Kaddishel: A life reborn

By AHARON GOLUB with Bennett W. Golub

AHARON GOLUB is the kaddishel for his family — the only son upon whose shoulders falls the responsibility to recite the prayer for the dead, the Kaddish, for his parents. And as the kaddishel, he honors his parents by remembering both the joys of his early childhood in Ludvipol and the hatred that sought to destroy Ludvipol, and his childhood. Aharon bears the burden of an entire generation of children who made promises to their parents, promises that are relived at every Yahrzeit, every anniversary of the death of their parents: never to bask in the luxury of forgetting.

So Aharon Golub remembers his past. As a child in Hitler’s War, he suffers crippling frostbite that leaves him at the mercy of others. He encounters Jews who help him hide, and Jews who abandon him in his time of need. He meets non-Jews who risk their lives to feed him, and non-Jews who live for the day they will find him and kill him.

As a kibbutznik in Israel, Aharon begins his childhood anew. He relearns friendship, trust, love. He discovers that building a country is a lot like building a life: It takes patience, hard work, and an ability to put the past aside in a compartment marked “To Open – Later.”

And, as an American, Aharon begins to pry open the rusted lock of his memories. Then, slowly, over time, he takes his own son, Ben, his kaddishel, on a journey that is too unbelievable, too strange, too terrifying to be true.

But it is.

“Aharon Golub’s KADDISHEL is a moving depiction of the world before the Holocaust, his experience throughout the long ordeal and the reconstitution of his life in its aftermath. Passion for Israel — the State and the Jewish people — permeates this work as does the lasting impact of the love of land and language that was imparted to him in the Tarbut School of his town, Ludvipol. He has borne witness in exemplary fashion and all who read this work will be touched.”

—Michael Berenbaum, Director, Sigi Ziering Institute and Professor of Theology at The University of Judaism Los Angeles, California

“This book is rich with memories and with history, with the richness of Jewish culture. Reading it is a truly rewarding experience.”

— Arthur Kurzweil

“It was a fascinating story, and one can only have admiration for people who went through all that and then managed to recreate ‘normal’ lives and establish loving families.”

— James Wald, Associate Professor of History and Director, Center for the Book at Hampshire College, School of Social Science

About the Authors

AHARON GOLUB grew up the son of a successful Jewish businessman in Eastern Poland in the 1930s. He was the only member of his family to survive the Holocaust, and his harrowing tale of survival is riveting. After the war, he emigrated to the British Mandate of Palestine in 1946. There he lived on Kibbutz Yagur and participated in the founding of the State of Israel. He moved to Brooklyn, NY in 1954 where he met his wife Ruth Golub and had two children, Bennett and Elizabeth. He settled on Long Island in Old Bethpage, NY. His tremendous and magnetic personality left everyone he met in awe.

BENNETT W. GOLUB is the President of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York. In this capacity, he serves the Jewish community in metropolitan area of New York. He co-founded BlackRock, a leading investment and risk management firm headquartered in New York. Bennett and his wife, Cynthia, are actively involved in Jewish philanthropy, particularly for the UJA/Federation of New York and The Leffell School (formerly the Solomon Schechter School of Westchester). They live in Mamaroneck, NY and are the parents of Alexandra, Phillip and Jill, and grandparents of Tara.