Duty Calls

The year was 1917. America entered World War I, and US troops poured into Europe in the final stages of the war. A lone Jewish soldier, Alex Lurye from Duluth, Minnesota, found himself in a German town called Seldes. It was Friday night, the young soldier was lonely, and decided to check out what the local Jewish population was like.

He created a stir as he entered the local synagogue. An American soldier in uniform! The Americans had fought the Germans in bitter combat. The lone soldier felt out of place, but was greeted by a German Jew called Herr Rosenau who made him feel comfortable in the synagogue. After the services, Herr Rosenau invited the soldier to his house for the traditional Friday night meal.

The beauty of a warm traditional Shabbat dinner and the kindness of the German-Jewish family impressed the young soldier. He was a stranger, even an enemy. Yet because he was Jewish he was invited to another Jew's home, given a delicious kosher meal, complete with wine and the traditional Shabbat songs. Herr Rosenau's family gave the soldier the feeling that he was not alone, certainly not an enemy, even in that distant land.

The soldier wasn't able to meet the kind family again, but the warm Shabbat experience did not leave him. It meant so much to him that when he finally returned to Duluth, Minnesota, his hometown, he took time to write a letter to the German Jew who had touched his life.

Herr Rosenau received the letter, but never answered it. It was placed in a desk drawer where it stayed for twenty one years.

Ruth, the teenage daughter of the German Jew, grew up and married Eugene Wienberg, and had three small children. The year was 1938, Adolf Hitler has taken over Germany and anti Jewish proclamations were being contrived and enforced. Now a grandfather, Herr Rosenau was bothered about the dismal future for Jews in Germany.

Rosenau didn't pay attention as his 11 year-old grandson Sigbert rummaged through his desk looking for something of interest. A foreign postage stamp caught his eye. He pulled out the envelope with the American postage stamp. "Grandfather, can I have this?"

Twenty one years had passed since he got the letter. "Take it," the grandfather replied. After years of giving, an old forgotten envelope makes his grandson happy. He takes it home to his mother. "Look, look what grandfather gave me!"

The mother and her husband, Herr Wienberg eyed the envelope with curiosity. Inside they found the thank you note from the American soldier, twenty-one years ago. The mother remembered the young man. "Let's write him! Maybe he will remember us and sponsor us to immigrate to America."

The envelope had no return address, only the name, Alex Lurye, and, Duluth, Minnesota. "We have no future in Germany, we must get out before this madman Hitler does worse things to the Jews."

So they wrote a letter addressed only as follows: Alex Lurye Duluth, Minnesota

Can you send a letter to a person in a large city without a street address and expect it to be delivered? You'd have to be foolish to think it would get to its destination. But Alex Luyre had become a wealthy businessman who was well known in Duluth. The postmaster delivered the letter.

When Alex received it, he quickly sent a return letter acknowledging his receipt of their letter and pledging to bring the Wienberg family to Duluth. Alex kept his promise. The entire Wienberg family arrived in May of 1938. Shortly after, the Rosenau family also came over to America.

In Duluth, the Wienberg family worked hard through the Depression. Two jobs were necessary for both the father and mother to make it through the week. Yet in Duluth as in Seldes, Germany, the family always made sure that the Shabbat was honored.

The kindness that Herr Rosenau extended to a stranger two decades earlier had come full circle. It spared Herr Rosenau and his family. That family has since sprouted and grown, with many children and grandchildren and great-grand-children, all committed to honoring the Shabbat.