For the first five years of my life, I was blessed with a unique and truly amazing friendship. My best friend gave me the sweetest chocolates, made me laugh with pure happiness, and provided the most genuine love I have ever received. He did all of these things and gave all he could to those around him despite having everything taken from him when he was just a young boy.
This best friend is my zayde, of blessed memory. My bubbie and zayde were two of very few Jewish people from their communities in Poland who survived the atrocities of the Holocaust. Despite all of the torture, fear and starvation that he experienced firsthand, the first words that my zayde said upon his rescue from Buchenwald concentration camp on the afternoon of April 11, 1945, were, “We have to find my little brother, Jack.” Weighing less than 60 pounds at the time, he was barely able to move or think; yet his innate capacity to care for others had not been diminished in the slightest.
Where did this come from? How did my beloved grandfather miraculously possess this superhuman courage and faith amidst the darkest of times in his life?
I know the answer and I feel it in my soul: It was his steadfast commitment to the Torah and the mitzvot. It was the light of the Torah and the spirit of the mitzvot that carried him on and helped sustain and nourish his soul to survive, to strive for another day, and to eagerly lend a helping hand to a fellow Jew whenever he had an opportunity to do so.
Growing up I have heard these stories about my zayde and his remarkable faith and courage. And while I admired his stories so greatly, it seemed to me that there may have been a gap between the life that I was living, and the kind of lifestyle that my zayde lived and breathed each day. His life, like many Jews living in Poland prior to the Holocaust, involved committed study of Torah, observance of the mitzvot, and day-to-day life being enriched with Jewish observance. Judaism is what he woke up to, what he did throughout the day, and what he did before bed.
But then in every generation we lose more and more elements of our heritage, and we stray further and further from whom we are meant to be in this world. This happens to many of us, and it happened in my life too.
But surely my dear zayde must have been watching very closely from on high, as it was in college that things were set into motion that brought me to a new place — a place that was so close to him and a place where he surely really wanted me to be.
It was during my first week of college as a new freshman when I walked into the Chabad House. As I entered this space, I met the rabbi with his glowing smile and I felt his warmth —both the warm embrace of his giant hug, and the tangible warmth of love that radiates from his genuine fervor for meeting a fellow Jew. Noting the large beard, I asked myself in this moment, why is this very hairy stranger so excited to see me?
After this meeting I attended a Shabbat dinner. After a few of those I signed up for Sinai Scholars, a select group that studies classic Jewish texts and offers social programming. And three years later, I look back to see that the hairy stranger I met when I first got to college has changed my life.
Because of my involvement with Chabad at KU, I have been blessed to be in Israel five times for Jewish learning opportunities, in New York twice for college Shabbatons, and the National Jewish Learning retreat for three years in a row. I have also increased my mitzvah quotient to an all-time high by putting on tefillin daily, placing a mezuzah on my doorposts, and loving, cherishing and looking forward every single week to Shabbat — the day on which I most strongly connect with God, myself and those around me.
What is it about Judaism, what about Chabad on Campus, and about Sinai Scholars that made them such transformative experiences for me? What is the root of its potency and strength?
The reason is simple. It was simply bringing me back home. Reconnecting me with who I really am, linking my loop in the chain directly to my zayde’s and to those before him, this is a journey that is such a seamless and natural course to take.
Zayde, today I have come to cherish so dearly that which was of such vital importance to you growing up in Poland. Zayde, I have now come back home.
Thank you to Rabbi Zalman and Nechama Tiechtel of my beloved Chabad House at KU, and thank you to Sinai Scholars. Thank you to my family for enriching my life with constant love and appreciation for our Jewish roots. Most importantly, thank you Zayde for planting the seeds for me to keep carrying on the torch of Torah, mitzvot and Yiddishkeit for my children, my grandchildren, and many generations of passionate Jews to come.
KU senior Joel Gutovitz shared these words as a guest speaker at the National Jewish Retreat earlier this month in Rhode Island. More than 1,000 students from all over the globe, including seven from KU, gathered for Jewish discussion, lectures and insight from teachers and scholars.
