June 21, 2018

Angel Kosfiszer

Angel Kosfiszer was born in 1942 in Buenos Aires, Argentina, to Jewish parents who had emigrated from the Lublin region of southeastern Poland near the Ukraine. His maternal grandfather came to Argentina in 1925 with five children, while his father emigrated alone in 1930. The two families met very different fates: his father's family, apart from an uncle and his grandfather, was killed in the Holocaust, a subject his father never discussed. Angel grew up an only child in a working-class neighborhood on the outskirts of Buenos Aires, where water had to be pumped and children played soccer in the fields. Though there was no synagogue nearby and few Jewish families, his religious grandfather in the city helped keep Jewish tradition alive.

Angel attended a high school in an upper-class area of the city, commuting by train, and earned a six-year engineering degree at a city college while living at home. He met his wife, a pharmacist, through a university scientists' club, and after marrying they moved to Ecuador for his work in oil exploration, where he spent time in the Amazon jungle. Their oldest daughter was born in Argentina, their son in England, and their youngest daughter later joined the family. His career carried them from Argentina to London, then to Sydney, Australia, and finally, in stages, to the Dallas area. He recalled a much smaller Dallas, with Coit Road as a two-lane road and open country north of Spring Valley.

In Dallas, Angel and his family settled in Richardson to stay near Texas Instruments and near his widowed mother-in-law. They first joined a synagogue and later became members of Shearith Israel, and grew close to both the South American and South African Jewish communities. After his division was sold to Halliburton, he worked for the Environmental Protection Agency in downtown Dallas for 23 years, retiring in 2017. About 25 years ago he began researching his family's genealogy, eventually discovering 55 second cousins in America and documenting his wife's family as well. He is proud of his family, values the resilience he learned from his parents, and remains active with his synagogue, the Holocaust Museum, and the JCC.

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