Memories of a Jewish fighter

ROBERT KRELL

Occasionally, a chance meeting with a person leaves an indelible impression. How did I meet Si Frumkin? I have in my possession a chess set carved of bread in the Warsaw Ghetto. Chewed bread hardens like cement. No one has been able to prove its provenance but the story of how it ended up with an Austrian woman in 1945 is entirely plausible, as is its eventual journey here. Having purchased it in the year 2000, I searched for experts to examine it. The carvings are exquisite; the bright colors used to paint each piece are faded.

I found Si in Los Angeles, having been told he was an expert on chess sets. Si welcomed my wife, Marilyn, and me into his home, a veritable museum of chess sets. Everywhere, glass cases displayed the various sets he collected from far and wide, made of every imaginable material. But he had never seen carvings like those of the Warsaw Ghetto set, although he was aware of other chess carvers in various concentration camps.

He was a courteous, energetic individual and we went for lunch with him and his wife. Two wonderful hours of stories. Si had founded, in 1968, the Southern California Council for Soviet Jews, a committee dedicated to the rescue of Jews from Soviet Russia. He was a great activist.

I subsequently subscribed to his newsletter, Graffiti for Intellectuals, which was comprised of a collection of the best articles written about Soviet Jewry, Israel and antisemitism, and featured the writings of Charles Krauthammer, Victor Davis Hanson and other eloquent strong-minded journalists and commentators. Frequently, there was a cover column written by Si himself called “Simon Says.”

Si Frumkin was a Jewish fighter, a one-man powerhouse, who, apparently, was continually warned to “not stir the boat.” When Soviet president Leonid Brezhnev visited president Richard Nixon at what was known as the Western White House, in San Clemente, Calif., Frumkin released 5,000 balloons with the message “Let my people go” and hired a helicopter to fly over the Super Bowl with the banner “Save Soviet Jews.”

I also subscribe to NAHOS, the newsletter of the National Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors in New York. In an August issue, I happened to note the heading “Eulogy,” and the report of the passing of Si Frumkin, at age 78. How had it escaped my notice earlier? I should have known when Si’s newsletter stopped coming. It had arrived weekly and I had not received one for months.

Los Angeles County supervisor Zev Yaroslawsky eulogized Si, writing, “The world has lost a towering fighter for human rights. Los Angeles and its Jewish community have lost one of its most important leaders of the last half-century. And I have lost my closest and oldest friend and comrade. He was one of a kind. He was larger than life. If one believes that there is a reason for everything, then Si survived for a reason: to be our conscience, ensuring that our people, no matter where, no matter how, would never again be threatened without a fight.”

I leafed through some back copies. There was a scathing condemnation of Jimmy Carter by Alan Dershowitz, another by Martin Peretz on George Soros, and then I found one of the last newsletters I received, dated Jan. 19, 2009.

It contains an article titled “My death sentence,” by Si Frumkin, ex-prisoner 82191, KZ Dachau Arbeitslager Kaufering 1.

“I was sentenced to death when I was 10 years old. Four years later, the sentence was lifted by American tanks that burst into Dachau, just 20 days after my father died there.” Si was 14 years old.

Arriving in America at age 18, he graduated from college, married, had children and, now, grandchildren. And he wrote, “It had never occurred to me that there might come a time when I and my family might be sentenced to death once again for the crime of being born Jewish. It never crossed my mind that the world would once again be hearing the shouts of ‘Kill the Jews’ and ‘Jews to the ovens!’ I realized that there were some who hated Jews, but I was sure that this was a tiny, mindless, insignificant minority – surely smaller in numbers than those who believed the earth was flat or that Elvis was alive. I was wrong. Hatred is with us again. The legions of haters are proudly waving their flags and flaunting their slogans around the globe. And just like the Nazis of 70 years ago, they are not bashful or apologetic in disseminating the ideology of mass murder. They are dedicated, enthusiastic, committed and ready to die for their deadly doctrine. One of their religious leaders put it best. “We love death as much as the Jews and Christians love life.”

Si then lists a series of contemporary instances of Jew-hatred: anti-Israel demonstrators in Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., “Kill all Jews” pamphlets in Denmark, Islamic terrorists targeting a tiny Chabad house in Mumbai, India, in order to find six Jews to slaughter, and frightening incidents in Amsterdam and Berlin, Malmo and Toulouse.

Si Frumkin warned: “There are those who believe that this isn’t antisemitism – just anti-Zionism. Here is a quote from a great and wise man. ‘When people criticize Zionists they mean Jews. You are talking antisemitism.’ Martin Luther King, 1968. I am worried.”

Si Frumkin left us with a warning. When he left us, we had one fewer Jewish fighter unafraid to say what must be said and do what must be done. Where shall we find another like him? I am worried.

Dr. Robert Krell is professor emeritus, department of psychiatry, University of British Columbia, and Distinguished Life Fellow, American Psychiatric Association.

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