Two weeks ago I remembered him.

I was participating in a forum about the chareidi opposition to factory conversions while participants included the full spectrum of Israeli society from irreligious professors to people from the Eidah Chareidis and all the stripes in between. The tension in the room was soaring.

We were discussing approving conversions on candidates who have no sincere intention of accepting the yoke of mitzvos; in particular foreign soldiers mainly from the former Soviet Union who are serving in the Israel Defense Forces. This is currently a hot topic here in Israel. Of course most of the attacks were directed at us the chareidim. We were accused of having no sense of responsibility toward Am Yisrael and of being racists who turn away foreigners who wish to join the Jewish People.

And suddenly I thought of him. The image of his tall figure with its crop of blond hair appeared in my mind’s eye. How long ago had it been? Thirty years surely if not more.

He showed up one evening at our study group in the Na’aseh v’Nishma Center in Tel Aviv. My brother who was the director of the Center brought him over to me and introduced him whispering in my ear “He’s German the son of a Nazi.”

“Well thanks a lot” I replied. “What are you bringing him into my shiur for?”

“He wants to learn about Judaism” my brother answered. “He’s serious. He understands Hebrew well.”

Shavuos was coming up and I was giving a shiur on Megillas Rus. I began my lecture by saying that the Jewish view completely rejects the concept of “race.” I even said the word in German rasse. I pointed out that a Moabite girl Rus merited to become the mother of the Jewish People’s royal dynasty from which the Mashiach will come. The young man was astounded and afterwards he said to my brother “He was really speaking to me.”

We grew closer and became quite friendly. As we became better acquainted he told me about his father who had been in the Hitler Youth and about his visit to Auschwitz which had shaken him to the core. The shock of that visit had impelled him to come to Israel as a member of Atonement Youth an organization of young Germans who feel obligated to redress in some measure the guilt of their fathers by engaging in volunteer work in Israel. And now he was considering conversion as another act of atonement and he wanted to learn more about Judaism.

At that time I will admit I wanted to discourage him from taking that step. I’d been exposed to the growing Bnei Noach movement that was taking form in several countries around the world and I was excited about it. This was (and is) a movement of non-Jews who were abandoning the Catholic and Protestant faiths for the seven Noahide mitzvos learning under the guidance of rabbanim to serve Hashem as non-Jews. “Why don’t you join that movement ” I urged him “and we’ll write a book together about Judaism and the place of non-Jews in the Jewish view of the world. Think of the influence you could have on German youth as a German with a Jewish connection. If you convert you’ll just be one more Jew and your influence won’t extend beyond the Jewish People.” Such were my fantasies at the time. I had been impressed by a French personality named Aimé Pallière a Catholic priest who had left the Church and after considering conversion to Judaism had opted to become a Ben Noach. He wielded a strong influence in Europe and North Africa before he died in 1949. I envisioned a sweeping revival of the Bnei Noach movement a la Pallière.

This young man however was adamant about converting. He saw it as a way of completing his atonement for the sins of his parents’ generation.

And so I became a part of his journey. Shortly before his conversion he was admitted to Yeshivas Ohr Somayach in Jerusalem. He yearned to study Gemara although as a non-Jew he was not allowed to. The sheilah was brought to Rav Shlomo Zalman Auerbach ztz”l who gave a heter for him to learn Gemara during this interim before his conversion. The look of joy that lit up his face on receiving that heter is indescribable. He wanted to keep Shabbos too but since a non-Jew is forbidden to observe Shabbos on pain of death he would light a cigarette on Shabbos night and smoke it and then keep the rest of Shabbos as mandated by halachah.

The great day of his bris milah arrived and as I recall he wanted to undergo circumcision with no anesthesia not even a local anesthetic. He wanted to feel the pain of becoming part of the Jewish Nation something of the torments of Auschwitz. I don’t remember if it was in fact done the way he requested; I think the rabbanim ruled against it.

His parents were in total shock. They accepted the decree of fate however. When he became engaged to a young woman who was Jewish from birth they wanted to come to the wedding but he arranged that they would come to visit a few weeks ahead of the chuppah and would not be there for the wedding itself. The kallah’s parents who weren’t exactly thrilled with the shidduch asked me how I came to be at the wedding. They were a bit taken aback when I said I was from the chassan’s side. Afterwards they probably checked up on my yichus.

Years passed. He studied in kollel and became a true ben Torah and raised a fine Jewish family. His parents came to visit him every year in the chareidi neighborhood where he became totally integrated. (His father had done “teshuvah” and become a clergyman instead of a Nazi.) He received financial support from his German family and they even assisted him in buying an apartment for his growing family. And I remember how after the Israeli surrender known as the Oslo Accords he showed me a letter he’d received from his German aunt who was shocked that Israel had agreed to such a thing. “How can you [you!] be so blind to the way this agreement jeopardizes Israel?” A non-Jewish German woman could plainly see what not everyone in Israel understood.

One day he received a letter from his mother saying something along the lines of “Judaism teaches that you must honor your father and mother. If you don’t come with your wife and children to visit us in Germany we won’t come to visit you in Israel anymore.” He was bewildered; what should he do? He went to consult Rav Shach ztz”l who instructed him to make the trip. Before he took his leave Maran told him he should go with his tzitzis tucked in and leave his dark suit and hat in Bnei Brak in order to keep a low profile as a Jew on German soil.

I remember feeling anxious about this visit of his to Germany wondering how it would go. As it turned out he was well received and it went without a hitch. His parents live in northern Germany and his mother made a special trip to Scandinavia to purchase kosher l’mehadrin foods for her visiting children. On Shabbos they were joined by family members from all over Germany who came to experience an authentic Jewish Sabbath with him. Aided by Rav Hirsch’s commentary in German he conducted a Shabbos table with them.  

By now he has married off several children within the chareidi community in which he lives. The son of Germans? Former Nazis? My brother was right when he told me “He’s serious.” He is the ger that the Torah commands us to love as ourselves.

My thoughts have wandered far and as I awaken from my reverie I still hear the tumult all around me at that meeting the accusing voices shouting that we the chareidi community hate converts and look upon them as a plague.

Food for Thought

Many people love falsehood. Few love the truth. Because falsehood can be loved truly but truth cannot be loved falsely.

(Rebbe Yaakov Yitzchak of Peshischa)