18 June 13 • 2019
jn
continued from page 17
jews d
in
the
One of Elsie’
s sons, Dan
Simkovitz, recalls learning about
the two poems. “I knew about the
first poem from my
youth. I learned about
the second poem on
a visit to Detroit late
one Shabbat evening
when my mom
and I were up late
reminiscing, going
through old albums,
and she showed me her birthday
poem.
“It dawned on me the next
morning that my family had
two poems composed three days
and thousands of miles apart
under very different conditions,
connecting three generations of
women.”
Simkovitz said the blessing at the
end of the 75th birthday poem for
Bertha Weinschenk “came true for
all three women.”
Bertha survived and moved to
Detroit.
“They all lived into their 90s,
and they all lived to be surrounded
by children, grandchildren and
great-grandchildren. In my
mother’
s case, she lived to see 49
children, grandchildren and great-
grandchildren, with more on the
way.”
Elsie Simkovitz died in Jerusalem
in December last year.
One more note from Dan:
“Regarding my mother’
s
16th birthday poem: My mother
could not Americanize fast enough.
She changed her name from Ilse —
a name I happen to like — to Elsie.
She refused to speak German. She
would listen to soap operas after
school and, yes, according to her
brother, Grandmother Hannah,
and my mother, she was as lazy a
teenager as depicted in the poem.
“Obviously, this was not the
woman I knew,” he said. “The
woman I knew was unstoppable
and always busy, like her mother,
Hannah, and grandmother Bertha
before her.” ■
Dan Simkovitz
LET THE MEMORY
LIVE AGAIN
TM © 1981 RUG LTD
oc Sept. 8