Jan. 6, 1950
S.F. Jewry Welcomes Bar Mitzvah Boy Reared in Monastery
In the traditional ceremony of the Bar Mitzvah, a great human victory over the nazis (sic) will take place here in San Francisco tomorrow.
At Temple Keneseth Israel, Herbert Barasch will be welcomed into the Jewish faith.
Herbert is the only son of Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Barasch, refugees from Austria. During the nazi terror, the Baraschs fled Austria and finally found their way to Belgium where they lived “underground” in perpetual terror for more than three years.
But in order to save the life of their son, regardless of what happened to themselves, Herbert was placed in a monastery. And under the tutelage of monks, completely separated from everything Jewish, the young Herbert was reared. When liberation came and Herbert was returned to his family, it was a long, slow fight before he found himself able to accept that Jewish faith once again. Through the efforts of an uncle, Nosson Weidman, the family was brought to the United States, where, in the freedom of religious pursuit, Herbert returned to the traditional faith of his ancestors.
And Jewry will welcome him, proudly, on his Bar Mitzvah tomorrow.
Feb. 13, 1981
Nazis Set Deadline to Get $7 Million for Hess’ Release
BONN (JTA) — A group of neo-Nazis calling themselves the Rudolf Hess restitution Commandos have set a Feb. 14 deadline to kill two Jews at random unless they receive $7 million for a fund to free Rudolf Hess from the Spandau Prison in West Berlin. Hess, 86, who was Hitler’s right-hand man at the Deputy Fuehrer, is now the only prisoner in Spandau.
The neo-Nazi group made its demand in letters dated Jan. 30 and mailed to Salzburg, Austria, to the governments of the four Allied powers which administer the prison — the United States, Britain, France and the Soviet Union — a West German government spokesman said.
The neo-Nazi organization said the $7 million it is demanding would be “a gesture of goodwill” and should be paid to the “Freedom for Rudolf Committee,” an organization formed by Hess’ son, Wolf-Ruediger Hess, 43, a Munich architect. No comments were available from the younger Hess.
