First place middle school: Gabriela Marquis

Gabriela Marquis, an eighth-grader in the Odyssey program at Libby Center won first place in the middle school division of the 10th annual Eva Lassman Memorial Writing Contest. Here is her essay:

“The real differences around the world today are not between Jews and Arabs; Protestants and Catholics; Muslims, Croats, and Serbs. The real differences are between those who embrace peace and those who would destroy it; between those who look to the future and those who cling to the past; between those who open their arms and those who are determined to clench their fists.”

– Bill Clinton

This quote by Bill Clinton is inspiring because he is trying to open people’s minds to see the possibility of setting aside perceived differences, such as race or religion, and find peace among everyone. However, Clinton’s statements are also problematic because he equates clinging to the past with destroying peace.

Judaism is very centralized around remembering, and Yom Hashoah is especially focused on the past. How can we ever forget the Holocaust? So maybe, by “clinging to the past,” he means clinging to closed minds and emotions that hinder the ability to work with groups of people who may have wronged us in the past.

Remembering the Holocaust can help us achieve peace: We must acknowledge the horrible actions but also learn that peace comes from remembering that there is love and courage in the darkest times. The Holocaust revealed the worst side of humanity; it created a xenophobia that would lead to one of the largest genocides our world has lived through. It became the unthinkable evil that literature would forever dip its toes into.

It also brought out a strength in people that would reassure the world that there was still goodness. Among these heroes were Jews who helped other Jews and non-Jews who risked their lives and their safety to protect Jews. A hero that stood out to me was Mustafa Hardaga, who was not Jewish but in fact Muslim.

It was 1941 and the Nazis had invaded Yugoslavia. The Jewish Kavilio family’s house had just been bombed and they had nowhere to go. Josef Kavilio (the father of the Kavilio family) decided to leave the mountains where they were hiding and, instead, hide his family in their factory. At the time, Mustafa Hardaga happened to own the building the factory was in, and also happened to be there when the Kavilio family reached the factory. When Mustafa heard their story, he insisted that the family stay at his house despite the religious complications. Mustafa lived with his wife, Zejneba, his brother, Izet, and his brother’s wife Bachriya. A Muslim belief for women is to dress modestly, and the Hardagas believed that women must cover their faces with a veil in the presence of men who aren’t family. However, Mustafa declared the Kavilios as part of their family so that a veil wouldn’t stop them from being safe. Sometimes families need to be woven together by justice and not DNA.

A newly established Gestapo system was based near the Hardagas’ house, and signs were everywhere advertising that citizens would be put to death if Jews were being hidden in their houses. The Hardagas didn’t care because they saw the Kavilios as family, but the Kavilios also saw the Hardagas as family and couldn’t stand endangering them. Eventually, Josef’s wife and children fled to an Italian city because it was safer than any Nazi-controlled area. Josef stayed behind to shut down the family business, but in the process, was captured by the Nazis. Against the odds, Josef wasn’t killed but instead sentenced to work in a chain gang where he had to shovel snow off the roads. During his long hours of shoveling, a familiar face would bring him and all the other prisoners food. This was, of course, Mustafa Hardaga.

Josef eventually escaped and made it back to his family. After the war, the Kavilios moved to Jerusalem. Once in Jerusalem, the Kavilio family convinced Yad Vashem to declare the Hardagas “Righteous Among the Nations.” The Hardagas were the first Muslims to be awarded this honor.

Ironically, in 1994 when the Serbs waged a genocide in Sarajevo, the Hardagas were forced to hide in a basement. The Kavilios soon heard about this and immediately contacted Yad Vashem to get them safely to Israel. There, the Hardagas were greeted by the Kavilio family. This deep bond between the families and the hospitality that the State of Israel had offered eventually inspired Sarah Pecanac (Mustafa and Zejneba’s daughter) to convert to Judaism.

I saw some similarities between this story and what is currently happening in Syria. A genocide alert has been declared in Syria, and how we respond to it is in question internationally: 13.5 million people are in need of humanitarian assistance, 4.6 million Syrians are refugees and 6.6 million are displaced inside of Syria. Even more heartbreaking, half of those are children.

The story of the Hardaga family shows an open door that welcomed strangers into a home. Mustafa Hardaga didn’t turn and pretend nothing was happening, nor did he turn in the Kavilios; he saw what was needed, opened his arms to strangers, and made them family. Now, there are millions of Syrians who need a home. So where will they all find a family? Where will they find peace?

This story has inspired me on many different levels. The nearly immediate love for a stranger has inspired me to look at everyone as someone to love and not judge, despite the fact that I’m Jewish and they are Muslim, or any combination of religions, races, or ethnicities. It has also shown me that we all have the ability to coexist and it has given me hope that people can share the world because peace does not depend on our religions, but rather our willingness to see everyone in love and not fear. We often think of the Holocaust as closed spaces and hidden attics, but what I see are open homes with open hearts.

With that, I would like to say: Shalom, Salam, and peace to us all.