Table of Contents

PART ONE: Traditional Wills
Solomon Kluger
"Preparing provisions for the journey"
Moshe Yeshoshua Zelig Hakohen
"A guide for the practices of piety"
Benjamin M. Roth
"A letter to a departing son"
Mordekhai Mottel Michelsohn
“I shall give you some useful advice”
Shmuel Tefilinsky
“Put your trust in God and He will sustain you”
Hayyim Elazar Shapira (The Munkatcher Rebbe)
“We merit redemption by virtue of our choices”
Yehuda Leib Graubart (The Stashever Rav)
“Return the borrowed books in my possession”

PART TWO: Wills from the Holocaust
Hirsch Moshe Zaddok
“They treated us like animals”
A Mother's Will
“A struggle for the sanctification of the human heart”
Zippora Birman
“No choice but to die with honor”
Among the Embers: Martyrs' Testaments
The last twelve Jews in Chelmno
David Elster, on the synagogue wall
The members of “Dror”
Gina Atlas, on the synagogue wall
A young woman, on the synagogue wall
Berl Tomshelski, on a wooden board
A Polish Jew, to the Blozhever Rebbe
The Chief Rabbi of Grodzisk
“Let him come, but let me not see him”
On the Walls of Bialystok Prison
Shulamit Rabinovitch
“Don't mourn for us with tears and words, but rather with deeds”
Shulamit Rabinovitch’s Husband
“Our fate lies in wait for us”

PART THREE: Wills from the Land of Israel
Elijah David Rabinovitz (Teomim)
“Always have I received more honor than I deserved”
Theodor Herzl
“I wielded my pen as an honest man”
Edmond James de Rothschild
“My eldest son James … will further my work”
Abraham Isaac Kook
“Help your holy people”
Ben Zion Meir Hai Uziel
The shepherd thanks his flock
Alter Ya’akov Sahrai
“Loyal to his people, its Torah, and its land”
Meir Dizengoff
To the new life beyond Awareness
Yitzhak Ben Nehemia Margalit
“Come, I will show thee where earth meets heaven”
Naftali Swiatitsky
“I have only one request”
Hannah Senesh
“There are events without which one’s life becomes unimportant”
Noam Grossman
“Do not eulogize me; I did my duty”
Avraham Kreizman
“When I die, for you I shall continue to live”
Eldad Pan
“Life by itself is worth little unless it serves something greater than itself”
Dvora Waysman
“I am leaving you an extended family”

PART FOUR: Wills of Modern and Contemporary American Jews
Nissen Sheinberg
“From me, your friend and father”
Emil Greenberg
“A wisp, a whisper of immortality becomes mine, and yours”
Yitschak Kelman
“The Holy Presence is with the sick”
Bernard L. Levinthal
“Be bound by the oath taken at the foot of Mount Sinai”
David De Sola Pool
An affirmation of life
Sholom Aleichem
“Bury me … among the common Jewish folk”
Mordkhe Schaechter
“Have no fear of being in the minority”
Dora Chazin
“Find favor in the eyes of God and man”
William Schulder
“Never consider yourself greater than the next man”
Hayim Greenberg
“I have erred not out of love of sin”
Rafael L. Savitzky
“In America the women are the saintly souls”
Samuel Lipsitz
“Live together in harmony”
Sadie S. Kulakofsky
“The principles of Judaism and the basis of civilization”
Sidney Rabinowitz
“I wanted to do something to make the world better”
Samuel Furash
“You are the nearest stars in my heaven”
Harold Katz
“So that all mankind could live in a free and peaceful world”
Madeline Medoff
“They carry something of me in their lives”
Allen Hofrichter
“An ineffable peace entered our house”
Jennie Stein Berman
“You should always be together”
Leonard Ratner
“Don’t forget your seats at Park Synagogue”
Harold
“Be forever vigilant for those in need”
Randee Rosenberg Friedman
“Open your hearts and your homes”
Rosie Rosenzweig
“Your good character will earn you your way”
William Joseph Adelson
“What I consider really important”
Hayyim and Esther Kieval
“We have both loved the United States”
Nitzah Marsha Jospe
“What is important is to make each day good”
William Lewis Abramowitz
“Ritual is only a tool to remind us who we are”
Marcia Lawson
“As Jews within the human family”
Sam Levenson
“I leave you … some four-letter words for all occasions”
Richard J. Israel
“With a love that has been well seasoned”
Rabbi Herbert A. Friedman
“From Vilna to Connecticut to Jerusalem”
Stanley J. Garfein
“Finish your final business”
Rabbi Monroe Levens
“Life here is a great and wonderful adventure”

PART FIVE: Three Wills from Classics of Modern Jewish Literature
Zvi Kolitz
Yossel Rakover Speaks to God
Y. L. Peretz
Four Generations—Four Wills
Avraham Sutzkever
The Will of Nissim Laniado

PART SIX: A Guide to Writing Your Own Ethical Will

Topical Index
Credits
Notes