EXOD14 Torah study provides, and inspires, us with models of righteous behavior. This applies, of course, to all students of the Bible, Jews and non-Jews alike. Thus, in 1941, a Dutch minister known as Fritz "de Zwerver," an anti-Nazi organizer, arrived in the city of Eibergen, Holland, and walked to the podium of the Protestant church. At that time the Germans had taken over Holland, and were deporting Jews to concentration camps. The Reverend opened his Bible to Exodus 1:15 – 22 and read aloud the story of the Egyptian midwives who disobeyed Pharaoh's order to murder the newborn male Israelite babies, and saved them instead. Afterward, he said to the congregation, "Who is the Pharaoh today? The Nazis! Who are the babies who have to be hidden? The Jews! Who are the midwives today? We are! It is our job to outsmart the Pharaoh's, to have the courage of the midwives, and to protect the Jews and all those who need to be hidden." He then left the church, got on his bicycle, and went to the next village. During the war, seven families from this little church hid Jews and other anti-Nazi resistors. Cited in Zion and Dishon, A Different Night: The Leader's Guide 49, and their Different Night haggadah, 89.
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