My Mother’s Life

How Chava Rosenfarb survived the Lodz ghetto to write a masterpiece about the experience

The three volumes of my mother Chava Rosenfarb’s The Tree of Life: A Trilogy of Life in the Lodz Ghetto chronicle in precise, unflinching detail the destruction of an entire Jewish community during the Holocaust. That this community was also intimately known to the author who had been one of its members lends both an urgency and an authenticity to the novel. 

When The Tree of Life was published as Der boym fun lebn in 1972, the Yiddish press immediately acclaimed it as a masterpiece, repeatedly emphasizing its unique place in the literature of the Holocaust. Isaac Jonasovitch, writing in the quarterly Folk un Medine (Tel-Aviv, Summer 1975), announced that “The Tree of Life is a work that surpasses everything that has been expressed up to now on the tragedy of Eastern European Jewry, or more precisely, surpasses everything that has been written in prose on this topic.” And the jury that unanimously awarded Rosenfarb the 1979 Manger Prize concurred, noting that The Tree of Life “is a work that rises to the heights of the great creations in world literature and towers powerfully over the Jewish literature of the Holocaust, the literature which deals with the annihilation of European Jewry, in particular Polish Jewry.” Numerous other international prizes were conferred on Rosenfarb for this novel, including the Canadian Segal Prize and the Argentinian Niger Prize.

Yet despite the excitement in the Yiddish press, in the world at large the novel went unheralded and largely unknown. In effect, it suffered the fate of the language in which it was written. Its very strengths—the all-encompassing epic structure, the complexity, the detail and the length—made it a difficult book to publish in a non-Jewish language. While Der boym fun lebn was soon translated into Hebrew as Ets hahayim, for many years the English translation could not find a publisher. Finally, in 1985 Scribe Publications of Melbourne, Australia, brought out the novel in English, but without distribution rights in North America. The Australian edition also eliminated the introduction and compacted the novel’s three volumes into one large tome. In 2004, 32 years after its initial publication in Yiddish, the University of Wisconsin Press began publishing a paperback reissue of this Australian edition, this time returning to the original format of three separate volumes. That version is now available in North America. I am Chava Rosenfarb’s daughter and the co-translator with her of The Tree of Life. It is my fervent hope that on the heels of Yom HaShoah and as we approach the April 19 anniversary of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising, this novel will serve as a reminder, not only of the dark days of the past, but of the ability of literature to both recreate and transcend them.

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Wu-Tang’s Kiddush

My family Kiddush became the haunting opening for Schindler’s List, and was sampled by the hip-hop collective

With the recent release of the 20th-anniversary edition of Schindler’s List, my family has been circulating emails discussing my grandfather’s “Kiddush heard around the world.” For most people who watch Spielberg’s emotionally charged film, the opening scene of the Kiddush being recited with Shabbat candles burning in the background functions as a somber memorial to a vanished world. However, for our family, that scene is one of the most meaningful ways we memorialize my late grandfather, a Holocaust survivor named Emil Katz, whose familiar Friday-night family Kiddush led to a series of unlikely encounters involving Steven Spielberg, the Wu Tang Clan, and two-time Academy Award-winner Rabbi Marvin Hier.

Emil was born in 1917 in Nyíracsád, a small town approximately 35 km northeast of Debrecen in eastern Hungary. He spent his early years learning in the local cheder and a nearby yeshiva before he began working as a printer. In 1939, he was drafted into the Hungarian Labor Battalion, a branch of the Hungarian Army reserved for Jewish men to perform dangerous tasks for the Nazi army, like clearing minefields on the Russian front. Surviving this ordeal because of his assignment to a regional army bakery, he avoided deportation in May of 1944 to Auschwitz, where the majority of his large extended family were murdered. Upon liberation by the Russian Army, Emil found and married Eva Gelberger, a distant relative who survived the camps. After living in a DP Camp in Austria for a few years, they ultimately settled in Los Angeles, where Emil worked as a bookbinder and raised my father and his two siblings. He remained an observant Jew, an active participant in local synagogue life and a lay cantor who led High Holiday services. In 1993, Emil was a still-vigorous 76 years old, serving as gabbai of the 6 a.m. daily minyan at Beth Jacob of Beverly Hills, helping run the shul’s gift shop, volunteering at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, and finding time to indulge in baking, his favorite pastime.

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Community of students stay true to Jewish roots

About a hundred University of Texas students are honoring the start of Passover. They'll gather at the Texas Hillel, a Jewish community center, to mark the ancient holiday.

It’s one way the students stay true to their Jewish roots. Another is raising awareness about issues important to Israel. On a recent day, the students passed out cake on the UT campus to celebrate Israel Peace Week.

Kayla Sokoloff visited Israel over winter break to more deeply experience her heritage.

"In Texas for me it’s special when I meet someone who's Jewish,” Sokoloff said. “It’s like we have this instant connection."

Many of those connections are made through UT's Jewish sorority Alpha Epsolon Phi and the Texas Hillel. The community center serves almost 4,000 Jewish students.

"Our agenda is quite broad,” said Rabbi David Komerofsky, executive director of the Texas Hillel. “We want Jewish students to make an enduring commitment to Jewish life, learning and Israel."

The latest numbers show there are about 14 million Jewish people worldwide -- that's 2 million less than in 2005.

Komerofsky attributes that decline to the Holocaust. The descendants of 6 million Jewish people never came to be.

"It's not that people are leaving Judaism,” Komerofsky said. “It's just that we're not replacing ourselves as quickly as other communities are."

Judaism is different from other religions because it’s as attached to ethnicity and family heritage as it is to faith.

While the population of Jewish people hasn't grown world-wide, it is on the rise here. Komerofsky said Austin's Jewish population is at about 20,000.

Most of those families moved to the area, but in time some may grow deeper roots here.

"My job isn't to make people feel religious in any way, but I think it's my job here to make people care about things I think they should care about," student Andrea Hiller said as she promoted Israel Peace Week on campus. "We could separate what we’re doing right now with religion or we can put it together."

This combination of faith and political activism is this generation's take on their religion.

Graduating College and Not Sure What To Do?

Consider Israel

WUJS Israel believes in providing young Jews with a holistic experience that will help them grow personally and professionally, while strengthening their connections to Israel, and carving their own path to Judaism. We see ourselves as the best platform to achieve all that, in a supportive community of peers and with the guidance of professional and caring staff. Every component in WUJS Israel is designed to promote these goals.

WUJS Israel is a 5 month post college program that offers the ultimate Israel experience for Jewish young adults from around the world. The program is based in Jerusalem and Tel-Aviv. WUJS Israel allows you the opportunity to intern with one of Israel's leading companies or NGOs, or develop your artistic talent, while studying Hebrew and more. WUJS Israel will also help in your Aliyah process as part of its curriculum.

Whether you choose Intern Jerusalem or Intern Tel Aviv, we will provide you with tailor-made internship that will enhance your resume and set you apart. Tell us the type of career experience you want and we will place you at a professional internship in your field.

Arts Jerusalem gives participants the time and space to create and build their artistic portfolio and an opportunity to showcase final projects in an exhibition.

Participants on Arts Tel Aviv mix interning part of their week with independent work on their art. Participants learn the ins and outs of the business, educational artistic tools, and new developments in different art media. This combination allows you to build your resume and your portfolio at the same time.

Up to 130 hours of Hebrew language study
Accommodation in real apartments and not in college style dorms
Young Israelis take part in WUJS Israel activities
Weekly fun and educational field trips around the country
Overnight trips
Seminars on Judaism and Zionism
Dedicated professional staff
Aliyah consultant on staff
To learn more about why WUJS: The WUJS Advantage or Apply now

to secure your place. 

Arava Institute for Environmental Studies

The Arava Institute for Environmental Studies (AIES) is the premier environmental education and research program in the Middle East, preparing future Arab and Jewish leaders to cooperatively solve the region's environmental challenges. Affiliated with Ben-Gurion University, AIES houses academic programs, research, and international cooperation initiatives on a range of environmental concerns and challenges.

Students at AIES study a range of environmental issues from a trans-boundary and interdisciplinary perspective while learning peace-building and leadership skills.

With a student body comprised of Jordanians, Palestinians, Israelis, and students from around the world, the Arava Institute for Environmental Studies offers students a unique opportunity to study and live together for an extended period of time; building networks and developing understanding that will enable future cooperative work and activism in the Middle East and beyond.

As the premier institute for environmental studies in the region, the Arava Institute provides students with a unique approach to studying the environmental challenges in the Middle East. Together with leading environmental professionals, academics, and researchers, students explore a range of environmental issues from a trans-boundary and interdisciplinary perspective while learning peace-building and leadership skills.

Students maintain a rigorous course-load in environmental studies including environmental ethics, policy and economics, ecology, and sustainability. They also participate in a weekly peace-building and leadership seminar where they engage in dialog with one another focusing on issues of coexistence, tolerance, and communication.

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