His name was Alex. Alex Dancyg. He was born in 1948 in Warsaw, Poland, to the survivors of Holocaust. The rest of the family who lived before the war in Poland was murdered. His dad was a Stalinist judge, and he himself was being up brought completely secular, to the point of not really knowing he was Jewish for a long time.
His family emigrated to Israel when he was 9 years old and didn't know any Hebrew. He was sent to live with one of relatives who emigrated to British mandate before the war.
After the high school he became a paratrooper just in time to take part in 6-day war, he also served during Yom Kippur war. But at the same time he was always a very left-leaning pacifist, a delicate man with amazing sense of humor.
He made kibbutz Nir Oz his home - there he married, started a family, worked the soil which he loved. He was historian, professor, teacher, gardener. He cooperated with Yad Vashem in teaching about Shoah. Yet the special quality of his was being icebreaker. He craved for belonging and treated his kibbutz like the family. He was open socialist caring for all people. Having the experience of emigration, growing up away from home, soldering out of necessity, forfeiting his first home, language and culture for many years he was open for all people. After his first visit to Poland 30 years after leaving it he became the culture translator teaching history to both Poles and Israelis. Not only the history of Shoah. He was Polish ambassador to Israelis and Israeli ambassador to Poles without any official designation. The post-war relations between Israel and Poland were complicated, yet he was willing and capable of navigating these murky waters making many friends in Poland and introducing Israeli history and culture to Poles.
For his whole life he was avid soccer supporter and would go a long way for a good play. But when he was saying "we won" on occasions when Israel was playing with Poland it was hard to say whom he meant, according to his statement more often Poles :) He was often telling anecdote of his trip to Tel Aviv for Polish-Israeli play for the first time ever. He rode on Polish team bus at one point and when sitting, happy, on the tribunes he didn't know how to react to the first goal - it was scored by Israeli team and people around him were rejoicing when he felt quite confused and a bit sad. By his words it was fortunate that the play finished with 1:1 score.
He was also very open to Palestinians, supporter of the two states solution, volunteer for Road to Recovery.
He was kidnapped from his home in Nir Oz kibbutz on October 7 2023, at the age of 75, murdered by Hamas in February 2024. His body was recovered by IDF in August last year. One of these who spent their lives building bridges.
His son wrote after his death:
“He dedicated much of his life to this, he worked for many years with Yad Vashem, he established a lot of dialogue with groups of Polish Jews, tried to explain the point of view of Polish citizens in a more accurate and historical and less stereotypical way."
“He was a very smart guy, very warm, loved his family, he was the person I had the most fun speaking with, he had so much knowledge, and he was always very interesting. I miss him so much… it’s important to me that the legacy he worked to instill, of Holocaust education and nuanced history will continue.”
We miss you, Alex. May your memory be a blessing.
No comments:
Post a Comment