By JACK MURTHA
Special to The Chronicle
The power of the pen has proved critical to an Edison rabbi’s push to pass the lessons learned through the Holocaust to future generations.
Rabbi Bernhard H. Rosenberg, a Kansas City native who is the spiritual leader of Congregation Beth-El in Edison, N.J., has written several books on the subject. His latest endeavor, “The Holocaust as Seen Through Film,” was published recently and is available on Amazon.com in April.
The book is a tool for educators to teach the horrors of the Holocaust to high school seniors, college students and graduate candidates, he said.
“What I want the students to come away with is basically a lesson in what was done to humanity, what was done to the Jewish people and what lessons we should learn from the Holocaust to make the world better today,” Rabbi Rosenberg said.
Widely recognized films such as “Schindler’s List,” “Life is Beautiful,” and “The Pianist” are featured in Rabbi Rosenberg’s book, along with lesser-known pieces like the documentary “Paper Clips,” he said.
The rabbi compiled the selection not with critical acclaim in mind, but each title’s ability to call upon different themes associated with the catastrophic event orchestrated by Adolph Hitler in Nazi Germany, Rabbi Rosenberg said.
Questions for discussion and information on how to use the material in a classroom setting accompany each section of the book, he said.
“I want the students to be involved,” said Rabbi Rosenberg, who has several advanced degrees, including a doctorate in education, and has taught a Rutgers University class on the subject. “It’s not to just watch the movie and then not take away anything from it. The idea is to watch the movie, discuss the movie and, in some cases, there are papers written.”
Rabbi Rosenberg’s motivation to write the book came from a commitment to preserve the memory of the Holocaust, he said. He said he fears that a similar tragedy could grip Jewish people once more if it is lumped in with other genocides in the history books.
That has inspired him to author a prayer book and a Passover Haggadah that focus on the Holocaust, too, he said.
“The reason being that if you incorporate it into the ritual itself, the Holocaust memory will survive,” Rabbi Rosenberg added.
Aside from his devotion to the faith, Rabbi Rosenberg has a deep connection to the Holocaust, which drives him to engrain its terrors into the public consciousness. Nazis imprisoned his father at the Auschwitz concentration camp, and his mother suffered through several labor camps and a concentration camp, Rabbi Rosenberg said.
The rabbi was born in a displaced-persons camp in Germany, he said.
“I grew up in this. I saw the emotional turmoil in my own home and what the Holocaust did to my parents,” he said.
If readers take anything from his work, it should be that evil continues to pervade the world, but regular people can stand up to those malicious forces.
“We have to fight evil,” Rabbi Rosenberg said. “We cannot stand idly by. We cannot be bystanders.”
Reprinted with permission of Greater Media Newspapers.