In August of 1945, US Army Chaplain Major Aaron Paperman was stationed in Rome, Italy, and sent a telegram to the Agudath Israel Youth Council in New York requesting aid for Jews that had been liberated. Though the war was over and the Nazis were defeated, the remnant of European Jewry continued to suffer. Bereft of family and home, the survivors were afflicted with hunger and disease and thousands died in the months following liberation. By the summer of 1945, affairs in Europe had begun to somewhat stabilize, yet religious supplies for the liberated Jews were still virtually non-existent.
Paperman wrote, “Send phylacteries, shawls, skull caps, prayer books, bibles, religious school books, kosher food, shochets’ knives and stones…for hundreds [of] religious Jews from Poland, Hungary, Lithuania.” While this cable was only one of thousands of entreaties that were being sent to the Agudath Israel’s offices, what makes Paperman’s request especially noteworthy is his concluding remark. Referring to the survivors, Paperman stressed, “Though starving, will eat only kosher.”
Religious relief organizations such as the Agudath Israel and the Vaad Hatzalah were keenly aware of this sentiment and mobilized their resources to fill the void. They galvanized their members and launched campaigns to spur American Jews to aid their brethren in Europe. Prior to Chanukah, the Agudath Israel ran a food campaign, entitled, “Keep the Flame Alive.” The fundraising ads stated, “Today, that small clear light of the Chanukah candles is more than a symbol of an ancient victory of the weak over the strong. Today, it must also be our symbol of hope – and life itself – for the despairing Jews of Europe.” The ads urged, “Make your Feast of Lights their feast too” and concluded, “Our lives are far too comfortable, our homes too warm, our stomachs too full for us to dare forget their plight and ravenous hunger…”
Not content to assist from afar, Mike Tress, President of the Agudath Israel Youth Council, became one of the first civilians to obtain permission to travel to the US Occupied Zone of Europe to meet the survivors and help address their needs. To do so, Mr. Tress had to utilize his political connections to travel as a United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) officer. On the first day of Chanukah, Friday, November 30, 1945, Mr. Tress departed on a month-long stay in Europe.
In a letter to his wife that he wrote from the boat, the RMS Queen Mary, Mr. Tress described his emotions of not being able to be with his family to celebrate Chanukah. “The boat pulled out at 3pm and we stood on deck watching it leave the shores of New York… A lump came to my throat because it made me acutely aware that I was already homesick.”
Mr. Tress also detailed his loneliness from a religious perspective. There were over eight hundred passengers abroad the boat of which a total of four, including Mr. Tress, were religious Jews. (Mr. Samuel Rosenheim, Rabbi Chaim Twerski, and Mr. Walter Shapiro were the other three and were traveling to an Agudath Israel conference in London.) Since it was Chanukah, Mr. Tress wanted to light a menorah. However, he quickly ascertained that he was not going to receive acquiescence from any of the crew members of what was then a military vessel. Sadly, Mr. Tress also noted, “There are several other Jews aboard but they are doing their best to hide it.”
