When I was in primary school, we were told that Christmas time was when we should think of our neighbors, help those most in need, think of all those who would not have special food, no gifts and loved ones to celebrate with. There are still many of us who wish to live in this spirit of sharing.
Because if we can give, it is because we have received. If we need to receive, it is because we have received less or we have lost so much! Cruelty of social inequalities, of destiny, of government policies… whatever the reasons, during this holiday season, many are called to give, and many need to receive.
It also seems to me that just writing “the holiday season” resonates like an immense paradox in these troubled and sad weeks that we are going through. Wars, killings, housing crisis, financial insecurity, inflation…
During my years at the Ministry of Culture, I had the opportunity to meet a couple who had a profound impact on me. Michal Hornstein told me his story and the origin of his need to give, to give a lot. Immensely. This man died at age 95 in 2016. A Polish Jew born in 1920 in Krakow, he arrived in Montreal in 1951, after the Second World War. In 1943, he made a promise to himself. Deported to the infamous Auschwitz camp, stuck in a train carriage with several dozen other prisoners, he decided, with them, to try everything and jump from the train during a slow-down. Of the 70 prisoners, only 7 survived the shots from the soldiers posted on the roof, including young Michal.
He said to himself before jumping: “If I survive this escape, I promise to give back everything I can in recognition of the fate of keeping me alive.” »
He survived. A few years later, he met Renata, the woman who would become his wife. Also a Polish Jew, she survived by remaining in hiding for months, when she was only 10 years old. After the war, the young couple settled in Montreal. Michal and Renata lived there until their deaths in 2016, just a few months apart.
Michal has enjoyed success in the real estate business. Vowing to keep his promise, he gave back immensely to several hospitals, universities and, in particular, to the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts. His wife was passionate about art history and very early on, the couple collected paintings from the 16the and XVIIe centuries. Seeing himself getting older, he decided to donate his entire collection to the MMFA, a gift of inestimable value.
I recently returned to see the works on display at the Michal and Renata Hornstein Peace Pavilion. Beyond their fabulous artistic and historical value, it is the emotional investment, as well as the financial one, that struck me.
After so much horror, tragic loss and exile, the couple found peace in giving, in beauty and in universal accessibility for all to the art they loved so much.
If I emphasize the remarkable side of this generosity, it is above all because beyond the support granted to so many institutions, we remember that Michal kept until his death the promise he made to himself to without counting back to society the incredible luck of having survived deportation. Give back because he is alive, an immense gift of destiny.
In the gift, is there not almost inevitably an element of expiation? Why was I lucky and not others? We must give back to restore balance, perhaps to forgive ourselves, and to be forgiven. The notion of sacrifice is never far away. But at the same time, the humanity of this debt, never completely repaid, is no less generous, liberating, if not vital.
The good or bad name “Holiday season” should always be above all that of giving, of human warmth, of fraternity. Times are tough, people are depressed, worried and sad in the face of so much adversity.
We live in Quebec, quite far from the deafening sounds of cannons and rockets of war, but still alongside people who are hungry, cold, alone or sick.
Donation, often fueled by issues of which we are not entirely aware, still has great social and human value. If it is a feeling of guilt that fuels it, well, let us rejoice in the humanist value that generates it. Because it is often said that giving is more rewarding than receiving!
The sociologist Jacques T. Godbout writes in his essay Gift, debt and identity, published in 2000: “Egoistic individuals are, by definition, those whose activity is entirely devoted to the search for their happiness. And now, at least as judged by those close to them, these selfish individuals are rather less happy than those whose efforts consist of making others happy. »
Wouldn’t the holiday season be a great opportunity to restore some balance?
Like the balance of all those who, through the time they devote to the social causes they support, say they receive as much, if not more, than they give. And yet, these volunteers often do not count the hours, the listening skills, or the human warmth they provide. No matter the motivation behind a donation, of whatever nature it may be, the important thing is the happiness shared on both sides of the equation.
Abbé Pierre said that we give meaning to our life by realizing the happiness of others: “Life is a little time given to one’s freedoms, to learn to love and share with others. »
Like the Hornsteins who made it the resolution of a lifetime.