April 07, 2023

8: [Moshe Blechman] God Gave Me Credit

30 minutes

*Content warning: This episode includes discussion of the antisemitism, racism, the Holocaust, sudden death, grief, physical violence, abuse, bigotry, religious persecution, mass murder, genocide, abuse involving children and war.

Moshe Blechman is a former soldier, professor, and Rabbi hailing from Poland, whose life changed forever when his hometown was demolished amidst Hitler’s World War 2 efforts. As a result, he was left family-less, homeless, and even country-less by nine-years-old. However, he was given a new chance at life when he became one of the Holocaust’s infamous ‘Tehran Children.’ What came next in Moshe’s life is both heartwarming and heartbreaking, and it’s a great honor to help him share his story.

Synagogue: a Jewish place of worship

Shul: the hebrew word for temple, or a Jewish house of worship.

Mitzvot: a good deed or occurrence likely born from religious duty.

Eema: the hebrew word for mother

Yeshiva: an Orthodox Jewish elementary or secondary school

Yelladim Tehran: ‘Tehran children’

Ein: the hebrew word for none or nothing

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Sources:

BBC Stats on Polish Deaths in the Holocaust

https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-49523932

Henrietta Szolds & The Tehran Children via Hadassah

https://www.hadassahmagazine.org/2020/01/07/henrietta-szolds-children/

The Holocaust Encyclopedia on The Tehran Children

https://encyclopedia.ushmm.org/content/en/article/tehran-children

A Shocking Lack of Holocaust Awareness

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/survey-finds-shocking-lack-holocaust-knowledge-among-millennials-gen-z-n1240031

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