Just this past week, Baltimore lost a humble hero — Menashe Yosef ben Avraham Yaakov zt”l, Menashe Schamroth. Those who knew this outgoing, witty, scholarly man, or who heard him blow the Shofar each Rosh HaShanah in Congregation Beth Abraham, “Hertzberg’s Shul,” may not have known how he got that job.

After the war, a survivor told Rav Hertzberg an incredible story. In Auschwitz, he said, he saw a young man blow the shofar on Rosh HaShanah — something which could surely have cost him his life.

Out of the corner of his eye, Rabbi Hertzberg saw Menashe smiling. “Do you find this funny?” the Rabbi asked.

“Well, Rebbe,” said Menashe, “that was me.”

Menashe went on to blow shofar, daven and give Torah classes in Beth Abraham for decades. How many of our children will ever meet someone who risked his life, as Menashe did, in order to live as a Jew?

On an Internet discussion list not long ago, a Jewish participant denied that there had been acts of spiritual heroism in the camps. These stories, he claimed, were merely invented afterwards. When Menashe was with us, it was simple to say, “you’re mistaken.” But now he is no longer here, and preserving his memory is now our responsibility.