Thirty-nine years later I would visit Buchenwald, perched atop a spectacular view of the Thuringian Mountains, where my father spent the next few horrifying weeks. A visa to England, secured by relatives through the office of the chief rabbi, made Hanukkah that year an unforgettable festival of freedom for the Schorsch family. I was too young to remember those grim events, but they are encapsulated for me in that faded printed program, which I had framed and matted in black, and hangs in my office. It is an heirloom that I cherish beyond words and will transmit to my children for theirs. Of such remnants is memory stitched together.
Stories are the link that tenuously join one generation to the next.
And each of us has a story to share. The memory of our children must be seeded and nurtured with spiritual heirlooms. We prompt our children to ask us questions, even helping them to formulate questions when they are too young to ask on their own, so that we might have the chance to tell them our story and that of our ancestors and that of our people. Judaism is nothing if not morality, theology and ritual embedded in narrative. The most fundamental mission of JTS is to assist us in the recounting of our tales.