Bearing the message of Chanuka, the inextinguishable torch
of Torah, in latter times
Some months ago, many students from Bais Yaakov seminaries in
Yerusholayim took part in what was for them a rather unusual
evening. They viewed a performance of a play in which all the
actresses were Bais Yaakov students. One of the unusual
aspects of the performance was that it was entirely in
English, despite the fact that the players and audience were
Israeli girls whose mother tongue was Hebrew, but they knew
the language well enough to understand, enjoy and appreciate
the play and its broader message.
"The Children of Shefford" told the story of how the Jewish
Holocaust refugees who had been brought to London, together
with London children, were evacuated to Shefford. These were
pupils from the Secondary Schools Movement which had just
been founded by Rabbi Solomon Shonfeld zt'l. With his
great energy, this man had saved the lives and futures of
hundreds of children who had been caught up in the anguish of
Europe of those days. He brought them to England and then
looked after them with outstanding devotion and care.
There were virtually no Jewish schools in England at that
time, so Rabbi Shonfeld founded his own, assisted in this by
the late Dr. Judith Grunfeld, who served as headmistress.
When it became clear to the government that London was in
danger of aerial bombardment from the German Air Force, it
ordered all school children moved out of that city. Schools
were shifted overnight to villages and children `billeted' in
the homes of non-Jewish residents. Rabbi Shonfeld's Avigdor
schools were relocated to Shefford, some thirty miles from
London.
The experiences of this traumatic time were faithfully
recorded in the Bais Yaakov play and reenacted with great
charm. The billeting officer, for example, sang his role in
simple English, "I am the billeting officer and my name is
Bob. Now, 'cause of the war, the government gave me this job.
I have to settle these children with different families, so
come, all you people, choose them as you please."
The play describes some of the problems facing the children
in keeping the Torah, such as their food restrictions,
Shabbos observance and so on and shows how they won their way
into the hearts of their Christian hosts, many of whom had
never seen a Jew before.
Why were so many Israeli Bais Yaakov students interested in
events that took place sixty years ago? Many of them are the
second generation of those very students, proteges of Dr.
Judith Grunfeld, who was a close associate of Sarah Shenirer,
founder of the Bais Yaakov movement. She and Rabbi Shonfeld
rekindled the sacred flame that had almost been extinguished,
and from these Shefford `children' came forth thousands of
Jewish homes in the spirit of Yisroel Sabba -- Botei
Yaakov!
