Whoever saves a single life saves the whole world

I am very grateful for being allowed the opportunity to serve as a chaplain for the Department of Veterans Affairs for sixteen years. I especially enjoyed working with the Veteran Volunteers in our VA Medical Centers. Their compassion for their injured and suffering brothers and sisters is beyond measure. I witnessed many moments in the corridors of the hospital where a volunteer would be greeting a patient with joy and laughter and in other moments the volunteer would be expressing concern and even tears. There were times another volunteer would come up to me and point to a Veteran Volunteer at work and say to me, “You know he/she is the real thing”. The volunteer really did not have to say it because it was usually apparent that we were in the presence of someone who was very special.

About a year ago I was watching a 2013 documentary called “Finnigan’s War” directed by Conor Timmis. One of the heroes honored in the documentary was Tibor “Ted” Rubin. Tibor was a Veteran who worked at “his brother’s Long Beach liquor store” and “he regularly volunteered at the “Long Beach Veteran’s Hospital.” He “earned an award for more than 20,000 hours of volunteer work“ (Wikipedia, Tibor Rubin). I’m sure that everyone at the hospital recognized that Tibor was special; however it would take years before they would come to know how special.

Tibor “was born on June 18, 1929, in Pashto, a Hungarian town with a Jewish population of 120 families, one of six children (by three marriages) of shoemaker Ferenc Rubin (Wikipedia -Tibor Rubin). In an attempt to escape to neutral Switzerland, thirteen year old Tibor was caught by the Nazis and and sent to Mauthausen Concentration Camp in Austria. After fourteen months, “he was liberated by American combat troops on May 5, 1945 (Wikipedia Tibor Rubin). In the documentary, “Finnigan’s War”, he reported that he owed a debt and made the statement: “I promised the Good Lord, if I get out of here alive, I will become a GI Joe. Not just a GI Joe but a top notch GI Joe.” However, he stated that he never had the intention of becoming a hero.

Tibor “entered the United States in 1948 and settled in New York…In 1949, he tried to enlist in the US Army. He failed the English language test, but tried again in 1950 and passed with some judicious help from two fellow test takers. By July 1950, Private First Class Rubin found himself fighting in South Korea with I Company, 8th Cavalry Regiment, First Cavalry Division. According to lengthy affidavits submitted by nearly a dozen men who served with Rubin in South and North Korea, mostly self-described “country boys” from the South and Midwest, an antisemitic sergeant…consistently “volunteered” Rubin for the most dangerous patrols and missions. During one mission, according to the testimonies of his comrades, Rubin secured a needed route of retreat for his rifle company by single-handedly defending a hill for 24 hours against waves of North Korean soldiers. For this and other acts of bravery, Rubin was recommended four times for the Medal of Honor by two of his commanding officers. Both officers were killed in action shortly afterwords, but not before ordering Rubin’s sergeant to begin the necessary paperwork recommending Rubin for the Medal of Honor.” It was believed that the sergeant “ignored his orders” (Wikipedia -Tibor Rubin).

Later, Tibor was seriously wounded and captured by the Chinese. He would spend over two years in a Prisoner of War Camp.

“Faced with constant hunger, filth, and disease, most of the GIs simply gave up. “No one wanted to help anyone. Everybody was for himself”, wrote Leo A. Cormier Jr., a former sergeant and POW. The exception was Rubin. Almost every evening, Rubin would sneak out of the prison camp to steal food from the Chinese and North Korean supply depots, knowing that he would be shot if caught. “He shared the food evenly among the GIs, “ Cormier wrote. “He also took care of us, nursed us, carried us to the latrine…, he did many good deeds, which he told us were mitzvahs in the Jewish tradition…he was a very religious Jew and helping his fellow men was the most important thing to him”. The survivors of the prisoner war camp credited Rubin with keeping them alive and saving at least 40 American soldiers” (Wikipedia - Tibor Rubin).

“In 1993, a study was commissioned by the United States Army to investigate racial discrimination in the awarding of medals…The ensuing investigation showed that Rubin had been the subject of discrimination due to his religion and should have received the Medal of Honor…

In 2005, President George W. Bush presented the Medal of Honor to Rubin in a ceremony at the White House, for his actions in 1950 during the Korean War” (Wikipedia-Tibor Rubin).

“Mitzvah - The term mitzvah has come to express an individual act of human kindness in keeping with the law. The expression includes a sense of heartfelt sentiment beyond mere legal duty, as “you shall love your neighbor as yourself” (Leviticus 19:18)” (Wikipedia-Mitzvah).

“There is an old Jewish saying in the Talmud (Sanhedrin 37a) that can be translated as: “Whoever saves a single life saves the whole world.””

The Long Beach VA Medical Center was renamed the “Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center” on May 10, 2017.