A Jew I Was Born and A Jew I Will Die!

A Jew I Was Born and A Jew I Will Die!
Or
Would You Deny That You Are a Jew?
Rabbi Gary S Creditor
November 17th, 2006

Introduction

I begin these remarks with three statements:

1. Because I did not want these thoughts to appear to be enmeshed in the recent elections I decided to postpone addressing the substance of the matter until afterwards.

2. Every culture has some phrase to teach us that we don't know the existential reality of a situation until we experience it ourselves. I acknowledge the truth of that statement in advance.

3. Recently, in an entirely different context Simone Schwartz said to me that I was born "with a silver spoon in my mouth." Compared to her childhood in Europe and family history she is absolutely correct. What seem hardships in my youth is nothing compared to hers or others. Yet, I am a person of religious faith and a student of Jewish history. I have a dream of ultimate personal and human redemption. Namely, when I shall stand before God I will have to answer for my deeds, and I dream of the coming of the Messiah, hat time when evil shall be vanquished. Thus I can and must speculate on the statement and question which forms the title of this sermon:

A Jew I Was Born and A Jew I Will Die! Or Would You Deny That You Are a Jew?

I.

My thoughts on this subject were instigated by the episode in the recent campaign between Senator George Allen and Senator elect Jim Webb. In what has been called one of the nastiest political contests, of which I am glad that I don't have to see any more television ads, someone discovered an article in The Jewish Forward from New York. It was entitled: Alleged Slur Casts Spotlight on Senator's (Jewish?) Roots. Charles Krauthammer wrote a great article in the Washington Post entitled: Everyone's Jewish. The essence of the matter is: George Allen's mother was born a Jew in Tunisia, located in North Africa. Her name is Henrietta Lumbroso. Her family has a long and esteemed Sephardic Jewish history recorded in the Jewish Encyclopedia with roots in Portugal, Spain and Italy. The name Lumbroso means "luminous" and is a translation of the Hebrew "Nehora," somewhat familiar in Sephardic family names. During World War II Tunisia was subject to Nazi control and thus its Jewish subjects endured some of the horrors of the Holocaust through deportations. Though not harmed, Henrietta's father Felix was imprisoned in a concentration camp. It seems that Henrietta's world view is framed by those memories. It is now clear that Senator Allen's grandfather, Henrietta's husband was also Jewish. None of this was difficult to discover. It is all a matter of public records.

When Henrietta Lumbroso came to America she decided to leave her Jewish identity on the other side of the ocean. In marrying George Allen, Sr. and raising their children she decided never to tell them who she was. While her husband was a practicing Catholic, they were married civilly, and their son became an Episcopalian. Believing the reports at face value, sixty-two years after the end of World War II, Henrietta's family history and faith was unknown to her children and their families. In America, having had a Catholic president and now breaking ground for a memorial in Washington, D.C. for an African-American, she did not want her children to be harmed because they were Jews. So if she never told them, they wouldn't know and have anything to hide or come to light. Given the fame of her family name, I am surprised that no one asked enough questions and did a simple Yahoo or Google search years ago. This must have been very painful to create and maintain a 'black hole' of her personal history and identity.

Henrietta Lumbroso Allen is not the only person to have ever done this. How many Hollywood personalities and political characters have hid their Jewish origins or changed their names. This case is just the most current and due to the election, most visible.

II.

This raises several questions. I give my own personal response. I pose them for you to contemplate your own.

I am proud of being a Jew. I am proud to be a believing, observant Jew. From the time I graduated high school I wear my kippah all the time. Especially here, I can sense when people stare at me in the malls, at the Diamond, in the hospitals, when I walk by. I smile and walk proudly forward. Not only do I have nothing of which to be ashamed, I have everything of which to be proud. I am proud of my faith that changed the face of humanity from a bunch of pagans and idolaters to have two other world faiths born from the womb of the Jewish people and Judaism to bring the idea of one God to the world. I am proud to have the Rabbinic literature of the Talmud and Midrash to interpret the word of God, develop the earlier of ideas in sacred Scripture and deepen our understanding of why, how, and what God wants of us. I am proud to be a son of the people who withstood a Pharaoh, a Haman, Greece, Rome, the Church and Hitler and refuse to die because God wouldn't let us disappear and we wouldn't role over and give up. I am proud to have an ancient heritage, to have roots longer and deeper, to walk the paths where Abraham and Sarah birthed a family and a people, David fought for and Solomon glorified. I am proud of the rituals that present my faith. I am proud of the liturgy that we sing, say and meditate. I am proud that my ancestors stood at Sinai to receive the Torah. I regret, bemoan and mourn for my forbearers over the ages that died so that I might be a Jew today. While I don't relish dying and even find it hard to contemplate in this context, I simply say: I was born a Jew and will die a Jew. No matter what. In these few sentences I have tried to capture the treasures, the fortunes, the greatness and the glory of Judaism and being a Jew. Those who died whether on the pyre or the gas chamber, or who lived and endured hardships and deprivations, those who wrote our sacred literature, composed our music, reclaimed the land and defended it, they are my heroes. They have bestowed upon me a gift, a heritage, a faith, a living people, greater than anything else in the world.

I will not betray that trust. I will not relinquish this treasure.

1. Are you proud of being Jew?

2. Why?

3. Do you know its content?

4. How do you show it?

5. How do you live it?

6.Have you told your children and grandchildren how important it is to you?

Ruby and I made the decision before Menachem was born that all our children would have names from the Hebrew language. From the beginning their identity would be naturally intertwined with Judaism, Hebrew and history. They each know what their two names mean and from whom they received them. Not only would we not deny them their heritage and family history, we made it part of the fabric of their souls. We used to take the children back to Brooklyn and show them the fourth floor tenement building in which my grandmother lived and walked 13 th Avenue with them. They knew my simple synagogue, compared to this grand building. And when I was doing genealogy, shared with them the names of the places in Europe and as much information as I could gather.

1. Have you shared your families' journeys?

2. Have you know your Hebrew/Jewish names?

3. Do you know from whom you were named?

4. Do your children know?

III.

Because of his mother's revelations, there were questions raised about Senator George Allen's status. The answer is: he is not a Jew. He has Jewish genealogy. He does not have a Jewish heritage, a Jewish consciousness, a Jewish self-conception. To be Jewish you must have intention. We are not accidentally Jewish. We are intentionally Jewish.Senator Allen does not have that. When his history was revealed, he did not claim it. Rather, he blatantly disowned it. While respecting his right to do so, I can say that he read himself out of any vestige of his family's heritage. That leads me to closing rhetorical questions:

1. Are we incidentally or purposefully Jewish?

2. Are we accidentally or intentionally Jewish?

3. What does it mean to you?

4. How do you activate it?

5. How do you live it?

Conclusion

I waited until this Shabbat because I did not want this subject to become fodder in the choice of candidates. Yet, it was from Senator Allen's family's history that this subject arises. It poses questions to us because we live in a free and open society. We never had that privilege and challenge earlier. Now everyone has to choose, to make conscious decisions and answer existential questions:

Who are you?

What is your identity?

Will you show it and how?

Will you fit in or stand out?

Do you have a qualitative knowledge about yourself?

Will you be proud of it?

Will you transmit it?

So I conclude:

I was born a Jew and will die a Jew.

I will not betray that trust.

I will not relinquish this treasure.

What is your statement?

Shabbat Shalom.