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Warsaw, Poland - Jewish Leaders Say Kaddish At Funeral By One Of The Greatest Chasidei Umot Haolam. PHOTOS. |
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Sendler, who died on Monday aged 98, was once nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize for her wartime achievement of smuggling an estimated 2,500 children out of the Warsaw Ghetto.
Jewish community leaders, Holocaust survivors, government ministers and the Israeli ambassador to Poland joined hundreds of other mourners in bright sunshine at Warsaw's Powaski cemetery to pay tribute to Sendler's life and achievements.
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Poland's chief Orthodox rabbi, Michael Schudrich, recited a Jewish prayer.
Schudrich fondly remembered Sendler, and said he hoped her life would inspire others.
"We have been blessed for so many years to have her living example," Schudrich said.
"I have this dream, this prayer, this wish that we won't miss her so much if every person who hears her story simply tries to do a nice thing, a good thing for another person every day," he said.
"She changed the world, and with her example we can continue to change the world."
"Poland, the Jewish people, the world has lost a person who simply fought her whole life... for what it means to help another person, fought for never being indifferent, for never dividing humanity but bringing it together," Michael Schudrich, Poland's chief rabbi, told Reuters at the funeral. The chief rabbi said the Kaddish over Irena Sendler’s grave.
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Marian Turski, 82, a concentration camp survivor, said Sendler was a modest woman who always downplayed her own role.
"Nobody knows how many people she really saved... Those survivors (saved by Sendler) are today old people but in the meantime they have given birth to another generation and this generation has given birth to yet another generation. So in fact she has saved very many thousands (more) lives," he said.
When the Nazis set up a ghetto for Warsaw's Jewish population of about half a million in 1940, Sendler, who had the right to enter the ghetto as a social worker, started smuggling out children in boxes, suitcases or hidden in trolleys.
She then took them to Polish families outside the Ghetto walls where they lived under new identities. The penalty for helping Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland was death.
Among those who bid farewell to her was Professor Michal Glowinski, an historian, who was among children rescued from the Ghetto thanks to Irena Sendler.
Glowinski spoke on behalf of the rescued children, whom she smuggled out of the ghetto, which was hell, and found shelter in places offering a hope of survival.
Editors Note: The entire Jewish community can not express in any words the gratitude and appreciation for the heroic deeds of this woman, and we ask all our readers to comment their condolence to recognize her as Righteous Among the Nations.
Its an obligation of every jewish newspaper, online media sites, to pay tribute to the legacy of Ms. Sendler
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Read Comments (27) — Post Yours »
1
May 15, 2008 at 03:06 PM Anonymous Says:
May her neshoma be blessed for ever and ever
2
May 15, 2008 at 03:26 PM Pincus Says:
"Jewish community leaders, Holocaust survivors, government ministers and the Israeli ambassador to Poland joined hundreds of other mourners in bright sunshine at Warsaw’s Powaski cemetery to pay tribute to Sendler’s life and achievements.
Poland’s chief Orthodox rabbi, Michael Schudrich, recited a Jewish prayer."
Did the Rabbi pray at a Catholic cemetery in front of the crosses? Are Jews permitted to do that?
Can we show our gratitude to Mrs Sendler by naming a Children's hospital after her?
3
May 15, 2008 at 03:35 PM Anonymous Says:
You know, even though she was not Jewish, we can all learn from her. A true kavod habrius. May her neshomo rest in Gan Eden forever!
4
May 15, 2008 at 03:56 PM Anonymous Says:
im sure some where down the line she must have something jewish in her roots
5
May 15, 2008 at 04:02 PM Anonymous Says:
Irena Sendler was a nominee for the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007, but lost to Al Gore, former Vice President of the United States.
6
May 15, 2008 at 04:24 PM Anonymous Says:
I hoped what you are saying about the loss of the Nobel Prize to Al gore is suppossed to be some kind of joke (though i personally dont find it amusing) If, however this is an actual fact I find this info both disturbing and sickening. Al Gore is Not fit to carry this woman's spit bucket.
7
May 15, 2008 at 04:44 PM Anonymous Says:
Its not a joke, it's a fact. She was nominated in 2007, right? Who won the Nobel Peace Prize? Al Gore. Its very simple really. She only saved 2,500 people. Gore is saving the world! and don't forget he invented the internet too.
Do you still wonder why Arafat & Carter won?
8
May 15, 2008 at 04:54 PM truth Says:
al gore saved more lives then her
9
May 15, 2008 at 04:54 PM oscar Says:
she should be burried with oscar schindler
10
May 15, 2008 at 04:57 PM unconvinient tuth Says:
al gor is saving the world sh just saved a few lives
11
May 15, 2008 at 04:57 PM mishna Says:
i heard ther learning mishnayos for her
12
May 15, 2008 at 05:01 PM haskacha pratus Says:
its ironic that we just heard of her just bfore sh died
13
May 15, 2008 at 05:10 PM Ari Says:
Clearly, Irena had a moral compass that helped her stay steadfast on a path of humanity, compassion and courage when so many had lost their way.
Very moving. Thank you for bringing us this story. With the many grandchildren born to these 2,500 Jews, she really did save an entire world. She accomplished more in a few years than 99.9999% of us could do in a million lifetimes.
We need to express gratitude to the those like Sendler, Wallenberg and those precious few others from Japan, China, Dominican Republic, Denmark and elsewhere who behaved courageously, thank G-d.
How many of us could have passed this nesoyon as valiantly they did?
May their memories be an everlasting blessing.
14
May 15, 2008 at 05:26 PM miami yid 2 Says:
May her neshoma be blessed for ever and ever
15
May 15, 2008 at 07:01 PM JJ Says:
This woman is a hero for risking her life to save fellow human beings.I do not take into account her religion or the religion of those she saved.
May hashem bless her and may her family be blessed forever and ever
16
May 15, 2008 at 07:12 PM Anonymous Says:
Unbelievable, I'm in awe. May this amazing woman be blessed by the One Above forever.
17
May 15, 2008 at 10:53 PM Biggest Bluffer Says:
Lets not forget that Moshe Rabbeinu was called Moshe based on the name that Basya called him, as opposed to the names that his parents and Hashem called him. Just goes to show what it means to save a jew, even if she wasn't jewish.
Besides its brought down in the sefer Kav Hayosher that once a month Basya has the zechus to go to the place of Moshe in GAn Eden to look at his face since she saved him from death. A zechus that no one else has.
May there be many more such heroic people in this world, maybe then will the earth be a better place.
18
May 15, 2008 at 11:24 PM Anonymous Says:
What a truly remarkable person. May Hashem bless her neshama forever. We should think of a way to honor her. Any suggestions?
19
May 16, 2008 at 12:17 AM Touched Says:
I am not sure what to say that hasnt been said already. There is no doubt she is responsible for a number of yiddin around today be it survivors or their survivors l'doray doros.
20
May 16, 2008 at 08:40 AM Anonymous Says:
Jew or Non-Jew, you do what is morally right. A person is a person no matter what, race, creed, etc., in a time of need, you just let your conscious and G-D be your guide.
21
May 16, 2008 at 09:40 AM Anonymous Says:
Awesome.I think she is m'chayev many millions of others.
22
May 16, 2008 at 10:39 AM Yonah Ovadiah Says:
What gadlus!
From the wikipedia article:
"In 1943, Sendler was arrested by the Gestapo, severely tortured, and sentenced to death. Żegota saved her by bribing the German guards on the way to her execution. She was left in the woods, unconscious and with broken arms and legs.She was listed on public bulletin boards as among those executed. For the remainder of the war, she lived in hiding, but continued her work for the Jewish children. After the war, she dug up the jars containing the children's identities and began an attempt to find the children and return them to living parents. However, almost all the children's parents had died at the Treblinka extermination camp."
"Every child saved with my help is the justification of my existence on this Earth, and not a title to glory"
Irena Sendler's Letter to Polish Parliament
23
May 16, 2008 at 01:03 PM Anonymous Says:
Was her intent to save Jewish children, or to convert Jewish children to Catholic?
24
May 16, 2008 at 04:22 PM JAY Says:
HER MEMORY SHOULD BE BLESSED,
25
May 16, 2008 at 07:43 PM Julianne Says:
She tried to preserve these children's lives, their names --- and return them to their parents --- and thus to preserve their Jewish identities forever. A woman of such courage and goodness, a luminous example of a good Catholic and a friend forever for the Jews. In this life and the next. Amen.
26
May 17, 2008 at 10:12 PM Baruch Goldstein Says:
If more people would act like she did many thousands of people would have bee saved. May she comntinue to be an inspiration oor all to spread kindness in the world instead of hatred
27
May 19, 2008 at 04:46 AM Matzahlocal101 Says:
It is a beautiful story. However the 5000 Righteous gentiles must be remembered against the backdrop of 100 million European Gentiles that did not, and in many cases actively helped th deportations. The Government of Slovakia in their haste to get rid of their Jews, paid the German Gov't 500Rm per Jew deported.