Mezuzah Affixing Ceremony at Heichal Mishneh Halachos - Ungvar in Jerusalem

This document is a three-page fax from Jack Lang to Elie Wiesel. The first page is a fax cover sheet dated September 10, 2003 (though the transmission report indicates June 5, 2003), introducing the new Air France Director in New York, Monsieur Marie-Joseph Malé, and providing his contact details. The subsequent two pages contain a reflective essay or speech fragment, likely authored by Jack Lang, addressed informally to "Elie." The text discusses the urgent lessons learned from past errors, emphasizing the supreme duty to expose and denounce evil. It highlights the international community's delayed but eventual intervention in Bosnia and Kosovo, contrasting it with a perceived failure to act in Tibet and Rwanda. The author stresses the moral role of conscience in public affairs and praises the engagement of young people in the fight for human rights, which has become a "secular religion" for them. The essay concludes by quoting Albert Camus: "There is more to celebrate in man than to denigrate," questioning if this holds true for the coming century. The overall theme is a call for vigilance, solidarity, and active protest against injustice and indifference.

This is a photograph of a religious gathering of Haredi Jewish men. A sign on the wall indicates that the event is a "Keviat Mezuzot" (the ceremony of affixing mezuzahs) for the institution "Heichal 'Mishneh Halachot - Ungvar'" in Jerusalem. The sign also mentions that the institution is under the presidency of the Admor (Hasidic Rebbe) of Ungvar. The men are dressed in traditional attire, with black hats and coats, and are gathered around a table in what appears to be a celebratory or dedicatory event.

This document is a personal reflection from an unnamed author detailing their spiritual journey and encounters with prominent Hasidic rebbes. The author recounts growing up as a hassid in Sighet and visiting Rebbe Haim-Meir’l of Wizsnitz in Gross-Vardain, Romania, with their mother. These visits, particularly spending Shabbat at his court, left a lasting impression, shaping their understanding of Nigunim and fostering a sense of belonging to that community. Later, the author chose to connect with Lubavitch, deeply valuing conversations with the Lubavitcher Rebbe, whose questions, listening skills, and power of concentration profoundly impacted them. The author states that their first encounter with the Lubavitcher Rebbe transformed them into a 'Lubavitcher' without needing to leave Wizsnitz. The document emphasizes the profound impression these rebbes had, highlighting their reassuring presence, intense listening, and fervent desire to provide advice, guidance, and reassurance to those in need.

Mina Kalter, née Basseches, was born in 1921 in Przeworsk, Poland, into a religious family. Her father was a traveling merchant and her mother in retail fabrics. Both parents were active in Zionist organizations and charitable endeavors and on good terms with Christian neighbors, until 1939. She describes the extensive work of the Kehillah in helping those in need. She provides extensive detail of life after the German invasion of Poland in 1939: bombing and desecration of the synagogue, forced labor, confiscation of Jewish property, ghettoization of all Jews, the lack of any help by former Christian friends, ghetto conditions. She describes smuggling her small brother to the home of a loyal former family housekeeper and later her escape from a work detail in March 1941. She then crossed the River San to Soviet-controlled Poland where she was helped by a Russian Jewish family prior to being resettled in a small town near L’vov. She describes in detail life under Soviet rule in Poland. She was exiled to Siberia because she refused to accept Soviet citizenship. She describes her transport to and life in a labor camp for four years, until May 1945. She also relates her clandestine trip outside the Siberian camp to obtain potatoes for planting. In March 1945, as a Polish citizen, she received by mail permission to return to Poland. Recently married, she describes working her way across Siberia toward Poland with her husband in June 1945, where she experienced antisemitism. Through the Joint Distribution Committee in Szczecin, she learned of the survival of her two brothers and joined them in a displaced persons camp in Berlin in August 1945. She describes in detail the living conditions with her new born baby. There is a brief mention of her stay at another camp near Landsberg in 1948. She and her family immigrated to the United States in 1950. She describes her adjustment in the U.S., her children’s awareness of their parents’ background, and their commitment to Judaism. She concludes with the hope that her testimony will remind future generations of the horrors of the Hitler years.

Ellen Tarlow, née Meinberg, was born in 1927 in Gütersloh, Westphalia, Germany, where her family had lived since the 17th century. Her father, Paul Meinberg, an importer of cattle, was dec‌orated with the Iron Cross in WWI. She describes her early childhood in public school and then a Lyceum for girls. She first felt antisemitism at age of eight and was expelled from school in 1938. She studied Hebrew and Bible once a week. She details Nazi atrocities during and after Crystal Night (Kristallnacht): social ostra‌cism, burning of their home and synagogue, her father’s deportation to and flight from Buchenwald. Remaining family found shelter in a local cloister then fled to Bielefeld. She describes subsequent life in a Judenhaus in Gütersloh, including attempts to educate the children there. HIAS helped the family many times; there was also aid from several Germans in Gütersloh. She briefly mentions a failed attempt to emigrate to Haiti. After many disappointments and a difficult experience at the American Consulate in Stuttgart, the family left Germany for the United States, via Lisbon, Portugal, on the SS Mouzinho, in August 1941. She describes the journey from Berlin to Lisbon in a sealed train, and her stay in Lisbon in a group home run by HIAS. She describes how refugees organized to cope with primitive conditions on the ship, her arrival and processing in Staten Island, NY, and her life in New York in a group home for refugees sponsored by HIAS. She reflects at length on the family’s adjustment in the United States and the survivor’s guilt she feels. She talks about her return to Germany, by invitation, in 1985, accompanied by her husband and daughter.