[Jewish True Tales] Rabb Leo Baeck

[Lawrence J. Epstein]

[http://jewishtruetales.com]

Leo Baeck (1873-1956). Rabbi Leo Baeck was a great Jewish theologian. He was a student of Hermann Cohen, a neo-Kantian who saw Judaism as ethical monotheism. Cohen’s was a philosophical God, not a personal one. For Baeck, God was very personal, with a commanding presence, only we had to decide what those commandments were for ourselves. Baeck’s sense of God gave him great courage.

He needed it. He refused to leave sick and dying survivors of the concentration camp at Theresienstadt where he was an inmate. While at the camp he organized classes for the other prisoners. The camp was liberated in early May 1945. The Russian army handed over the Nazi guards to the Jewish inmates who planned to kill them. Baeck argued with them not to kill because in doing so they would lose their own humanity.

One day an American jeep arrived at the camp. A United States army major stepped out. His name was Patrick Dolan. Major Dolan had orders. He was to escort Rabbi Baeck out of the camp and back to his family. But the Rabbi refused to leave, explaining that he remained the Rabbi of all those who had been left behind. He could not abandon them even for his own happiness, even though many of the inmates were near death. A severe epidemic of typhus was widespread in the camp. Baeck waited until it was clear that all the remaining Jews would be taken care of and, when possible, would be transported to where they wished to go. When he felt his moral obligations were completed, he felt free to seek his own needs.

On July 1, 1945 Rabbi Baeck was flown by an American bomber to Paris. On July 5, he was flown by a British military aircraft to London, where, after six years, he was re-united with his daughter, son-in-law, and granddaughter.

Rabbi Baeck remains a great example of the courage provided by a belief in a living God who commands ethical behavior.  

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Posted By Lawrence J. Epstein to Jewish True Tales at 1/13/2011 01:00:00 PM