On Aug. 11, Rose Rabinowitz (nee Klein) died at the age of 102. She was born in Packinova, a farm village in the Carpathian Mountains of Czechoslovakia (now Ukraine) in 1921. The oldest of six children, Rose travelled to the United States by herself in 1937 aboard the USS Roosevelt, not knowing a word of English.
After arriving in the U.S., she worked in New York sweatshops to make enough money to send back to her family. Her father and family were to follow, but were denied a visa. Rose never saw her home again. Her parents, grandmother and siblings were among 116 Jewish village residents expelled by the Nazis in 1944. Most of her family was exterminated in concentration camps. Rose was reunited with two surviving brothers and one surviving sister in 1946, after their liberation from concentration camps in Poland and Germany. Rose met her husband, Sol, on a blind date and married him in 1951. They were married for 61 years until Sol’s passing in 2012.
She was active in Hadassah, the Jewish Women’s Sisterhood, her synagogue and numerous organizations. Her son Joel died in 2002. She is survived by her daughter, Brenda, and son-in-law, Larry, son David, and numerous cousins and friends. Contributions may be made to the Jewish National Fund-USA.
