As a four-year-old girl, Yaffa Sonenson
saw her prosperous village, Eishyshok, pillaged by German soldiers and Lithuanian
collaborators. Some 3,500 men, women, and children were slaughtered in the
course of two summer days. She and her father were among the 29 villagers
who survived. Now, the young-looking, 62-year-old grandmother is hard at
work on what may be the best revenge against Nazism yet taken by any Holocaust
survivor. She is planning to rebuild her shtetl - including castle, lakes,
and restaurants - here in Israel. The ambitious project - which is expected
to cost more than $100 million - is slated to be built in Rishon Lezion,
which will be marking its 120th anniversary in the year 2002. 'We just got
approval from planning authorities a few days ago,' says Eliach, speaking
this week about the project that she and local authorities hope will become
one of Israel's central educational and tourist attractions. 'We even have
a map, and we will get about 400 dunams [100 acres] - about 800 altogether
with the lakes,' the historian adds, noting, 'Money is the main issue now.'
But Eliach is already hard at work to raise the necessary funds from private
andinstitutional donors. Anyone who has visited the United States Holocaust
Museum in Washington, where she established the 'Tower of Faces' exhibit,
can have little doubt that she has the ability to push the project to successful
completion. The 'Tower' is a collection of more than 1,000 photos depicting
life in the 900-year-old village. It took Eliach more than
14 years and dozens of trips to other survivors around the world to gather
the photos that make up the exhibit in Washington. But she and Rishon Lezion
Mayor Meir Nitzan are hopeful that this new project will begin to take shape
within two or three years. 'I remember the Jewish quarter where I lived,
and this project is close to my heart,' says Nitzan, 67, who grew up in
Romania. '[Late foreign minister] Yigal Allon once said that a people who
ignores its past inherits a poor present and a hazy future,' adds the mayor.
His town recently passed Holon and Beersheba as the fourth largest city
in Israel in population, and it is second only to Jerusalem in terms of
area. Rishon officials said the shtetl historical project would fit in well
with the city's development strategy. 'It will be established in the southwest
of the city with good access routes,' says Rina Shiponi, head of Rishon's
international projects. 'We see this as very important for Rishon and for
the country in general.' Eliach literally went shopping for a suitable shtetl
site around the country before settling on Rishon, because of its central
location, development strategy, and the positive attitude of its officials.
'It is important to show Jewish splendor before the Shoah, not just death
camps,' says Shiponi, an attitude echoed by Nitzan. 'I think the project
is important educationally and as a proper settling of historical accounts,'
states Nitzan. 'The Jewish village preserved Jewish life under conditions
of exile and strangeness, and much of Jewish life occurred against such
a background.' Nitzan emphasizes that he agrees with 'Professor Eliach's
view that the Shoah presents the Jewish People as an unfortunate, decrepit
nation wearing rags. But the reality was that the Jewish People were rich
culturally, materially, and religiously until they were robbed and persecuted.
'As long as they lived under equal conditions,' he continues, 'they [the
Jews] contributed greatly to those around them. It's very important to show
this especially as we approach 120 years in Rishon Lezion, which was the
first settlement in the Yishuv established entirely by new immigrants. All
of them came from the shtetl, and that will be a fitting testimony to where
we've been and where we're going.' Eliach, who teaches at Brooklyn College
and who developed the first university Holocaust courses, believes 'there
has been too much emphasis on death and not enough Jewish tradition.' But
her home village, she says, was a place where many traditions - Ashkenazi,
Sephardi, and non- Jewish - met, producing a 'cross-fertilization' of cultures.
She says the revived shtetl will be built around a historical center 'dedicated
to documenting the diverse cultural, ethnic and intellectual threads that
were eventually woven into the rich tapestry of shtetl life. The museum
will also include the history and customs of Sephardi and Ashkenazi settlers
from Babylonia, Spain, France, Germany, Prussia, Italy, Holland, Bohemia,
Poland, and Russia. Among the settlers were also Karaites and Khazars.'
Eishyshok was one of three prosperous Jewish Lithuanian communities
which flourished for hundreds of years, clustered near Vilna, the Lithuanian
capital and center of rabbinic learning (home of the Vilna Gaon, Rabbi Elijah)
near the Polish border. The other two towns - Aran and Olkenik - also figured
prominently in cultural and historical life, according to Eliach.
The restoration project will include both the sacred and the mundane
- shops, perhaps the bathhouse, and holy sites. It will feature two synagogues,
including a replica of the synagogue from Olkenik visited by Napoleon in
1812. 'Napoleon said it was the
most beautiful synagogue he ever saw,' Eliach says. 'He was so impressed
he gave the people the blanket cover of his saddle, and this was turned
into the parochet of the aron kodesh [the ark].' The synagogue of Eishyshok
was special in another way, too, she recalls. 'We davened [prayed] in nusah
Ashkenaz [Ashkenazi liturgical tradition], but our Torah reader always read
Hebrew like a Sephardi. We always read 'Shabbat' and not 'Shabbes.' That's
because the first Torah reader was from Provence.' But that was not
the only reason. The local Jews had a strong tradition of reading Hebrew,
and understanding it, far beyond the minimalist needs of a sacred tongue.
And Eishyshok was noted for its pioneering Hebrew day school and thriving
Zionist movement. 'There was Betar
and Hehalutz Hamizrahi and other groups, and there was never a confrontation
among them,' she says, smiling wryly because of the current bitterness and
rancor among Israel's political camps.
'I want young people to see that and understand how children lived
and studied then in Europe. Today they take children on the 'March of the
Living,' but it's all about visiting gas chambers,' she says, referring
to one of the regular school outings to Polish concentration camps. 'I want
them to know that Jews were more than justvictims.' Eliach, whose husband
David was principal of the Yeshiva of Flatbush in Brooklyn, is always looking
for ways to reach young Jews and non-Jews. She says that many non-Jews -
'including many who never met a Jew in their lives -who visit the Tower
of Faces exhibit at the US Holocaust Museum, emerge with a changed perspective.
'We never knew Jews were just like normal people,' they say. That's important.
Because if they [the Nazis] could kill a normal town in two days, then they
can do anything.' Her point is that the Holocaust was carried out by 'normal'
people acting against normal people. Only by showing how easy it is for
normal people to cross the line can one help prevent such 'normalcy' in
the future. Along with two fully working synagogues, the restored shtetl
will include a bakery and several restaurants offering authentic foods eaten
by the Lithuanian and Polish Jewish communities until they were wiped out. 'We want to reconstruct the village as close
as possible to reality,' says Samuel Raveh, project architect. 'We plan
to build public institutions and private houses as they were in the shtetl:
two-floor houses, with businesses on the street level, for example a bakery
or a photographer's studio, and the living dwellings upstairs.' Raveh,
a partner in the firm Fintzi-Raveh, said that the revived shtetl would not
have anyone actually living in the reconstructed community. The ancient stone town castle that once guarded
Eishyshok is being rebuilt, and it will house the archive, museum, and library,
as well as an arts center for plays, concerts, and films. 'This is a very
big project,' Raveh says, 'and the next month will be devoted to signing
the contract.' Giving others a taste of the life of the Jews in the shtetl
has been Eliach's driving force for years. She has written many books about
her own experience, and her most recent book, There Once Was a World: A
900-Year Chronicle of the Shtetl of Eishyshok, was a finalist of the National
Book Award competition in the US. Although she comes from a family of the
non-Hassidic mitnagdim, she has won awards for an earlier work: Hasidic
Tales of the Holocaust. In one of them, a mother who is about to be murdered
along with her family makes a strange demand of a Nazi guard. She demands
a knife to circumcise her new baby so that he can die a Jew. In another
tale, a non-believing Jew chooses to die a martyr's death on YomKippur,
for the sake of Jewish honor. Like other survivors, Eliach feels several
lifelong missions: One is to record and disseminate such true stories. Beyond
that, however, there is a burning quest to prevent future threats to Jews.
When Israelis in the North fled their homes or spent several days in shelters,
Eliach felt a special kind identification with them. She makes no bones
about her general opposition to territorial concessions that may endanger
Jews living here. 'We are putting ourselves back in a situation where we
are leaving our homes - that's something I cannot tolerate.'
Eliach, who speaks fluent Hebrew and visits Israel many times a year,
is even more adamant about not dealing with Syria after its official newspapers
published articles depicting Jews as Nazis as well as other articles denying
or minimalizing the extent of the Holocaust. 'I think the State of Israel
should have strenuously opposed and exposed what the Syrians said and did,'
she says. However, Eliach feels it is very important to push the lessons
of the Holocaust in a universal way, among non-Jews - not just to prevent
antisemitism, but to stop racism or prejudice of any kind. 'My most satisfying
moment is when my students tell me that the classes change their attitudes
towards other ethnic groups,' Eliach says. Recently, she made her first
trip to Germany as part of an educational project. This as before the ascendance
of Joerg Haider in Austria. But Eliach makes clear that hat distinguishes
German society from Austrian society - and even from Frenchsociety - is
the strong desire by German youth to study their country's past. 'I hadn't
been in Germany since 1945, until about five years ago. I refused to set
foot on German soil. I don't believe in forgiveness. I believe in remembering,
teaching. and I believe in creating a relationship with the young generation.
I never, absolutely ever, devoted even one second of my time to hate. The
children in Japan couldn't believe that I wouldn't hate,' says Eliach, who
gave 14 lectures in Japan and spoke at the Hiroshima Peace Center. Eliach
says many Japanese - the only people to suffer an atomic attack - try to
picture themselves as being akin to Holocaust victims. Eliach told them
the Holocaust was unique and that the Japanese were not just victims. 'I
told them they had to make changes. They had to come to grips with Pearl
Harbor, and they cannot compare the United States to what the Germans did
to us. I told them: 'How can you say that?' when they - some of them - compared
America to Germany.' But she has a good word for the younger generation
in Germany which is examining its past. 'In Germany, especially the young
people who lived under Communism in the east are positive about learning
from the past and about changing the future, but the older generation does
not feel comfortable talking to people like me. Some feel guilty for not
doing anything or perhaps sometimes they were actually involved in the murder
of Jews. Most of them, however, admit they knew what was happening.' She
says the recent experiences in Bosnia and Kosovo showed that 'ethnic cleansing'
is not a thing of the past. Indeed, she says, 50 years after the liberation
of the death camps, many European leaders turned a blind eye toward genocidal
activities, especially when committed by political allies. Although she
has no kind words for Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic, she also blamed the
German government of former chancellor Helmut Kohl for encouraging the break-up
of Yugoslavia through German support of Croatia. Eliach says she supports
studying recent episodes of repression and genocide, but she stresses that
the Holocaust was an event of unique proportions. 'We were the ultimate
victims. We couldn't cross borders or even convert.' During her recent trip
to Japan where she established a Holocaust exhibit atHiroshima, Eliach says:
'I told them that the Holocaust was unique. It introduced new concepts in
mass murder. We have to do everything to make sure that nothing like it
happens again. 'What distinguished between us and animals is that we have
the right to choose. What happened to us in the Holocaust shows what happened
to Germany and the collaborator nations. It has to do with man, not with
God.' Like her colleague Elie Wiesel, Eliach does not blame God for the
Holocaust. She blames man - for failing to keep God's precepts. But her
father disagreed. She recalls that her father, Moshe Sonenson, had a severe
crisis of faith when his wife was killed. 'When my mother was murdered,
my father's first sentence was against God. His first sentence was that
he would not believe any more in God. My reaction was different.' She feels
that the hassidic perspective offers good guidance for the unimaginable
suffering of the Holocaust. 'Hassidism says that evil wasn't created. It
was the fact that good was squeezed out. The Nazis were not Satan. They
were very normal, and that's why that kind of evil can be prevented.' Looking
to the future, Eliach and Nitzan believe the full-size shtetl in Rishon
Lezion will eventually attract thousands of visitors, much like the American
colonial replica village in Williamsburg, Virginia. 'The shtetl restoration,'
says Eliach, 'will bring to life a vanished past, and it will cast light
on the ways in which that bygone world lives on in the culture and institutions
of its descendants now scattered around the globe. 'Although many countries have done historical
restorations, nothing like it exists to document the history of the Jews
of Eastern Europe.'
Byline: Michael Widlanski