Spring ISSUE
THE CLASSROOM OF COURAGE
Pesach Shavuot Edition
BY RA B B I C H A I M S T E I N M E T Z
IN THIS ISSUE R A B B I C H A I M S T E I N M E T Z 1 RABBI HASKEL LOOKSTEIN
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RABBI MEYER L ANIADO
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R A B B I DA N I E L & R AC H E L K R AU S 10 R ABBI ROY FEL DMAN 12 C A N T O R C H A I M D OV I D B E R S O N 14 CL ASSES
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I N T H E C O M M U N I T Y 1 8 H O L I D AY S 3 0 W I T H I N O U R FA M I LY 4 3 IN MEMORIAM
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B N E I M I T Z VA H
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Z M A N I M 4 8
VO LU M E XC , N U M B E R I I M A RC H 8 , 2 0 2 1 | A D A R 2 4 , 5 7 8 1
Highlights PURIM RECAP YONINA CONCERT PESACH SHABBAT HA-GADOL SHAVUOT YOMS R abbi C haim S teinmetz
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On the early morning of July 11, 1947, the steamship President Warfield set sail from Sète, France. On this ship, built to accommodate 800 people, were nearly 4,500 passengers, all of whom were survivors of the Holocaust. Each carried a diminutive bag of worldly possessions, and the epic dream of returning to their Biblical homeland. This was a risky and difficult voyage. The British wouldn’t allow new Jewish immigrants into Mandatory Palestine, and these survivors were trying to slip past a military blockade on a dangerously overcrowded boat. There were volunteer ushers constantly walking through the boat to make sure that an equal number of people were on both sides of the boat at all times, to keep the boat balanced. During the
journey two babies were born and, tragically, one of the mothers died in childbirth. On July 16, as the President Warfield neared the coast of Mandatory Palestine, it was met by six ships from the British Navy. With its true identity no longer a secret, the crew renamed the ship and unfurled a flag saying: Haganah Ship - Exodus 1947. (In Hebrew it was called Yetziat Europa.) Two days later, the British Navy boarded the ship. In the battle that ensued, two members of the crew and one of the passengers were killed before the British took control. This daring mission inspired the Leon Uris novel (and later movie) Exodus. But this is the rare instance when the fictional depiction of the story is less dramatic than the reality. The British Navy brought the Exodus 1947 to Haifa harbor. Ernest Bevin, the British Foreign Minister, was determined to teach the refugees a harsh lesson, to deter future illegal immigration. So the next day, these survivors were reboarded onto three smaller ships to be returned to France. When these refugees reached France, they were promised citizenship and a comfortable place to live if only they would get off the boats. But the
