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My father, our father, has been on an unimaginable
journey to get to here today.
He was born in Nyirbator - a small town in Hungary. In 1944 he was taken with his parents and 3 sisters to Auschwitz ... and then he went to Buchenwald, Berga and eventually found his Liberation at the end of the war. Orphaned at age 15 he was the only survivor of his family. He immigrated to the United States in 1948, changed his name from Tibor Keszler to Theodore Kessler. The US government inducted him into the Korean Conflict and he became a GI in the Army. After he returned to New York, he did very well for himself. He met a wonderful woman, became a CPA, supported his family, sent his kids to college. For as long as I can remember my father would read books and watch movies about the Holocaust and WW2. He was by far the best expert on the subject that I have ever met. When I was growing up and I would read or watch something with graphic material on the atrocities I would get angry or bitter .... ...or maybe depressed and lost to try and understand how any human beings could treat each other that way. My father had none of those thoughts. In many ways he was one of the most positive people that I have ever known. He had a perspective that transcended all of people's failings and he could see further down the road, beyond any road blocks or personal limitations. He almost always would see the positive qualities in people and the best possible outcomes for situations. He survived the worst things that could ever happen to someone ... and believed things were only going to get better. He knew what it was like to lose everything. He started over from scratch and was able to build a family, a home and a life for himself. He taught me the value of hard work and perseverance - through practice and example. I will miss him deeply - and will work to honor him with the way that I will live the rest of my life. I'd like to read the Sympathy Poem by Rabbi Alvin Fine. Birth is a beginning and death a destination And life is a journey From childhood to maturity and youth to age; From innocence to awareness and ignorance to knowing; From foolishness to desecration and then perhaps to wisdom. From weakness to strength or from strength to weakness and often back again; From health to sickness and we pray to health again. From offense to forgiveness from loneliness to love from joy to gratitude from pain to compassion from grief to understanding from fear to faith. From defeat to defeat to defeat until looking backwards or ahead We see that victory lies not at some high point along the way but in having made the journey step by step a sacred pilgrimage. Birth is a beginning and death a destination And life is a journey; A sacred journey to life everlasting. |
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