This article appeared in the Nov. 9, 2012 Jewish Advocate.

President Arbeiter calls it a day

Holocaust survivors’ hero steps down at AAJHSGB

By Susie Davidson

Special to the Advocate

For more than sixty years, the Boston Holocaust survivor community has been synonymous with Israel Arbeiter. With tireless advocacy, he has stood at the helm for these victims of history - founding organizations, championing justice, spearheading education. In the hardest of places, he has been a rock, not letting even advanced age stem his ardor or his allegiance. Emotionally paralyzed, displaced from their homelands and enslaved by their memories, local survivors have found a home in his American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston. And now, difficult and unlikely as it may seem, his time of leadership is coming to an end.

“The American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston announces that Israel Arbeiter has stepped down from the position of President,” said Janet Stein, a Brookline resident who is Vice President of Generations After, a group of second generation (“2G’s”) descendants of survivors, and was previously the Vice President and Secretary of AAJHS. Stein’s father, Miklos, was a native of Hungary and the sole survivor of his family. “Izzy has worked diligently to oversee all components of the association,” she said, recounting only several of his myriad efforts on behalf of its members. “He participated in the planning and dedication of the New England Holocaust Memorial (he remains on its Executive Committee), he has been active in all Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) Holocaust Remembrance Day programs, and was part of the Survivor community who commissioned the Statue of Job Holocaust Memorial at Brandeis University,” she said. Arbeiter has also taken his involvements to larger stages outside of the area. He has spoken before the United States Congress regarding survivors’ concerns, which have included restitution payments as well as reparations for insurance policies nullified by the Nazis. Arbeiter has worked in conjunction with the Brookline-based national education organization Facing History and Ourselves to present firsthand experience as part of their core curriculum, and has spoken on innumerable occasions, at schools and organizations throughout the U.S. and Europe. “He has singlehandedly helped to ensure that the lessons learned from the Holocaust are not forgotten or rewritten,” said Stein

In October 1942, Arbeiter’s family, who had lived in the Polish town of Plock, was living in the cramped Starachowitze Ghetto quarters in Eastern Poland when his parents and youngest brother were sent to Treblinka. He never heard from them again, but often quotes the last thing his father said to him: “If you survive, remember to live Jewish lives and uphold Jewish traditions.” He was sent to the Starachowitze labor camp, where he contracted typhus. Quarantined in a barrack, and deathly ill, he was the only one out of 87 others stricken with the disease to miraculously escape a Nazi shooting siege. He managed to open a boarded-up window and jump out, and subsequently evade the shots of two guards. Friends sheltered him under straw and helped nurse him back to health, while fulfilling Arbeiter’s work requirement at an ammunition factory. A young female prisoner named Hanka (Anna) helped to steer extra food his way. He was liberated on his 20th birthday, April 25, 1945, on a death march from Dautmergen, through the Black Forest. Shortly thereafter he found Anna, who became his wife.

The Arbeiters arrived in America in 1949. Both had lost all of their family members, except for one of Arbeiter’s four brothers. During the height of last century’s Jewish community presence in Dorchester-Mattapan-Roxbury, the Arbeiters settled on Blue Hill Avenue near Franklin Park before moving to Tennis Road in Mattapan and remained there until 1970, when they relocated to a house along the Charles River in the Auburndale section of Newton. With his only surviving brother Mack, Arbeiter operated tailor shop called “The Arbeiter Brothers” on Talbot Avenue in Dorchester. “I was always a CPA,” he explains with a smile: “Cleanings, Pressings, and Alterations.”

As part of the Hakoah soccer club, made up of Holocaust survivors who played in Franklin Field thanks to the efforts of then-Boston City Councilor Julius Ansel, a World War II vet who had escaped Nazi imprisonment and possible death himself by impersonating a Nazi officer during the war, Arbeiter faced off against an Irish team in South Boston, a Polish team in Chicopee, a Scandinavian team in Worcester, and an Italian team in the North End. “When our wives wanted to join the fun, the group formed an organization called ‘The New Americans,’” he recalled. The new group met at various sites: a hall on Otis Hill Street in Roxbury, then the Young Israel on Blue Hill Ave., as well as in members’ homes. “Our first Yom HaShoah (Holocaust Memorial Day) observance, in 1949, was held at the Mishkan Tefilah synagogue on Seaver Street (now a a United House of Prayer for All Nations Church, the six-pointed stars still intact on its facade). In 1952, the group became the American Association for Jewish Holocaust Survivors.

In 1969, in the face of changing demographics in the area, Arbeiter moved his business to Auburn Street and renamed it “Auburn Cleaners”; Mack ran a tailor shop on nearby Lexington Street. Together, they both altered and created custom-made suits for their clientele, which grew from the start. Although they included professors from Brandeis University, which had been founded in 1948 (at the time, the school was comprised of only one building; today, they can view the campus from their backyard), Arbeiter says not many customers were Jews. Noting that more were to be found in Newton Centre and the southern part of Newton, he says that very few lived in Auburndale, and there still aren’t that many. This included their own neighborhood. “When we moved to our street, there were only three other Jewish families living there,” Arbeiter said. “Two are still here, but the percentage of Jews has never increased.” He states that he has never, to this day, had any friction whatsoever with any of his non-Jewish neighbors.

Meanwhile, the AAJHS was now meeting at the Workman’s Circle in Brookline, with events held at Mishkan Tefilah, which had relocated to its current site in Chestnut Hill, as well as at Temple Reyim and Temple Emeth. AAJHS has more recently held meetings at the Leventhal-Sidman Jewish Community Center. Arbeiter’s family would attend Mishkan Tefilah for the high holidays. “Newton Mayor Teddy Mann was not only Jewish, but a great friend to the survivors,” Arbeiter recalled, pointing out that Mann’s son, Rick, is the President of the Friends of the New England Holocaust Memorial.

AAJHS has instituted well-attended and beloved events for the survivor community that include two “Café Europa” brunches, held for several years at Temple Emeth in Chestnut Hill before relocating to Temple Reyim in Newton, which are sponsored by the Consulate General of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany (“The Claims Conference”). Other gatherings include the annual Yizkor (“Remember,” Jewish memorial ritual) service at Brandeis’ Statue of Job, created for those who, unlike members of the general Jewish population, have no graves to visit at the traditional time of year between the high holidays of Rosh HaShanah and Yom Kippur; and the yearly Yom HaShoah commemoration at Faneuil Hall in Boston. Arbeiter himself has been the receipt of numerous distinctions, including the naming of the Kehillath Schechter Academy (formerly South Area Solomon Schechter School) of Norwood’s Israel Arbeiter Gallery of Tolerance and Understanding.

Stein, who is also a Vice President and member of the board of directors of Arbeiter’s long-associated Mishkan Tefila, was elected unanimously to assume the head role at AAJHS at the most recent Board of Directors meeting. “Janet is the child of a Survivor, making this the first time the reins have been handed down to the second generation,” said the board members in an official statement. Stein, in addition to her duties at Generations After and AAJHS, is a board member of the CJP Advisory Council of the New England Holocaust Memorial Site, and she works directly with JCRC in planning the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day/Yom Hashoah observances. She is also a docent conducting tours of the New England Holocaust Memorial Site, and helps coordinate the annual Yizkor service at Brandeis. Stein also works with Jewish Family and Children Services in delivering holiday gift packages and conducting visits with Holocaust Survivors, and in conjunction with The Claims Conference and the Washington-based United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, provides information and resources to survivors.

Stein has written about her family history and speaks at many Holocaust observances and survivor events. Professionally, she is the Vice President of Operations & Development for Metro Meeting Centers, located in Boston, and is the Senior Consultant for Conference Center Consulting Group. Previously, she has held positions with BankBoston Conference & Training Center, Babson College Conference Center, Sheraton Hotels, Flatley Hotels, and Omni-Dunfey Hotels.

“When interviewed for this new post,” the board recounts in its release, “Janet responded by stating that ‘as a child of a Survivor of the Holocaust, I know that I represent in this world all of those who perished during World War II, and that it is my responsibility to honor and respect those who survived. Each survivor is my parent, and each child or grandchild of a survivor, a relative.’” From all appearances, it seems assured that under the leadership of Stein, who says she has been in training for this position since the day she was born, Arbeiter’s legacy will remain in good hands. “Together with the Survivors, Child Survivors, Generations After and Boston 3G members,” she says, “we will continue to fulfill the mission of this association by honoring and providing assistance to survivors; by paying homage to those killed; by ensuring that lessons learned from the Holocaust continue to be taught and are not altered to suit others; and by promoting and supporting Holocaust observances.”

Arbeiter will continue to be an active presence, albeit from a sitting position in the audience of community forums and events.

“The American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston extends our gratitude and sincere appreciation to Izzy Arbeiter for the decades of service and dedication that he has given to this association, to the Survivors in our community, and to honoring those who perished during the Holocaust,” the board members acknowledge with undue, and deserved, respect. “May he go from strength to strength and may the lessons learned from the Holocaust and the lessons taught by Izzy stand as our example and commitment to our heritage.”

Current membership titles in the AAJHSGB:

American Association of Jewish Holocaust Survivors of Greater Boston

Officers and Board of Directors

Janet V. Stein, 2G

Israel Arbeiter, Survivor

Hannah Lushan, Survivor

Dr. Ludwik Szymanski,, Survivor

Tania Lefman, Survivor

Elizabeth Bobrow, 3G

Elizabeth Goldman,3G

Fred Calm, 2G

Isaac Kot, 2G

Fred Manasse, Survivor

Aron Raboy, Survivor

Carl Schlessinger, Survivor

Stephan Ross, Survivor

Morris Kesselman, Survivor

Brenda Wluka, Survivor

Lisa Einstein, 3G

Rabbi Marc Samuels, Survivor