The tattooed number on Jerry Wartski’s arm has become slightly dull after eighty years, but it has not faded. Nor have the memories of the inferno he survived during the years of the Holocaust.
Around the globe, Holocaust survivors and Jewish communities around the world gathered this past April 24, Yom HaShoah, to honor the memory of the six million Jewish men, women and children who were viciously slaughtered by the Nazi regime. In a proclamation commemorating the day, President Trump called the Holocaust “one of the bleakest hours in human history.” The President also recalled the “80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, during which we memorialized the lives of the mothers, fathers, sisters, brothers, daughters, sons, grandmothers, and grandfathers whose futures were barbarically ripped away in Nazi-occupied Europe.”
These include the parents and relatives of Wartski, who was only 9 years old when the Nazis invaded Poland in 1939. Wartski remembers how the persecution began with laws geared to degrade Jews, forbidding them to attend school or even walk on the streets. The Nazis forced the Jews to wear identifying Star of David armbands and then forced them into ghettos, where rampant starvation and disease slowly killed many of the incarcerated Jews. The rest were killed off outright by selections that resulted in gassings.
Along with his parents and brother, Wartski was sent to the Osjakow ghetto in 1941, where he miraculously survived a selection by standing on some bricks to give himself an older appearance. Later, the family ended up in the Lodz ghetto, and from there they were deported to Auschwitz. His mother was murdered in the gas chambers, and his father died later on a death march.
Though Wartski went on to move to the United States and become a successful real estate investor, the events of the Holocaust shaped his life, especially his philanthropy. Wartski channeled his pain and suffering into positive action by supporting the State of Israel and Jews around the world. As Honorary President of Israel Heritage Foundation, he assists the organization to pinpoint the most stalwart champions of the Jewish state and the Jewish people and furthers their political advocacy.
Wartski touched the lives of other board members of Israel Heritage Foundation, including Jonathan Burkan. Burkan, who works in the financial services industry and serves as the Honorary Chairman of Israel Heritage Foundation, was introduced to Wartksi back in 2017 through Israel Heritage Foundation Executive Vice President Dr. Joseph Frager, himself a fierce advocate for Holocaust survivors. “Spending time with Wartski inspired me to reinvigorate my efforts to support Israel and educate about the Holocaust,” Burkan says.
Burkan received a presidential appointment to serve on the United States Holocaust Memorial Council (Board of Trustees) in Washington, DC in 2019 for four years. It was a natural outgrowth, not just of Burkan’s association with Wartski, but of Burkan’s long-standing connection with Holocaust survivors.
He feels that you don’t have to be a Holocaust survivor to be care about its victims and survivors. “My family was lucky that they left Europe before the Holocaust,” Burkan says. “But I clearly recall the stories of my Grandmother Molly’s friends who were Holocaust survivors. Their accounts touched and inspired me.”
In the summer of 1991, Burkan lived and volunteered at Kibbutz Nachal Oz, which was later horrifically attacked by Hamas on October 7. Part of Burkan’s program at the time included meeting with Holocaust survivors. That trip stimulated Burkan to be more involved in fully supporting Israel as a home for the Jewish people, not only as their birthright but “as a refuge in case a Holocaust ever happened again.” When Burkan visited Kibbutz Nachal Oz again last year, the irony of viewing the site of the attack as the source of his motivation was not lost on him.
When Rabbi David Katz joined forces with Dr. Frager to establish Israel Heritage Foundation, he brought with him his own personal history, which is permeated by the vestiges of the Holocaust. His own and his wife’s four sets of grandparents were all Holocaust survivors. One was the sole survivor from a large Hungarian family. It was only after two of his grandmothers passed away that their families saw the numbered tattoos on their arms - evidence of the horrors of Auschwitz - because they always kept their arms covered.
These personal experiences are what motivated Rabbi Katz to found IHF. “The foundation is built on the pillars of the Holocaust,” Rabbi Katz explains. “But those pillars are also what lead Israel Heritage Foundation to safeguard the State of Israel and promote those who love and defend the Jewish State.”
Yom HaShoah is followed a few days later by two more successive days marking the Jewish calendar. Yom Hazikaron, Israei Memorial Day, marks a period of remembrance for Israeli soldiers who lost their lives defending the State of Israel and civilians who were victims of terrorism. And Yom Ha'atzmaut, Israeli Independence Day, is celebrated the very next day, on the fifth day of the month of Iyar, which is the Hebrew date of the formal establishment of the State of Israel.
The linkage of these three days, which we completed commemorating last week, is no coincidence. And they form the basis for Israel Heritage Foundation’s mission and holy work. This is especially true in these days of existential threats to Israel and mounting global antisemitism.
At a Yom HaZikaron commemoration last week in Manhattan, Israeli Consul General in New York Ofir Akunis related a passage from Ezekiel (16:6), “And I passed by you and saw you wallowing in your blood and I said to you: in your blood - live, in your blood - live.” Akunis pointed to the loss of those Jews who gave their lives so that we “can continue to live and celebrate milestones in our own lives and in the State of Israel.”
It is the aim of those at Israel Heritage Foundation to pursue those milestones through preserving the heritage of the Jewish people and defending their holy land. By partnering with advocates who cherish those same goals, the foundation transforms endeavors into blessings. Am Yisrael Chai.