education away from them, that this
was something that you carried within
you, and they taught me that I could
:always carry mine with me."
(Susie recalls the moment Herman
I made his last college tuition payment
I for his children. "We were eating din-
net, and he got up from the table and
I stated dancing the hora. We laughed
for a long time afterward.")
His family, Susie says, was every-
; thing to her father. "I guess it was
:because he was all alone. We were
iall that he had."
Etka stayed at home and cared for
ithe family, though she did -attend
I school and graduated valedictorian of
I her class. She also was active in
I B'nai B'rith Women, where she
served as president of her chapter,
I and to this day she loves bowling.
Susie has many memories of going
with her mother every Monday
evening to bowl with B'nai B'rith
Women. And, for the past 38 years,
lEtka has saved every Thursday after-
: noon for lunch and mahjongg with
close friends.
•, The Goldenberg home was a tradi-
itional one. In Detroit, they lived near
eAdat Shalom SynagogUe, which her
:mother preferred, and sometimes the
!family would walk to Shabbat ser-
:vices there. Other days, they attended
:Young Israel of Northwest Detroit, her
father's choice. When the family
moved to Southfield, they went to
IShabbat services at Young Israel of
'Greenfield (today Young Israel of Oak
Park), of which Herman was a found-
1 ing member.
"My father clung to his religion,"
Susie says. Though he had endured
!so much anguish during the Nolo-
caust, "he was never bitter about
:what he suffered. I think my father
:found a sense of comfort at shul. He
had friends there; it was like a family.
He was respected there."
A longtime Zionist, Herman was
grateful for the opportunity to practice
ihis religion, his daughter says. "His
family had died because they were
1 Jews. How could he turn his back on
his religion now?"

Her mother, too, refused to let her
past darken life after the Holocausi.
"Her greatest pleasure," Susie, says,
"is knowing that the Jewish people
are still here to tell the story that we
are alive."
Both Etka and Herman spoke open-
ly about their past, which Susie appre-
ciates. "It was healthy" to talk about
the Holocaust, she says. "A lot of my
I friends had parents who survived and
I didn't want to talk, and their children
were left with so many questions."
Susie describes her father as a man
"with a perpetual smile ... he was an
incredible person." He passed on his
love of Judaism to his daughter, and
because of him she opted 10 send her
children to Hillel Day School, she
says. "I want them to have all the tra-
ditions, too."
Herman Goldenberg died 14 years
ago, and Susie remains close with
her mother, who continues to help out
in her daughter's home.
"She is the kind of person who
would do anything and everything
1 for you," Susie says. "First of all,
she's a fabulous cook. We never
have store-bought challah [egg
bread]. My brother [Zygi] lives in
Seattle, and whenever she finds out
someone going there she wants to
send a package (maybe some
homemade gefilte fish or rugelach [a
pastry]) to him."
Susie remains inspired by her moth-
er's volunteer work at the original
Sinai Hospital of Detroit where Etka.
who speaks seven languages, oftel,
served as a translator; with the Jewish
Federation of Metropolitan Detroit;
and with Adat Shalom Synagogue.
Etka also has been a docent at the
Holocaust Memorial Center in West
Bloomfield since its opening, and
today is the only person to both work
as a docent and serve as a guest
speaker about her experiences during
the Holocaust. She also has led sever-1
1 al groups on the March of the Living,
taking teens back to Poland and to
the sites of Hitler's death camps for the
Jews.
When she was little, Susie says, she

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