Emily Rotenberg decided to visit the Friends of Zion museum in Jerusalem prior to going back home to the U.S, and was stunned when her late grandfather appeared on her hand during an exhibit.
Sigmund Rotenberg was an 8-year-old boy when the Holocaust began. Belgian priests took a liking to the boy and decided to rescue him from the Nazi extermination machine that was at full force at the time.
As the war concluded, he moved to Florida and started his own family. He passed four years ago.
His granddaughter, Emily, recently came to Israel for a wedding of her boyfriend's relative. Before going back home, she decided to visit the Friends of Zion Museum in Jerusalem. She heard about the stories it tells about Non-Jews who helped Jews in the Holocaust and other meaningful time periods. She also heard of the museum's interactive exhibits.
It was supposed to be your typical museum visit. Look at some exhibits, listen to some explanations, acquire a bit of knowledge and go home. But what happened brought on a rush of emotion the likes of which she had never experienced before.
Entering the section called "Lights in the Dark", visitors were asked to look at 23 light particles beamed from the ceiling, each showcasing a specific Jewish person who was saved by non-Jews during WWII.
When she looked at her hand, the reflection left her speechless. It was a picture of her late grandfather, Sigmund, with whom she was very close. Upon recognizing his face, she burst into tears.
"I had never imagined seeing my grandfather there," she said. "I felt like some invisible force was directing me to that museum that day, so he can say hello. He died of cancer four years ago. We were very close and I miss him dearly," she says,
"It was an incomprehensible coincidence. A miracle. I'm not one for afterlife beliefs, but anyone would see how unique that coincidence was."
Emily went on to tell of how in 1980, the Yad-va-Shem museum acknowledged the Belgian priests, Joseph, Louie and Hubert Salis, as Righteous among the Nations.
"He used to talk about how this priest's family saved his life in Belgium," Emily says of her grandfather. "They were three brothers who hid his family for years, and they became like family to him."