The Purim party which I attended last night, thrown by my Chabad Rabbi, was a blast. Spent a great time with my friends and my Rabbi, talking about the teachings of Purim from the sages, the Talmud, and stories.
The theme of our party was Oriental, and it tied in with the story of the rescue of both my Rabbi's and his wifes families rescue from the clutches of the Holocaust which destroyed so many Jewish families at the time. Both the Rabbi and his wifes family were saved by Chiune Sugihara, along with 1000s of other Jewish families. They were protected briefly in Japan before being sent to Shanghai.
Here is some information on this great Righteous Gentile:
Chiune Sugihara (杉原 千畝 Sugihara Chiune?, 1 January 1900 – 31 July 1986) was a Japanese diplomat who served as Vice-Consul for the Empire of Japan in Lithuania. During World War II, he helped several thousand Jews leave the country by issuing transit visas to Jewish refugees so that they could travel to Japan. Most of the Jews who escaped were refugees from German-occupied Poland and residents of Lithuania. Sugihara wrote travel visas that facilitated the escape of more than 6,000 Jewish refugees to Japanese territory, risking his career and his family's lives. Sugihara had told the refugees to call him "Sempo", the Chinese reading of the characters in his first name, discovering it was much easier for Western people to pronounce.[1] In 1985, Israel honored him as Righteous Among the Nations for his actions.
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Legacy and honors
Sugihara Street in Kaunas and Vilnius, Lithuania, and the asteroid 25893 Sugihara are named after him. The Chiune Sugihara Memorial in the town of Yaotsu (his birthplace) was built by the people of the town in his honor. The Sugihara House Museum in Kaunas, Lithuania.[10] The Conservative synagogue Temple Emeth, in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts, has built a "Sugihara Memorial Garden"[11] and holds an Annual Sugihara Memorial Concert.
When Sugihara's widow Yukiko traveled to Jerusalem in 1998, she was met by tearful survivors who showed her the yellowing visas that her husband had signed. A park in Jerusalem is named for him. The Japanese government honored him on the centennial of his birth in 2000.[2]
A memorial to Sugihara was built in Los Angeles' Little Tokyo in 2002, and dedicated with consuls from Japan, Israel and Lithuania, Los Angeles city officials and Sugihara's son, Chiaki Sugihara, in attendance. The memorial, entitled "Chiune Sugihara Memorial, Hero of the Holocaust" depicts a life-size Sugihara seated on a bench, holding a visa in his hand and is accompanied by a quote from the Talmud: "He who saves one life, saves the entire world."[12]
He was posthumously awarded the Commander's Cross with Star of the Order of Polonia Restituta in 2007,[13] and the Commander's Cross Order of Merit of the Republic of Poland by the President of Poland in 1996.[14] Also, in 1993, the Life Saving Cross of Lithuania.
Though still not officially canonized, he is considered a saint by some Eastern Orthodox Christians.[15]
Topic: Righteous Japanese Gentile : The story of Sugihara (Read 1200 times)