The story has been told all over the Jewish world. The Jewish media, both print and electronic have been paying homage to a hero of the Virginia Tech massacre. His name was Liviu Librescu.
I was going to comment earlier but so many people had already said the things I wanted to say that I decided not to just duplicate the efforts of others. For those who haven’t heard or read about this man, Dr. Librescu was a 76 year old holocaust survivor. He was an aeronautical and mechanical engineering professor who came to the United States during a sabbatical from teaching at Tel Aviv University in 1985 and stayed on because of the research opportunities he found there.
It’s one thing when the Jewish world focuses on one of its own. But Yesterday’s Chicago Tribune had a front page story about Dr. Librescu. Front page! It seemed to be more in depth than anything I’ve read so far. And after I read it my eyes started watering. It was truly a remarkable story.
The fact that he gave his life to protect his students was a huge Kiddush HaShem for this secular Jew. I believe that at that single moment he was Koneh his portion in Olam HaBah. …As did many such heroes during the holocaust who were secular and gave their lives for their religion.
The article goes on to tell more details about his life and how he gave it up to protect his students. But I want to focus on the fact that it was a secular newspaper, one that has often been accused of being anti-Semitic that not only featured that story of heroism, but featured it on their front page. This, they felt was one of the most important stories of the day... the story of how a Jew, a holocaust survivor gave up his life for his students. There on the front page, was a picture of the hero wearing a Yarmulkee. At the end of he story there were testimonials from the students he saved about his heroism.
I point this out to demonstrate once again the basic decency of the American people. The fact that stories of Jewish heroism are published on the front pages of major metropolitan newspapers, speaks volumes about them. To characterize the American people as a bunch of Esavs who hate Yaakov just is not true in our time. And this is yet another instance of it.
The Chicago Tribune, the students at Virginia Tech, the President of the United States, and even the Romanian government … all paid tribute to this Jew, this holocaust survivor who gave his life on Yom HaShoah to save fellow human beings. There was not a hateful moment in any of it. Just love, admiration, and sympathy for his bereaved family in Israel. The emotions were genuine. No one could fake them.
It has been said that universities have become hotbeds of anti-Semitism. In fact that seems to be the case. It has become very fashionable to bash Israel in universities where students have been indoctrinated to look at Israel as an oppressor nation and Palestinians as their victims. But not Virginia Tech. Not that day.
A while back I had written an article about why this is not 1938. I think this article shows why.
