frontlines
Searching For Family
Roots From PBS Photo
Vivian Henoch
Special to the Jewish News
W
hat were the chances? On
Nov. 14, 2014 — nearly 76
years to the date that the
late Harry Samuel May set foot on Ellis
Island — his photo appeared on a PBS
show that his daughter happened to be
watching.
Had she blinked, she would have
missed him.
"My sister, Tami, in Boston was
watching an episode of the program,
Finding Your Roots, featuring a seg-
ment on Alan Dershowitz's Lifesaving
Family Synagogue when suddenly she
recognized our father in a photograph
depicting refugees coming to America:'
says Yehudis Brea of Oak Park.
Determined to discover the origin of
the photo, Tami contacted the producers
at PBS in New York City. The photo was
located and identified to be from Getty
Images, a stock photo agency. "It was
just a random shot used in the program
as editorial for the story:' says Brea, "but
it started us on a deeper search:'
Drawn to the image of the handsome
young German "with that jaunty hat
and the signature tilt of the pipe in his
mouth:' Brea was eager to learn more.
"We knew that our father was rescued
among a group of young liberal
rabbis and rabbinical students
from Germany by Rabbi Stephen
Wise, a prominent U.S. Jewish
leader who was able to arrange
their passage to America by secur- Harry Samuel May, father of Yehudis Brea
ing employment in far-flung syna- of Oak Park, appears in the photo at the
gogues across the country:'
far left, with a pipe in his mouth.
This much Brea knows: Her
father was born in Berlin, edu-
cated in Breslau (now Wroclaw,
Poland), where he was a rabbinical stu-
produced a complex person. At heart,
dent with a Ph.D. in philosophy. After
he was an academic, with no real inter-
two frightening incidents in which he
est in being a rabbi. And yet he served
was targeted by the Gestapo, he fled to
as a rabbi and Hillel director for periods
Prague.
of time. His life journey would never be
"We heard the stories that he skied
easy, moving from the Midwest to the
over the Alps, but have no idea how he
West Coast with stops at college cam-
made his way to America: Brea says.
puses in Palo Alto, Nashville, Columbus
"He never said, and we never asked him and Lansing, where he passed away in
very much:'
1995:'
With the help of Feige Weiss, librar-
"There are things that the children
ian at the Holocaust Memorial Center
of Holocaust survivors never really
in Farmington Hills, Brea located a few
know, but come to understand:' Brea
missing pieces of the puzzle, starting
says. "Our father made an impact wher-
with documentation that revealed that
ever life took him ... because he was
Harry Samuel May set off for America
a survivor. And today his children, his
children's children and 21 great-grand-
from Le Havre on the north coast of
France aboard the Il de France on Nov. children are all here to affirm that his
9, 1938 ... the date of Kristallnacht,
life was a blessing:'
the Night of Broken Glass in Germany.
"There are no coincidences, only mys- Vivian Henoch is editor of MyJewishDetroit.
org, where this story first appeared.
teries:' Brea says. "My father's history
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March 12-18, 2015 I 21-27 Adar 5775 I Vol. CXLVII, No. 6
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