Raoul Wallenberg
By RABBI JOSEPH H,. PROUSER
Raoul Wallenberg was a Swedish diplomat who saved thousands of Jews in Nazi-occupied Hungary during the Holocaust. While precise numbers are impossible to verify, Yad Vashem asserts that Wallenberg saved 4500 Jews. Others insist the number of Jewish lives saved was exponentially higher. Wallenberg issued countless passports in an attempt to provide Jews safe passage, and hid Jews in buildings that he then declared to be sovereign Swedish territory.
Wallenberg explained his own motivation: “I will never be able to go back to Sweden without knowing inside that I’d done all a man could do to save as many Jews as possible.”
This Shabbat is the 81st anniversary of Wallenberg’s “disappearance” on January 17, 1945. He was kidnapped by the KGB. In 1957, Soviet authorities claimed that Wallenberg had died of a massive heart attack ten years earlier, on July 17, 1947. That assertion is understandably disputed.
For his moral leadership, Raoul Wallenberg has been recognized as an honorary citizen of Canada, Hungary, the UK, Australia, and Israel. He was only the second person (after Winston Churchill) to become an honorary citizen of the United States – an honor proposed by Congressman Tom Lantos, one of the Jews he saved.
We honor Raoul Wallenberg by living out his stated creed:
“One person can make a difference.”
Rabbi Joseph H. Prouser is the editor of “Masorti: The New Journal of Conservative Judaism.” The latest edition of Masorti was published online for the winter of 2025-26. A subscription is $18 per annum.
