Eddie Jaku, holocaust survivor who called himself ‘the happiest man on Earth’ died at age 101 in Sydney today.
Mr Jaku volunteered at the Sydney Jewish Museum where my father in law, Charles Feldman volunteered as well, telling younger generations their stories of surviving the holocaust.
Mr Jaku said he was the “happiest man” despite the horrors he witnessed in the concentration camps.
“Life is what you want it to be, life is in your hands,” he said.
“You know happiness doesn’t fall from the sky. It’s in your hands. You want to be happy? You can be happy.”
Mr Jaku’s mission in life was to teach not to hate.
“Hate is a disease. It destroys first your enemy but you also”.
I deeply connected with this message.
A few years ago I found myself using the word hate too often. Let’s just say a certain leader came into power, and I strongly disagreed with what he said and did. Every time I thought or said hate I felt a physical reaction in my body. It also impacted my reaction, snowballed my feelings and thoughts to a more negative direction. It was not healthy. I decided to remove the word hate from my vocabulary.
Try it. Try saying hate. How does it feel? What does it make you think?
What if you replace it with greatly dislike? How does that feel?
If Eddie Jaku could not hate Hitler, we can learn to not hate anyone.
I highly recommend you listen to Eddie Jaku’s Ted Talk.
RIP Eddie Jaku