Each time I try to write this post, my right pinkie gives out from spending so much time hovering over the backspace key. I cannot easily find the words--even weeks now since his passing--to give voice to the profound esteem and deepest affection I have for Rabbi Dreyfus, alav hashalom, or to express the wave of sorrow I have felt since he died. I had the blessing of studying with Rabbi A. Stanley Dreyfus every Friday morning during most of my years at rabbinic school. He is given the most lovely of tributes by my friend Rabbi Andy Bachman here. I hope that Andy's words suffice, especially for those of you who remember Dr. Dreyfus' erudition and dignified presence at my installation at Emanu-El in 2001.
With Dr. Dreyfus' passing colouring my mood, I read about the recent death of the Polish intellectual and politician Bronislaw Geremek [nee Lewertow], who had escaped from the Warsaw ghetto as a child. Though Geremek gained fame on the world stage as a humanist and as the preeminent intellectual of the Polish Solidarity trade union, his remarkable story is also part of the tumult of the Jewish twentieth century and merits a remembrance amongst Jews. Reading about his life and his choices coupled with his deep fortitude, I cannot help but wonder about all of the ways that the happenstances of history shield or challenge us. Geremek's friend Adam Michnik, the Polish Jewish intellectual and Solidarity legend, pays him tribute here.
Despite the bittersweetness of this post, I wish you only a sweet Shabbat.
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