History in the Flesh

 

I have the privilege of knowing Mrs. Pearl Benisch.  By my reckoning, she is in her 90's since she describes knowing Sarah Schenirer who died in 1935 and she was a teenager, about 14 at the time.  Mrs. Benisch is the author of To Vanquish the Dragon which is about Beis Yaakov girls during World War II and and Carry Me in your Heart about Sarah Schenirer. 

Mrs. Benisch addresses group of high school girls and the main message she seeks to convey is: You are great.  You don't know what greatness you possess.

She is a very warm and positive woman who has been known, when speaking to young people, to say that she and they are the same age for they are all young.   

When I see her, I feel that I am looking at an extraordinary sight; a woman who helped Sarah Schenirer raise tzedaka funds, a woman who went through the war whose wish was not for bread or a sip of water but, "v'taher libeinu l'ovdecha b'emes" (Purify our heart to serve You in truth).

An interview with Pearl Benisch is here.

 In this excellent video: here which I recommend be watched in its entirety, Mrs. Benisch speaks at 31:26 minutes and 37:24 and 40:45 among other snippets.