[By Rabbi Yair Hoffman]
It was a wonderful and inspiring meeting, where everyone wanted to do the right thing. It was a meeting of two people who stood worlds and cultures apart, coming together. Dr. Moshe Katz grew up and learned in the Chadarim of Ungvar – home of Rav Shlomo Ganzfried, author of the Kitzur Shulchan Aruch. Dr. Katz is well into his eighties. Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi is a man in his forties, who grew up in the modern streets of the cities of Eretz Yisroel, prior to his remarkable path to bringing others closer to Hashem.
[SEE VIDEO BELOW]
Rabbi Mizrachi drove all the way from Monsey, New York to the city – through rain, howling wind, and, yes, hail. Dr. Katz accepted the Rabbi into his home warmly and graciously as his wife served him cake and coffee.
Patiently, Dr. Moshe Katz taught his newest student about the holocaust as he has been teaching for the past twenty five years. He spoke of the anti-Semitism in every European country. He spoke of the virulent anti-Semitism that existed before, during, and after the holocaust. But this time, his emphasis was more focused upon the anti-Semitism that existed before the holocaust. An anti-Semitism that in and of itself disproved the bizarre numbers of eighty percent intermarriage that the Rabbi had heard of previously.
Dr. Katz spoke of exact numbers. Each country’s number of Jews, and the religious level of observance of Jews in each country. He spoke of how many Jews were murdered, and how many had escaped. He spoke of time-frames and the years in which each country uniquely experienced the holocaust. Dr. Katz even patiently drew a map of the continent of Europe.
We live in a community that is blessed with the foresight, can-do-ism, and wisdom of Dr. Moshe Katz. I had thought that I knew something about him. How he had helped rebuild a Torah world after the devastation of the holocaust. How he had started Yeshiva of South Shore, the Torah Academy for Girls, Yeshiva Darchei Torah. How he had been a founding member of Yeshiva Sh’or Yoshiv. How he had supported numerous Kollelim and Yeshivos. Just last week, I had witnessed how he had distributed a rose to every young lady in his high school classes that had managed to receive a hundred on his test on the holocaust.
Last night, I saw Dr. Katz’s extraordinary patience – a patience forged in the fire of death and suffering caused by the Nazi beasts who had extinguished European Jewry. It was a patience that taught of hate and how it could never and should never be repeated. This was Dr. Moshe Katz, businessman, builder of Torah and educator extraordinaire of the holocaust.
Last night, in Rabbi Yosef Mizrachi, I also saw genuine regret. A regret born of a pain – a pain inadvertently caused by this remarkable Kiruv Rabbi to his own people. This was a man who genuinely wanted to learn, to correct errors past – and to change – for the future.
Dr. Katz gave him a copy of his book – Nine out of Ten – a narrative of his own family’s journey through that horrific period in contemporary Jewish history. He also gave him a copy of Phil Chernosfsky’s famous book, “And Every Single One Was Someone.” This book is 1250 pages of the word Jew written 4800 times on each page. The subtle message was that the product of these two figures is six million not one million. It was not lost upon the Rabbi who took the message to heart.
The meeting lasted a few minutes shy of an hour and half.
In short, this author believes the apology expressed heartfelt and genuine feelings. Some will have doubts of this, and dismiss it as wishful naïvete, but Dr. Katz accepted his apology as sincere. And if Dr. Katz is naïve, I would prefer to be in this tzaddik’s company than to be in that cynical contemptuous world of pessimism, suspicion and distrust of all people who initiate change. The final page of the ninth chapter of tractate Nedarim has a poignant illustration of how culturally-derived miscommunications can wreak havoc in people’s lives. The Gemorah’s message is that sometimes cultural bridges are in fact a vast chasm, and cannot always be bridged.
Will there be missteps in the Rabbi’s future path? Hopefully not, but we all make mistakes. The point is what we do to make up for these mistakes when they do happen. To quote Rabbi Mizrachi, “I learned a valuable lesson here.” The path of true-Torah, of course, is deracheha darchei noam. It takes extraordinary strength to apologize when one has taken a misstep.
First and foremost, we must realize something very important. Rabbi Mizrachi could have done what others do. And he could have refused to apologize. Now, he could also have doubled down on an erroneous position, and have taken pot shots at those who have called him out for an error. Klal Yisroel, however, has benefited here. Fortunately for us, Rabbi Mizrachi didn’t take this path. Ultimately, he owned up to an error and took full responsibility for it. Responsibility, taking acharayus for our actions, is something we could all start doing a bit more. To do so, however, is truly rare. Every one of us could learn an invaluable lesson from here. Remarkable individuals make up for mistakes by apologizing for them, and thus become all the greater for it.
The author can be reached at [email protected]
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18 Responses
Mi K’Amcha, Yisroel!
Rabbi Mizrachi is an extraordinary mentch..Im glad the world got to see the True Ish, not the villian potrayed by the various blogs…I know the Rabbi personally…His dedication and selfless dedication to the Klal should be applauded..Hopefully we can all move on…Kudo’s to YWN for the video…Chazak Ubaruch…
FINALLY – the man has displayed some humility.
For those of us campaigning, this is a result we have been trying to reach for 3 years.
He is also taking the time to think about what comes out of his mouth before opening it.
Long may it continue, and may his students, especially the ones who shamefully wrote to YWN attacking Dr. Katz, follow this example.
WE LOVE YOU RABBI MIZRACHI!!
This shows that Rabbi Mizrachi is a true LEADER may he continue his Avoidass Hakoidesh!
YWN has sold out to this charlatan. He makes odious remarks about IDF soldiers, kedoshim who perished in the Holocaust, distressed parents who have handicapped children and much more…And YWN is promoting this charlatan with his fake excuses. Shame on YWN !
Wow amazing. I hope that those who made negative comments learn from Rabbi Mizrachi and do teshuva. Lashon hara can make one lose all his/her olam haba. Never get involved in machloket. If you did, then apologize before it’ll be too late. And I don’t mean only here but in general, people should not gamble with their olam haba by writing negative comments
Beautiful!
But can he ask the Neo-Nazi & KKK Websites to take down their Endorsement of his Speeches?
It is incredible to see Dr. Katz initiate this Kiddush Hashem and continue in his life mission of Holocaust education and tolerance for all.
I do hope that Rabbi Mizrachi was able to hear some amazing Holocaust survival stories from Dr. Katz as we who took his Holocaust Studies course in Yeshiva of Far Rockaway were privileged to hear.
May Hakadosh Baruch Hu bentch Dr. Katz with much Nachas, Simcha and Gezunt Ad Meah V’Esrim Shana.
Talk is recorded, then released through out the internet & social medias. Watch your words & stop the exaggerations & hurtful statements. KIRUV USUALLY comes thru Love & Respect not hot coals.
People always make mistakes, but the beauty from rabbi mizrachi is his willingness to learn and not have any busha to apologize!!! This is a true rabbi!! This is a true Hashem person, I know heimisha people that he changed there lives! Keep it up! Your zchar is big!!
yasher koach to Rabbi Hoffman for following the footsteps of Aharon Hakohen for being Rodef shalom and ohev shalom, and yasher koach to Rabbi Mizrachi for showing his tzidkut and following the path of shalom.
if we have shalom among our self and make sure there is no sinat chinam among us , we don’t have to worry about anti semitism, Hashem would fight for us and destroy our enemies.
Let us all learn from this episode – to err is human to forgive is divine
Kiddush Hashem, I think not. Rabbi Mizrachi’s comments have been picked up by Stormfront, one of the largest White Supremecy/Aryan sites in the USA and perhaps the world.
Below are a few of the comments:
“6 million was always a lie which has been proven by the jew population numbers”
“The entire story is BS. None of their claims are scientifically possible, and there are no records that corroborate any of their claims”
Beautiful!
I didn’t realize the original video with wrong numbers of Jewish Holocaust was made four years ago. What happened now that it created such an uproar? I’m confused what caused this to happen now.
Anyway,
Rabbi Mizrachi, we all make mistakes. Thank you for apologizing.
Cobycom1: I am with you on this. Rabbi Mizrachi has made horribly false statements that are rooted in much more than colossal ignorance of Jewish history. For, heavens sake, everyone knows 6,000,000 Jews were murdered in the Holocaust after they were made to suffer greatly. Who, would ever tamper with this indisputable fact?!
Rabbi Mizrachi has much to atone for and I am not sure it is Rabbi Katz to whom he owes an apology. Really YWN! A mushy display about nothing!
Watching the video and apology that R. Mizrachi made after meeting with R. Katz, I truly hoped that this was a corner turned. After all, as some say, this was about a video made 4 years ago (although posted more recently). While the damage done cannot be undone, one would certainly want to accept a sincere apology and allow the past to be the past. I had hoped that this was a lesson learned and that the future would be free of such comments.
Sadly, that does not seem to be the case. A new photograph, of a Jewish man with a beard being forced by the Nazis to put on his tallis and tephillin as they mock him was just posted on R. Mizrahi’s Facebook page. The caption provided there is “Your ancestors in the Holocaust had 5 minutes to lay tefillin, and you don’t ???”.
Is there no other source for inspirational comments or memes than the Holocaust? Is the image of a man being brutally maltreated by the Nazis as he stands next to the fallen bodies of his fellow Jews appropriate for this statement?
Sadly, the statement about the six million was not the only off-tangent statement that R. Mizrachi has made, although it seems to be one of the few he has apologized for. Perhaps it would have been better had he not bothered to drive all that way in rain, howling wind, and, yes, hail.