The Short Vort by Rabbi Eisenman

My mother, Leah Bas Meir, known to all as Lorraine (née Rubin), was born on January 16^th, 1930, in the Hunts Point neighborhood of the South Bronx.

At the time of her birth, the South Bronx was about 60% Jewish.

The entire borough achieved a distinction that no other New York City borough ever claimed:

At the time of her birth,  fifty percent of the Bronx was Jewish!

My mother’s parents were part of the great Jewish immigration between 1880 and 1920 from Russia to the United States.

My maternal grandparents came from Odesa, from which they emigrated in the early 1900s.

Odesa was a largely Jewish city, with over a third of the population being Jewish.

It was also a center of the haskala, and it was the center of Yiddish literature, playing a large role in the cultural transformation of Russian Jewry.

Many Odesan Jews, including my grandparents, were swept up in the wave of Socialism and secular Zionism, which unfortunately replaced traditional Jewish values in the hearts and minds of many.

When my grandparents arrived in this country to escape the rampant anti-Semitism of Russia, they looked to America with hope.

They instilled in my mother a sense of gratitude (Hokoras HaTov) for the United States.

My mother would always get emotional and teary-eyed when we would visit Ellis Island, the gateway to America.

Ellis Island represented to my mother the welcoming embrace of America.

She was able to attend Hunter College for free and receive two Masters Degrees while remaining an openly proud and Torah-true Jew.

Although her parents sent her to a socialist-Yiddish speaking school, after meeting my Yerushalmi-born father, she embraced a life of Torah and Mitzvhos and sent her children to Yeshiva to the (not so slight) dismay of her socialist mother.

Yet, her Kibud Aim was unparalleled, and every single Sunday, the entire family happily trekked from Crown Heights (and later Canarsie) to Brighton Beach to visit my grandmother.

She was iron-clad in her commitment to Judaism. Yet, she never wavered in her love, honor, and respect for all family members, irrespective of their differing views of Judaism.

She married off her children and was privileged to see many grandchildren and great-grandchildren.

Her entire life was family.

She would never miss a family event.

Even when a granddaughter had a minor role in an hours-long musical production, and she was already battling Pancreatic cancer, she insisted on sitting throughout the entire performance and being present for her granddaughter.

Many admired and loved her, but to me, she was my mother.

She would have been 94 today.

I miss her.