"Lest We Forget! - A Ritual of Remembrance for the Six Million Jews who Perished at the Hands of the Nazis, and for ...

"Lest We Forget! - A Ritual of Remembrance for the Six Million Jews who Perished at the Hands of the Nazis, and for the Heroes of the Ghetto Uprising" - a Special Addition to the Passover Haggadah which was Written a Short Time After the Holocaust - a Touching, Historical Item
A printed leaflet of four pages bearing the title "Lest We Forget! – A Ritual of Remembrance For the Six Million Jews who perished at the hands of the Nazis, and for the heroes of the Ghetto uprising".

The leaflet was printed on behalf of the Committee for a Ritual of Remembrance. New York, [the late 1940's?].

At the beginning of the leaflet it is written that its text should be read after the third cup, before opening the door to Eliyahu Ha'Navih, in memory of the six millions who had perished.

An extremely rare leaflet! Does not appear in libraries in Israel! A touching historical item!

Description of the leaflet

First section: all the participants stand and the leader of the Seder reads the Hebrew Text: "Be'Leil Shimurim Zeh…" which is printed in Hebrew and is vowelized.

Second section: the leader of the Seder or one of the other participants reads the same text in its English translation, which is also printed in the leaflet.

Third section: all the participants sing "Ani Ma'amin" "The song of the holy ones who perished in the ghettoes and extermination camps".

The leaflet contains the words of "Ani Ma'amin", and the musical notes of the well-known tune that became a symbol of Jewish heroism during the Holocaust. This is one of the earliest printed publications of the tune.

The tune is attributed to Azriel David Fastag, a Modzitz Hassid, composer and cantor from Otwock, who reputedly on his way to Treblinka sang "Ani Ma'amin" with this tune. Fastag announced he will give his portion in the World to Come to whomever can take the notes of his song 'Ani Ma'amin' to the Modzitzer Rebbe. Indeed, one of the Jews who survived the Holocaust wrote the musical note and the story and sent them to the Modzitzer Rebbe in New York, most likely, without mentioning the name of the composer. During a certain celebration by the Rebbe (in 1945 or 1946) the song was sung for the first time by the cantor and composer Reb Ben Zion Shenkar. The news about the tragedy of the European Jews had already reached the participants of the celebration and Ben Zion Shenkar recalled that "no eye remained dry when the people heard the tune and the story of its survival". From there, the tune spread throughout the USA and later reached the land of Israel.

The Modzitzer Rebbe who knew Fastag and his tunes from the days he lived in Otwock and identified him as the composer of the tune said, during that celebration, that "with this tune Jews had marched to the gas chamber and with this tune Jews will march to welcome our Messiah […] when Reb Azriel David sang the 'Ani Ma'amin' the foundations of the Upper Worlds must have shaken".

Before us is an early printing of this historical tune, which can shed light on the way it was published throughout the Jewish world. Much was written on the subject, yet the leaflet before us was never mentioned.

The date of printing

It should be noted that a similar copy was sold in an past auction, attached to a Passover Haggadah that was printed in 1945 for Jewish soldiers in the USA. The format of the leaflet indeed matches this period. Thus, this version was printed in Nissan 1945, immediately after the Holocaust, for the first Sidrei Pesach after the Holocaust, which were conducted by Jewish soldiers who fought the Nazis and released the concentration camps!

However, we could not verify this assumption and it is possible that the leaflet was printed only in the early 1950's.

[The aforementioned Haggada (Otzar ha'haggadot 3970) was printed by the National Jewish Welfare Board, which is referred to by the leaflet before us: on its last page it is written that the right to reprint the musical notes was given by the JWB].

The version of the additional prayer

The horrifying prayer that was added to the Haggadah includes both a description of the horrible tragedy, alluding to the enslavement of Egypt, and praise for the heroism of the ghetto fighters.

It should be noted that the phenomenon of adding passages to the orthodox Passover Haggadah is extremely rare (it exists mostly in the non-traditional Haggadot of the Kibutzim).

The writer of the prayer

Yisrael Goldberg (1888-1964). A senior Zionist, educator and writer. He emigrated from Poland to the USA when he was 10 years old. He edited the 'Young Judea' and wrote in additional journals. He also published books of Jewish and Zionist history.

Goldberg founded the Committee for a Ritual of Remembrance to commemorate the Holocaust during the Passover Seder and within its framework distributed the leaflet before us, of which several editions were printed. To the best of our knowledge, before us is the first of them.

17.5 cm.

Enclosed is material that includes various discussions of the prayers included in this rare leaflet.