Simon Wiesenthal, the famous Nazi-hunter, once spoke at a conference of European Rabbis
in Bratislava, Slovakia. The rabbis presented the 91-year-old Wiesenthal
with an award, and Mr.Wiesenthal, visibly moved, told them the following story.
It was in Mauthausen, shortly after liberation. The camp was
visited by Rabbi Eliezer Silver, head of Agudat
Harabanim (Union of Orthodox Rabbis of North America), on a mission to offer
aid and comfort to the survivors. Rabbi Silver also organized a special service, and he invited
Wiesenthal to join the other survivors in prayer. Mr. Wiesenthal declined, and
explained why.
"In the camp," Mr. Weisenthal said to Rabbi Silver, "there was one religious man who somehow
managed to smuggle in a siddur (prayer book). At first, I greatly admired the man for his courage -- that he'd risked his life in order to bring the siddur in. But the next
day I realized, to my horror, that this man was 'renting out' this siddur to people in exchange
for food. People were giving him their last piece of bread for a few minutes
with the prayer book. This man, who was very thin and emaciated when the whole
thing started, was soon eating so much that he died before everyone else -- his system couldn't
handle it."
Mr. Wiesenthal continued: "If this is how religious Jews behave, I'm not going
to have anything to do with a prayer book."
As Wiesenthal turned to walk away, Rabbi Silver touched him
on the shoulder and gently said in Yiddish, "Du dummer (you silly
man). Why do you look at the Jew who used his siddur to take food out
of starving people's mouths? Why don't you look at the many Jews who gave up their
last piece of bread in order to be able to use a siddur? That's faith.
That's the true power of the siddur." Rabbi Silver then embraced him.
"I went to the services the next day," said Wiesenthal.
