Sam Suzuki
You are probably wondering why a Japanese American is standing before you today. Actually, I am wondering why I am up here.
I’m a real estate developer and I met Rabi Paltiel more than a year ago working on a project in Port Washington. I wanted to build a hotel that was kosher and non-kosher.
I never built a kosher kitchen before and needed advice from an expert. I turned to the Rabi for some guidance. During my talks with the Rabi we had long conversations about Judaism and Buddhism. The Rabi told me many stories that were very enlightening and eye awakening. Rabi Paltiel is truly blessed with spiritual guidance; guidance that he and his family have dedicated theirs lives too.
Believe or not, the Japanese Culture has similarities to the Jewish culture. We both like to eat raw fish, I like to eat mine with rice, you like yours with a bagel and cream cheese. We both believe in education and the pursuit of higher learning. And we also have moms that give us feelings of guilt!
But on a serious note, we have something similar that we wish we never had experienced. We have both faced the prejudice of human injustice. During world war two, we are the only two cultures that were single out to be put in concentration camps. These camps were built to isolate us from the rest of the world. As a Japanese American, I heard the camp names Manzanar, Heart Mountain, and Tule Lake. As a Jewish American, you heard the camp names Beltzec, Stutthof and Auschwitz. We both feel the chill and we both ask ourselves how could this have happened?
We just heard a speech from Mr. Sander, Mr. Sander is truly a remarkable man, he is living proof of someone who has overcome but never forgets. This man faced the terror that we wish we will never see in our lifetime. I would like to tell you a brief story; maybe Mr. Sander will know this story. In 1940, a Japanese Consulate General to Lithuania, a Mr. Chiune Sugihara, was besieged by Jewish refugees from Poland. A delegate of five men told the stories to Mr. Sugihara about the horrors that were happening in the concentration camps. These refugees desperately requested visa to travel east through the Soviet Union and end up in Japan. Once in Japan they could go to another country.
In order to issue these visas, Sugihara needed permission from the Japanese Government but he was denied his request. He turned to wife and asks for her advice. She said if we don’t help, these people will die. Mr. Sugihara knew that he had to disobey his order and safe the lives of these refugees. And then he began to issue 300 visas everyday.
A month had passed and the Germans and the Soviets took over Lithuania, he was ordered to leave the Embassy from the Japanese Government and reassigned to Germany. The Embassy was closed down and Mr. Sugihara stayed in a hotel with his family for two days waiting for the train to Germany. From his Hotel room he issued more visas to those who asked.
The refugees followed him to the train station and crowded the platform. He started to sign blank permission slips to leave the country and threw them out the window of the train. The refugees yelled at the train and said we will never forget you!
Afterwards, Mr. Sugihara’s family suffered hardship from the Japanese Government, since he disobeyed a direct order and he was asked to resign. His status in the community was taken away. In 1985 Mr. Sugihara was granted the honor of the Righteous among the Nations by the Government of Israel. The first and only Asian to receive this award. Mr. Sugihara and his decedents were given perpetual Israeli citizenship. They said that he saved at least 10,000 lives from his heroic task.
When asked why did you do this? He gave two reasons, one, that these refugees were human beings, and the other, that they simply needed help. That is why; I am up here today, Rabi Patiel simply asked for help so that he could help others. I want to dedicate this award to Mr. Sugihara and his family for showing me the true meaning of humanity. Thank you my friends---- and my family----- for your help.
David A. Alpert
Coming Soon...
Ira and Stephanie Mark
We would like to begin with a sincere thank you to everyone here who came on our behalf. It is not easy to ask friends and family to give their time and resources to support something that you believe in. Your presence means a lot to us. Stephanie and I were considering what we had to say tonight and a friend inspired us, “There was a reason you spent these years driving back and forth to Port Washington from Brookville each day, it would have been very easy to put Benny on a bus to a local school. We remembered how essential it was that our son be a part of this incredible school and our gratitude to Sara and the Rabbi for finding a place for him.
So why did Benny attend Chabad? Our daughter Isabelle began at a Jewish Day School in Manhattan and it was only then that we understood what Jewish education is. Torah gives us actual guidelines to educate children. A child must be taught according to their individual way and be guided to fulfill their specific potential. Torah encourages a constant awareness of communication and avoidance of embarrassing or judging others, especially children. Even in preschool, Torah study is conceptual and encourages critical thinking. A child is trained to open his mind, to generate ideas, reason, and identify. Ethics and character refinement, giving charity and doing acts of kindness are also part of Jewish education. The university acceptance lists at Yeshivas are impressive.
And yet, none of these reasons were what finally moved us to start our children on this path. We have been studying Torah for almost 8 years, and we needed Port Washington Chabad because of what occurred to us in the very first minutes of our first class. Simply, Torah answers questions about life. A child has many of them. Why was I born? Why should I share? or say I’m sorry? What if I am afraid? And if that child is truly thriving, the questions continue…How can I resolve this business matter ethically? What kind of person should I marry? There is so much that we want to give over to our children, so much to prepare them for. Yet, even if we had all the life wisdom we ourselves needed, there will be many, many moments throughout our children’s lives when we won’t be by their sides, when our opinions won’t make the difference, when they have to push through to find the answers alone.
If a child’s most formative years take place from Birth to age three, and personality and character begin their emergence, than Preschool is important. Not only do preschoolers develop a pattern for learning about the world, but they spend most of their day out in it. To us, it was not only logical that our children be with teachers that expanded the values of our home, but also our goal to help them feel their own access to Torah. We didn’t have a local school option, but after calling Sara Paltiel, meeting with Rabbi Glogauer and touring Port Washington Chabad, we had an answer.
This school is special. If you haven’t seen it you should. Parents feel that their child is appreciated, nurtured and safe. The school combines north shore quality academics with Torah education, as evident in the children’s scores. Benny practices pre-reading skills on a computer program that adjusts itself to his growth and has acquired his Hebrew skills as well. The older children in the building smile and say hello to him. His teachers are completely invested in his development. He is a Jewish child and we all have the same goal. Holiday and Torah study have given him pride, as he knows our tradition stems from royalty and courage. He is still only 4 and he has faith.
Benny happens to love baseball and we travel to a great coach. We think nothing of traveling to ski and exposing the children to Broadway and city museums. Ironically, we spend so much time preparing them in areas that we have no obligation. How could we possibly just leave out their legacy, their birth right.
I recently read a book given to me by a friend, called Jewish Matters and one of the chapters’ record words from an evil person that led the darkest time for the Jewish people in recent history. An argument for our demise, “If one little Jewish Boy survives, without any Jewish education, with no synagogue and no Hebrew school, it’s still in his soul.”
Fortunately we live in a time and place where we could educate this one little Jewish boy, where he is allowed to find his spirit and we can nurture what is in that little soul. He will need it for whomever he chooses to be, and whatever questions he needs to answer.
Jewish people on the North Shore use their resources to support many extremely important causes. Their names are on hospitals and university buildings and they take political or social action when it is necessary. For all of it, we need each others help. The glue that holds us together, the idea of Tzedukah itself comes from Torah. My mother says, every Shul needs daviners and it needs donors. There is a reason why secular Jews choose to support Chabad and Torah education, and it is called investment. We know that our Jewish children simply will not survive on academic and business success, their athletic victories or even happiness alone. Jews never have. We know that however we define success, it cannot stand independent of character, morality and purpose. And it looks a lot better when it has soul. The traditions and values that connect us can continue only if we teach the next generation in a way that inspires them to carry it on. By supporting Jewish education in and around our communities we make it mean something to them by showing them that it means something to us.
Mr. Zelik Sander
As a survivor, what meaning has the Chabad to me?
When I look back at the times of despair, humiliation, deprived of the minimum necessities for a human to carry on, it rings in my ears the prayers from individuals recited in very low voice while working in inhuman conditions.
They believed in our religious teachings. They believed in coming of the Messiah. When I look back at our Jewish history, it comes to my mind our slavery in Egypt, Purim (Haman), the Spanish Inquisition, the Czar in Russia, the pogroms in Kiev, the Polish anti-Semitism and of course the Master Race (Germany) just to mention a few.
I ask myself, where would we Jews be today were it not for the devoted Rabbis and teachers teaching religion underground risking their lives if they were to be discovered?
The religious nourishment supplied by Chabad gave us the hope, and helped us survive to be witness to the rebirth of the State of Israel. Today we don’t need other countries to speak on our behalf. We Jews have a home with open doors for everyone.
By supporting Chabad and the state of Israel you have an insurance, that the barbarism of the 20th Century for whom man was such a worthless being will never happen again. It is an insurance our children and grandchildren will never have to witness the atrocities what I witnessed. This is what Chabad means to me.