THE LITTLE TORAH RETURNS TO MUNICH GERMANY, by Rick Landman

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THE LITTLE TORAH IS BACK HOME IN MUNICH
AT CONGREGATION BETH SHALOM (A Liberal Congregation)

OTHER LINKED WEBPAGES

November 9, 2004 Kristallnacht Program at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (NYC) where the ownership of the Torah was transfered to Congregation Beth Shalom of Munich (includes photos)
Newspaper Articles and Letters Received Concerning the Torah
June 10-12, 2005 Dedication Program in Munich
November 9, 2004 - Photos of the Kristallnacht Program at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah (NYC) where the ownership of the Torah was transfered to Congregation Beth Shalom of Munich
November 9, 2004 - Newspaper Articles and Letters Received Concerning the Transfer of the Torah from NYC to Munich
November 14, 2004- Photos and Stories of the Torah AFTER Reaching Munich
Story about the Ark Cover (Parochet) that also found its way back to Munich.

Opened Torah showing several columns of text.
THIS WEBPAGE WILL CONTAIN LETTERS RECEIVED AND SENT AND NEWSPAPER ARTICLES CONCERNING THE TORAH. As of November 14, 2004 the Torah is in Munich!

DOWNTOWN EXPRESS Volume 17 • Issue 26 | Nov. 19 - 25, 2004

Sendoff for Tribecan’s Torah

Rick Landman, above, holds a Torah his grandfather gave him on Nov. 9, the anniversary of Kristallnact. Landman, a Tribeca resident, had loaned his Torah to the Beth Simchat Torah congregation in Greenwich Village. He donated it to Congregation Beth Shalom in Munich and after the service, he and Beth Shaolm’s Adrian Schell boxed the scroll. Landman, who was told in Hebrew school that two men would never be married in front of a Torah, waited until he found a German synagogue that was open to gays before agreeing to send the Torah back to Germany. THE VILLAGER Volume 74, Number 27 | November 10 - 16, 2004

Tribeca man’s family Torah is going back to Germany

By Sascha Brodsky

In a way, Rick Landman’s Torah is going home.

This month, the 200-year-old Torah is returning to Germany, from where Landman’s grandfather took it after fleeing the Nazis. Landman, a Tribeca resident, presented the Torah to representatives of a German synagogue Congregation, Beth Shalom, at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, at 57 Bethune St., on Nov. 9.

Landman’s grandfather, Martin Oettinger, brought the Torah from Germany in 1946. That side of the family traces its German roots to the 1500s. Oettinger and his brother Albert fought in World War I on the side of the Kaiser.

Living in Germany, Martin Oettinger, an outspoken Jew, had an altercation with the notorious Nazi Julius Streicher in the late 1920s. Streicher was one of the Nazis to be hanged after the Nuremberg trials for his propaganda work and virulent anti-Semitism.

Fearing for his life, Oettinger fled to France within days of Hitler coming to power in 1933. Oettinger, Elsie and their young daughter Lisa, Landman’s mother, lived in Strasbourg for six years until they saw what was happening across the river in Germany on Kristallnacht. Seeing burning synagogues convinced them that France would not be able to protect them any longer. So they applied for “stateless passports” and left France for America.

The Oettingers eventually immigrated to Washington Heights in February 1939. It was Martin Oettinger, who, as soon as World War II ended, booked a ship to return to the land of his birth to find out what happened to his family, friends and business. On his return home to New York City in 1946, he brought back three Torahs. One he gave to his synagogue in Washington Heights, Congregation Beth Hillel, and the other two he eventually gave to his grandsons, Landman and his brother.

Nearly 60 years later, Landman donated his Torah to a German reform synagogue on Nov. 9, the 66th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

“Now that there is a Reform, egalitarian synagogue in Munich, the city from where my father’s grandparents were deported to their death in Auschwitz, this is the ideal place for the Torah to go,” Landman said. “It will be in honor of Gerson and Sofie Landman of Munich, who were killed during the Holocaust, and Martin and Elsie Oettinger, my maternal grandparents, who brought the Torah to America. They all would be surprised to know that Jews were once again thriving in Germany.”

Landman, who heads New York University’s real estate department, said that he turned down an earlier opportunity to donate the Torah because of mixed feelings he has over his identity of being both Jewish and gay.

“In 1965, after being told in Hebrew school that no two men would ever be married in front of a Torah, I decided not to donate the Torah at my bar mitzvah; but instead I loaned it until I could find a synagogue that would permit gay marriages,” he said. “Finally, in 1973 Congregation Beth Simchat Torah was formed and later when I became an active member, I lent the Torah to them.”

Landman said that donating the Torah has a special meaning because he is gay.

“When I read ‘Mein Kampf’ in school, I understood how scared my parents must have felt to be Jewish,” he said. “Then as a gay teenager, when I learned there were religious people who took the Bible literally, I was also scared. Both books contained passages that wanted me dead; ‘Mein Kampf’ for being a Jew and the Bible for being gay.”

The Jewish Week

(11/19/2004)

The Ark Of History

Steve Lipman

Every year for the past quarter-century, Rick Landman has held the same Torah scroll during the hakafot dancing on Simchat Torah at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah in Greenwich Village. The sefer Torah belongs to him.

The 200-year old holy parchment, wrapped around 40-year-old wooden Etz Chaim rollers, was a gift from his maternal grandfather, a Holocaust refugee from Germany who serendipitously received the scroll during a visit to his homeland in 1946. Landman, who was given the Torah as a young man, first loaned it to the Bellerose Jewish Center in Queens and later moved it to Beth Simchat Torah, where he served as a board member.

Last week, on Kristallnacht, he held the sefer Torah here for the last time. During a ceremony at the synagogue, he handed his prized possession to Adrian Michael Schell, a representative of Congregation Beth Shalom, a Reform worship group in Munich to which Landman has given the scroll through the World Union of Progressive Judaism.

Beth Shalom, which meets in a rented space 15 minutes from where Landman’s paternal grandparents had lived before World War II, will use the gift for the first time this weekend, Parshat VaYetze.

“For me, this is the bashert tying together of all the aspects of my life,” says Landman, 53, a Tribeca resident who heads New York University’s real estate department.

Sent in time for Chanukah, the scroll “is a gift to all those new Jews in Germany” — mostly émigrés from the former Soviet Union — “who are rededicating themselves to Reform Judaism,” Landman says.

Chanukah means “dedication” in Hebrew.

Landman read about the new Munich congregation earlier this year in a Jewish Telegraphic Agency story. “They had no Torah. They needed it.”

“They,” he says, referring to Beth Simchat Torah, “have four Torahs.”

Landman decided to donate the scroll to honor his grandfather who “rescued” it after the war. In 1946 Landman’s grandfather, Martin Oettinger, was walking on a German street when somebody came up to him and handed him the Torah. “People recognized him as one of the few Jews they knew,” Landman says. A non-Jew, in whose safekeeping the sefer Torah had been during the Holocaust, knew where it belonged.

In all, only three family sifrei Torah turned up in Germany after the war.

Landman promised his grandfather he would take care of the gift and recently had it inspected and repaired by a Torah scribe. “My grandfather would be happy to know that Jews are living in Germany again.”

Landman couldn’t make it to Germany this week. He’ll probably go next year. “They want me to come over for Shavuot, for a ceremony,” he says. He’ll get to hold his Torah scroll again. “I’m sure,” he says, “they’ll give me some sort of aliyah.”

DOWNTOWN EXPRESS

Volume 17 • Issue 23 | Oct. 29 - Nov. 4, 2004

Downtown Torah will return to Germany

By Sascha Brodsky

In a way, Rick Landman’s Torah is going home.

Next month, the 200-year-old Torah is returning to Germany, from where Landman’s grandfather took it after fleeing the Nazis. Landman, a Tribeca resident, will present the Torah to representatives of the German synagogue Congregation Beth Shalom at Congregation Beth Simchat, 57 Bethune St., Nov. 9.

His grandfather, Martin Oettinger, brought the Torah from Germany in 1946. That side of the family traces its German roots to the 1500s. Martin and his brother Albert even fought in World War I on the side of the Kaiser.

Living in Germany, Martin, an outspoken Jew, had an altercation with the notorious Nazi Julius Streicher in the late 1920s. Streicher was one of the Nazis to be hanged after the Nuremberg trials for his propaganda work and virulent anti-Semitism.

Fearing for his life, Martin fled to France within days of Hitler coming to power in 1933. Martin, Elsie and their young daughter Lisa, Landman’s mother, lived in Strasbourg for six years until they saw what was happening across the river in Germany on Kristallnacht. Seeing burning synagogues convinced them that France would not be able to protect them any longer. So they applied for “Stateless Passports” and left France for America.

The Oettingers eventually immigrated to Washington Heights in February 1939. It was Martin who, as soon as World War II ended, booked a ship to return to the land of his birth to find out what happened to his family, friends and business. On his return home to New York City in 1946, he brought back three Torahs. One he gave to his synagogue in Washington Heights (Congregation Beth Hillel) and the other two he eventually gave to his grandsons, Landman and his brother.

Nearly 60 years later, Landman is donating his Torah to a German reform synagogue on Nov. 9, the 66th anniversary of Kristallnacht, the beginning of the Nazi persecution of the Jews.

“Now that there is a Reform, egalitarian synagogue in Munich, the city from where my father’s grandparents were deported to their death in Auschwitz, this is the ideal place for the Torah to go,” Landman said. “It will be in honor of Gerson and Sofie Landman of Munich, who were killed during the Holocaust, and Martin and Elsie Oettinger, my maternal grandparents, who brought the Torah to America. They all would be surprised to know that Jews were once again thriving in Germany.”

Landman, who heads New York University’s real estate department, said that he turned down an earlier opportunity to donate the Torah because of mixed feelings he has over his identity of being both Jewish and gay.

“In 1965, after being told in Hebrew School that no two men would ever be married in front of a Torah, I decided not to donate the Torah at my Bar Mitzvah; but instead I loaned it until I could find a synagogue that would permit gay marriages,” he said. “Finally, in 1973 Congregation Beth Simchat Torah was formed and later when I became an active member, I lent the Torah to them.”

Landman said that donating the Torah has a special meaning because he is gay.

“When I read ‘Mein Kampf’ in school, I understood how scared my parents must have felt to be Jewish,” he said. “Then as a gay teenager, when I learned there were religious people who took the Bible literally, I was also scared. Both books contained passages that wanted me dead; ‘Mein Kampf’ for being a Jew and the Bible for being gay.”

Gay City NewsVOLUME 3, ISSUE 345 | November 4 - November 11, 2004

A Torah Goes Home

By SASCHA BRODSKY

In a way, Rick Landman’s Torah is going home. Next month, the 200-year-old Torah is returning to Germany, from where Landman’s grandfather took it after fleeing the Nazis. Landman, a Tribeca resident, will present the Torah to representatives of the German synagogue Congregation Beth Shalom at Congregation Beth Simchat Torah, the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered (LGBT) synagogue on Bethune Street in the West Village, on November 9.

His grandfather, Martin Oettinger, brought the Torah from Germany in 1946. That side of the family traces its German roots to the 1500s. Martin and his brother Albert even fought in World War I on the side of the Kaiser.

Living in Germany, Martin, an outspoken Jew, had an altercation with the notorious Nazi Julius Streicher in the late 1920s. Streicher was one of the Nazis to be hanged after the Nuremberg trials for his propaganda work and virulent anti-Semitism.

Fearing for his life, Martin fled to France within days of Hitler coming to power in 1933. Martin, Elsie and their young daughter Lisa, Landman’s mother, lived in Strasbourg for six years until they saw what was happening across the river in Germany on Kristallnacht. Seeing burning synagogues convinced them that France would not be able to protect them any longer. So they applied for “Stateless Passports” and left France for America.

The Oettingers eventually immigrated to Washington Heights in February 1939. It was Martin who, as soon as World War II ended, booked a ship to return to the land of his birth to find out what happened to his family, friends and business. On his return home to New York City in 1946, he brought back three Torahs. One he gave to his synagogue in Washington Heights (Congregation Beth Hillel) and the other two he eventually gave to his grandsons, Landman and his brother.

Nearly 60 years later, Landman is donating his Torah to a German reform synagogue on the 66th anniversary of Kristallnacht in 1938, the “Night of the Broken Glass,” when Nazis rampaged in Jewish neighborhoods and burned synagogues.

“Now that there is a Reform, egalitarian synagogue in Munich, the city from where my father’s grandparents were deported to their death in Auschwitz, this is the ideal place for the Torah to go,” Landman said. “It will be in honor of Gerson and Sofie Landman of Munich, who were killed during the Holocaust, and Martin and Elsie Oettinger, my maternal grandparents, who brought the Torah to America. They all would be surprised to know that Jews were once again thriving in Germany.”

Landman, who heads New York University’s real estate department, said that he turned down an earlier opportunity to donate the Torah because of mixed feelings he has over his identity of being both Jewish and gay.

“In 1965, after being told in Hebrew School that no two men would ever be married in front of a Torah, I decided not to donate the Torah at my Bar Mitzvah; but instead I loaned it until I could find a synagogue that would permit gay marriages,” he said. “Finally, in 1973 Congregation Beth Simchat Torah was formed and later when I became an active member, I lent the Torah to them.”

Landman has been a lifelong gay activist—having come out as a teenager and helped organize the first gay rights march on Albany in 1971—and has been a leader at Beth Simchat Torah for more than 25 years. It was at CBST in 1979 that he was elected as the New York representative to the first gay rights march on Washington in 1979.

Landman said that donating the Torah has a special meaning because he is gay.

“When I read ‘Mein Kampf’ in school, I understood how scared my parents must have felt to be Jewish,” he said. “Then as a gay teenager, when I learned there were religious people who took the Bible literally, I was also scared. Both books contained passages that wanted me dead; ‘Mein Kampf’ for being a Jew and the Bible for being gay.”

The following letter was written by a former teacher of Rick Landman, when he was an undergraduate student in her class at the State University of New York at Buffalo. It was a class called "Communicative Creativity" which matched up college students and children with disabilities.

To: The Rabbis and Congregants of Congregation Beth Simchat Torah,

About thirty years ago while teaching a class regarding inclusion of special needs children at the State University of New York at Buffalo I asked the university students to participate in the following exercise: “Think of the most important possession you own and under what circumstance would you give it up?” The era was early 1970's and the answers were quite varied, one person’s response stood out among the rest. “ My Torah”, quipped my most brilliant student. Most of the class being from the metropolis of New York gave a half hearty laugh. Rick Landman never missing a beat introduced us to a brief but poignant history of his “Little Torah.”

What I always remembered the most was Rick’s words...”My grandfather trusted me with this Torah and made me promise to look after it.” I doubt if there are many possessions in this world let alone people who are looked after as well as “The Little Torah.” Then again, Rick Landman made a promise, a commitment, and unfortunately there are a too few Rick Landman’s in this world who commit from the passion of values. “ The Little Torah” as we have now learned has had quite a 200 year history, but the dreams and values of a Bar Mitzvah boy who became a man in his decision to dream and work for a world where “Little Torah” could serve the gay community. Through many incredible battles Rick always protected “Little Torah” having it professionally cared for and sometimes literally carrying it to another location when it wasn’t wanted. After all Rick wasn’t giving “Little Torah” away, HE was protecting it. This Torah connected Rick to his family who lived being Jewish and too many who were executed for being Jewish. “ Many Torahs,( Rick told that class thirty years ago) were destroyed on Kritallnacht,”but Little Torah”survived. I pressed him with my queries, “so WHEN WOULD you give it away?” As if Rick had a map of the future Rick choked up and said “the best of circumstances would be to a shul that would welcome all jews regardless of special need or being straight or gay and IF the Torah could serve a purpose like no other.” Then he said, “but I still want to protect it, I gave my word.” A word....a promise....a covenant...is that not what a Torah is? Imagine the journey! Under the protection of this great nashuma, Rick Landman, “Little Torah” will preside in high esteem, an honor unmatched in Germany. How appropriate... GOING HOME to serve All of life’s cycles for ALL Jewish people. For All the Jews who died on Kristallnacht, and throughout the terror, for those whose spirits were broken and the Torahs that were burnt, I say to you: “Jews are not extinct, Jews are not extinct in Germany. They will be embracing All of Life’s cycles with a Torah, a Torah that was saved ...a Torah that was protected and cared for by a great human being, one I am proud to call my friend, Rick Landman. In the words of the Sage Hillel “If I am not for myself, who will be for me, If I am for myself alone, what am I, if not now.......When?”

Taking this opportunity to thank Rick Landman, and wishing the Rabbi’s and Congregations of Beth Simchat Torah in New York and Beth Shalom in Germany a world of Shalom, may Little Torah preside in honor of the man who gave his word to his grandfather To Protect!

To Life L’Chaim Long Live Little Torah!!!

Dr. Bambii Abelson

This is the official notification letter that Rick Landman sent to Congregation Beth Simchat Torah

October 8, 2004

Dear Rabbi Kleinbaum, Rabbi Cohen, Board of Directors of CBST, Office Staff and Friends,

On behalf of myself and the “Little Torah” I would like to thank you for years of safekeeping and permitting me to fulfill a personal desire to have the Torah spend some time in a synagogue like Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. This is my official notification that I intend on picking up the Torah right after Kristallnacht. Ownership will be transferred to the World Union for Progressive Judaism around that time. They in turn, will loan the Torah to Congregation Beth Shalom in Munich. I will work the departure details out with Ilene Sameth. Basically, I will pick it up at Bethune Street after the transfer has taken effect and carry it to be boxed and shipped by Federal Express directly to Munich for the WUPJ.

Last night, while dancing during the last Hakofah I thought back to when my grandfather gave me the Torah 40 years ago. I was full of mixed emotions. I was proud that I kept my promise to take good care of the Torah, but wondered if my “Opa” would have understood the actions I took. Before a synagogue like Congregation Beth Simchat Torah existed I wanted my Torah to be part of an LGBT community. When I brought the Torah to CBST I wrote in the Loan Agreement that should I die while the Torah was in their possession, my final intent was to have the Torah go back to a progressive congregation in Germany; but none existed at the time. It took 40 years, but I think that I have fulfilled all my dreams for this 200 year old Torah. Part of its post-Holocaust history will always be that it was loved by CBST and will now help another progressive congregation see Judaism in a positive and loving perspective. It also shows that we are still alive and well while Hitler’s ideology has been discredited.

I will conduct a program on November 9th as usual. But this year in addition to a remembrance of Kristallnacht, I will tell the entire story of the Torah’s last 60 years. I hope that many congregants come to join in saying good-bye at that time. Maybe the Rabbi will let me a say a few words from the Bimah at the November 5th service, telling the congregation about the program? I anticipate years of joy and learning that Congregation Beth Shalom will have by continuing to give the Torah a loving home in Munich.

This little Torah is wonderful for Hagbah and Gelillah. I was never afraid of dropping it. It is also been restored and is kosher and in very good condition for being 200 years old. My hope is that it survive for many more years in peace and freedom in Germany. I think that my Opa would never of thought that Jews would be living again in Germany. I also think he would be quite happy to know that there is and that I decided to send the Torah back.

I hope that Congregation Beth Shalom sees it as a gift from me and CBST. We took good care and safeguarded the Torah (and progressive Jewish ideals) until they were able to get back on their feet and have a strong Jewish presence. It is our Chanukah gift to you. May you re-dedicate it during the Chanukah season, just as the Maccabees re-dedicated the Temple.

I hope to one day go over and visit Congregation Beth Shalom in Munich. I am planning to go for Shavuot in 2005. I hope that they will ask me to have an aliyah so that the good-bye will not seem too permanent. In a way, I got very used to watching over this little Torah and I will miss not having the unique burden that Opa gave me when I became Bar Mitzvah. I hope that CBST and CBS will develop some kind of friendly relationship between the two congregations. CBS is the congregation that members of Yachad and Rabbi Homolka talked about when they came to CBST years ago. I also want to thank the World Union for Progressive Judaism for accepting the donation under the terms that it only be used by progressive congregations in Germany.

For those of you who want to read more about this I have made a webpage at www.infotrue.com/torah.html and I will keep it up to date as things happen. If CBST or CBS or the World Union of Progressive Judaism would like to use anything on the site you have my permission to do so.

Sincerely,

Rick Landman

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