Rabbi & Spiritual Leader
  Stan Levy
Executive Director
  Peggi Sturm
Events Coordinator
  Eva Nathanson
Youth Education Director
  Rina Daly
Comfort Group Coordinator
  Linda Rubin

The Stranger
at B'nai Horin's Passover Seder

"...in spite of everything, I still believe that people are really good at heart. "

What is it that leads ordinary people to rise to the level of heroes? For Moses, the reluctant shepherd, it was hearing the voice of G-d. For one reluctant bank guard, the call was the same.

B'nai Horin was honored to have as a guest at our Pesach seder Chistoph Meili, the former night watchman at Union Bank of Switzerland who discovered and saved from the shredder documents that described the assets and accounts seized from Holocaust victims.

Meili was harrassed, threatened and essentially chased out of Switzerland, but he was received in the Luxe Hotel banquet room with gasps of awe and a standing ovation. In a brief speech delivered in impeccable, though lately learned, English, Christoph compared himself to the hero of the haggadah by saying he, like Moses, heard a call he dared not refuse. While he saw himself as a humble man unwilling to precipitate what would surely become an international incident, "the Lord" told him he had to act and that He would be with him when he did.

And so an ordinary man became a hero. Meili went public with his discovery and his testimony before the US Senate Banking Committee led to a settlement of $1.25 billion between the Swiss banks and Jewish organizations and Holocaust survivors.

I, like many in attendance at the seder, felt honored to be in the presence of a person of such profound integrity. I approached Christoph after the event to thank him and express my respect and admiration for his personal courage and sacrifice. To my shock and surprise, what he expressed to me was anxiety about his future. I'd assumed that like other "righteous persons" his future needs would all have been taken care of by a grateful Jewish community, but not so.

Because of his extraordinary act, Meili and his wife, Giuseppina, and his two children, Miriam and David, have been uprooted from their home and relocated to the US with no jobs and little English. While Christoph is attending Chapman College on a full scholarship, with his school and living expenses paid by the "1939" Club, an association of Holocaust survivors, the only other monetary reward he has received for the fortune he uncovered has been in the form of spontaneous donations from individuals and congregations inspired by meeting him, as we were (B'nai Horin seder attendees donated about $500). Now, it seems that is about to change. According to a recent Jewish Journal article, the organized Jewish community, in the form of the Christoph Meili Humanitarian Tribute Committee, has organized a fundraising dinner planned to raise a substantial amount. Hopefully, as more people become aware of their situation, the Meili's future needs will be taken care of entirely, perhaps with jobs or an endowment, and maybe those book and movie deals will go through.

Christoph, who describes himself as a born-again Christian, wearing his own kippah, along with Giuseppina and the kids, seemed to enjoy the B'nai Horin seder, singing and dancing, and each taking a turn reading a passage from the haggadah. Was it divine intervention that brought Christoph his portion? He read:

"It's really a wonder that I haven't dropped all of my ideals, because in spite of everything 1 still believe that people are really good at heart. 1 simply can't build up my hopes on a foundation consisting of confusion, misery and death...1 can feel the suffering of millions and yet, if I look up into the heavens, I thinking that it will all come right, that this cruelty too will end, and that peace and tranquility will return again. In the meantime, 1 must uphold my ideals, for perhaps the time will come when I shall be able to carry them out." (from The Diary of Anne Frank)

Rochl Laia/Linda Rubin