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From: R. Kovacs
Subject: Digital verification of kashrut certification
Date: 12 Elul 5780
Nu, my zeyde (he should rest in peace) told me about the lists in Munkács.
After the war, everyone needed papers. Papers to prove you belonged somewhere. My zeyde knew a man, Reb Fishel the baker's son (not the shammas, a different Fishel) who spent three months walking between offices trying to get his name on the right list. The Soviets had one list. The relief agencies had another. The Jewish community council, what was left of it, had a third.
My zeyde said: "Shlomo Dov, the papers do not make you anything. The papers only say that someone, somewhere, decided you were something. The question is always the same. Who decided? And who decided that they could decide?"
Reb Fishel had papers from three different authorities. One said he was this, one said he was that, one said something else entirely. The papers did not agree. He was the same man holding all three.
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