Caption transcript for Beauty For Ashes: “The Survivors” (3/9)

• 00:02 Coming up on Zola Levitt Presents
• 00:03 we'll explore the prophetic connection
• 00:05 between the Holocaust and
• 00:06 the rebirth of the State of Israel
• 00:31 ISAIAH 61:3 "I will console those who mourn in Zion,"
• 00:35 ISAIAH 61:3 "to give them beauty for ashes,"
• 00:39 ISAIAH 61:3 "the oil of joy for mourning,"
• 00:42 ISAIAH 61:3 "the garment of praise for the spirit of heaviness,"
• 00:46 ISAIAH 61:3 "that they might be called oaks of righteousness,"
• 00:50 ISAIAH 61:3 "the planting of Adonai, that He may be glorified."
• 01:00 Shalom Haverim , Welcome to our program Friends
• 01:02 I'm Myles Weiss,
• 01:03 and I'm Katharine Weiss.
• 01:05 We want to welcome you to our series
• 01:07 "Beauty for Ashes".
• 01:08 In this series we contrast 2 of the
• 01:10 most significant events in Jewish history,
• 01:13 the Nazi Holocaust
• 01:15 and the rebirth of the State of Israel.
• 01:18 Yeah, it's amazing that during the time
• 01:20 of the Diaspora, the dispersion,
• 01:23 God has always had His heart
• 01:25 and His mind and His eye
• 01:27 on Zion, on Jerusalem,
• 01:29 on the regathering of His people.
• 01:31 He's the God of restoration.
• 01:32 He is and it goes back to
• 01:33 this is not something that happened in 1948
• 01:35 this is something that goes back to
• 01:37 the promise to Abraham.
• 01:38 And the prophet Zechariah says in Zechariah 1:14,
• 01:41 [ Speaking Hebrew ]
• 01:53 And that has never ended.
• 01:55 This is an eternal promise.
• 01:56 And so when we look at the horror of the Holocaust
• 01:59 we see the terrible things that took place
• 02:01 in the death camps
• 02:02 in Poland and throughout Europe.
• 02:04 We really understand that in spite of that
• 02:07 God has a plan for the Jewish people
• 02:09 and He's going to do what He's going to do.
• 02:12 I think Ezekiel 36 and 37 really said it clearly
• 02:15 that He would open the graves.
• 02:17 So we're about to go to Auschwitz
• 02:20 and hear Katharine's interview with Teresa.
• 02:22 Teresa is a historian who is sanctioned by
• 02:26 the Museum at Auschwitz to speak to you.
• 02:29 So let's go to Katharine's interview right now.
• 02:33 We are here in Auschwitz,
• 02:36 and I'm speaking with
• 02:38 our guide and historian Teresa.
• 02:40 As a woman and as a mother,
• 02:44 it is just heart wrenching to think about
• 02:48 what anyone went through
• 02:51 but especially a mother being
• 02:53 separated from their child
• 02:55 or having to go through some of
• 02:57 the horrific things they had to go through.
• 03:00 Tell us a little bit about what
• 03:02 they would encounter here.
• 04:48 So is it true that the women and children
• 04:51 were immediately just killed?
• 05:58 You know they were diminished so.
• 06:00 Their hair was cut off.
• 06:02 Their clothes were taken.
• 06:03 They were given a number.
• 06:05 And the survival under...I mean,
• 06:07 You can't even count the calories
• 06:09 because it wasn't even a calorie meal.
• 06:11 So the meal was basically boiling water.
• 07:38 I've heard that they weren't even able to walk.
• 07:41 They had to keep this pace of constant running
• 07:42 or they were beaten.
• 07:43 Is this true?
• 09:27 Anybody that survived Auschwitz it's a miracle
• 09:31 because you weren't meant to survive here.
• 09:33 You were meant to be exterminated or worked to death.
• 09:37 So the testimonies that I've heard from survivors
• 09:40 where something clicked inside of them where
• 09:43 they made the decision,
• 09:44 "I will get out of here",
• 09:47 or they said,
• 09:49 "Tomorrow I'll go and touch the fence, just not today",
• 09:53 as they were starving, freezing and being tortured.
• 09:57 People could go and commit suicide
• 10:00 by just grabbing hold of that fence.
• 10:02 Is this true?
• 11:35 Thank you for your knowledge,
• 11:37 thank you for studying and
• 11:39 thank you for helping us
• 11:41 as we're in this journey to remember.
• 11:44 Thank you.
• 11:45 So I want you all to know that we're here to remember
• 11:49 the lives that are lost
• 11:51 and that we would say "never again".
• 12:02 It's fascinating to hear the Polish view
• 12:04 of the events that took place there.
• 12:06 They were victimized as well
• 12:08 but there was also some darker side to that story
• 12:10 that will come up later in our series.
• 12:12 This suicidality and the degradation that people went through,
• 12:17 its totally understandable and yet
• 12:19 the survivors that we meet
• 12:20 are the strongest people that I've met in my whole life.
• 12:23 The quality of who they are as people because
• 12:27 they fought so hard to survive.
• 12:29 We wanted to bring this series to you
• 12:33 to remind all of us that this happened,
• 12:35 that it was a horror,
• 12:37 but we want to say that there is not a denial that this
• 12:41 is a reality but its very true that
• 12:43 this Holocaust did happen.
• 12:45 But after this we will take you to Israel
• 12:48 and you'll hear about the start up nation.
• 12:51 Our resource this week
• 12:53 The Messianic Roots Lapel Pin.
• 12:55 Show that you recognize
• 12:57 the Jewish roots
• 12:58 of the Christian faith
• 13:00 by wearing this ancient symbol
• 13:01 believed to have been used as a seal
• 13:03 by the early followers of Jesus.
• 13:05 Approximately 1 inch long.
• 13:07 This unique pin combines
• 13:09 the Menorah,
• 13:11 the Star of David,
• 13:12 and the Christian Fish.
• 13:13 For this resource and more
• 13:15 call 1-800-Wonders
• 13:17 or visit us at levitt.com
• 13:22 Hi, I want to thank you
• 13:23 for continuing to support
• 13:25 Zola Levitt Presents.
• 13:26 That's how we've been
• 13:27 able to bring you
• 13:29 our television program
• 13:30 for many years now.
• 13:31 But not only on television.
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• 14:30 and come with us to Israel.
• 14:32 It will be the time of your life.
• 14:33 Yeah, it will set you on a course
• 14:35 that is an eternal course.
• 14:37 And it's His heart
• 14:38 for His homeland.
• 14:40 We also want to remind you
• 14:42 of the newsletter.
• 14:43 This is a very informative letter
• 14:45 that tells you about what's happening
• 14:47 in this world today.
• 14:48 It's free to you, just write to us.
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• 14:59 Yeah we've heard some incredible reports
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• 15:03 with Muslim friends in prison
• 15:06 and beginning a dialogue about the Gospel.
• 15:08 So your support for our ministry
• 15:10 helps the Gospel to go forward
• 15:12 even into the prisons in America.
• 15:14 Now lets go back to Israel
• 15:16 where Katharine will interview
• 15:17 our Israeli Producer, Tal.
• 15:21 Here we are in Tel Aviv
• 15:23 One of the beautiful
• 15:25 cities off the coast.
• 15:26 And I'm here with our
• 15:28 Israeli Producer Tal.
• 15:30 And we'd love to hear about the project
• 15:31 that you've been working on.
• 15:33 The "Start Up Nation" project.
• 15:34 Tell us a little bit about that.
• 15:35 Yeah, so Hi,
• 15:38 I've been working on a documentary
• 15:40 that is following "Israeli Start ups"
• 15:45 in different stages and
• 15:47 bringing out the human story of
• 15:49 the people behind the start ups.
• 15:51 And its been really amazing.
• 15:53 Also in Tel Aviv meeting all these people
• 15:56 that had ideas in their mind
• 15:59 and executed them or are
• 16:01 on the way to execute them.
• 16:03 And its always ideas that start
• 16:05 from just a small idea on the bus,
• 16:07 or somebody thought about something
• 16:09 on their way to work and
• 16:11 then it gets developed
• 16:13 with more people and
• 16:14 with more minds and inspiration.
• 16:17 And we have a lot of people here working
• 16:18 on different and amazing technologies
• 16:21 and start ups.
• 16:22 And Tal you've also lived here in Tel Aviv.
• 16:24 Tell us a little bit about life
• 16:26 here in Tel Aviv.
• 16:27 So I've been here for the past 10 years I think.
• 16:29 And I love it really.
• 16:32 And I enjoy being here.
• 16:34 First of all the sun.
• 16:36 But a lot of very creative people.
• 16:39 And its been really great being here and meeting people
• 16:42 and having a lot of inspiration and ideas.
• 16:45 And just a huge city with so many things to do.
• 16:48 And I really feel like I'm
• 16:50 in New York or London or Paris.
• 16:52 Close to the Sea.
• 16:54 So I really love it here.
• 16:55 It's so beautiful.
• 16:57 And we want to thank you for helping us
• 16:59 while we're here in the Land.
• 17:00 You've been such an added blessing to us.
• 17:03 So thank you Tal.
• 17:04 Thank you for sharing too.
• 17:05 Thank you.
• 17:07 You know Israel is not what you see in CNN obviously.
• 17:11 We love to bring you the life part of Israel
• 17:13 from reforesting the forests -
• 17:16 You know I think its one of the only
• 17:18 nations that has actually increased their forests.
• 17:21 They make a point to rebuild and to restore.
• 17:25 And they make a point to " Tikkun Olam "
• 17:28 to "Repair the World".
• 17:30 To not only bring solutions that will help them
• 17:32 but will help the world.
• 17:33 You know I love the app that sold for 1.3 billion dollars.
• 17:39 Google acquired it
• 17:41 and its "waze".
• 17:42 And my son turned me on to it.
• 17:44 It's an amazing app that helps you get through traffic.
• 17:47 The LA people said that it helped them get
• 17:49 through the gridlock that they call Armageddon.
• 17:52 Its just been such an amazing app that
• 17:55 helps you get from one distance to another
• 17:57 without facing the traffic.
• 17:59 And it will even warn you of pitfalls that are ahead.
• 18:02 That's just one of them.
• 18:03 There's solar power that's affected Africa and India.
• 18:08 WIX is to build your own web site.
• 18:10 Or the Israel Defense Forces
• 18:13 which is going behind the scenes
• 18:15 and affecting the horrible circumstances
• 18:17 and doing it in cyber war.
• 18:21 Not to mention that they've created
• 18:22 something that's called "ReWalk".
• 18:24 Its an ability to help people that
• 18:26 are paraplegic to walk again.
• 18:29 Or there is ORCAM
• 18:30 that helps a blind person to communicate
• 18:33 outside of having somebody to help them.
• 18:35 So here we are in modern Tel Aviv.
• 18:39 The ancient and the modern have come alive.
• 18:41 The people are alive.
• 18:43 The desert has bloomed.
• 18:45 And the mind has been enlightened
• 18:47 to create what God had told them to create
• 18:49 that they would be a light to the nations.
• 18:52 And they are doing that.
• 18:53 And its our joy to bring you the true story from Israel.
• 19:00 Myles - Israel is blessed with abundant amounts of sunshine,
• 19:02 which is one of the reasons solar energy has flourished here.
• 19:05 Located just west of Tel Aviv is Brenmiller Energy.
• 19:09 Here, I caught up with President and CEO Avi Brenmiller
• 19:13 to find out why he started this company
• 19:15 that specializes in designing, building
• 19:18 and operating thermo-solar power plants.
• 19:23 I established my own company
• 19:24 together with two of my sons.
• 19:26 Trying to do two things -
• 19:28 basically making the technology cheaper
• 19:31 or the power produced from
• 19:32 this kind of technology cheaper.
• 19:34 And two - storing enough solar energy so it can be
• 19:40 used during more hours per day.
• 19:43 This is innovative.
• 19:44 This is something I think
• 19:46 others have thought about
• 19:48 but you've been really
• 19:49 working towards implementing it.
• 19:50 You said in one of your bios I read -
• 19:53 scale ability, making things available
• 19:55 whether they're huge or small -
• 19:57 Right
• 19:57 power availability
• 19:59 meaning even when the sun is not shining -
• 20:00 Right
• 20:01 and price competitiveness
• 20:03 which I'm calling sale ability.
• 20:05 So you can have that poem.
• 20:06 Okay - thank you.
• 20:07 Your welcome.
• 20:08 But the idea being that
• 20:09 you're working on all those fronts.
• 20:12 But tell us a little bit about
• 20:13 the idea of storage or availability.
• 20:16 Okay - All the time I was thinking
• 20:21 how do we bring the world of renewable energy,
• 20:24 or solar energy and fossil fuel energy together.
• 20:28 Because we as human beings need a lot of power
• 20:31 during the evening, during the nights, during cloudy days.
• 20:35 So one has to bring those technologies
• 20:38 together in a cost efficient way.
• 20:41 Otherwise, its two different worlds like we are today.
• 20:44 And someone will take care
• 20:47 about joining them together.
• 20:49 Eventually we are paying now for both.
• 20:51 Right - But here you're talking about
• 20:53 on a massive scale
• 20:55 of using all available means
• 20:57 to produce the most efficient energy.
• 20:59 Has there been a lot of resistance to that?
• 21:01 Eventually - Initially yes.
• 21:04 I think now when people are really tackling the
• 21:06 issues of having those worlds separated they're
• 21:09 also looking for ways to bring them together.
• 21:12 So I've been pitching this for years , Now I hear
• 21:15 more and more people are excepting that approach.
• 21:18 Bringing hybrid as well as fossil fuels,
• 21:22 getting as much solar as you can get to the equation
• 21:25 as it makes economic sense to get to this equation.
• 21:29 And keeping our air cleaner -
• 21:32 all of this at an affordable price.
• 21:35 Otherwise there's no point in doing it.
• 21:37 It makes too much sense.
• 21:38 It makes absolute sense
• 21:40 to be as renewable as possible
• 21:45 but not overlook the fact that
• 21:47 we are where we are currently.
• 21:49 And so what's next for your company?
• 21:52 Next is the first commercial plant.
• 21:56 Its only 1.5 mega-watts a day.
• 21:58 This is a small plant in the thermal world,
• 22:01 but it will be reconnected
• 22:03 and it will prove to everybody that this is real.
• 22:07 We need to prove it to the government,
• 22:09 the regulators, to the banks
• 22:11 because they have to finance bigger projects.
• 22:13 So this project is really a kick start
• 22:15 but we have other projects coming in.
• 22:18 Afterwards 10 mega-watts,
• 22:20 40 mega-watts, and probably
• 22:21 a project which is more than 100 mega-watts
• 22:24 not only in Israel but worldwide.
• 22:26 This series is about the miracle of Israel in the 20th century
• 22:34 coming out of the horror of the Holocaust.
• 22:37 I believe and I believe my viewers believe this is
• 22:39 all the fruit of the promise from HaShem to Abraham.
• 22:43 So it goes back 4,000 years, not 100 years.
• 22:47 But the Holocaust -
• 22:50 I like to think the world blinked for a moment,
• 22:52 there was a moment of compassion on the Jewish people
• 22:54 and this amazing miracle opened up for a reborn state.
• 22:59 What about your personal connection with
• 23:02 the Holocaust and your family life?
• 23:05 OK - both of my grandparents were murdered
• 23:08 in the Holocaust.
• 23:09 So my mother and my father
• 23:13 ran away from Poland to Russia
• 23:17 at the beginning of the war
• 23:19 but they were the only ones
• 23:20 who managed to run away.
• 23:21 The rest of the families were killed.
• 23:24 So we are a very, very small family.
• 23:26 And this is really -
• 23:30 probably affecting any major decision I make in my life.
• 23:36 I'm a graduate of Ohio State University
• 23:38 and it was very convenient for me stay in U.S.
• 23:41 but the decision was to go to Israel because I found
• 23:43 that probably for me as a Jew being a member of a family
• 23:48 that was killed in the Holocaust
• 23:53 there's no better place for Jews.
• 23:56 I want my children to grow in a country like Israel
• 23:59 even though the U.S. was much more convenient
• 24:01 with paying much higher salaries and so on.
• 24:05 How do you explain this tiny place with
• 24:09 a few million people being at the forefront
• 24:12 of all this technological breakthrough
• 24:14 and this brain trust that seems to be here?
• 24:17 How do you see it yourself?
• 24:20 In one word I would say it's survival.
• 24:24 We the Jewish people had to survive for
• 24:27 the last generations all over the world.
• 24:29 When you need to survive you are becoming really
• 24:32 effective in finding new ways to generate new stuff.
• 24:40 Also today its a small country
• 24:42 so the market here is small,
• 24:43 so the world is our market.
• 24:46 So economically - in order to survive
• 24:48 you have to become really affective
• 24:53 in the way you develop those things.
• 24:55 The standard way is always there,
• 24:57 so nobody needs us to do it in a normal way.
• 25:00 So we have to come up with something new all the time.
• 25:03 Maybe a couple of generations
• 25:05 and everything will be okay
• 25:07 and economically we will be fine
• 25:09 and our kids - and peace will be here - okay.
• 25:12 We will not be as effective or
• 25:15 innovative as we are today.
• 25:17 Right now we're still those guys
• 25:19 who need to survive.
• 25:28 In the midst of speaking of
• 25:29 the darkness of the Holocaust
• 25:30 it was such a joy to speak with people like Avi Brenmiller
• 25:33 who have taken that survivor mentality
• 25:36 that he inherited from his surviving family members
• 25:40 and brought it to Israel where they
• 25:42 are making life better for everyone on the planet
• 25:46 through innovations and just forward thinking.
• 25:49 It's interesting Katharine that
• 25:51 the more agnostic among them
• 25:53 say well we did this on our own.
• 25:55 We're so smart, we're so wonderful.
• 25:57 Though they'll never say it like that.
• 25:58 And then the less agnostic,
• 26:00 the more believing types
• 26:01 say somehow God had to be involved in this.
• 26:04 For us as believers, we know its the
• 26:06 hand of God that delivered them.
• 26:09 It has to be those two contrasts of the Holocaust
• 26:13 and then what God has helped them to do
• 26:17 by being a light to the nation
• 26:19 to bring forth all these amazing
• 26:21 gifts with their minds.
• 26:24 You wrestle - is God real?
• 26:27 Would he allow that much evil
• 26:29 and this much blessing?
• 26:30 And then the wrestling of humanity.
• 26:33 Why do humans do such evil things?
• 26:35 If you don't understand,
• 26:37 there's these 3 spirits that are at work.
• 26:39 There's the Devil,
• 26:40 there's God and there's man.
• 26:41 Right, we have choice.
• 26:42 Whatever you're yielded to is going to produce.
• 26:45 You know, this tiny little nation,
• 26:48 its a miracle, they're surrounded by people
• 26:51 that want to wipe them out.
• 26:53 And yet they are standing for democracy.
• 26:55 They are standing for health,
• 26:57 they are standing for innovation.
• 26:59 They are the first ones to be there
• 27:01 when there's a disaster.
• 27:02 We could go on and on.
• 27:04 And we will because we know
• 27:05 you love to hear about it.
• 27:06 And we love to share the Good News
• 27:09 of what God is doing.
• 27:10 He is resurrecting the Land of Israel.
• 27:12 And He's calling you to Himself.
• 27:15 That's why we always like to end our program
• 27:17 by reminding you
• 27:19 Sha'a'lu Shalom Yerushalayim
• 27:20 Pray for the peace of Jerusalem.
• 27:25 Our monthly newsletter the "Levitt Letter"
• 27:27 is free and full of insightful
• 27:29 articles and news commentary
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