Binyamin, born and raised in Hungary, was taken to the Mauthausen concentration camp in 1944. One of the S.S. officers there would wake up the youth every morning for hard labor by yelling to them that they would only ever see their beloved Jerusalem through the chimneys of the gas chambers.
Binyamin never stopped having faith. He survived, moved to Israel, had a family, and when he retired, he moved to Jerusalem and began working at the Kotel…as a janitor. He did this by choice, excited to acknowledge his tremendous privilege of working at the Western Wall every day.
He would tell anyone willing to listen how every day he put on his work clothes with the awesome reverence of someone who works in a royal court.
For years, Binyamin devotedly and joyfully cleaned the stones of the Western Wall; the same ones he had yearned for and dreamed of for years.
During the pandemic period, we were privileged to host Binyamin along with his grandchildren and great-grandchildren for a virtual tour of the Western Wall Tunnels. At the peak of the tour, opposite the Holy of Holies, Binyamin told all of us of his love for Jerusalem, of the dream that was fulfilled, and of coming full circle when, after many years in Jerusalem, he met the prime minister of Hungary at the Western Wall.
Binyamin taught us all important life lessons about faith, cheerfulness, seeing the good around us, and being grateful.
May his memory be a blessing.
