To Stay or To Leave

The "decision to survive" is contradicted by the condition of "choiceless choice," and may betray nothing more than a misuse of what Primo Levi called "free words": using language
to create value where none exists.
- Lawrence L. Langer: The Dilemma if Choice in the Deathcamps

Before the War

• Jabotinsky's Evacuation Plan (1)
• Sochaczew Rebbe (2)
• Rav Elchanan Wasserman (3)

Kristallnacht: Nov. 9–10, 1938

• In 1939, the Jews of Danzig quickly sold all the antique Judaica in their magnificent 1,600-member Great Synagogue to the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York, and used the proceeds to buy passage out of Germany. They were the only Jewish community in Germany to do so.
• Optimism VS Pessimism (4)

Why Not Flee?

• Lack of clarity (5)
• What made this any different (6)
• Lack of options (7)

The Flight of the Rabbi

Halachik Conerns

• Pikuach Nefesh (7)
• Killing Jews or Killing Judaism (8)
• Tohu VaVohu (9)
• Rabbinic Responsibilities (10)

Rabbinic Responses to Stay

• Shattered Hopes (11)
• "Ich bin nisht besser fun zei" (12)
• The Aish Kodesh - Hashkafic Implications (13)

The Decision to Leave

• Opposition (13)
• Admission (14)
• A different perspective (15)