Opinion: A positive beginning

By Masada Siegel Issue of September 18, 2009/ 29 Elul 5769 I don’t have to go far to find people I admire. My father was orphaned at the age of eleven, and while he had an extremely difficult childhood, somehow he turned into this kind, generous man who always finds the good in people. He always focuses on the positive, and on what he has going for him as opposed to what is missing. It is a true talent. He’s also always willing to give people a chance. One day he caught the kid who was spraying graffiti on his office building, and called the police. It was a teenager, a first-time offender, a kid with no father. Instead of pressing charges, my father gave him a job, and took him to lunch, trying to give him guidance and goals. The police officers were shocked. Dad simply responded, “Everyone needs a second chance.” Rosh Hashanah is here once again and it’s our second chance to reflect on the past and become better people. It’s not an easy task to figure out what to do to make our lives different and better, but the one thing I have learned is the more positive I am, the happier I am, despite not always getting what I want. Rebbitzen Esther Jungreis, a Holocaust survivor, has a magnetic energy about her that draws people into her world. She explained to me how her past influenced her future. “Everyone is impacted by their backgrounds,” she explained. “Hungary was the last country to be invaded by the Nazis, but prior to the occupation, Jewish young men were deported by Hungarian zsandars (police) to slave labor camps, and Szeged became a staging area for these boys. My father visited them, but he was searched. My parents came up with the idea that I would accompany my father, and in the lining of my coat, my mom would place medicines, letters from families and food. Thus, as a young child, I learned that we are our brother’s keepers, and we have a responsibility to the Jewish people.” So while events of the past might pull you down, it seems the most optimistic people take even the most trying experiences and turn them around to bring light into the world. In 1973, Rebbetzin Jungreis started Hineni, one of the first Jewish outreach organizations. Her goal was to stop the escalating assimilation — the spiritual Holocaust that was decimating American Jewry. “My message is simple — know the Torah and study it from beginning to end. The book will speak to you. It will tell you how to live and what to do,” said Jungreis. Another role model for me is Gerda Weissmann Klein, whose memoir, All But My Life, became the Academy Award-winning short documentary, One Survivor Remembers. Weismann Klein is a Holocaust survivor who lost her entire family in the concentration camps. She worked tirelessly to change the world; from alleviating hunger to spending time with teenagers, as she did with the kids who, years ago, experienced the horror of the Columbine massacre. She personally knows pain, suffering and loss. She has taken these experiences and empathizes with people who have suffered all sorts of abuse. Weissmann Klein told me “pain should not be wasted.” “It should be used to reach out to someone else,” she explained. “You not only help the other person you alleviate your own pain.” About a year ago, I was invited to Gerda Weissmann Klein’s home to have lunch with eight women and with Carolyn Jessop, the New York Times best-selling author of the book Escape, which chronicles her abusive experience with the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints. At the age of eighteen, Jessop became the fourth wife of a 50 year-old man. She had 8 children in fifteen years. She told us hair-raising stories about her life and escape from years of living in fear and abuse. Because of Weissmann Klein’s own experience, she reaches out to people like Jessop as well as to the student who writes her letters looking for advice and guidance on finding the light when darkness seems to be prevalent. Weissmann Klein explained, “There is something called the magic of life: [it’s] concealed hope. You look inwards; in most cases, people can focus on the good, especially if they are free. They are still better off than most people in the world. All you need to do is turn on the television and see people running from burning villages, fleeing with their children.” Rosh Hashanah is a time of reflection and a time to make changes. There is definitely something to be learned from people who have not only survived adversity, but also found ways to thrive and impart wisdom. I always look to a quote I read in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem that exemplifies the worldview of my father, Rebbitzen Esther Jungreis and Gerda Weissmann Klein: “Don’t curse the darkness, light a candle.” Masada Siegel lives in Scottsdale, AZ. She can be reached at Fungirlcorrespondent@gmail.com