Far removed from the tumult of war-torn Ukraine, life continued as normal in sunny South Florida. Mid-November was one of the most beautiful times of the year in Miami. Residents counted down until November for the heat to break and for fall to “officially” begin. From then on, they basked in the beautiful breezy days until the heat returned at the end of May. In November, with the High Holy Day season past and the snowbirds back from their homes in the Berkshires and Colorado and North Carolina, the calendar of Miami’s Jewish community swung into full gear. While most of South Miami’s elite were trying new restaurants and jet-setting around town, Michael Groh sat in his recliner posted dutifully in front of the television. His mind was in Odessa, wondering what his son was doing for the endangered Jews of the region.
It was late in the morning when his phone buzzed with an invitation for a face-to-face call. He immediately accepted and, moments later, he was staring at a blurred image of his son.
“Eitan, what is happening? Are you ok? I heard.”
“You heard about the bombing?”
“Yes, it came through as I was watching the Israeli news online. I figured it had to be you. What other two foreign rabbis could it have been across the street from Shalva?”
“I’m fine, Dad. A little dazed, but fine. I’m staying now in a flat owned by one of the school’s donors. But things are really bad here, Dad. I’m not sure how much longer these Jews can stay in this country.”
Eitan would not have spoken so grimly to his wife or his Temple leadership, but he knew how committed his father was to Jewish survival. He was the son of a legendary figure in the American Jewish community for dedicating his life to helping Jews from all over the world, including his famous mission to help bring Holocaust survivors to Palestine and his support of those survivors for years in the nascent Jewish state. While he chose medicine as a career instead of the rabbinate, his heart and mind were always focused on the state of the Jewish people. He could not have been prouder of his son when he chose to restart the Groh rabbinic chain. Not just because he was a rabbi following in his grandfather’s footsteps, but because he was so committed to the fate of the Jewish people. Eitan’s father was the one person who didn’t mind that Eitan was sticking around in a country ravaged by war, with a new government unfriendly to the local Jewish community. His wife, Emma, was stoic back in Miami, but she was much less enamored with the adventure than her father-in-law.
“Are you planning on staying there, Eitan?” Michael asked his son.
“Yes, for now. We are doing what we can to get Jews out of this country. I know it’s not what I signed up for when I came here to work at Shalva, but it is what is needed now.”
“I don’t blame you, but be careful,” Michael warned.
“This new provisional government really hates the Jewish community here. They blame them for everything. There is no logic to it,” Eitan replied.
“You know that’s nothing we haven’t seen before, Eitan.”
“Of course, but I never imagined it could happen again. Haven’t these people learned anything?” Eitan responded.
“They don’t care. The Holocaust doesn’t matter to them. They don’t study it. They don’t teach it to their children. It’s not part of their modern-day thinking like it is for us.”
“You are more right that you know, Dad,” Eitan agreed. “We have some information about who is now running this country, and these people are dangerous,” Eitan said.
“What do you mean, you have information?”
“I can’t get into it now, but it is information we are going to share with the Israelis,” Eitan offered.
“Eitan, you are an American rabbi, not a Mossad agent,” Michael said in a concerned voice that was clear to his son.
“I know, Dad, but there are not many here who can help, and Rabbi Davidov and I may have come up with a solution. Besides, isn’t this what Grandpa would have wanted. What’s more important in our family than saving Jews? ” Eitan responded, knowing how much his dad revered his own father’s history.
“I hear you. That was one of the proudest moments of his life. But do you really think this is something you should be getting involved in, Eitan? Isn’t this a little out of your league?”
“Dad, I know you aren’t advising me not to do what I can to help these Jews get out of here, are you? That would be a stretch coming from the son of the famous rabbi of the Maharhash!”
As Eitan spoke, Michael’s mind wandered momentarily to the stories his father used to tell him. He described vividly the faces he saw emerge from Hitler’s inferno all those years ago. He was so proud of helping bring some of them to the Land of Israel. He always talked about the faces. Even on his deathbed thirty years before, his mind was back on the Maharhash. So many of his father’s old stories came rushing back to Michael. His dad always thought that the birth of the Jewish homeland meant an end to Jewish suffering in foreign lands. He thought that the days of Jews becoming trapped at the whims of anti-Semitic tyrants were a thing of the past. Michael was glad his father never had to see what was happening now in the cursed land of Ukraine.
“Listen, Dad, we will be careful. But do you want me to help these Jews or not? If not Eli and I, I don’t know who.”
“I know you are doing everything you can to help them. I am proud of you. Stay strong and do good work.”
“Thanks, Dad. We will talk soon. I need to get going. I am headed to Kiev in the morning,” Eitan responded.
When the connection closed, Eitan gathered his briefcase and headed for the exit. It was time to regroup with his colleague, Eli. Clearly the tide in Ukraine was turning once again against the Jews, and something needed to be done.