OCTOBER 27 • 2022 | 65
to hug their mothers.
It was Judah’s 81st birthday
when the president of the
United States led both houses
of Congress in singing to
him at the State of the Union
address, watched by mil-
lions on national television.
He was a guest of first lady
Melania Trump; who knows
how many Americans were
educated about the Holocaust
and antisemitism just by
hearing a small snippet of the
story of Judah’s life.
Elizabeth Samet said that
when her father received his
stomach cancer diagnosis in
June, he told her that if this
was it, the end of his life, that
was OK with him. That ability
to accept what he had and not
try to change what might not
be possible to change, though
he had defied the odds so
many times before, is charac-
teristic of great strength.
My personal favorite mem-
ory of Judah is from July 4,
2019, at the morning minyan
at Beth Shalom, where Tree
of Life and New Light, the
congregation my husband
leads, join together. After
we prayed, Judah proudly
showed all the attendees the
photos he had received from
the White House photogra-
pher of himself with the first
lady and proclaimed what a
wonderful country this is to
live in. Though he had expe-
rienced America at its worst,
he remembered it as its best
— as a place that welcomes
people like him, survivors
and immigrants who can
improve their own lives and
so many others.
Beth Kissileff is a Pittsburgh-based
writer. She is the co-editor of the
anthology “Bound in the Bond of Life:
Pittsburgh Writers Reflect on the Tree
of Life Tragedy” and author of the
novel “Questioning Return.”
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