One way to ensure that Holocaust education, at least within the Jewish community, becomes more effective is to focus on a different set of figures from those who most often get attention. Figures like the philologist Zelig Kalmanovitch, who participated actively in various forms of Jewish nationalism before settling on Zionism and returning, near the end of his life, to religion. Daniela Ozacky Stern describes his record of life in Vilna under Nazi occupation.
His diaries, painstakingly penned under constant threat of discovery, offer a poignant account of his personal struggle and philosophical, existential musings. They reveal a man grappling with faith, the atrocities unfolding around him, and the role of a scholar in a world gone mad.
A central theme in Kalmanovich’s writings is his unwavering faith in Judaism. He viewed Jews as part of the big “sacred triad”—the Land of Israel, the Torah, and God—which provided a source of enduring strength and was a guarantor of ultimate Jewish victory. Even as suffering intensified, his diary entries resonated with deep optimism. He believed that by clinging to their heritage, Jews could preserve their identity and emerge stronger.
He championed the ghetto’s schools, synagogues, and libraries, viewing them as battlegrounds for the preservation of Jewish identity and a continuation of Jewish history. He believed that by clinging to their heritage, Jews could defy Nazi attempts to extinguish their spirit.
Eyewitnesses recalled his last words: “I laugh at you. I am not afraid of you; I have a son in the Land of Israel.” Indeed, his son emigrated in 1938 and settled in a kibbutz, where his descendants still live.
Kalmanovitch died in a Nazi labor camp in Estonia in 1943. If you click on the link below, you’ll find a photograph of a bearded man in a fur hat captioned, “Jewish librarian at the Vilna Ghetto.” This is no ordinary librarian but Khaykl Lunski, another outstanding figure who perished in the Shoah. I’ll be sure to write about him in a future newsletter.