Manfred was never a man of many words. Throughout his life, he preferred to do, rather than talk. He seldom displayed overt emotion. Yet, on these two occasions, which we experienced together over the past two years, I felt his soul bursting forth with passion and the drive to bequeath his legacy to future generations.
Our intimate visit to Stutthof, with its gas chamber and crematoria, alongside two of his four sons, was without fanfare. As one of the very last Holocaust survivors carrying adult testimony and vivid recall of the reality of being in a ghetto, a concentration camp, on death marches and the squalor of death, Manfred was of sound mind and body, blessed with vigour and unusual eloquence and poise.
Manfred Goldberg at Stutthof Concentration Camp (Photo: JRoots)[Missing Credit]
He understood he had both a calling and a duty to share. His sense of responsibility was palpable. It overcame his unpretentious humility. He was the consummate mensch and gentleman. A gentle man, whose unassuming yet manifest nobility and regal poise lifted all those who came his way. From the King and Queen, princes and princesses, to students and schoolchildren alike, Manfred conquered the hearts of all.
When the King bestowed him with an MBE, we joked that its true acronym was Mensch of the British Empire. When just last month, his local community honoured him with the title “ Chaver”, it was clear to everyone that the word “chaver”, stemming from the Hebrew “to connect”, was so apt. Manfred was a man who, in connecting the worlds of past, present and future, bridged disparate cultures and peoples to remind everyone of the collectivity of mankind and the majestic responsibility of Jews to conduct themselves impeccably at all times.
Lighting candles at the Jewish Futures Hub - (l-r) Rabbi Yoni Abadi, Manfred Goldberg and Rabbi Naftali Schiff (Photo: JRoots)[Missing Credit]
As we stood together on the rooftop of Aish overlooking a ceremony taking place at the Kotel just last year, a band was playing the Hatikva down below. In all the talks, visits and journeys together, I had never experienced Manfred welling up. It was as if his nine decades all coalesced at that point and at that moment. The untold pain, the loss, the tragedy, the travail; the rebuilding of family and people, the anxiety and frustration of the past two years and the perennial pent-up hope of renewal and the daily prayers of a Jewish People, united in purpose and aspiration, seemed to quietly explode.
These are his words, which I recorded: “I close my eyes, and I can see the Beit Hamikdash (Temple) in front of me. For the very first time, I feel really close. I have never had this experience before….Shortly after I was reunited with my Father… [after the Holocaust], I began to understand that we have been given a promise that if we are a Light unto the Nations, He will grant us eternity.
"Standing here, I have never experienced this [before]. I see it in action. Truly, I’m so moved. I can’t continue speaking. Tomorrow, when I get up in the morning and say ‘Modeh ani’, (thank you) I will say so with more intent than I have done in memory after this experience. Truly, something’s entered my heart today, which in all these 94 long years on this earth, I have not felt, like this moment…”
Manfred Goldberg in Jerusalem (Photo: JRoots)[Missing Credit]
When Manfred and Shary called me to come round and say farewell just a couple of weeks ago, I met an ailing yet giant of a human being and a proud man of faith. He spoke only of two things. “Naftali, I have total faith in the Almighty. If my time has come, I am ready. There are things I saw and experienced that I shall never comprehend, but I have total Emunah (faith), and my feeling of thanks for a wonderful life is simply more than I can truly express…”
I asked him for a blessing. “Keep doing that which you are doing. Our younger Jewish generation must know who they are. The world needs them to stand up for goodness, for Godliness, to fight for justice. Keep going!”
That message wasn’t for me. It was for all of us. Manfred Goldberg was a man who had every excuse to hide away. Instead, he chose to work hard, to build a family and community, to overcome shyness and modesty and to rise up, so that today, when he can longer do it for us, each of us must choose to do the same.
Rabbi Naftali Schiff is co-founder and director of JRoots and Jewish Futures
