On the Wings of Faith - Tapa dura

Rabbi Eli Fishman began writing about his experiences in the Shoah over sixty years ago, soon after his liberation from Dachau. Mindful of the fact that his hometown of Rachov, Poland, was totally destroyed and that no Jew lived there since the expulsion of the towns Jews in October 1942, Rabbi Fishman felt that it was imperative to preserve a record of his hometown, a community that had contributed so much to the religious and social development of the Jews. In 1946, however, he felt he was too close to the tragic events of the time to evaluate the true dimensions and implications of the calamity. After the passage of more than half a century, Rabbi Fishman has resurrected the painful memories to soberly and dispassionately evaluate for history the barbaric acts that resulted in the near annihilation of the Jewish population of Europe. The story of Rabbi Fishman's extraordinary tenacity and faith in the face of stark suffering while still in his teens will inspire the reader to value life as the most precious commodity, and to keep faith no matter how difficult the situation.

Rabbi Eli Fishman grew up as a yeshiva student in Rachov, near Lublin, Poland. He attended the Mechina of Yachal (the preparatory school for Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin) and from the fall of 1938 he was accepted to the famed Yeshivas Chachmei Lublin. The outbreak of WWII on September 1, 1939, tore him from his studies. Separated from his family, he endured the work camps Goscieradow, Budzyn (part of Majdanek), and Ostrovtso, before being sent to Auschwitz and the death march through Germany to Dachau, where he was liberated by the American army. Ordained by Chief Rabbi of Germany Rabbi Samuel A. Snieg, Rabbi Fishman became the assistant to the chief rabbi and was involved in the work of renewing Jewish life in postwar Germany. In 1950, Rabbi Fishman immigrated to the United States under the sponsorship of Dean Samuel Sar at Yeshiva University. He assumed his first American pulpit in Newark, New Jersey, and was active in his rabbinic mission as a pulpit rabbi for over fifty years. He continues to serve as president of the Judaic Heritage Foundation. He has lived in Freehold, New Jersey, for the past thirty-five years with his wife Eileen. They have four children, nine grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren.