Rabbi Andrea’s Sermon 28th December 2024 / 27th Kislev 5785

JUDAH WILL LIVE FOREVER

It is one of the most famous Chanukah photos and is familiar to us all. 

It's an old photo; it is black and white. There is a Chanukkiah with all the candles on. 

It's on a window on display, as it should be, to fulfil the mitzvah of pirsumei ha nes, publicizing the miracle. A black and white photo, as I said, an old one. 

And on the other side of the street, in front of that Jewish house with a Chanukiah on display, there is a Nazi banner, a massive swastika. It is, as I said, an old photo. 

It was taken in 1931 in Kiel. Germany. 

A bit of context. In December 1931, the Nazi party was on the rise but not the year to power. They won the election in the Summer of the following year. 

So, being Jewish in Germany at the time of that photo was dangerous, yes, but still possible - theoretically.

The photo of the candlelit Chanukkiah was taken by Rachel Posner, the wife of the local Rabbi, Akiva Posner—more of this later. 

It gives us shivers of admiration for the bravery of that lady of that family to show off and put on display their Jewish identity and their Jewish faith in the midst of hate, literally in the face of the haters. 

Like every black-and-white photo, it makes us think of history. of what happened after the photo was taken. 

What happened to the menorah? What happened to that family? What happened to that community, the Kiel Jewish community, which at time had fewer than 700 members? 

Some of them worked at the University: as a Protestant town, Kiel was home to one of the most prestigious German Universities since the Early Modern Era.  It was actually founded during the Reformation. 

On the Nazi rise to power, Jewish academics were banned from the University and their books banned from universities (on the ground of their alliance with a foreign power, which is so chillingly a time to the similar boycott calls we hear today...).

At the time the photo was taken, 1931, posters had already appeared in the city:  "Entrance to Jews Forbidden", and Nazi flags were on display all over the town. So, things were bad already, but they were about to get worse. 

Two Jewish lawyers were murdered in the following months

On Kristallnacht, in 1938 the synagogue was looted, and 50 Jews were arrested. Then 

Jews were forced to leave or to move in a peripheral district known for the presence of lowlife. Twelve committed suicide. 240 were later deported.

So when we Jews look at this photo, we inevitably ask ourselves: Did the lady who took the picture, Rebbetzin Rachel Posner, know what awaited her and her people a few months later? 

Could she imagine it? 

No one really could. The systematic horror of the Holocaust, the scientific precision of discrimination and mass murders was impossible even to conceive, even in the 30s, when the Nazi Party was approaching power.

Yet, even if the horror was not conceivable, the hate was palpable.  Those Nazis were parading in the streets, weekly. The rallies and the meetings were public, all dressed in their paramilitary uniform, all young men, all shouting "Judea will end" like those who today dress up as Palestinian terrorists and shout "globalize intifada" or "from the river to the sea"

"Judea will perish! Judea will perish!" this is what these youth shouted in their weekly threatening parades. 

So here we see a juxtaposition. 

On one side, a Jewish home, a Jewish family and a Chanukiah, a symbol of hope and light. 

On the other side, the banner of a hoard of single men who worship death and know no other way of affirming themselves other than threatening violence on Jews. 

We are impressed by the juxtaposition.

We are moved, and let's face it, we are also worried because we feel that the situation that storms that Jewish family is similar to what we are experiencing here in the Diaspora in 2024, even in very civilized England, even in very cosmopolitan, multicultural, tolerant city of Brighton, well, Hove actually. 

But I want to tell you more about this photo. Rebbetzin Rachel Posner penciled a short poem on its back.

“Juda verrecke,” die fahne spricht — 

“Juda lebt ewig!” erwidert das licht. 

"Judah will perish," the flag says.

 "Judah lives forever!" replies the light.

Now think about it and let it sink in for a moment 

"Judah lives forever". Penciled on a photo. Taken in Germany in 1931

We do not live in the 30s, and this is not Germany. 

But yet, our fears are legitimate, and the similarities are undeniable. 

Like Jews in pre-Nazi Germany, we are told that we must feel safe, that we are not really the target, and that these are protests not against us but against those Jews who behave badly (in Israel or elsewhere). 

And, of course, we don't buy it, and rightly so. 

I urge you to take at heart the poem composed by Rebbetzin Posner on that Hanukah of so many years ago. Learn it by heart. And repeat it.

Make it a mantra. 

"Judah will live forever"

"From the river to the sea", they shout. And we reply "Judah will live forever. "Globalise Intifada", they cry. And we reply, "Judah would live forever". "Palestinian resistance" they whim. And we reply, "Judah will live forever". 

I am not suggesting you waste your time on social media countering their propaganda with facts. It's pointless; they never learn because they do not want to learn.

Do not try to educate the haters. Just repeat to them that which you have learned today by looking at this photo.  "Judah will live forever"

Because after all, isn't that what happened? 

Rabbi Posner had managed to persuade a large part of his community to leave. And indeed, more than 500 moved away from Kiel. They went to the States or -like he and his family- to the land of Israel. 

The Posners brought with them the same Chanukkiah

And eighty years after that photo was taken, in 2009, the great-grandson of Rabbi Akiva Posner, named after him, Akiva Mansbach, came to Kiel from Israel, carrying the same Chanukkiah. 

Dressed in the IDF uniform, he placed it in the very same spot, saluted and read out a poem in Hebrew similar to that written by his great-grandmother. This is the English translation. 

In 5692, the menorah is in exile; it stands in the window

It challenges the party flag that doesn't yet rule

"Judah die!" it says

And Grandma's rhyme responds

In its own tongue, without despair:

So, the flag says, but our candle answers and declares

"Judah will live forever"

In 5770, the menorah stands in the window once again

Facing the flag of the ruling State

The descendant Akiva, named for his great-grandfather

Salutes through the window and lights the menorah

Grandmother, give thanks above and say a prayer

That "the Redeemer will come to Zion" and not delay.

Let the candles of Chanukah give us hope and strength this year, more than ever. Because Judah will live forever. 

(The Posner menorah can be seen here https://www.yadvashem.org/artifacts/museum/prewar-hanukkah-menorah-kiel.html