Belz Hasidic dynasty: Encyclopedia II - Belz Hasidic dynasty - Escape from Belz

Belz Hasidic dynasty - Escape from Belz

With the outbreak of World War II and the Nazi takeover of Poland, the fate of Belz was thrown into turmoil. After the Molotov-Ribbentrop Pact of 1939, which gave the Soviet Union control over eastern Poland, where the town of Belz was located, Rabbi Aharon advised many of his followers to accept Soviet citizenship, as he did himself. Though many followers were promptly deported to Siberia for the remainder of the war, Rabbi Aharon's prescience became clear when they returned to Poland afterwards, only to find that their families and cities had been destroyed by the Nazis.

The "Wonder Rebbe" was at the top of the Gestapo's "wanted list" of rabbis targeted for extradition and extermination during the Nazi occupation of Poland. Thanks to the untiring efforts and cash inflow from Belzer Hasidim in Israel, England and the United States, the Rebbe and his half-brother, Rabbi Mordechai of Bilgorai, 22 years his junior, managed to stay one step ahead of the Nazis in one miraculous escape attempt after another. Notwithstanding the watchful presence of Gestapo patrols at every turn, the pair was spirited out of Belz and into Sokal, then Premishlan, then to the Cracow ghetto, and then to the Bochnia ghetto.

In their most hair-raising escape attempt, the brothers were driven out of occupied Poland and into Hungary by a Hungarian counter-intelligence agent who was friendly to Jews. The Rebbe, his brother and his attendant, shorn of their distinctive beards and sidelocks, were disguised as Russian generals who had been captured at the front and were being taken to Budapest for questioning. To quell rumors of the Rebbe's disappearance from the ghetto, one of his Hasidim dressed up in Rabbi Aharon's clothing and sat in his inner sanctum all day, imitating the way the Rebbe immersed himself in prayer and study. When other Hasidim urged the Rebbe's attendant to let them send in their kvittlach ("notes" or "petitions for blessings"), they heard a perfect imitation of the Rebbe's voice, mumbling his blessings.

The refugees subsequently reported that they had experienced "miracles" at each stage of the escape. Throughout the 250-mile drive across occupied Poland, according to the Hungarian agent, the escape vehicle was enveloped in an "eerie mist" that made it difficult for the car to be detected. When the agent asked the driver to stop along the way and join him for something to eat, leaving the refugees unguarded, the two were unable to locate the car upon their return. They finally identified it by feeling for it in the place they parked it.

As the refugees passed into Hungary, they were stopped by several patrols. At one checkpoint, their identity was questioned and they were about to be detained when three high-ranking Hungarian officials appeared and ordered that the car be let through. Belzer Hasidim believe that those three men were the "first three Belzer Rebbes sent from Heaven" to expedite Rabbi Aharon's escape.

Rabbi Aharon and Rabbi Mordechai spent eight months in Budapest before receiving highly-rationed Jewish Agency certificates to enter Palestine. In January 1944 they boarded the Orient Express to Istanbul. Less than two months later, the Nazis invaded Hungary and began deporting its 450,000 Jews.

Although he had lost his entire family—including his wife, children, grandchildren and in-laws and their families—to the Nazis, Rabbi Aharon re-established his Hasidic court in Tel Aviv, where there was a small Hasidic community. Both he and Rabbi Mordechai (who had lost his wife and daughter) remarried, but only Rabbi Mordechai had a child, Yissachar Dov Rokeach (II), in 1948. Rabbi Mordechai suddenly died a year later at the age of 47. Rabbi Aharon took his brother's son under his wing to groom him as the future successor to the Belz dynasty.

Like some of the other groups originating in Poland, Belzer Hasidut was nearly wiped out by the Holocaust. Some Hasidic followers from other communities joined Belz after the war and following the deaths of their rebbes. Belz, like Ger and Satmar, was comparitively fortunate in that its leadership remained intact and survived the war, as opposed to many other Hasidic sects who suffered losses both in terms of rank-and-file supporters, as well as the spiritual decapitation of their leaders.

The Belzer Rebbe became an acknowledged leader of Torah Jewry in Israel. He laid the groundwork for the spread of Belzer Hasidut through the establishment of schools and yeshivot in Tel Aviv, Bnei Brak and Jerusalem. When he died in 1957, tens of thousands of admirers followed his casket to his burial site in Jerusalem. His nephew, Rabbi Yissachar Dov, was nine years old when Rabbi Aharon died; he was appointed as the dynasty's new Rebbe when he turned 18 in 1966.

Adapted from the Wikipedia article "Escape from Belz", under the G.N U Free Docmentation License. Please also see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki