Jacqui Lewis Instagram – I got Anne Frank’s diary as birthday present when I was eleven. Her words broke into my heart, one teen to another. In an entry on May 18, 1943, she wrote of students protesting Hitler’s regime, refusing to sign on to documents saying they were in “…sympathy with the Germans;” they refused to say they approved of Hitler’s new order. This resistance meant the end of their college careers. I am struck now to think of how students throughout time have protested, resisted and changed the world.
Anne Frank’s hiding place was at Prinsengracht 263. Otto Frank rented the property for his business, just steps away from Westerkirk, the large church in the center of town. Most of the houses had annexes, places to store merchandise and supplies. This annex became Anne’s home for two years, a place in which she wrote her diary, recording her life from June 2 1942 to March 29 1944.
John and I were in the Netherlands in 2016 celebrating our wedding anniversary. We took so many photos; we love taking photos. But the Anne Frank House? As I recall that day we could not take photos inside. But even outside, I did not photograph the house or the doors. It was as though it was irreverent to do so. Etched in my memory though is the rotating bookcase that hid the stairs that led to the annex, the pages of her diary on display, and the photos of a girl only a little older than I was when I first read her book.
Except for the teachings of Jesus—also a Jew like Anne—her stories were my first encounter with stories of Jewish life. Since then, I’ve been on a journey of learning, touched by what I’ve experienced in museums, in havruta—study—with Rabbis in Israel, in text books, in shabbat meals, in relationship with SO many rabbis and other Jewish friends, and in the amazing corpus of literature, music and art that Jewish people have contributed to American culture.
In this month of Jewish Heritage, I celebrate all of this, and more. And I thank God for Anne Frank , and her father Otto who made sure I could read her stories, and know a piece of her life.
#JewishHeritageMonth #Ubuntu #AnneFrank #StopAntiSemitism #PrayForPeace #Resist #GodIsLove #DiaryOfAnneFrank #Empathy | Posted on 11/May/2024 21:49:19
