Maccabi Games come to Vienna!
Ed put together a special lunch with diplomats and, more importantly, over 60 survivors, after we finished our coffee and tea with our new friends. I sat with Ida and Heinz again and we shared the table with their friends and Gideon (my new Israeli friend who is a teacher in Jerusalem). The ladies at the table spoke Hebrew and it proved much easier to converse this way (although, you have to be very special for me to actually give my conversational skills a go).
As with Centropa tradition, the lunch began with a joke from one of the Centropa cronies. Then the Chief Rabbi of Vienna told a joke. Both had us all laughing. (Sorry, I didn’t film it this year and I am terrible at repeating jokes)
Ed opened the lunch by talking about Righteous Among the Nations and Jews who helped other Jews during the war—for whom many would not be here to share their stories today. He shared with us an old Polish expression: “He who helps first, helps twice.”
The dignitary speeches this year were focused with much deserved pride on the 13th European Maccabi Games taking place in Vienna from July 5th through the 13th this year.
Some words from Dr. Kurt Scholz, President of the Board of the Zukunftsfonds:
-- We live in the present and we live for the future. In the present, as a strong ally of Israel. For the future and today with the Maccabi Games in Vienna this year. The Maccabi Games are a sign of this: 3,600 Jewish guests from all over Europe.
--When I went to school, Austrian schools finished teaching history with 1918. Yes, Austria was a victim but many Austrians were perpetrators. – Dr. Scholz recalled a speech he gave in 1993 at Hebrew University, re: why Holocaust education is essential, especially Centropa
--In 1938, thousands of Austrians stood in the spot screaming and shouting for Hitler. Yesterday we stood in the same spot celebrating thousands of Jews coming together for the Maccabi Games.
The next speaker was Galit Ronen, the Israel Embassy’s Deputy Chief of Mission in Austria. Before my friend Daniel Meron was the Israel Foreign Ministry’s US Congressional Minister, Galit was in this position. After lunch was over, we connected right away. She is just as wonderful as Daniel said she would be and her remarks were truly inspiring. It turns out she also knows my good friend, Fred Turner! Again, what a small world!
She was at the Macabbi Games Inaugural Ceremony the other night and shared with us:
“And I remember thinking: This is my flag. Previously there were other flags here. Today is a Jewish victory. The spirits’ victory. A human victory. “
Galit’s grandfather was the sole survivor of his family. He started an orphanage by day where he taught children who had survived the Shoah to be kids again. And, by night, he smuggled them into Palestine.
The room was full of heroes today. It was in the air. Day 4 was absolutely perfect!
