About Me
Grandpa Shea with my sister and me
When I was three years old, my family and I took my great-grandpa Shea to the Statue of Liberty. Although I was too young to remember it, I was told that it was his first time visiting Lady Liberty because during his early years living in the United States he had to make a living to support his two daughters, Lola and Dori, my Mom-Mom, and after that, he just never got there.
My Great-Grandpa Shea was Cruce Fabrikant’s brother. Through sheer courage and great insight, he managed to reinvent himself not once, not twice, but three times, escaping Nazi anti-Semitism by going first to Uruguay, then to Argentina, and eventually to the U.S. He is the reason that I am alive today and that I have the opportunity to remember and share my Bat Mitzvah with Eliezer and Mordechai.
About a year after our trip to the Statue of Liberty, Grandpa Shea died. My dad wrote a beautiful tribute to him that referred to our trip to the Statue of Liberty together, but was really about Grandpa Shea’s legacy. This excerpt from my Dad’s beautifully-written tribute really emphasizes that even one man’s legacy is enough to save an entire family.
“When he died last week, I felt sad about the way he spent the last years of his life. He lived in a dingy little apartment on a fixed income. Yet, as I talked to the members of the family at the funeral and during shiva, I realized that he did not see his reality in terms of his ratty old furniture or his modest portfolio--he understood that his meinsa was his true legacy.
“And a remarkable legacy it is. He saved more than a dozen people from the Holocaust--one at a time, paying for each passage with money he earned selling belts and wallets. He showed amazing courage in leaving Poland, then Uruguay and then Argentina, in supporting a family on three continents, and in learning at least five or six languages along the way. None of us would be alive today if “Shea Kishka” did not have the courage to live his meinsa.” (Written by Keith Waldman)
Ten years later, as I learn about my cousins Eliezer and Mordechai, I can appreciate Grandpa Shea’s legacy so much more. Grandpa Shea’s meinsa – his story – is a perfect example of what my Torah portion teaches. The Torah portion for my Bat Mitzvah – the one that I now share with Eliezer and Mordechai Heinflink – teaches us that in life, actions have consequences. Grandpa Shea chose to leave Poland before the start of World War II. Due to this significant choice and action, he lived, my mom-mom lived, my dad was born, and I was born.
I will turn 13 on the date of my Bat Mitzvah. I love music, sports, and acting in my school’s performances. I have a wonderful family and many loving friends. I love life and I’m still learning how to live it. I go to camp in the summer, where I have found my home away from home, complete with my very own camp family. I love penguins, the beach, and playing outside on a nice summer day. Yet it all comes back to one thing. I am alive because of one family member who had the courage to leave behind his childhood in Poland. But I don’t remember because I am alive. I am alive because I remember.
My Great-Grandpa Shea was Cruce Fabrikant’s brother. Through sheer courage and great insight, he managed to reinvent himself not once, not twice, but three times, escaping Nazi anti-Semitism by going first to Uruguay, then to Argentina, and eventually to the U.S. He is the reason that I am alive today and that I have the opportunity to remember and share my Bat Mitzvah with Eliezer and Mordechai.
About a year after our trip to the Statue of Liberty, Grandpa Shea died. My dad wrote a beautiful tribute to him that referred to our trip to the Statue of Liberty together, but was really about Grandpa Shea’s legacy. This excerpt from my Dad’s beautifully-written tribute really emphasizes that even one man’s legacy is enough to save an entire family.
“When he died last week, I felt sad about the way he spent the last years of his life. He lived in a dingy little apartment on a fixed income. Yet, as I talked to the members of the family at the funeral and during shiva, I realized that he did not see his reality in terms of his ratty old furniture or his modest portfolio--he understood that his meinsa was his true legacy.
“And a remarkable legacy it is. He saved more than a dozen people from the Holocaust--one at a time, paying for each passage with money he earned selling belts and wallets. He showed amazing courage in leaving Poland, then Uruguay and then Argentina, in supporting a family on three continents, and in learning at least five or six languages along the way. None of us would be alive today if “Shea Kishka” did not have the courage to live his meinsa.” (Written by Keith Waldman)
Ten years later, as I learn about my cousins Eliezer and Mordechai, I can appreciate Grandpa Shea’s legacy so much more. Grandpa Shea’s meinsa – his story – is a perfect example of what my Torah portion teaches. The Torah portion for my Bat Mitzvah – the one that I now share with Eliezer and Mordechai Heinflink – teaches us that in life, actions have consequences. Grandpa Shea chose to leave Poland before the start of World War II. Due to this significant choice and action, he lived, my mom-mom lived, my dad was born, and I was born.
I will turn 13 on the date of my Bat Mitzvah. I love music, sports, and acting in my school’s performances. I have a wonderful family and many loving friends. I love life and I’m still learning how to live it. I go to camp in the summer, where I have found my home away from home, complete with my very own camp family. I love penguins, the beach, and playing outside on a nice summer day. Yet it all comes back to one thing. I am alive because of one family member who had the courage to leave behind his childhood in Poland. But I don’t remember because I am alive. I am alive because I remember.
