I believe my father was an extradinary person

I believe that my father was an extraordinary person. I am my father’s daughter. When I was born, he encouraged my brother to chop up his crib, because his new baby sister needed a clean new one.

My father was a Jew because he wanted to please his mom and to defy Hitler. He liked cultural aspects of Judaism, but he despised formal religion. He was forced to be religious since his family was orthodox Jews. Frequently he told me stories about rich Jews who thought they were safe from Hitler. His own dad was taken by the Gestapo to a sports pavilion, and when he told my dad’s mom that they made him eat grass like an animal, she didn’t believe him. He died weeks later after the torture from a heart attack.

Since my dad’s high school education ended because of the war, he made sure my brother and I went to college. At the same time we were never forced or even encouraged to study religion. I will always remember how my brother got bar mitzvahed as a token gesture to please my dad’s mother, and during the ceremony my father was studying his college textbook. My dad got his GED and he graduated from college the same day as my brother graduated from high school.

Not many people have matched my dad’s generosity. He would give gifts to someone he just met if the mood struck him. I once invited him to meet a friend for lunch and during the conversation she said she liked music. Dad excused himself from the table and returned an hour later with a new musical instrument for her. We were not a rich family, but my father and I went to Europe in the 1960’s so he could expose me to art and other cultures.

I always struggled with math in school but was very good in drawing and creative writing. Every time I read a book, I got paid. Part of the reason Dad took me to Europe when I was a child in middle school was to see art in the greatest museums in the world. Having had all that encouragement in the arts allowed me to pass on this gift to my two daughters. My oldest daughter was so inspired by her grandfather’s outlook on life that she dedicated her salutatorian speech to him upon her graduation from High School. On the other hand my younger daughter who struggled in school drew a picture of my dad for an art class and the teacher said “Seeing that picture, and how much feeling it conveyed made me see just how much ability Rachel had.” This renewed her desire to help this often discouraged student.

Whenever I am down or depressed, all I have to do is think of my dad and the memories flood my heart with all the love that emanated from him to me. As he once said at my nephew’s Bar Mitzvah, “We beat you Hitler.” And it is true that Hitler could not dull the burning candle that ignited in the soul of my father.

Dad I miss you so much but I believe I am the person I am because of you.