Andrea Strongwater
My mother’s family came to the US from Poland in 1926. My grandfather had packed a bag several times in the early 1920’s and gone in search of a better place to be a Jew. He decided that America was the only safe place, even if it wasn’t necessarily the most sympathetic. As the head of a large family and one of many siblings, he helped get everyone here to the USA. As soon as he could, he obtained US citizenship and passports for everyone. He sent those passports to Europe to be doctored and used to get more Jews out. He worked hard to establish Israel and cherished the photo he had of himself with David Ben Gurion. He and the rest of my mother’s family were very active in helping refugees before and after the war, here in the US and elsewhere. My mother was a regional vice president of Women’s American ORT, and there is even a school somewhere in Israel with my father’s name on the wall. It always seemed important to me to make a contribution.
Interview at Montclair State University
