Yehoshua Eibeshitz, himself a Holocaust survivor, is known throughout the Jewish world as an author of books, studies, essays and articles about the fate of the Jews in the countries occupied by the Germans during World War II. In his writings Eibeshitz dwells not only on suffering and extermination, but also on the superhuman efforts of Jews to remian true to their religions and spiritual heritage in face of persecution.
In addition to writing about the Holocaust, Eibeshitz established the H. Eibeshitz Institute for Holocaust Studies in Haifa.
Several years ago he published his autobiography acquainting his readers with the economic distress Jews suffered in anti-Semitic pre-war Poland, and underscoring, as he had done in his other writings, the Jews’ attachment to their roots and their struggle to maintain a true Jewish life even in the dark days of the German occupation. The much acclaimed book was translated from the Hebrew into English by Eibeschitz’s wife, Anna Eilenberg Eibeshitz, a writer on the Holocaust in her own right. The English version called The Uprooted- A Survivor’s Autobiography, was published lat year.
Yehoshua Eibeshitz is a great-grandson of Rabbi Chaim Elezar Waks, rabbi of Kalisz, who was a son-on-law of Rabbi Israel Joshua Trunk, the famous rabbi of Kutno. In between his writings on the Holocaust, Yehoshua Eibeshitz, who is named for the rabbi of Kutno, has reprinted the rabbinic writings of both Rabbi Waks and Rabbi Trunk.
Half a year ago, hr reprinted Yavin Da’at which includes Rabbi Israel Joshua Trunk’s only son, Moses Pinchas, who after his father’s death filled his position in Kutno. The final editor was Rabbi Isaac Judah Turnk, a son of Rabi Moshe Pinchas, Rabbi Isaac Judah Turnk, who served as rabbi of Kutno from 1912-1939, published the book in 1932 together with hasdei Avot, a rabbinic work of his own.
In his intorudction to the recently published reprint of Yavin Da’at, Eibeschutz tells us about his decision to reprint the writings of Rabbi Chaim Elezar Waks and Rabbi Israel Joshua Turnk, both ofwhomwere prominent rabbiic authroties.
“When my parents, three brothers and two sisters were deported to their deaths at the end of the summer of 1942, I was a prisoner in the German concentration camp of Schvanigen (Swarzadz) in the Poznan area. I did ot perform Keriah, I did not sit Shiv’ah, I did not say Kaddish. I could not observe the Jewish laws and customs of mourning.
“After my liberations from the labor and death camps and my arrival in the Land of Israel I was constantly tormented by the thought of what I could do to bring peace to the pure souls of my family. It was then that I decided to publish a work of my great-grandfather, Rabbi Hayyim Eleazar Waks.”
With the assistance of the late Rabbi Hayyim Eleazar Alter of Jerusalem, who was also a descendant of Rabbi H.E. Waks, Eibeshitz published in 1961, Shem Ushe’erit LeNefesh Hayya, which included responsa, novellae and Derashot by Rabbi Waks.
In the following year Eibeshitz published other works by Rabbi Waks, among them the monumental Nefesh Hayya, which includes responsa on all parts of the Shulhan Arukh, as well as works by Rabbi Israel Joshua Trunk.
“Yavin Da’at was the only one of Rabbi Trunk’s books that I had not reprinted,” writes Eibeshitz. He was doing it now, hopeing that the book will be of great help to Torah scholars and that the merit of the Torah study of these scholars will bring peace to the souls of the maryred members of his family.
(To be continued)
The Jewish Press, Friday, December 5, 2003