Showing posts with label Virginia Tech. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Virginia Tech. Show all posts

Thursday, May 3, 2007

Tribute to Liviu Lebrescu

I was moved and insired by a talk by Rebbitzen Esther Jungreis and have just read her book "Life is a Test". She is a Holocaust Survivor and runs the Hineni Institute of Learning in New York. http://www.hineni.org/rebbetzin.asp

While I was pondering the meaning of life, and one's journey through the good and bad, I was sent the following poem, which I am proud to publish here. I do believe there is a purpose for each one of us in this life. However crazy life seems.

Philip C. Selz wrote this poem about Mr. Liviu Librescu, who survived the holocaust and saved the lives of students at Virginia Tech on Monday and died from gunshot wounds. Philip read it at his synagogue and the Rabbi suggested that he distribute it to as many places as he could. I hope it touches you like it touched me.

My Stand

A Tribute to Liviu Librescu

By Philip C. Selz

In the darkest times we’ve seen, I was sent into the camps

As I smelled the stench of burning flesh, I knew my kin were gone

Survival was my only thought, I knew I must come through

But I didn’t know the reason that my living must go on


And when the war had ended, liberation finally came

And I grew to be a man and shortly after took a wife

And we raised our kids in Israel and we did the best we could

And we lived for those who died and worked to make a useful life


Then a teaching job came to me in America one day

And I thought that building new young minds was destiny for me

So I traveled to Virginia and I made a brand new start

And I taught engineering in this homeland of the free


Now I hear the hallways screaming as shots are fired there

And I hear the terror in the screams and understand their plight

So I bar the door from danger and I tell my students “Run!”

And as the bullets breach the door I know that I must fight


And in these final moments as my life is seeping out

I think back over 60 years and finally understand

My own salvation now makes sense as children flee and live

I was saved that day to save this day, I’ve finally made my stand.