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Falevich's Fundamentals

At 73, he still is what his father had been all his life: dedicated communist and convinced internationalist. Named after Friedrich Engels, Karl Marx's pal and accomplice in their abortive attempts to overthrow the reign of misappropriated surplus value, he still mourns the USSR and blames those who emigrate for a better living in Israel, in the USA or, even worse, in Germany.

Friedrich Falevich grew up under the portraits of Communist Party bonzes that were a must in every decent home; he survived two ghetto imprisonments; he roamed with guerrilla fighters and escaped German blockade of refugee camps. He might have been shot, beaten to death, burnt alive; he should have died from hunger and cold, yet he was there on the sunny day of July 3, 1944 to welcome Red Army soldiers.

Leaky roofing, scarce food, holey shoes and other peacetime deficiencies weren't made to dishearten Friedrich Falevich, for he felt protected by the goodness –people's and his own — that was to become later his only true religion, where Plato, Thomas Aquinas, thaoism or perfectionism form an exotic mix (shake, but don't stir!), able to quench anyone's thirst for fundamentals. Friedrich Falevich deems that his are at least as important as kashrut for a true believer.

Nobody taught him Jewish tradition; Jewish schools were closing when he reached school–going age: he speaks Yiddish like the major part of the inhabitants in Slutsk used to before WW II; yet he considers himself Jewish enough to stay at the head of Jewish community for twelve years. Out of some 160 Slutsk Jews more than a half are elderly people that need support and assistance. Friedrich Falevich is proud of what is being done for them by the community; he likes his job; he makes plans. Lately he has discovered the magic world of Sabbath and major Jewish holydays: Pessah, Roch Hashanah and Channukkah; to him they are also wonderful opportunities to come together, to feel united.

Friedrich Falevich and his brother are the only survivors of the second Slutsk ghetto liquidated in February 1943, which partly explains the persistence in erecting new memorials to honor the victims of the Holocaust. Another reason, personal too, is the firm belief that only memory of past hardships can prevent humans from recidivating. When he says so, he certainly means innumerable shows of human solidarity and goodness that, in time of troubles and later, were saving lives, soothing pains and bringing back hope.

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