Following the publication in "Israel Today", a story was revealed about the father of a famous tefillin manufacturer in Bnei Brak who hid his religious articles in the ghetto • It is not clear if these are the same tefillin
The tefillin found in the Warsaw ghetto
Photography:
World Name Institute
The article in "Israel Today" about the tefillin found in a bunker in the Warsaw ghetto, 76 years after the Holocaust, was published around the globe.
Many countries were excited to read about the Judaica items that were discovered so long after the war.
But one person felt a greater belonging to tefillin, both because of his profession as one of the best-known tefillin manufacturers in the country and also because the story of the items found was very familiar to him personally.
"My father, R. Leibel Yod, was until recently in the Warsaw ghetto, and over the years he told a lot about the way tefillin was laid," says Rabbi Israel Yod, owner of the Pe'er Institute in Bnei Brak.
Rabbi Yod's father, who died about 15 years ago at the age of 94, lived in Warsaw and about a year after the war began he was moved with his family into the ghetto.
In May 1943, three years later, the great uprising in the ghetto began.
"Dad did not take part in the uprising but was present at some of the founding events in it. He said he was one of the last right in the ghetto, while being bombed in an unbelievable way."
The young label Yod refused to stop putting on tefillin throughout the rebellion, so he hid with some friends tefillin in a bunker, in a location they knew.
Every day they would return to the place, put on tefillin, and hide the items.
"They would hide the tefillin every day. I don't know if they were his, but he was definitely involved in the move."
At the end of the revolt, Label Yod and his friends were captured by the Nazis, and miraculously were not shot to death.
"They were put in front of a firing squad, but then an officer said it was a pity for the bullets."
Instead they were transferred to the Majdanek extermination camp, one of the most difficult camps, and then proceeded to the Buchenwald and Dachau camps.
After the Holocaust, he immigrated to the State of Israel and settled in Bnei Brak.
The tefillin, which was lost in the Holocaust, was never found.
Rabbi Yod says that he does not know whether the story has a direct connection to the fact that he has been producing and selling tefillin for decades, but he admits that it is a particularly beautiful coincidence.
"I can not say that because of the story I was attracted to it. It is certainly an exciting story, but not necessarily related. I was attracted to tefillin and I have been in the field for 45 years - from the day after my wedding and with the help of the name until my last day."
Are the tefillin found the same tefillin lost to Rabbi Yod's father?
We will probably never know, certainly in light of the fact that Label Iod passed away many years ago.
There are other details about the place where the tefillin was found in the Warsaw ghetto, but it is impossible to reveal them so as not to harm finding other objects from the Holocaust and bringing them to Israel.
"The story of Label Yod intersects with data we received from other survivors. They would put the tefillin in a certain place and come back to use them," notes Rabbi Avraham Krieger, head of the Shem Olam Institute, whose people found the tefillin.
Rabbi Krieger and Rabbi Yod spoke at length at the "Israel Today" initiative about the lost tefillin.
"Inside the bunkers there are many things that have not yet been found. We have very accurate evidence - not only in Warsaw but even in Birkenau. Places where people hid things so that they would come out in the future," says Rabbi Krieger.
According to him, Poland has no interest in revealing more items because this again raises the question of what their responsibility was for the Holocaust.
"So they ignore and let the destruction happen. If our people had not found the tefillin they would have been thrown in the trash."
And there is another last tiny connection between the tefillin and the iodine family.
Many years ago, Rabbi Israel Yod initiated a special and personal project, certainly in light of his father's lost tefillin.
"I set up the Lost Shabbat project for tefillin 30 years ago and returned thousands of pairs. Today, the Pe'er Institute website has a category of lost Shabbat. It is considered volunteer, but it costs me a lot of money. For me, I go with it and this is the mitzvah I will take with me to heaven."
There are currently more than 500 pairs of tefillin in the possession of a luxury institute.
