Earlier this morning, Leslie Kleinman of England, returned to his friend, Hashem.

Most likely, almost nobody reading this knows who he is. From the outside, it would appear that he was an elderly Jew who lived to an old age who passed on. But Leslie was no ordinary man. Please keep reading…

Leslie was born in the city of Satmar, which was part of pre-war Hungary. His father, the Dayan in the town, was a fiery Chossid and a talmid chochom. Leslie was the oldest of eight children, very precocious and couldn’t sit still. The Kleinman’s were literally dirt poor, they had dirt floors in their modest home.

In 1944 the Nazis came to Hungary. First they took Leslie’s father. Then the whole town had to get on the cattle cars to go to their Final Destination, Auschwitz. Leslie was a tall, strapping 14 year old. A man came over to him as he and his family got off the train and asked him, “How old are you?” Leslie replied, “Fourteen.” The man responded, “No. You aren’t fourteen, you’re sixteen,” as he walked away.

Leslie and his family were directed to the Selektion which was carried out by the angel of death himself, Dr Josef Mengele, YMSh”M. Mengele asked, “How old are you?” With a straight face Leslie responded, “Sixteen.” He was waved to the right. The rest of his family was sent to the left, never to be seen again.

As a friendly young man, all alone, Leslie searched for someone to talk to in Auschwitz. But who had strength? They were all starving, beaten and broken. Leslie turned up to the Heavens. “Hashem, I’m all alone in the world. I have no friends. Will you be my friend?”

As Leslie told our students this story, he remarked, “Hashem was my best friend all the way through the end of the war.”

Leslie experienced much suffering and pain but also some miracles which helped him survive Auschwitz and some death marches. You might expect me to say that he had a large family after the war and lived happily ever after. But that’s not what happened. Please read further and open your eyes and your heart.

Leslie made his way to England where he tried to rebuild his life. He wanted to marry a nice Jewish girl from a good family and settle down. But he was a broken survivor, a greenhorn. Many of the fathers of these girls discouraged their daughters from dating him. Who could blame them? What type of scars had the horrors that he had experienced left on him? So he drifted away from his people… But who could blame him? He’d been to the shadow of death and back. His family was gone, he was all alone, only to be rejected by his people…

Fifty years passed… Leslie’s wife was on her deathbed. Her last words to him were, “Leslie, you must return to your roots.”

Leslie did Teshuva. Tefillin, Shabbos, Torah – he returned. He returned to Klal Yisroel at an old age. But much more than that, he helped others return. While in his eighties, Leslie joined our Meor Poland trips in sub freezing temperatures, telling stories of his experiences in the concentration camps. He inspired hundreds of Meor students and thousands of people while featured on videos and in person interviews conducted by J-Roots.

Perhaps the greatest lesson that I’ll ever take from Leslie is his friendship with Hashem. Shlomo Hamelech said in Mishlei (27;10) רֵ֥עֲךָ֨ וְרֵ֪עֲ אָבִ֡יךָ אַֽל־תַּעֲזֹ֗ב, Your friend and your father’s friend, i.e. Hashem, don’t abandon. As a fourteen year old, Leslie’s only friend was Hashem. What greater accomplishment can one have in life? And while that friendship grew estranged, it returned at the end of Leslie’s life.
Now Leslie’s soul is reunited with its best friend, Hashem.

Rabbi Meir Goldberg is the Director of Meor Rutgers Jewish Xperience, which reaches Jewish students all over NY and NJ.

Rabbi Meir Goldberg
Meor Rutgers Jewish Xperience