On a number of occasions during the war, Rabbi
Yitzchak Isaac Halevi Herzog zt”l traveled back and
forth to the United States at great risk, in an effort to
attract support for the cause of saving European Jewry from
the clutches of Nazi Germany. Rabbi Herzog, in his position
as Chief Rabbi of Palestine, even managed to secure a
meeting with President Franklin D. Roosevelt. At the meeting,
Roosevelt smiled and did not reply to the rabbi’s pleadings for
a promise to help the Jews of Europe.
His biographer records
that several people noticed that the rabbi’s hair turned white
when he left the meeting, which he perceived as a failure.
Following this, Rabbi Herzog immediately returned home to
Palestine, narrowly avoiding passage on a ship that was sunk
by a German U-boat, and taking what was said to be the last
civilian ship to safely cross the Atlantic during the war.
After the war, Rabbi Herzog dedicated himself to saving
Jewish children, especially babies, bringing them back from
their places of hiding throughout Europe to their families or
to Jewish orphanages. Many of these children were hidden in Christian monasteries or by Christian families who refused to
return them.
Rabbi Herzog used any and all influence he had,
with whatever clergymen he could, to rescue these children.
He also traveled to numerous countries, raising money and
utilizing any support he could muster for his rescue efforts.
Rabbi Berel Wein relates that in 1946, as a young boy,
he remembers how Rabbi Herzog came to visit the city of
Chicago. The entire city; all the adult men and women and
all the Jewish children, came to greet him at the airport. They
then gathered in Chicago’s Beis Medrash L’Torah, Hebrew
Theological Seminary, where Rabbi Herzog delivered a
lecture on a complex Talmudic issue, as the children stood
mesmerized by his oratory. At the conclusion of his speech,
his face immediately lost its radiance, and he became somber
and staid.
The famous rav from Jerusalem paused for a few long
moments and then declared: “My friends, I come not from
Yerushalayim. I come from Rome. I have just met with Pope
Pius XII.”
A murmur went through the crowd. Some people were
duly impressed; others were waiting to hear why they should
be impressed.
“During the terrible war,” continued Rabbi Herzog, “many
children were sheltered in monasteries across Europe. These
Christians saved them from the Nazis. Indeed, they were
safe in a physical sense; but certainly not in a spiritual sense.
I explained to the pope that there were hundreds, perhaps
thousands, of Jewish children who were sheltered in Catholic
monasteries throughout the war. Their desperate parents did
what they had to do in order to save their children’s lives.
Today, many of those parents are no longer alive, but those
who are would like nothing more than to be reunited with
their children. “I pleaded with him that these are our children and the
time has come for them to be identified and returned to the
remnants of their families, to be once again embraced by the
Jewish people. I asked him to release those children back to
their heritage, to let them be raised as Jews.”
Suddenly, to the shock of the children and the awe of
the adults, he began to cry. “The pope did not acquiesce,”
said Rabbi Herzog. “He said that once a child is baptized,
Rachmana litzlan, Heaven help us, he can never be returned.”
The great rav trembled as he continued to sob uncontrollably.
He looked at the assembled children. “My dear children,” he
wailed, “we lost them!” Then his demeanor changed, as a ray
of hope sparkled from his eyes.
“We lost them,” he repeated, as he locked his gaze on the
young faces, who stared directly at his teary eyes, “BUT WE
HAVE YOU! WE HAVE YOU!”
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Heroes Of Faith
