January 29, 2019

Carol Alkek

Carol was born in Dallas in 1941 to parents who had emigrated from Germany. Her father, born in 1901, was a pediatrician whose own father served as a cantor in a small German town. Her mother, born in 1906, came from a wealthy lumber family that had been baptized, and she was raised Lutheran, learning of her Jewish heritage from her maternal grandmother; she later converted to marry Carol's father. As a Jew and a Bnai Brith president, Carol's father was arrested in Germany, and after his release he and his wife came to the United States in January 1938. Much of the family perished or was scattered by the war: one of Carol's uncles died in Auschwitz, her grandparents endured multiple concentration camps, and her paternal grandfather, the cantor, died just weeks before he was to sail to America. Her paternal grandmother later came to live with the family in Dallas.

In Dallas, Carol's father completed a new residency and, after the war took the first Dallas pediatrician's son into the army, was hired into that established practice, later going into private practice and teaching at Southwestern Medical School, where he was repeatedly voted favorite teacher. Carol grew up with a younger sister, attended Bradfield Elementary, Highland Park Junior High, and Highland Park High School, graduating in 1959. She studied Spanish and German at the University of Texas at Austin, earned a teaching certificate, and graduated in 1963. She married David Alkek, of Lebanese descent, who converted to Judaism, and the couple lived in Irving, then Philadelphia, where he completed a dermatology residency and where their first child was born in 1967. They later returned to Dallas, where their second child was born. After her marriage ended in divorce, Carol went to work in 1980 for Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Texas, moving from training claims processors into corporate training, which she did for about 28 years.

Music and Jewish life were central to Carol's family; she grew up at Temple Emanu-El, was confirmed in 1956, and sang in its choir for many years, later joined by her mother, sister, and her musically gifted father. She served as a vice president of the National Council of Jewish Women, sat on the board of the American Jewish Committee, and volunteered with the council's thrift shop and with Temple Emanu-El's caring congregation, visiting hospitalized members. Carol considered her civil rights work her most important contribution. Influenced by her immigrant parents' lack of prejudice and by Rabbi Olan, she belonged to the NAACP, marched, and participated in sit-ins. As a student at the University of Texas she partnered with Barbara Jordan to challenge the segregated Varsity Theater, which was integrated the following day. She remains committed to the National Council of Jewish Women and to advocacy for immigrants.

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