That Simchas Torah, he related, was the first time he ever felt like a Yid
Last week, the Minneapolis community hosted Abie Rotenberg and Joey Newcomb for a Shabbos of achdus and song. The culminating highlight was a Motzaei Shabbos kumzitz/concert, where Abie and Joey regaled the crowd with hits ranging from “Joe DiMaggio’s Card” to “The Krach Fun de Pickle.” Attending the event were many young professionals still on the path toward Torah-observant Judaism.
A particularly poignant moment occurred when Abie related the story behind his classic song “The Man from Vilna.” The song depicts a group of Holocaust survivors who, during the Simchas Torah immediately following liberation, realized they had no sifrei Torah to dance with, and instead held aloft two children and danced with them.
One of the children in the story, Abie shared, was Abraham Foxman, who later became the longtime president of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), devoting his life to combatting anti-Semitism. Abie described how the young Foxman’s parents had left him in the care of a Catholic family during the war, and when they came to retrieve him, he didn’t even know he was Jewish. He had, in fact, developed a scornful disdain for Jews during his time with the Catholic family. But that Simchas Torah, he related, was the first time he ever felt like a Yid.
For everyone in attendance, the story struck a chord. For those privileged to be raised in frum communities, and those whose souls yearn for return, the phrase “the first time he ever felt like a Yid” resonated.
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