In order to make some friends and connect with Jewish students, I have started attending events hosted by the Jewish Student Association at Furman University. It’s a small group, but I have met several wonderful people, including our student leaders Morgan and Lydia, our advisor Devon, who works tirelessly with the local Jewish community, and Nancy, who is a wealth of knowledge about the history of Greenville and the Heller family.
This afternoon I attended a Feast of Tabernacles (Sukkot) celebration with JSA. After observing the setting up of the sukkah behind Daniel Chapel, I followed everyone into the meeting room, where I had the pleasant surprise of finding Trude Heller! I had no idea she was coming and while I had heard about her life, I had never met her in person.
Mrs. Heller seemed to really enjoy the Sukkot celebration. She had not celebrated the holiday in many years and kept saying that she had never experienced one like this before. Soon we made our way out to the sukkah to recite the blessings and wave the four species. I wonder what memories it brought back to Mrs. Heller? After the ceremony we took a group photo (see above). I will always cherish it.
Back in the chapel, we ate some good food and listened to Nancy and Mrs. Heller talk about the family’s escape from the Nazis and their extraordinary journey from Europe to Greenville, South Carolina, as well as her husband Max’s indelible impact on the city. I couldn’t take my eyes off this Holocaust survivor across the table and wanted to soak up every word.
It was truly an honor to meet this sweet lady and chat with her for a bit. Mrs. Heller is now 96 and lives in The Woodlands near Furman. She is an extraordinary person, still full of life after all that she’s been through, losing 90 members of her family in the Holocaust and struggling to survive herself. I wish I had been able to meet her late husband, but his memory is very alive in her and our city. May we never forget their story and sacrifices. Greenville would not be what it is today without them.