Ohad Yahalomi (z"l), whose relatives live here in Portland, along with Itzik Elgarat (z"l), Shlomo Mantzur (z"l), Tsahi Idan (z"l), were returned to Israel late Wednesday night. All four were murdered by Hamas. Our hearts go out to the families. May their memories be for a blessing.

I spent this past week in Washington, DC on a combined trip between the Jewish Federation of Greater Portland and the Vancouver Avenue First Baptist Church. This was a follow-up to the Civil Rights Mission to Georgia and Alabama held together in 2022.

While in DC, our group visited the United States Holocaust Museum, the National Museum of African American History and Culture, and spent time on Capitol Hill lobbying our state delegation.

It has been over 20 years since I was last at the United States Holocaust Museum. I am sure some of the exhibits have changed since then, but they were all eerily familiar. For those who have been, you never forget the feeling of standing in and walking through the cattle car that was actually used to take people to the death camps.

What made this visit to the Museum so impactful was our docent, Nat, himself a Holocaust Survivor. 

The first thing you see when you start the tour is the liberation of the camps by American soldiers. You then quickly move into how this all came to be. Nat emphasized the Nazis could not do this alone. There were not enough of them. They needed conspirators to join them in their cause. Sadly, there were too many eager people willing to help.

While touring the Museum, there were multiple school groups. I would stop each one to ask where they were from. Several were from the DC area, but one was from Thomasville, Georgia (near the Georgia/Florida border). When someone asked a teacher why they were there, she said, “History books do not tell this story,” especially regarding what America knew and what America did not do to help the Jews and others.

At the end of our time with Nat, he shared his family’s personal story. His family owned a successful dairy farm in Romania. They would provide excess milk and donations to the church next to their farm on a regular basis and were friendly with the priest. One day, when Nat was seven years old, the priest came to their home with two guards and said, “They are Jews.” The family was given four hours to leave their home. Nat, with his mother and sisters, were taken to a nearby ghetto while his father was taken to a work camp. When his father was being taken away, he told Nat, “Take care of the girls and never give up in the face of injustice.”

While in the ghetto, an incident happened where Nat’s mother saved the life of a Nazi collaborator's child. Fast forward to the end of the war, the entire family was fortunately reunited and they made the decision to leave Romania and go to then Palestine. Their visa was denied repeatedly. They finally decided to go in person to the visa office – and who was in charge -- the mother of the saved child. Nat’s mother said to her, “I saved your child’s life. Now you save my family’s life.” And they were given visas. (I should add -- the priest who turned the family in was rewarded by the Nazis and given ownership of 1/3 of the farm land.)

Today, Nat is 88 years old. He looks like he is 70. He speaks seven languages, gives tours three days a week, and at the age of 65 he decided to run his first marathon. Better yet, at the age of 83 he hiked Mt. Kilimanjaro. He told us that on the seventh and final day of the climb he did not think he would make it. But he remembered his dad telling him to “never give up” and he made it to the summit.

Nat ended by sharing he has five children and 12 grandchildren. When asked why he leads tours, he quickly responded, “I am my family’s voice! I will continue to tell the story. And knowing I have 12 grandchildren means the Nazis did not win.”

We spent a day at the National Museum of African American History and Culture. It was my first visit there. It is hard for me to put into words my experience and reaction. Each exhibit, from what happened 500 years ago to what transpired in the past 20 years hit me hard.

I was born in 1969. One hundred and twenty-five years before, in 1844, the Provisional Government of Oregon passed the Black exclusion law stating Black people who tried to settle in Oregon would be publicly whipped – 39 lashes, repeated every six months – until they left. And, just a few years before I was born people were required to ride in a separate train car and had to use a different water fountain and children attended different schools. It is difficult for me to even comprehend.

As I was finishing the museum, I saw a magazine cover from Janaury 1977 highlighting Alex Haley’s Roots. I was 7 years old when the television series came out -- eight consecutive nights of required viewing in my house. The show was my first introduction to the slave trade and the struggles of Blacks in our country.

The designers of these museums would have loved our group. Eighteen people – each with different takeaways and experiences. I believe that is exactly what they would want.

Our last day was spent lobbying on Capitol Hill. We met with members of the Oregon delegation, including Sen. Ron Wyden, Rep. Suzanne Bonamici, Rep. Andrea Salinas, Rep. Janelle Bynum, and Rep. Maxine Dexter. We discussed issues of importance to our communities, including Medicaid funding, security, and fighting hate and antisemitism.

Lobbying in person makes such an important impact – especially when you go in person all the way from Oregon. I know they appreciated our visit – and we are grateful for their work on our behalf.

Overall, the experience in DC was a special opportunity to bring our communities together and to learn with and from one another. I made new friends and realize how much we have in common. We must build on that -- think what more we can do together -- and never give up.

Shabbat shalom.