Reunited 65 Years After the Holocaust

Date: April 20, 2010

On Wednesday, April 7th, the National Director of the Anti-Defamation League, Abraham Foxman, was reunited with a soldier 65 years after an encounter on Simchat Torah.

Mr. Foxman's visit to Detroit was highlighted by his visit with an Oak Park Rabbi whom Mr. Foxman encountered during WWII. Mr. Foxman was saved from the Holocaust by his Polish Catholic nursemaid and raised by her as a Catholic. After being re-united with his parents after the war, the young Mr. Foxman was in a Synagogue on Simchat Torah. This Soviet soldier, grabbed Mr. Foxman, placed him on his shoulder, and used him as a symbolic Torah. This meeting in Oak Park was their first reunion since that meeting almost 65 years ago. Mr. Foxman also met with community leaders and the media and discussed global anti-Semitism and the relationship between Israel and the United States.