Why This Day Is So Meaningful…Especially For Me

Fifty-two years ago today, my father died. He was fifty years old.

Seventy-eight years ago today, Israel declared its independence — one of the most consequential moments in modern Jewish history.

Somehow, I never connected those dots until this morning, which proves why I live in LaLa Land.

There’s something fitting about this monumental revelation now — at this particular, painful, defiant moment in history — when holding onto who we are feels more urgent than ever. And remembering my father adds a layer of reverence.

My dad was not an easy man to know. He was always working, always providing, rarely present in the way a child hopes a father will be. We loved each other — our family was affectionate — but the father-son moments were few and far between.

Simon Gurko spent his teenage years during World War II imprisoned in a Siberian gulag. He escaped and found his way back to Germany — of all places. And then — in a choice that still staggers me — he joined the underground, Bricha, a group who saved thousands of Jews from the DP Camps,........

© The Times of Israel (Blogs)