From Nazi Germany to Jerusalem: At 102, Walter Bingham dances on Simchat Torah
Channel 7 personality Walter Bingham, who will soon celebrate his 103rd birthday, recalls how fear in Nazi Germany drove Simchat Torah underground. This year, in Jerusalem, he danced with a child about a hundred years…
Assessment
Walter Bingham, a 102 year old man who fled Nazi Germany, danced on Simchat Torah in Jerusalem this year with a child roughly a century younger. His personal memory of celebrating the holiday in hiding under Nazi rule gives a concrete, lived dimension to a story that usually stays abstract. The image of him standing under a tallit with dozens of children connects a single human timeline to a much longer communal one, without needing to spell it out.