Seidemann: A Shas full of history

From the other side of the bench

By David Seidemann

Issue of June 19, 2009 / 27 Sivan 5769

One half hour earlier and the SS soldiers would have snatched him. But 30 minutes before the soldiers stormed through the back door, Rabbi Dr. Joseph Saffra z”tl ran out the front door. Some say he saw the angry crowds gathering on that November 9, 1938 night in Frankfurt, Germany. Others say that Rabbi Saffra received inside information from a local police chief upon whom he had performed dentistry work. For Rabbi Dr. Joseph Saffra was not just a rabbi, he was also an oral surgeon. They turned the entire house upside down that night, screaming “Where’s the rabbi, where’s the rabbi?” They returned every few days ransacking the home as those that remained trembled in fear. “Where’s the rabbi?” they demanded each time.

He fled that night, Kristallnacht, to Holland by train and then to America by boat. It wasn’t until a year later that he was able to send for his wife, three daughters and a son who was barely a year old. The banks were closed when he fled and even if they had been open, they weren’t giving money to Jews. Pressed for money with only minutes to spare, Rabbi Saffra was forced to sell his most prized possession, a set of Shas, the Talmud, the oral tradition, a compilation of the discourses and discussions of the Sages of yesterday.

A complete set of Shas was a rarity in Frankfurt, Germany in those days and Ernie Guttman wanted one. No one knows exactly how much Guttman paid Rabbi Saffra for the set of books, but it was sufficient to get the rabbi to Holland.

End of scene one of what turned out to be an amazing story involving my grandfather, Rabbi Joseph Saffra, the details of which were completely unknown to me until a few days ago.

Scene two. Rabbi Saffra sends for his wife and children and settles in New York. Though reunited with his family, his set of Talmud books, his second love, remained in the hands of another.

Scene three. Guttman and his family survive the Holocaust and move to America. His wife passes away. Guttman takes up residence in Baltimore, Maryland.

Scene four. Debbie Drebin of East New York, Brooklyn marries Rabbi Liff of Baltimore and they settle there. In 1988 Rabbi Liff passes away and his widow, Debbie Liff, is introduced to Ernie Guttman who had lost his first wife. In the summer of 1989 they marry.

Scene five. A young man named Shmuel Tarshish from Chicago marries a young lady, Adina Zehnwirth from Queens. They settle in Baltimore.

As it turns out, Tarshish’s great aunt is Debbie Drebin Liff Guttman and Tarshish takes his new bride to meet Tante Debbie and her husband Ernie. As they sit making small talk, Adina Zehnwirth Tarshish makes mention of the fact that her grandfather was from Frankfurt. Ernie’s eyes lit up “I was a young yeshiva boy in Frankfurt, perhaps I knew your grandfather,” he said. Adina Tarshish relayed that her grandfather was Rabbi Joseph Saffra and Ernie’s mouth dropped. He got out of his seat, ran to his book shelf and showed Mr. and Mrs. Tarshish the set of Talmud that he, Mr. Guttman, had purchased from Adina’s grandfather in November of 1938.

On the spot, Mr. Tarshish asked if they could purchase the set of Talmud with Rabbi Joseph Saffra’s name in it, the set of books that set him free and saved his life, and ultimately the life of Rabbi Saffra’s family. Right then and there Aliza and Shmuel offered to buy the set at any price, the set that set Adina Zehnwirth’s mother free to come to America and give birth to her. Mr. Guttman declined, for the Talmud books were very precious to him as well.

For two years various Saffra grandchildren, of which there are many (me included), attempted in vain to purchase their grandfather’s Talmud set from Ernie Guttman. But as precious as they were to the Saffra grandchildren, Ernie Guttman held them dear as well.

Scene six. June 2001. Ernie Guttman passes away and once again attempts are made by the Saffra grandchildren to purchase the set of Talmud. In June of 2002 the children of Ernie Guttman contact Shmuel Tarshish and inform him that the Shas, the holy books that once adorned Rabbi Saffra’s bookshelf in Frankfurt, are his for the taking, for free. “Your wife’s grandfather sold them under duress, to save his life, and the lives of his family. They belong to you; come and retrieve them.”

Shmuel and Adina pick up the holy books and bring them to their home in Baltimore. But the lingering question becomes: which one of the grandchildren should inherit them?

Scene seven. Yosef Ettlinger from Washington Heights, a great grandson of Joseph Saffra, and named for him, marries and moves to Israel. The young couple make periodic visits to Bnei Brak to visit elderly Tante Rosie who was Joseph Saffra’s sister.

In April of 2003, Shmuel and Adina Tarshish travel to Israel for Passover and pay a visit to Tante Rosie in Bnei Brak. While visiting her, Tante Rosie mentions that she is completely mesmerized every time Yosef Ettlinger visits her because he walks, talks and carries himself exactly like her late brother, Rabbi Dr. Joseph Saffra.

Tarshish returns to the United States and shares Tante Rosie’s comments with my brothers Ben and Rabbi Jonathan Seidemann and with his wife’s brothers, Rabbi Menachem and Rabbi Shimon Zehnwirth. The unanimous decision is reached to give the set of Talmud to Rabbi Dr. Joseph Saffra’s great grandson, my nephew, and Rabbi Saffra’s namesake, Yosef Yehoshua Ettlinger.

I remember my late grandfather as a brilliant Torah sage who commanded respect wherever he went. I remember him speaking at my brother’s Bar Mitzvah, his deep blue eyes, his short white beard and warm smile. He was known to know the entire Talmud without the text being open in front of him. His holy books are in good hands now; good hands and a great mind.

There will always be Holocaust deniers, and those who wish to carry on the hatred by shooting inside a museum established to put such hate to rest. My grandfather’s Talmud books in the hands of my nephew, not only refutes the denier, but sends a message to the present day hater that the hater’s dream will never overpower our reality.

David Seidemann is a partner with the law firm of Seidemann & Mermelstein.  He can be reached at (718) 692-1013 and at ds [at] lawofficesm.com.