Judah Samet
Judah Samet | |
---|---|
![]() Samet in 2019 | |
Born | (1938-02-05)February 5, 1938 Debrecen, Kingdom of Hungary |
Died | September 27, 2022(2022-09-27) (aged 84) Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, U.S. |
Nationality | American |
Occupation(s) | Jeweler, speaker |
Known for | Holocaust survivor, survivor of Pittsburgh synagogue shooting |
Judah Samet (Hebrew: יהודה סמט; February 5, 1938 – September 27, 2022) was a Hungarian-American businessman, speaker, and Holocaust survivor. At the age of six, he and his family were taken from Debrecen, Hungary, to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp, where they spent eleven months. After the Second World War the family immigrated to Israel, where he subsequently served in the Israel Defense Forces and worked as a teacher. He later moved to Canada and then to the United States. In 2018, he was a witness to and survivor of the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting. He was a jeweler and speaker in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
Early life
Judah Samet was born in Debrecen, Hungary on February 5, 1938, to an Orthodox Jewish family.[1] His parents owned and managed two knitting factories and had four children: two sons, Moshe and Yakove, both older than Judah, and the youngest, a daughter, Henyah.[1][2] The family lived across the street from the synagogue.[3]
Holocaust
In March 1944, Nazis entered Debrecen and forced thousands of Jews into railcars with limited space, food and water.[2] Samet remembers them being ignored by other citizens.[2] He was with his family in a train going to the Auschwitz concentration camp, but it was rerouted to the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp after Czechoslovak partisans reportedly destroyed train tracks.[3][2] Samet's father had received tickets and passports to emigrate to the United States but the family was not able to leave in time.[1] Before they were sent to Bergen-Belsen, Samet and his family were held at a lumberyard in Austria.[4] They got to the camp around July 1944,[3] where Samet could only eat flavored water ("soup") and "moldy, rock-hard bread" every day, and sometimes bit bones to try to ease the starvation.[2] Samet and his siblings would receive some bread from their mother,[2] which he described as the reason they stayed alive.[5] Samet's mother told him to eat lice, which had infected the camp.[5] A German soldier contemplated killing Samet's mother because she asked for more supplies, but his superior officer decided to keep her as an interpreter for the Gestapo.[5][1] A fellow inmate of Samet's performed a surgery on Samet's abscess on the back of his head.[1]
After eleven months in the camp Samet and his family were sent by train to an unknown location.[3] It was speculated that they were going to the Theresienstadt Ghetto,[1][2][4] or off a bridge.[1] The train stopped in a forest close to Berlin, and an armored tank[2] or infantry[6] division showed up.[2] Samet's father then pointed out that the tank's commander was American,[1] and he was later revealed to be a Jew.[7] Samet's father Yekutil died a week later from typhoid fever.[2]
Through Paris and Marseille, Samet and his family moved to Israel in 1946, where they lived in an Orthodox orphanage.[1][3][4] Samet graduated from a seminary high school.[1][3]
Career and activities
After graduation Samet served in the Israel Defense Forces' Paratroopers Brigade.[3][8] His brother Jacob died in the Suez Crisis as a machine gunner for the IDF.[3] He also worked as a teacher and managed two towns for the government of Israel.[1][3]
Joining family members, Samet moved to Toronto in 1961 and subsequently to New York City.[2][3][4] In New York City, he worked at his uncle's coat factory.[3] He met a teacher from Pittsburgh, Barbara, whom he later married and with whom he had a daughter, Elizabeth.[1][2][3][9] Samet moved to Pittsburgh in 1962.[2] He attended Duquesne University but did not graduate.[3] In the Downtown Pittsburgh Clark Building, Samet managed and ultimately owned Irving Schiffman Jewelers, founded in 1941 by his father-in-law.[2][10][11] Samet also worked as a teacher.[9] He served for 40 years as a Torah reader and cantor at the Conservative Tree of Life – Or L'Simcha Congregation, where he had been a member since 1964.[3][4]
From 2011, Samet gave public speeches about his life at high schools, universities, and churches.[2][3][6][12] He said that he was "energized" by the positive reception of his speeches.[3]
Pittsburgh synagogue shooting
On October 27, 2018, eleven Jews were killed and seven injured in a mass shooting during Shabbat services at the Tree of Life building, marking the deadliest antisemitic attack in U.S. history.[4] Samet was four or five minutes late to the service because he had been delayed by his housekeeper.[4] When he pulled into a handicapped spot on the parking lot, he was approached by a man who told him to leave due to the active shooter.[4] Before pulling out of the parking lot unharmed, Samet had a clear vision of the shooting exchange between the gunman and a police officer.[4]
I was flushed with (memories of) the concentration camp. It kind of descended on me. And I was thinking to myself, "It never ends, it never ends for my family." Whoever thought when you come to America, you're gonna go through the same thing all over again?
— Judah Samet, in Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (2018)[13]
![](http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/50/2019_State_of_the_Union_%2846305878794%29.jpg/225px-2019_State_of_the_Union_%2846305878794%29.jpg)
U.S. President Donald Trump invited Samet to be one of his personal guests at the 2019 State of the Union Address, which Trump gave on February 5, 2019.[14] Samet visited the White House and met President Trump, First Lady Melania Trump, First Daughter Ivanka Trump, and Senior Advisor to the President Jared Kushner.[12] After Trump introduced Samet in the Address and noted that it was Samet's 81st birthday, the crowd applauded, gave him a standing ovation, and sang "Happy Birthday" to him.[15][16] Samet smiled, blew a kiss, waved down to Trump, stood up, bowed his head, and shouted "thank you". Trump jokingly conducted with his hands and said, "They wouldn't do that for me".[15][16][17] He was not wearing his kippah at the Address because a government employee had told him "nobody wears a hat here" upon entering the House Chamber.[18] Samet later said that he admired Trump and called him a "working man".[12] A Republican, Samet supported Trump, saying about him: "I like him very much. He is strongly pro-Israel. That a man would go outright for Israel and declare for Jerusalem to be the capital of Israel ... that was something new."[4][19] He was, however, not politically active, as opposed to his Democratic family members.[20]
Personal life and death
Samet died from complications of stomach cancer in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on September 27, 2022, at the age of 84.[21]
References
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Allegretto, Amerigo (February 24, 2016). "Holocaust survivor shares his story with students". Butler Eagle Online. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o Stonesifer, Jared (April 26, 2018). "Holocaust survivor tells his story to Rochester High School students". The Beaver County Times. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p Huba, Stephen (April 21, 2017). "Holocaust survivor to share story at 29th Yom HaShoah service in Greensburg". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j Stanley-Becker, Isaac (October 29, 2018). "In Pittsburgh, a Holocaust survivor was four minutes late to synagogue, escaping death a second time". The Washington Post. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ a b c Fitzgerald, Dani (July 29, 2015). "Holocaust survivor shares his story at Villa St. Joseph in Baden: 'We were like ghosts'". The Beaver County Times. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ^ a b Criado, Justin (January 23, 2014). "Holocaust survivor shares his story with students in Monaca school". The Beaver County Times. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ^ Utterback, Bill (March 27, 2014). "Breakfast club allows veteran stories to shape tomorrow". The Beaver County Times. Retrieved March 3, 2019.
- ^ Tibon, Amir (February 5, 2019). "Pittsburgh Shooting Survivor to Attend Trump's State of the Union". Haaretz. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ a b Guggenheimer, Paul (October 31, 2018). "4 minutes separated Holocaust survivor from Squirrel Hill synagogue massacre". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ "'Hidden gem' to leave Downtown after 120 years". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. May 28, 2008. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ Williams, Candy; MacGregor, Hilary E. (April 25, 2002). "Diamonds sparkling brighter than ever this spring". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ a b c Stonesifer, Jared (February 7, 2019). "Holocaust survivor reflects on State of the Union honor". The Beaver County Times. Archived from the original on February 23, 2019. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ Guggenheimer, Paul (November 3, 2018). "Pittsburgh massacre again shakes Holocaust survivors". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved March 4, 2019.
- ^ "Holocaust survivor who escaped Pittsburgh shooting invited to State of the Union". The Times of Israel. Associated Press. February 5, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ a b Routh, Julian (February 7, 2019). "Fresh from the State of the Union, Tree of Life survivor goes to school". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ a b "State of the Union: Holocaust, Pittsburgh massacre survivor serenaded at State of the Union address". CBS News. Associated Press. February 6, 2019. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ Earl, Jennifer (February 5, 2019). "Pittsburgh synagogue shooting survivor at State of the Union unexpectedly serenaded on 81st birthday". Fox News. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ Reinherz, Adam (February 14, 2019). "Pittsburgh resident featured at State of the Union". The Times of Israel. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ Balser, Emily (February 4, 2019). "Tree of Life congregant, wounded officer invited to State of the Union". Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ Mauriello, Tracie (February 4, 2019). "Guests to State of the Union include synagogue shooting survivor, Pittsburgh officer". Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. Retrieved March 5, 2019.
- ^ Brown, Nicki; Shoichet, Catherine E. (October 2, 2022). "A survivor of the Holocaust and the Tree of Life massacre has died. He never lost hope in humanity". CBS 58. Retrieved October 3, 2022.