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FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 6, 1991
Strength
Continued from preceding page
To protect her home or escape
to Russia, leaving her home-
land behind.
With her three youngest
sons (the oldest was in the ar-
my at the time), Teibe Open-
geym fled.
"She was a very decisive
person," says Birmingham
Temple Rabbi Sherwin Wine,
recalling his impression of
Mrs. Opengeym when they
first met during his 1986 trip
to the USSR. "I remember
she said to me, 'There are
times in life when you have to
make a decision — and life is
more important than proper-
ty.'
At the Riga station, the
Opengeyms caught the last
train to Pskov, a city in
Russia.
The escape only brought
more danger. Five days into
the journey German planes
began bombing the tracks.
Occupants, including the
Opengeyms, abandoned the
coach cars and ran for sur-
rounding cornfields.
"We tried to escape to safe-
ty in the corn, but the planes
came low and shot into the
fields," Mr. Opengeym says.
The attack occurred on Ju-
ly 1, Mr. Opengeym's 16th
birthday.
Surviving the onslaught, he
and his family traveled to
Ivanova, a city northwest of
Moscow. The brothers worked
on a farm cutting trees. But
as fall approached, the
weather quickly turned cold.
The family did not have
enough money for winter
clothing. Hirsch Opengeym
found fleeting refuge as a
Soviet military pilot. But his
fighter plane was shot down
over Germany.
Teibe, Anton and Max
Opengeym journeyed south to
Andizhan in more temperate
Uzbekistan. Soon thereafter,
Anton traveled alone to Tash-
kent, where he attended
bricklaying school. After six
months he was sent to Siberia
to practice his new trade.
World War II ended before
he saw his mother and
brothers again.
They reunited in Riga to
find their city destroyed and
reoccupied by Soviet forces.
Josif Opengeym, they learn-
ed, had been shot by German
soldiers on the steps of his old
apartment building.
Unwilling to let fate defeat
them, the remaining Open-
geyms reconstructed their
lives. Anton became a barber
and married Sara in 1951.
They had a daughter, Bronya,
39, and a son, Josif. For the
next 29 years, Mr. Opengeym
worked in the barber shop.
Unable to advance or even ac-
cept tips from patrons, he
found life under communism
unbearably stifling.
"If Latvia were what it was
before, I would have stayed. In
my born country, we received
freedom. But there was no
future after. I decided I will go
while my family still has a
future."
In 1980, Mr. Opengeym, his
wife, son, daughter, son-in-law
and two granddaughters, im-
migrated to Oak Park.
Freedom greeted them with
more challenges. Though Mr.
Opengeym speaks Russian,
Yiddish, Hebrew, Lettish and
German, his English was
poor at the time. The Jewish
Vocational Service referred
him to the Birmingham Tem-
ple, but administrators were
hesitant to hire him as custo-
dian. They worried about his
ability to communicate and
wondered if his small, 5'5"
frame could withstand the
heavy lifting required by the
job.
"I told them I am strong. I
can handle it," Mr. Opengeym
says.
To prove it, he offered to
work for free on a trial basis.
They hired him.
"He wasn't here to find out
what America owed him; he
was here to contribute," says
Helen Forman, executive di-
rector of the Birmingham
Temple.
temple
than
More
maintenance man, Anton
dons white gloves on occasion
and serves tea to the likes of
Bertrand Russell, Ayn Rand
and Karl Marx — as part of
his role in "Evening With the
Philosophers" skits created
by post-confirmation
students. Adults say they ap-
preciate his wit as well.
Last year, congregants
created the "Anton Open-
geym Victory Fund." They
collected $4,000 which Anton
used to defray his relatives'
immigration expenses. The
temple also honored Mr.
Opengeym with a springtime
soiree.
The celebration might have
been muted; three weeks
before, the family had been
sitting shiva for Josif. Yet Bir-
mingham Temple members
say that Anton follows the ex-
ample set by his mother in
Riga; He chooses life.
His mother, now reunited
with family in her Oak Park
home, vows to start learning
English before her 103rd bir-
thday. Anton vows to achieve
yet another reunion: He and
his brother, Max, will sponsor
more relatives this fall.
"I find him so inspiring,"
says Rabbi Wine. "The man is
66 years old and he always
seems to be a young man .. .
He's a person who never sur-
renders." ❑
K