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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