Speaking from the heart

CHILD HOLOCAUST survivor Rena Quint, who is honorary president of the Jossi Berger Holocaust Studies Center at Emunah College, delivers an address

By GREER FAY CASHMAN
Grapevine 521 (photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
Grapevine 521
(photo credit: Thinkstock/Imagebank)
■CHILD HOLOCAUST survivor Rena Quint, who is honorary president of the Jossi Berger Holocaust Studies Center at Emunah College, delivers an address at events organized by the Studies Center on Holocaust Remembrance Day and Kristallnacht. She has been doing so for almost 20 years. But this year she was not in Jerusalem for Holocaust Remembrance Day. She was in South Africa at the invitation of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies to speak at the memorial ceremony in Johannesburg. She also spoke at Holocaust Remembrance ceremonies in Capetown and Durban and made such an impact on her audiences that they invited her to return.
It’s one thing for Holocaust survivors to make an emotional impression on Jewish audiences, but perhaps even more important is the effect that they have on non-Jewish audiences. A non-Jewish prison chaplain could not thank her enough for sharing her story, and media reports described her as inspirational. One non-Jewish journalist, Sue Grant-Marshall, who interviewed Quint and wrote an extensive feature story about her in the June edition of Fairlady magazine, in notifying Quint of its publication, wrote: “Our interview was one of the most moving and memorable that I have done in over 40 years of journalism. And I think of you nearly every day because of it. You are a truly remarkable woman, and I count myself fortunate to have met you and talked to you.”
Quint, who is in frequent demand as a volunteer guide at Yad Vashem, often receives gratuities from appreciative individuals and groups. She never keeps these moneys for herself but forwards them to Yad Vashem or the Jossi Berger Holocaust Studies Center. She also speaks to Birthright, Aish Hatorah and Hadassah groups, among others.
This week, she and her husband, Rabbi Emanuel Quint, who made aliya from America in 1984, were scheduled to return to the US for the first time in 14 years to attend the wedding in New York of their granddaughter Tzippy Quint, the daughter of David and Rachel Quint, to Gilad Bendheim, the son of Jack and Gitti Bendheim.
Also returning to New York for the occasion was the groom's grandmother Els Bendheim, a well-known Jerusalem personality, whose 90th birthday will be celebrated at one of the sheva brachot gatherings in the week following the wedding, which will be attended by a large representation of the huge Bendheim family.
■MOST SYNAGOGUES are very pleased to publicize the name of the cantor who leads the service and the person who reads from the Torah for the congregation. Not so Hatzvi Yisrael, which despite requests by various congregants that the situation of no recognition be amended, continues during public announcements at the conclusion of the service to refrain from thanking both the reader and the person(s) who led the service. The congregation has no regular cantor or reader, and the names of the people who perform these tasks never appear on the weekly synagogue notices that are emailed to congregants prior to Shabbat. Thus last Saturday, at least one female congregant did not realize that the glorious cantorial voice with which she was enraptured was that of Naftali Hershtik, who for many years was the chief cantor at Jerusalem’s Great Synagogue.
Turning to the person next to her, who is not a regular congregant, the woman enthused about the quality of the singing and wondered about the identity of the man leading the service. Coincidentally, the person to whom she spoke was Hershtik’s wife. The woman could not believe at the end of the service that no mention was made of the fact that it had been led by a man of Hershtik’s international stature.
Veteran Jerusalemites who attended High Holy Day services at the Great Synagogue will remember Hershtik singing with his young sons, one of whom, Netanel Hershtik, who is cantor of the New York Synagogue and the Hampton Synagogue, has in addition made his own international reputation, singing solo, with other cantors, and occasionally with his father. These days, Naftali Hershtik is focusing on training his grandsons, who have inherited the musical gene. One of them sang the liturgical poem “Anim Zmirot” at the close of the service on Saturday, while his proud grandfather placed a reassuring hand on his shoulder.