her life as Edith Stein, born on October 12, 1891 (which happened to be Yom Kippur). She was the youngest of eleven children. She studied in Breslau under Edmund Husserl, and later Max Scheler, both of whom converted out of Judaism. She was also influenced by the mystical writings of Teresa of Avila (1815-1882)whose father was a Converso. Stein’s family was moderately observant. They observed the High Holy days, and Passover, but she herself states in her unfinished autobiography that she became an atheist at the age of fifteen. Although she turned to Catholicism on January 1, 1922, she remained empathetic and sympathetic to her roots, which she still valued immensely. She wrote: “Most Christians are unaware that the Feast of The Unleavened Bread, in remembrance of the Exodus of the Children of Israel from Egypt, continues to be celebrated today in the identical manner in which it was celebrated by our Lord with his disciples when he instituted the Blessed Sacrament, and took leave of his followers”. She trued to correct the theological past where she, along with Jews throughout Europe, including her Germany, experienced the barbarism of the Christian Holy Week, where the fact that the Last Supper, which was in fact a Seder, was lost to the unruly, blood –thirsty mobs. In April 1933, she wrote a letter pleading directly to Pope Pius XI, begging him to speak out against the Nazi persecution of the Jews. The Pope’s Secretary of State, Cardinal Eugenio Pacelli, who himself became Pope Pius XII in 1939 did nothing, and said absolutely nothing. In 1938, she became a Carmelite Nun, and was transferred for reasons of safety to a convent in Echt Holland.On August 2, 1942, Edith Teresa Hedwig Stein was arrested “FOR REASONS OF RACE AND SPECIFICALLY BECAUSE OF JEWISH DESCENT-The capital letters are printed on the Red Cross document. In the Book ‘Papal Sin’ by Gary Wills (New York, 2000) he observes, that the Vatican made the “ludicrous case” that Stein was killed for being a Catholic. Both Edith and her sister Rosa were sent to, and perished in Auschwitz, as the Nazi’s did not differentiate between Jews, and baptized Jews- even in convents. Her beatification on May 1, 1987 remains an affront and insult by the Church to Jews everywhere. In the words of Daniel Polish, the beatification seemed “to carry the tacit message encouraging conversion activities because official discussion of the beatification seemed to make a point of conjoining Steins’s Catholic faith with her death with fellow Jews in Auschwitz”. As Susan Jacoby writes: “The lie that Edith Stein, or any other convert to Christianity in Nazi Occupied Europe, died in a concentration camp, not because she was a Jew, but because she was a Christian is imprinted on the history of modern Catholicism”.
Prepared by: Martin S. Labow and Devorah Abenhaim
