The Short Vort by Rabbi Eisenman

Tonight, the 25^th of Adar, is the 19^th Yahrtzeit of my father-in-law, Willi Herzka.

My father-in-law was one of those saved from the Holocaust via the Kindertransport.

The Kindertransport was a rescue operation that brought nearly 10,000 Jewish children from Nazi-occupied Europe to Great Britain between 1938 and 1940.

Although, thankfully, with the help of Hashem, he would be reunited with his parents after the war, he never forgot the hardships of being without parents, and he was a source of comfort to the underdog for the rest of his life.

This one story illustrates his kindness.

It was back in the 1970s.

The three Goldman boys had lost their father suddenly over six months ago.

The boys, Baruch, 15, Yosef, 13, and Moishe, 11, were now faced with the prospect of coming to Shul every Shabbos without a father.

Each Shabbos, as they entered the Shteibel in Queens where their father davened, they knew that all eyes were staring at them.

The necessity for the boys to recite Kaddish for their father complicated the situation.

Men would give them instructions on how and when to say Kaddish with an authoritative and commanding voice.

"Say Kaddish louder," one man would say, and a second later, another "expert" would demand, "Do you have to shout the Kaddish? Do you think we are deaf?"

Maybe the boys sometimes behaved like boys; maybe they argued a bit too loudly; however, they were orphans.

Yet, few, if any, of the men in the Shul ever bothered to take any of them under his wing and show love and compassion.

That is except for one man.

Willie, as he was known, knew the pain of being an orphan.

He was separated from his parents at age nine and was placed on a Kindertransport, which transferred him from his home in Vienna and brought him to a non-Jewish home in England.

He ended up in an orphanage in England where he celebrated his Bar Mitzvah alone, being taunted by some of the older boys and not knowing if his parents were alive or dead.

Willie watched over the three boys with compassion, becoming their official protector.

Willie was a physically powerful man, able to lift air conditioners- which he installed and maintained for his livelihood- with his bare hands.

His arms were muscular, and when there was a need for someone to do Hagbah on a particularly heavy Torah, all eyes turned to Willie.



One day, one of the men felt the younger of the three had overstepped his boundaries, and in a rage, he threw the boy out of Shul as he stated, "And don't you dare ever come back!"

Willie observed the entire incident and ran after the young orphan.

When he caught up to him, he put his large arm around his shoulder and guaranteed his protection if he agreed to come back with him to Shul.

"I know how you feel; I was also once in an orphanage. I know the pain of loneliness."

The boy agreed and returned with his defender to Shul.

My father-in-law then announced, "! I know how it feels to be without parents. Our Torah commands us to be extra compassionate with his Yesomim. For now on, whoever bothers any of these three boys will have to answer to me!"

That young man remained in Shul and went on to become a well-known Rav who was known for his compassion and kindness.

Yehei Zichro Baruch