Deborah Waxman:     Thanks so much for listening to Hashivenu. I want to let you know that this episode is slightly different from most of our episodes. It’s a conversation with my childhood rabbi, Rabbi Philip Lazowski, a really wonderful man. Rabbi Lazowski is a Holocaust survivor and this episode is to commemorate Yom Hasho’ah, Holocaust Remembrance Day. His story truly embodies resilience, and it’s a very hard story, full of loss and horror. So first, a warning that some of what he talks about is not appropriate for young children. And we made a decision here at Reconstructing Judaism not to cut his story short, so while most episodes of Hashivenu are about 25 minutes long, this is longer, about 43 minutes. This won’t be our habit, but we thought it appropriate for this episode. And I wanted to give you the heads up to listen especially for Mrs. Rabinowitz, the nurse who plays an incredibly important role in Rabbi Lazowski’s survival. She first appears around 7 minutes into the interview, but you’ll hear about her two more times, and it’s an amazing story. Rabbi Lazowski, Mrs. Rabinowitz and everyone he talks about demonstrate that we can, even in the most extreme circumstances, choose to act in ways that affirm life and connection and love. May this remembrance teach us.


[Music]

Philip Lazowski:    And the last words of my mother was "I want you to live. I want you to tell the world what transpired here and remember to be somebody in this world."

Deborah Waxman:     I'm Rabbi Deborah Waxman and I'm so happy to welcome you to Hashivenu, a podcast about Jewish teachings on resilience. I have a very special guest today, Rabbi Philip Lazowski.  Rabbi Lazowski was my childhood rabbi. He has a tremendous amount to do with my choosing to become a rabbi. Throughout my childhood he modeled warmth and love and just in both a metaphorical and a very physical way, an embrace of me and my entire family. And I'm so delighted that he's here with us today. He has a long list of accomplishments. The synagogue in which I grew up was Congregation Beth Hillel in Bloomfield, Connecticut. So he served as the rabbi there for many, many decades and he's now emeritus rabbi at Congregation Emanuel right nearby in West Hartford. In addition to his congregational work, he has served as the chaplain of the Connecticut Senate, the chaplain of Hartford Hospital, and he just retired after 55 years of service as a chaplain to the Connecticut State Police. 

Deborah Waxman:     Rabbi Lazowski, thank you so much for being with us today.

Philip Lazowski:    My pleasure.

Deborah Waxman:     I wanted to ask you to come on to this show for our podcast dedicated to Yom Hashoah, to the Holocaust Remembrance Day, because I have been inspired throughout my life by your extraordinary story, by the story itself, your background, and also by the life that you've created for yourself. 

Deborah Waxman:     I'd like to begin by asking you to share your story with our listeners, to talk about where you were born and if you want to talk a little bit about your life before the Shoah and then to tell the story about how you survived -- and you know that there's a particular story that I'd like you to tell. So, do you want to begin?

Philip Lazowski:    Well, I would like to tell you my story of survival. I was the first born son in my family with four boys and one girl. When the Germans came to our town, Belitsa, which is near Vilna, I was 11 years old. It was in 1941. Most of the village, including our home, was burned as soon as the Germans came into town because there was a fight between the Russians and the Germans. 

Philip Lazowski:    When they burned our home, we went to live with our grandparents with the home that was not burned. And then, of course, the Germans started how to kill the Jews. So first they devised all methods of torture such as running the gauntlet. They first killed the intelligentsia, the brightest and the most respected members of the community, including our beloved rabbi, Shabtai Fein. Then they took all the gold and the silver and the diamonds, whatever the Jews possessed and they took hostages with the intentions of obtaining even more of our possession. And then they killed them. 

Philip Lazowski:    But in a few months, we were forced to relocate into another ghetto, which is called Zhenczaw (?). Well, the conditions were subhuman, very crowded, filthy, and missing the basics like food, water, and toilets. All our seven were in one room. So we had many good Christian friends and they came to advise us that the killing in other ghettos started. So we built a hidden cave. 

Philip Lazowski:    Since I was the oldest child, I offered to conceal the entrance of the cave after the family was safely inside and I find myself in a selection line in the marketplace. I was part of a procession of people with pallid faces and frightened hearts, encompassed by sheer panic. It was surrounded by Nazis with drawn bayonets and the Jews' cry of agony almost reached the heavens. A woman was feeding a baby while standing in the line among the thousands of Jews there and a Nazi came with the bayonet and pierced the baby and threw it like a football.

Philip Lazowski:    And people were scared in their souls and wounded in their spirits and damaged in their attitudes. And then the selection began. The Nazis were masters of deception. They used euphemism to cover their intentions. Jews were told they are being sent to work centers. In reality, they are being sent to the slaughterhouse.

Philip Lazowski:    We were assembled in the marketplace to be sent to this selection where they put us to death and then, of course, they began choosing. They were choosing, for instance, men that are capable of hard work and those who could be used to the Nazis such as doctors and nurses. And I stood there in line waiting to be sent to the death. 

Philip Lazowski:    But in the meantime I was looking for if they found the cave of my family. Well, I didn't find anybody that I know so I went over to a few people and asked them if they're going to take me as their son. And everybody said, "We have our own children." And then I went over to a lady that ... She was holding a certificate that she's a nurse and she said to me, if they're going to let me live with two children, you can stand by and maybe they'll let me live with three children. 

Philip Lazowski:    Well, she went over and showed the certificate and, of course, since she noticed the man who make with the finger right and left, this Nazi sent us to life. Well, her face was glow with graciousness when she said, if he let me live with two young children, they will let me live with three. I took her arm and she showed the certificate to the Germans and we were redirected to the left side so, as a matter of fact, my Star of David was ripped apart and if the Germans saw that it was ripped apart they would kill you right away. In her pocket was a little thing that was able to pin me down.

Deborah Waxman:     So you asked her. She said she'd try and she succeeded and then she also repaired the yellow star.

Philip Lazowski:    Repaired my mogen da-, the yellow six star of David sign because you have to wear it in the front and the back. And the pushing was from the back, all ripped. So I was fortunate enough that this lady took me in as her son, which I never seen the lady before in my life with the two children. And I thanked her kindly after and I asked for her name and she told me her name is Rabinowitz. I raced back to the fate my family. Suddenly I saw four bodies lying near my house and my hands and my feet numbed. And a wave of dizziness swamped me and I collapsed. As I walked, I saw my mother standing next to me -- was this my imagination? Was this real? Lo and behold, it was real. Mother embraced me so tightly that I've never forgotten that moment in my life. 

Philip Lazowski:    Accidentally, a few weeks passed by and I looked out through the window and immediately recognized the lady who saved my life walking with one of her daughters. I cried out to my mother, "Mother, look. This is the lady who saved my life." And my mother went out and blessed her and thanked her for doing such a noble thing. But in a few months, the Judenrein, Judenrein means final massacre, began. No one is to be left alive. 

Philip Lazowski:    Father was not with us. He had gone to work that morning and once again we entered the cave. We were there five days, cramped in darkness. We were discovered. The sun was blinding after so many days in the cave. And Mother said, "If you can save yourself, try, because this looks like the end." 

Philip Lazowski:    One of my brothers, Robert, snuck away to hide in the house. While they were searching Mother for valuables she didn't have, I hid myself in the garden under a small bush. While my face burrowed in the earth, I could hear everything that was going on. They took Mother and the children away to a place unknown. 

Philip Lazowski:    I picked myself up and went to look for Father. While approaching the place where Father worked, a huge dog began to bark ferociously, attracting attention of the Nazis. And suddenly I was apprehended. They brought me to a "Kino", which means the movie house where the rest of the Jews from the roundup awaited their fate to be slaughtered. 

Philip Lazowski:    Well, inside the movie house, I discovered Mother and my two brothers and a sister because one of the brothers was shot in the back while he was running. Well, the conditions were abominable. These two days, no food, no place where to go to the bathroom and suddenly the trucks appeared and were packed tightly full of Jews, like sardines in the can, awaiting to their final destination.

Philip Lazowski:    When the third truck arrived, Mother was sitting in the second floor, took her chair and pushed me out of the window and the last words from her was "I want you to live. I want you to tell the world what transpired here and remember to be somebody in this world. Maybe the world someday need you." Then another mother threw out another boy who fell right next to me. He was nine years old. And lying there for a while, we realized that everything is quiet. They took away the people. 

Philip Lazowski:    So we start. I said to myself, "Where shall I go?" I didn't know where to go. Mother said to live. So I went back to the ghetto, not realizing that the people who were robbing all the homes. 

Deborah Waxman:     Oh boy.

Philip Lazowski:    Since somebody was carrying a big chest, and I said to him, "Can I help you?" "Oh, yes, by all means, help me." And I asked him in Russian, "Do you know if there's any more Jews left over here?" "Oh," he says, "No. Finished."  "Any Jews someplace else?" "Oh yes," he says. "In the forest, there are 10,000 Jews who are building a airfield." So I helped him to carry some of the furniture and he then realized that I am a Jew. So even though I ripped off my-

Deborah Waxman:     The star.

Philip Lazowski:    ... yellow stars, and he said to me, "You wait awhile over here, with your friend there. I'll come right back." I said, "If you leave this furniture with your wagon, somebody else will take it." And I realized he wanted to get the Germans, the Nazis. 

Philip Lazowski:    So we made a dash and we ran into the corn to camouflage ourselves because the corn was so high and we were so small in size.  And, by the way, the boy's name was Abe Goldstein. He was nine years old. Well, I started to walk. Then while the night is approaching, I said, "Maybe we should rest here." Next to the road, there was a little forest. So I went in the forest. I had a little jacket that spread on the ground. He laid down, nine year old kid, and he was so tired he fell asleep. I couldn't sleep the whole night. I was marching back and forth.

Philip Lazowski:    Then in the morning when we got up, I said ... I woke him up and says, "The sun is coming. Let's get going." Well, we came back to the forest. First of all on the way, they robbed us. Took off our shoes. The boy was crying because he had to go bare-footed in the dirt and was running blood. But most of all, mother gave him a couple hundred dollars to buy a piece of bread but they took away the shoes and the money was in there so he started to cry at this. "Don't worry about the money as long as you're alive."

Philip Lazowski:    Then a feeling of panic overtook me as barbed wire surrounded the ghetto. I thought this would be the end, but as soon as we passed the barbed wire, a cousin of his stood by and he recognized him and he says, "Hey bubala, you're still alive. Come with me." And he embraced him and took away.  I, as an orphan, they took me, the Judenrat there, inwards and they put me in a place where all the orphans were. I went into the orphan place, I found my brother, Robert. 

Philip Lazowski:    Life in the ghetto was horrible. No food, no mother, no father, filthy conditions, orphans scrambling to stay alive. After a time, the good news came that my father was alive because when he went to work people knew us quite well. I let them know that two sons are still alive in the ghetto at forest. So my father was too weak and sick so he sent over my uncle and another man and took us out from the forest. Two weeks before the massacre of the 10,000 people took place in the forest after they finished building the airfield.

Philip Lazowski:    They came to the woods, to the many family groups were struggling to survive and fighting Nazi oppression. The story of the Jewish underground as I know it and lived it at the age of 12 dealt with various manifestations of courage and heroism. It is a story of faith, of self sacrifice, and superhuman endurance. 

Philip Lazowski:    We were in the woods for two and a half years. The Jews survived because we were able to develop the spiritual stamina to suffer the rigors of near contrived existence in the barest, marginal terms in this bloody war. A lot of them, unfortunately died 50 below zero, froze to death. People died of starvation. People died of sickness, didn't have enough food to survive, etc. We always were the victims. 

Philip Lazowski:    The partisans did a lot of good things for to winning the war that most of the people don't know. They burned all the bridges, they mined all the railroads that couldn't pass by from Germany to France. So we suffered because we didn't have any ammunition and as a family group, we did not fight. We only went begging for food for the little villages that we knew next to our town. We were able to survive because we built a cave. We were 12 people in one cave for weeks and sometimes close to a month we couldn't get out because if we get out during the winter time, the marking of our feet-

Deborah Waxman:     You'd leave tracks. You'd leave tracks.

Philip Lazowski:    Yes. Would lead us. So we only went out to beg food during a storm or a big winter snow would fall. Otherwise, we had to live on dried beans for weeks. We couldn't make a fire during the day, only at night, because during the day, the smoke can be seen for a while. At night we build something to hide the fire, etc.

Deborah Waxman:     How did you learn that the war was over?

Philip Lazowski:    Oh, yes, the Partisans used to stop in at times on their mission because there were Jewish Partisans. In 1943, they were organized and there were a lot of the Jewish Partisans that helped a lot of the Jewish families. What happened was when they stopped in, we were listening what they have to say and they always brought us some food, etc., and they were able to tell us, in the meantime we heard at night, we put our ears to the earth, we could hear the big guns booming. So we knew that the front is coming closer and closer back to us. 

Philip Lazowski:    And then, of course, what happened was we found out that the Germans were running into the woods, while we were in the woods. Then we realized that we better get out from the woods because the Russians occupied-

Deborah Waxman:     So you were liberated by the Russians and it was your father and your brother and you?

Philip Lazowski:    Right. 

Deborah Waxman:     Wow.

Philip Lazowski:    My brother and my father and I were liberated and the first thing we went to visit the grave of my mother and the rest of the family, which was 1,000 people in one grave in Jato(?). And then we went back to our village that we were born and the people looked at us and says, "You're still alive?" And then we realized that there's no place for us to stay in this bloody land. 

Philip Lazowski:    So we were able to manage to go to Poland and from Poland, because we were occupied by the Russians and then it became Belarus. So there was a proclamation that anybody who was a Polish citizen can go to Poland if they wish. We were asked to Poland and I was to go to Palestine. But at that time there was no Palestine yet. So we wanted to go on a ship, on a boat, I mean, that would take us to Palestine. But then they caught the boat and they put all the people in Cyprus. So we didn't go with the boat anymore. We were waiting.

Philip Lazowski:    Then Father found out that he has two sisters and a brother and they found out that we're alive. It was in the Jewish newspaper that all the people that survived and they saw our name. So we went ... They took us to the United States.

Deborah Waxman:     His family in America brought you over?

Philip Lazowski:    Right.

Deborah Waxman:     Right.

Philip Lazowski:    His family brought us over and then I was at that time 17 years old. And I always tried to obey Mother's wish to be somebody and tell the story. So I didn't have any money so I worked at night. Three o'clock at night to help load 90 pounds of cans of frozen eggs to bring to bakeries. While in the bakeries, I used to always daven in the morning and put on the tefillin and the fellow that drove the truck said to the other truck drivers when they stopped for breakfast, "This boychik there is very good helper but every time something is wrong with him, he tests his pulse, he puts something to it. I see he's winding something on his hand, probably something is wrong with him."

Deborah Waxman:     That is very funny. You were in New York at the time, right?

Philip Lazowski:    In Brooklyn.

Deborah Waxman:     In Brooklyn. In Brooklyn.

Philip Lazowski:    So I finished 4:00 in the afternoon and I went to high school, Thomas Jefferson High School to learn English and enough course to graduate high school. I graduate high school in a year and a half and then I was accepted to Brooklyn College and then I went to the Yeshiva University Teacher's [inaudible] to want to become a principal of a school. So in the morning I went to the Yeshiva University Teacher's Institute and then in the afternoon I used to teach Hebrew in the Hebrew school and then at night I used to go to Brooklyn College. So I remember one day, they give the test and finishing the test in the middle I fall asleep and the teacher said to me, "You know, you have to get a little bit more rest," because that was the end of the week and I used to sleep only three or four hours a night and day.

Philip Lazowski:    Anyway, I graduated from Teacher's Institute and I went to the Yeshiva University and what happened was this. While I was in Yeshiva University, one of our students got married so he invited the whole class. I didn't want to go but he said, "It's not the feeling not to go with the rest of your friends." So I went to the wedding and sitting through the wedding. 

Philip Lazowski:    Next they put all the young people together and next to me was a little lady, a girl, and I didn't know how to dance because I never danced in my life. So I was sitting, talking to her and she said to me, "Philip, where you come from?" I said, "Oh you wouldn't know. I come from a little town, Belitsa." 

Philip Lazowski:    "Oh," she said, "Belitsa. Guess what? My girlfriend told me that, I was over there this week, and the mother told me that she saved a boy from Belitsa and she doesn't know his name. However, she doesn't know even if he's alive." So I said, "How did she save the boy?" And she told me the story. When she finished telling the story, I said, "I am the boy. Where does the family live?" "They live in Hartford, Connecticut." 

Philip Lazowski:    So I went down and I called right away and of course the lady that answered the phone. And the lady said, "Who's calling?" I said, "That's the boy that you saved the life."

Deborah Waxman:     You recognized her voice?

Philip Lazowski:    Yeah.

Deborah Waxman:     You know, I've heard this story several times and I cry every time I hear it, Rabbi. It's just an amazing story. So keep going, because it gets even better.

Philip Lazowski:    So I went over to see the family because I had ... My cousins live in Boston, so on the way back, all the way in the middle, I used to stop in to say hello. Well, as a poor boy, I used to be a waiter in the Pioneer Country Club in the Catskills and she was not far away. She had an aunt living in the Catskills and we got to know each other and that's what happened that I married this older daughter. She was 7 at that time and I was 11. 

Deborah Waxman:     So just to take the listeners back, that this unbelievable scene that you described earlier. That you were in the selection and you approached this woman who was standing there with two children and they were both girls and now, miraculously, you've all survived the war and you fall in love.

Philip Lazowski:    Well, I didn't know they survived it. But I always asked. As a matter of fact, guess what. The boy, Abe Goldstein, that I saved his life. I didn't know that he's alive. Every time I used to go to Israel, I used to leave the name for the people, maybe if they know this name. After 20 years or so of going to Israel, somebody came over to me and said, "Guess what? What you're asking for, Abe Goldstein, he's alive."

Deborah Waxman:     Wow. 

Philip Lazowski:    He is in Canada. I came back to the United States. I called Canada and he answered the phone. He said, "Who's calling?" I said, "The fellow who saved your neck." He was there, for a minute he didn't know what to say. Then I said, "Are you still there?" Anyway, he never told the family that he survived. And when I was honored, he came to speak. I met his wife. By the way, this guy, I offered him ... My son offered him to come to the United States and to pay for his plane and made arrangement to stay in the hotel, etc. I says, "Everything is paid. You just come." He says, "Don't worry, I can afford." He has 39 restaurants in Canada.

Deborah Waxman:     Oh wonderful. Wonderful. 

Philip Lazowski:    So he came there. We are very close now. We call each other quite often. 

Deborah Waxman:     Oh it's good-

Philip Lazowski:    By the way, three children, all three doctors.

Deborah Waxman:     Wow. He must be so proud. So for the listeners to understand, I grew up in this wonderful and warm synagogue community with Rabbi Philip Lazowski and Ruth Lazowski, and their three sons. It was just ... You were just, you were my rabbi and then it was only as I was a teenager that I began to learn your story, both the horrors that you survived and this incredible miracle in the middle of it that Ruth's mother saved your life and then you were reunited later in America and made a beautiful home and a beautiful community together.

Philip Lazowski:    But this is not the end of it. You see, the end of it is that I wanted to spread the idea and that what happened, maybe you don't know this story, up in Bloomfield High School, in 2006, I was invited to speak to English department by Barbara Michelson in regards to my experience in the Holocaust. It was there that I met Dr. Joe Osaki, who was concerned that so many children did not know nor did they understand the implications of the Holocaust and world genocide. So we began what we called the Identity Project. So what happened was the students were a cross section that came from different backgrounds. Some belonged to gangs. Some lived with grandparents with no father or mother to guide them. And some were refugees that did not receive food. Because many of them didn't know the word Holocaust, I gave them a copy of my book, Fate and Destiny and this book is a testimony of my experience as an 11 year old working through the suffering of the Holocaust and how to survive and how to have faith and how to believe. 

Philip Lazowski:    When they read the book, there were so many questions. I was stunned at the depth of the intellectual questions these students came up with. So whoever read my book and wrote three pages report was entitled to go to the Holocaust Museum in Washington D.C. My son, Alan from [inaudible] chartered a plane for over 120 students, teachers, and chaperones and we went to visit the museum. These children were so affected by it because they knew what they were seeing. I saw students in the museum crying and this museum had a lasting impact on their lives. They changed and sure they had the opportunity to stop gang violence, to act individuals and help mankind become better. 

Philip Lazowski:    For the last 12 years, I've been teaching about the Holocaust, hundreds of high schools and colleges throughout Connecticut. Well in other state.  [inaudible] I tell the schools, "You do not teach ethics. You don't teach morality or understanding of humanity and compassion. All that comes are grades and scores in order to be admitted to best colleges." At the schools, parents often inquire whether their children are getting good grades. What about asking if they're growing up to be good people? And only by studying the past and the history of genocide can be a lasting impression and impact on future generations. It is a great opportunity to make a difference. A generation which ignores history has no past and no future.

Deborah Waxman:     And no future.

Philip Lazowski:    Learn and this is what I was working on for the last four years that they should pass a law in Connecticut. They should teach genocide and the Holocaust in all the high schools. And this year, I went to beg the committee and guess what? The committee passed that and now it goes to the Senate, which I hope it will pass, that Connecticut will be able to teach the Holocaust and genocide in all the high schools.

Deborah Waxman:     Wow, I mean that's an extraordinary place to end. Rabbi Lazowski, I talk about, in this podcast, about resilience, about ... Out of an encounter with trauma or challenge, a way to recover, a way to make meaning, a way to engage in a community and a conversation that's much larger than one's self, and you've just told that very story from just absolute horror and destruction in the worst possible way to a life of meaning.

Philip Lazowski:    You know, you probably already know that acts of racism and anti-Semitism, hatred and bigotry, are on the rise, not only in Connecticut, but throughout our country and in Europe, as well. In 2017 alone, anti-Semitic incidents have increased by 57%, the largest single year increase on record. It's only through education and training that we can end these acts of hatred and prejudice. It is proven that Holocaust and genocide education changes the lives of those both young and old. We have had the chance to experience this. So by not doing anything, we let people listen to so many people saying that Holocaust never existed and there are so many people who say that while we are still alive and we are proof of it. What happens in four or five years, we will be no more around? There will be no living Holocaust survivor. They will say, show me proof. That is why it's important that we teach about the Holocaust and that people write down their stories. 

Philip Lazowski:    I promised my mother that I would tell the world. So while we were going to college, I wrote this book. Well, I didn't write it to sell a book and all this, I wrote it for my children to know where I come from.

Deborah Waxman:     Well, the most important question that I want to ask you is, I'm not certain I ever knew the last thing that your mother ever said to you and I hope you live with the awareness that you've lived a life to make her so proud. You took those words so to heart and I think, I want to ask two questions. 

Deborah Waxman:     As a rabbi, what are the most important things you want to communicate to the people who come into contact with you?

Philip Lazowski:    Well, most important thing for me is to have the resiliency to spread the word of what Judaism is all about. It is so important not to stand idly by and see how people can take advantage of [each] other. You have to go out and make the Jewish people feel that you're part of Judaism, that you're part of humanity, that survived for so many years in all the pogroms and in all the massacres that took place. Yet they had the faith and the stamina to survive because they believed in something. We Jews must believe that we are Jews. Af al pi she-chata, Yisrael hu. A Jew even in sins is still a Jew. No matter what he does. No matter what he didn't do. I don't believe in I belong to this organization, that organization, to the right, to the left. We don't care. We must make feel that every Jew, whatever he believes, that's his business, but he's still a Jew.

Deborah Waxman:     I agree completely and you did that so magnificently when I was a child. I felt like the synagogue was my home and I felt like it was your house and I remember when I was little, I would run and I would give you a hug because I was just so happy to see you.

Philip Lazowski:    The house is to be open to everybody. The synagogue if they want to come, it's open. If they don't want to come, but is still Jew. And when we care one another, unity is strength. You see, it is so important for us to be together, to act together, to feel together, otherwise by yourself you are a single fellow in loneliness.

Deborah Waxman:     Yes.

Philip Lazowski:    We need the community. We need Jews.

Deborah Waxman:     Yes. It's one thing that feels so important to me that it's both a horizontal connection, it's all the people who are living alongside of me and then it's also this vertical connection of all the people who came before and all the people who come after. And that sustains me every day, that experience of community. 

Philip Lazowski:    Well, what's the second question?

Deborah Waxman:     My second question is, so this will be our last question, what's the piece of wisdom, what's the chokmah that you would want to share with our listeners about being part of the Jewish people? What's a piece of Torah you want to pass on?

Philip Lazowski:    Well, in the book of Leviticus, Chapter 19, Verse 16, it says, "Thou shall not stand idly by when the blood of your neighbor is being spilled." You see the world turned its back on its responsibility. We, as Jews, must stick together for the Jews in Europe, there was no escape. All the doors were closed to them. The Red Sea did not open as it did in Egypt. The most important decision, Albert Einstein once said, we make is whether we believe to live in a friendly or hostile universe. We have choices to eradicate hate from our world or keep hating for no reason. So if we want to live in a peaceful world we must act now. Don't be a bystander. Give a helping hand to humanity. Give a helping hand to your neighbor. Give a helping hand to your community. That is Judaism. "Le-takken olam," to make this world a better place.

Deborah Waxman:     Yes, yes. Oh, Rabbi Lazowski, thank you so much for this conversation and for sharing your story and I'm so grateful, thank you so much.

Philip Lazowski:    You're welcome.

Deborah Waxman:     You can find more resources on this topic on ReconstructingJudaism.org and on ritualwell.org. I'm Rabbi Deborah Waxman and you've been listening to Hashivenu, Jewish Teachings on Resilience.