By COLlive reporter
A full chapter detailing the rescue of the Frierdiker Rebbe has been added to the much-acclaimed Holocaust history text “Witness to History.”
In 2009, Project Witness, an organization dedicated to Holocaust education al taharas hakodesh directed by Mrs. Ruth Lichtenstein, published “Witness to History,” an encyclopedic history textbook of 613 pages. It provides a full curriculum on the Holocaust to schools, complete with an educational DVD and Teacher’s Guide. Its cutting-edge scholarship and vibrant visuals bring history to life.
Prior to its publication there was no full school text which dealt with the Holocaust in a manner reflective of religious Jewry.
Themes such as how the light of Yiddishkeit was kept aglow during the darkest of times, and how it helped countless survivors rise above the unspeakable horrors they experienced, were never explored before in a student text.
The book was hailed by Rabbi Nochem Kaplan of the Merkos Chinuch Office as “groundbreaking” and 168 schools adopted it for regular use. The response was gratifying, Kaplan notes.
“Though I have read many books on the Holocaust, I never understood it in a global way before. This has been an eye-opening experience,” said one student.
“Our children have read many stories of individuals. What they lack is the over-all worldwide picture,” says Rabbi Kaplan. “When did it really begin, and what finally happened to make it stop? How did Hitler rise to power, how did he get away with murder?”
Without “Witness to History,” children learn from American history or global history textbooks, which allocate approximately two paragraphs to a page to the Holocaust and tell nothing of the roles of different countries in protesting or perpetuating the atrocities.
They make statements like, “Some believe that other nations should have come forward to stop the Nazis from taking over country after country and murdering those they believed were second-class, while others believe that it was not their obligation and thus not their right to intervene.”
Secular textbooks’ “creative drivel to outright falsehoods,” Kaplan says, created the need for Witness to History. “Why should our children learn ‘information’ like this?” he asks. “Now, for the first time, our children are learning the truth, in detail, about what happened all over the world before, during and after World War II.”
The book is New York State approved, so government funds allocated to schools for the purchase of textbooks can be applied to their purchase.
While groundbreaking, the book “Witness to History” had one glaring omission from the perspective of a Lubavitcher chossid or student: it did not discuss the rescue of the Lubavitcher Rebbe.
Three years later, through the efforts of Mrs. Ruth Lichtenstein and a number of writers and editors, this was corrected.
A new chapter, “Rescue of the Rayatz,” researched and written by Dovid Zaklikowski, was recently published, presented for now as a supplement to “Witness to History.”
Lichtenstein has presented a free copy of the newly-published chapter and the accompanying teachers guide to all Chabad schools.
“All Chabad schools recognize the educational and moral value of ‘Witness to History,’ and the new chapter brings some of the lessons our children need to learn even closer to home,” said Rabbi Kaplan. “Mrs. Lichtenstein deserves our thanks for making it so,” he said.
As of this writing the following schools have already adopted the text: Beth Chana Academy Girls’ High School of Orange, CT; Beis Chaya Mushka Girls High School of Spring Valley, NY; Chaya Mushka High School of West Bloomfield, MI; Lubavitch Girls’ High School of Chicago, IL; Menachem Mendel Seattle Cheder; Ohel Chana Chabad High School of L.A.; and Klurman Mesitvta of Miami Beach, among others.
To order the chapter for your school or institution, email [email protected]. For more information about the book, contact [email protected].
photos are from LubavitchArchives
the schools listed are ones that use the textbook in their schools
many more schools have ordered just the chapter on the Rebbe Rayatz.
By hearing about it every Yud Shevat do they also hear how in 1939 a number of elite Nazis, led by one who’s father was Jewish, were charged in finding the Rebbe Rayatz and safely smuggling him out of Warsaw? And how they worked with the US Secretary of State and Justice Brandis among others? It’s an amazing story for many reasons.
Then of course from there the Rebbe Rayatz went to the US by ship and that part is the more well-known.
Kudos to Mrs. Lichtenstein upon publishing her monumental work.
One question. It seems the chapter on the Rayatz was disseminated amongst Chabad schools. 90%of these students know the story in their sleep. They lear about it every Yud Shevat.
Wouldn’t it be appropriate to add it to all schools that received the original book – they know nothing about Chabad history?
Thank you, Mrs. Lichtenstein for putting in the time and effort to include Rabbi Yosef Yitzchok Schneersohn in the book.
of the Rebbe and Rebbetzin?
that list is all the schools that have the book, or the new chapter?