H eadlines
Local Student Injured Studying in Israel
L O CAL
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
MENACHEM MENDEL
Strassberg, 14, who goes by
Memu, is “bright,” “energetic”
and “fun-seeking,” accord-
ing to Rabbi Mendy Levin,
principal of Cheder Chabad,
where Strassberg typically
attends school.

It’s those qualities that
make the reality of Strassberg’s
current situation all the
more cruel.

Strassberg, who is studying
abroad in Israel, was rushed to
a hospital on Jan. 17 after his
legs were crushed beneath a
large rock that he was climbing
upon. It became dislodged and
trapped his legs underneath.

He was taken to Hadassah Ein
Kerem Hospital.

“It’s just not him to be
stuck in bed and not running
around,” Levin said.

Strassberg’s parents, Rabbi
Eli Dovid Strassberg and
Rivkah “Rivky” Strassberg
have been updating friends and
community members on their
son’s situation via WhatsApp.

The Strassbergs are Chabad
emissaries, long active in the
Delaware County Chabad and
known for their Living Legacy
programs: They lead trips and
do demonstrations of the essen-
tials of Jewish life with local
Jews, setting up model matzah
baking factories and creat-
ing Shabbat candles together,
among other activities.

They could not leave to see
their son until after Shabbat,
but are with him now.

Though doctors were ini-
tially skeptical that Strassberg
would be able to keep his legs,
according to Levin, Strassberg
“is a real fighter,” in their
words; he became conscious
far earlier than expected, and
has reported being able to
feel sensation on the bottom
of his feet. As of Jan. 21, he
even has a pulse in both legs.

Though nothing is guaranteed,
Strassberg’s resilience has been
astounding to his doctors.

“The doctors told his par-
ents, if he’s gonna fight, then
we’re gonna fight,” according
to Rabbi Moshe Brennan of
Chabad of Penn Wynne, who
knows the Strassbergs.

“The doctor actually told
[Memu’s parents] — a nonreli-
gious Israeli doctor — he could tell
there were a lot of prayers going on
for this child,” Levin said.

Which is indeed the truth.

Students — Memu’s class-
NAME: ATTLEBORO RETIREMENT COMMUNITY; WIDTH: 5.5 IN; DEPTH:
5.5 IN; COLOR: BLACK PLUS ONE; AD NUMBER: 00082802
Menachem Mendel “Memu” Strassberg with tefillin on in his hospital bed
Photo provided
mates — at Cheder Chabad
have recited the entirety of
Tehillim six times over, Levin
said. (Neighborhood men and
women have done it more than
30 times since the accident.)
But of course, the number itself
is not the point.

“The important thing is
we’re praying for them and
really hoping to see miracles
and to see a full recovery,” he
said. “We believe in the power
of tefillah and especially the
tefillah of young children.”
In the meantime, Brennan,
alongside Rabbis Shraga
Sherman, Yossi
Kaplan and Yudi Shemtov, has put
together an online fund-
raiser for the Strassbergs
at themmstrasbergfund.

raisegiving.com. As of publi-
cation, almost $70,000 has been
raised already through dona-
8 JANUARY 24, 2019
JEWISH EXPONENT
tions from around the world.

“Our immediate reaction is
action,” said Sherman, refer-
ring to the fact that the fund-
raiser was set up within hours
of the news breaking. “These
kinds of situations can be very
taxing on a family emotionally,
but especially financially.”
There have been hopeful
reports during the last few
days, Levin said, but even as
the short-term crisis continues,
the community is thinking in
the long-term: health care bills
and other costs to be incurred
along with major injuries.

“God willing, everything
will go well, but whichever way
you look at this, there’s going
to be a great financial cost,”
Levin said. l
jbernstein@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0740
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



H eadlines
Postwar Displaced Persons Materials Auction Set
L O CAL
JESSE BERNSTEIN | JE STAFF
A KETUBAH, scribbled on a
pitifully dirty piece of paper but
recording a union nonetheless.

Yiddish newspapers produced
for and in displaced persons
camps the size of small farms.

Zionist material published just
a few years before the founda-
tion of the genuine article.

The anonymous collector
who put together the She’arit
Haple’atah Archive, which will
be auctioned off in its entirety
on Jan. 31, must have been “very
passionate” about the immedi-
ate postwar and post-Holocaust
era of European Jewish life to
have curated such a collection,
said Darren Winston, head of
books, maps and manuscripts at
Freeman’s, an auction house.

“What I personally find fas-
cinating,” said Winston, “and I
think what Freeman’s finds fas-
cinating, is that someone chose
to put it together.”
Studying the archive, said
David Bloom, a senior cataloguer
who has been at Freeman’s since
1983, “was sort of overwhelm-
ingly powerful.” “The material
is very wide ranging, so it really
gives you a feel for Jewish life
in post-Holocaust, postwar
Europe,” he said.

The She’arit Haple’atah
A drawing from the collection
Photo provided
Archive (Hebrew for “the sur-
viving remnant”) consists of the
ephemera created by and pro-
vided to the displaced Jews of
Europe between 1945 and 1949:
political pamphlets, poetry, sid-
durim and more, produced in
the often-dire circumstances of
the DP camps. Because it was
made as inexpensively as pos-
sible, much of it was left behind
when the camps themselves
were closed. The last camp was
open until 1957.

“It was never meant to
See Holocaust, Page 31
When an archive that represents a little known aspect of the period after the
Holocaust becomes available, you know there’s going to be strong interest in it.”
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