Susie Avnery
Susie Avnery never knew her grandparents, all of whom died before she was born, and she grew up hearing the stories of how her parents escaped Nazi Germany. Her father left Germany in his twenties after receiving a visa from a relative, took odd jobs across the United States, and proudly worked as a welder in the shipyards, saying he helped build the ramps used by landing craft on D-Day. His parents and younger sister emigrated to Montevideo, Uruguay, which was accepting Jews. Her mother, born in 1922 and orphaned young, joined a Jewish youth group that warned of danger, left her stepmother and half-sister, and spent the war years working as a domestic in England, where she perfected her English.
After the war, Susie's mother reunited with a distant cousin who had come to the United States and served in the Army at a desk job in Tyler, Texas. Their wartime letters turned from family notes into love letters, and she came to America to marry him, settling in Tyler and marveling at the Texas heat. Widowed with two young sons after her husband died of a heart attack, she was living in Dallas's Lakewood area and volunteering when someone working the Federation phone bank suggested she meet a single German Jewish man named Alfred Salfield. The two married in the mid-1950s, and Susie was born in 1957. The family later moved near the JCC so she could grow up in a Jewish neighborhood.
Susie studied at the University of Texas before transferring to Texas A&M, where she earned a degree in biomedical science, and she worked as a veterinary assistant and sonogram technician before staying home to raise her three children, Karen, Dan, and Amanda. She met her former husband Bo, an Israeli, through a Jewish singles group. A dedicated volunteer, Susie considers advocacy for Israel her unofficial calling, working with Hadassah, AIPAC, the Southwest Jewish Congress, the National Council of Jewish Women's Hello Israel program, and the Dallas Hebrew Free Loan board. Her parents were active in the German Jewish social group Self-Help, Temple Emanu-El, and Hadassah, values of service and connection to Israel that Susie has carried forward into the next generations.
Full Transcript
okay my name is Joe Reinbold and I'm interviewing Susie at Mary today is Friday December 21st 2018 good morning Susie how are you there good tell us a little bit about your family that you recall your grandparents your parents where they lived what they did okay so I never had any grandparents everybody was dead before I was born my parents were [Music] refugees basically came to Dallas don't want to tear up this early in the interview admit that if so is raised here Dallas the wait time let me stop you how did they pick Dallas do they know people do they have a connection okay
that's an interesting part of the story yeah yeah really interesting all right go ahead so how my parents came to Dallas they got out of Germany in the mid 1930s they had an idea that something bad was gonna happen my father was the boy in the family he got a visa from a relative some somehow I was able to come to the United States he was in his 20s tournament he had a serious odd jobs all around the United States and it but he was very proud that he was a welder in the shipyards because he said that he welded the things that are on
the the bottom of the ships when they made their landing on d-day were those the things come out of the ships and the tanks of things can roll down and they had these horizontal place to keep the equipment from sliding right into the ocean so he said I wanted those where was he living at the time um that was Seattle I think this is less because it was either in Seattle shipyards there it had to be or was in Rochester but he wasn't imposed these Rochester New York but I believe Seattle would make more sense for shipyard Zach but he would always always say that
now my mom so that was a fairly simple exit from Germany he got out he came here but his younger sister and both parents went to Oregon in Montevideo because that was a country that was accepting Jews and they had a pretty good German Jewish community after the war and my one cousin closest relative was actually born there just you're behind me mm-hmm so that's my father's story then my and my mother very interesting she she her mother so my mom was 14 1922 and as a very young girl her mother died of natural causes the father remarried somebody's she has a stepmother and then
as we go into the 1930s she was a member of Jewish youth group and in the mid 1930s my mom was a young teenager 13 14 15 and the youth group was saying bad things are going to the Jews need to leave well her father didn't believe it he had been a World War 1 veteran for Germany he said no we're gonna stay well he got sick and died of natural causes well leukemia he got sick and died my mother really believes something bad would happen to the Jews so she went with a Jewish group that had found places for girls to work as domestics
in England so she took it upon herself to leave the stepmother and little half-sister she packed a bag she signed up and she went and spent the warriors in England and that's where she perfected her English and then after the war she had kept in touch with a distant cousin he he had he had come to the US and actually joined the army here at the US he's a mathematics wizard and desk job in Tyler Texas and their love letters and their letters became they were cousin letters but during the course of the war for years they became love letters and he sent for her
and she came to us and they married they had a life and she went to Tyler Texas and she says you never knew heat like Texas he never seen anything like it so okay so that and then how they they both ended up in Dallas eventually my mother with what that husband came to Dallas but he died of natural causes he had a heart attack leaving her with two young sons and in the 1950s when those boys were about 86 she met Alfred Southfield who was my father so they got married in the mid 50's and I came along in 1957 how did your dad
get to Dallas so my father I just understand he was a traveling salesman he had different jobs and I guess one of them took him into Dallas but and I don't and I know that he did live here because he would point out a garage apartment on Purdue in University Park and say I live there it's two houses from the corner like right off Hillcrest and Purdue and that's what people did in those they say a lot of the people would have a garage apartment and he lets somebody live there and he said the person who owned the house acted up something related to the
nuremberg trials like an army person yeah or an observer or somebody who actually participated and he felt very sorry the German Jews so that was a reason he he wanted to write the apartment to the mother now how did your parents meet exactly okay that's another good story how my parents met yeah was my mother was a widow with these two boys eight and six basically and where would she live a like she lived in in in Dallas in the Lakewood area she had her house and she was already doing a little bit of volunteer work when she could she felt a strong connection to
Temple emanu-el that was her community anyway she or someone else she knew was working the cards for the Federation on a Super Sunday type of thing yeah and you know in those days I guess they had a phone bank and you came into a building that you saw the cards and either her or somebody told her there's a single man this Alfred Southfield and he's been making a reasonable donation I somebody should contact him he's a German Jew and he singl and you all should meet and somebody set it up and they hit it off so there's there's a there's a lesson here right goodbye
Super Sunday it do your volunteer when I just look at the cards don't resist being set up that's all right and they did they got set up and that worked out very well for them mm-hmm and he got married because he wanted a ready-made family he wanted to have the two boys already that was something important to them but later she talked him into trying for a child and they had me yeah and we're glad they did yeah so where did you grow up as a youngster so my youngest years were in the Lakewood area and I went to Lakewood elementary school which had almost
no Jews and when I was nine we moved into the JCC area because my parents wanted me to be in a neighborhood with Jewish people and just have a Jewish Jewish surroundings to be able to go to Sunday School than ten minutes of the house and JCC down the street so I live right here on North Haven three blocks from the jail and I assume your parents your dad was doing well at that time my father was a traveling salesman and he would leave on Monday morning he had Texas and Oklahoma and you would come back on Friday afternoon and he did find a lot
of the German Jewish men or in the garment industry they were traveling salesmen and they'd see each other every so often at the apparel Mart and the markets that really made me three months or so did your dad have a showroom there my dad has showroom he had two of them actually my mom ran one of them and I helped her lingerie was that one and he had he had bras and the other one so unfortunately for me I was a skinny scrawny child I could not wear any of that stuff and by the time I graduated college right when I started college he retired
I could finally fit into it and then you didn't happen anymore besides temple Emmanuel what else was your family involved in my parents were involved in a group called self-help which is something that German Jews affiliated with and it from what I understand it was a social outlet so they could talk about coming to America and and things that were difficult for them of course by the time I was aware of it it was are in the mid 1960s these folks have been here at good 10 15 20 years but but it was a social group but I understand from the beginning that it was
very helpful as they started their lives here and they had their children here so that's what they were involved with as a couple they loved temple Emmanuel and they would go to things there reform was definitely their choice and he did not speak German in the house I thought I would just add they did not ever want to be reminded of Germany except when they had something to discuss and I shouldn't know about anything it would be in German not yet it's not even though they didn't speak it as I get it okay and when did your parents your mom become involved in Hadassah so
my mom got involved in Hadassah I think in the 1960s when I was a young girl I was born in 57 so my earliest memories are I would say was probably in grade school but she could have been involved in it earlier I actually know she was because I've seen some very old pictures in from the Texas Jewish Post and she was involved in it earlier so what were you involved in as a child and a teenager so oh I thought it would add one more thing I know my mom did something with temple a mango sisterhood they would go every so often to a
preschool located near Fair Park and they would serve lunch and if they happen to be a break where I was out of school I got to go with her so that that was probably made an impact I mean she was always doing sir yeah yeah okay so what am i involved in now now or even growing up and then leading up to well growing up my main Jewish organization I'd 2 of them was BBG rebo at all what about my best friends like the interviewer today that's a great story too but I won't go into a third of this interview but many of those girls
were still friends with today and I was also in Temple teens which is from temple Emmanuel being Daphne which is part of Tofte so that would be the reformed youth group but my my days were a great great memories with youth group and of course Jewish camp which I started probably in summer prior to second grade and went to camp young Judea which was in Kerrville Texas and does sleepaway camp and I really had good times there it was very important to me all the Jewish stuff that I got and that actually leads up to things that you've been involved in as a young adult
and as an adult continuation there okay so as an adult boy let me do a lot it seems like stay busy all the time so my number one organization is Hadassah and just feel like the work it does in Israel the hospital there is amazing work and it needs to be supported it's just got global implications with the cures the treatments around the world and of course what they do in Israel with the victims of terror attacks and there are showpiece for the world that you need to cooperate and medicine is the bridge to peace I also like their their youth at risk villages residential
villages which is the best way you can rehabilitate and raise children that just don't have a home life and I sure wish this country would do something like that because we seem to throw away our kids and in Israel the value every one of them they get a place and these many of youth village --is Hadassah has three but there's many of them around the country and the Israelis take pride in their kids and they want them to succeed they need them to succeed they're there the next generation you know they have to be in the army and then then the leaders and they all
need to produce families to sustain the country and it really believed in Israel's way of handling their troubled youth I think it's it's a great way I also do a pact because I believe that it's extremely important that the US and Israel maintain a very strong and close relationship because the money to help fund so many things in Israel and the defense has to come from somewhere and I'm very involved in APEC because I believe that APEC is what pushes our Congress meant to keep knowing the truth and I mean the truth about Israel and its needs and and what is not true and they
keep pushing for the good votes that send the money to Israel I'm also involved locally in southwest Jewish Congress which is a pro-israel organization but we we all we have programs about things about Israel we also do programs to unite and build bridges within this entire Dallas community from all ethnicities but because it maintains a pro-israel message I feel like we reach other people in that way a National Council oh yeah National Council of Jewish women I do hello Israel I've been doing that one since my 26 year-old was five I had to wait until she got into kindergarten because I needed three or four
hours at a block to go out in the house and do the presentation but I loved doing that because me or being a partner we bring facts about Israel we make a social studies presentation that lasts about an hour to an hour and a half we bring it to sixth graders and we tell them facts about Israel very important facts that they're not going to hear and how tiny is the country but how many innovations they do and how its democratic and how it's like the United States and we want them to understand that it's an important place in the world and the US should
be affiliated with it and we should always want to support it but I have to give this as as a neutral social studies lesson but yet we let the kids understand it's a modern democratic country much like the United States and it's not just what they hear on the news now back up just a little bit and tell a little bit about your college life and what you did after college so my college life I went to the University University of Texas which most of us Jewish Dallas kids did if we wanted a good public education and I went there for a couple of years
and I realized that I didn't like the major and I wanted to study rather than biology I went into biomedical science which would make me a better very assistant or a lab tech or there's some other affiliated allied health career so I went to Texas A&M and I'm actually a Texas Aggie now instead of a longhorn and once I graduated I came back to Dallas and they had a job as a veterinary assistant and they had a job as a sonogram technician when they were just coming out in the early 1980s and once my first child was born I stopped working and I've been able
to be home with all three of my kids how did you meet your husband so I met Bo through the Jewish singles group here at the J and we were married 35 years recently divorced but we're all happy it's still everybody's on very good terms but it was Jewish singles group and I need weight before Jay dates and all that stuff you actually met people face to the face those were the days what a novelty yeah and he was in Israeli which was very interesting to me that I really liked that I thought that's gonna line up with my my life mission I guess to
always be somehow connected to Israel so and tell me about your three kids where are they now way what all their lives like so I have three kids adult kids and they do act like adults my oldest is 35 Karen married with three children herself five year old a three year old and a 10 month old so I have three grandkids and then I want to even name them so that's Holly and Alice and Henry and her husband is Shawn been my little China where are they living oh they live outside of Chicago but lucky for me they hate the winter so they come into
staying with me for a couple of months but once the oldest starts real school I I don't know we can do unless we enroll him in the school near my house for two months my next one is Dan and Dan just got married to Megan this past summer and they are going on their first trip her first trip to Israel will be this coming spring and yes they have a tour booked at pedasi Hospital okay and they live here they live here and Megan recently converted in so she's Jewish and then Amanda is number three my third child she is 2025 actually they're 35 and
32 and 25 right now and Amanda seems to be the most Jewish of the three so she's actually living in New York City and on on Friday night she turns off her phone when she does shomer Shabbos she spends Friday evening with friends either edit dinner and Saturday she goes to services somewhere and then she calls it's on Saturday evening and says okay the phones back on and she's taking a Jewish class once a week and they're going to Israel this coming Saturday night she's leaving for 10 days on a mate or trip and it involves Jewish study in Jerusalem with a trip to have
run to see Rachel's Tomb so it's a very unique trip and then she decided she's gonna stay an extra 10 days and just find her friends and related family in Israel so we won't even know where she is she's gonna do ten days all by yourself we'll see her in mid-january wonderful yeah I credit her enthusiasm for Israel with lots of young Judea that one did young today I camp from entering 2nd grade all the way to the end of the junior year whereas the other two did not do Jewish camps that long but it has struck a chord with her and her friends keep
being connected to young today it is absolutely amazing where these connections yeah I'm different since you're a native tell us a little bit about what changes you've seen in Dallas oh boy where do I start so within the Jewish community I remember that there were three main synagogues when I was in high school so in the early 70s they opened up Temple Shalom so that was the fourth and all of a sudden from what I understand 26 synagogues in this area it just just seems like there's more Jewish things we've got Jewish preschools Jewish schools I remember when Akiva was tiny my friend Helen Rosenberg
got it Surry Dubin every year they would always add a year and it was their year from 3rd grade to 4th grade to 5th grade to 6 and so on and what big news there was when they opened Jana that was a big milestone here well we have lots of Jewish groups oh boy lots of them this besides the Sisterhood's and the Brotherhood's and then the Jewish preschools and then a dosa and council up in a Zion and so many Jewish things and Jewish lecturers the Holocaust Center at you TV they do a great series we have lots of programs there and then the Holocaust
Center in downtown Dallas amazing of course the DJ chess which is doing the energy now you know they just have a lot to offer it so if you want to know about something Jewish in the city or do something Jewish you can do it is there anywhere else you thought of that you would rather live Oh probably not I tend to think I always be here in Dallas yeah but I'd like to hear the stories about the people who made the city in its Jewish way and because I some of those people and I see the names on places and then I realize how important
they were yeah I just told someone just yesterday that Tai Chi from Tai Chi go Tiger was was Jewish and that I cuz I heard this on the DJ HS bus trip last week but the KKK was recruiting people and in the maybe the 50s or something they were recruiting people and they went to business owners to say you know come along join us and they approached Tai Chi and he says no I'm they had no idea and of course Tai Chi was Jewish and mr. Sanger was Jewish and Stanley Marcus so you hear these names and help these people build the city it's true how they constantly give back I mean that's real important that the Jewish people are always doing something within the city and that's really important um tell us a little bit about your older brother Monty I understand he's here now yes my brother Monty is a math whiz he and his wife Jane have just moved here from Lubbock so he was a professor at Texas Tech in the math department in the graduate school and Jade is a retired Dean from Texas Tech and they were the big
fish in a small Jewish pond out there and they've decided now that they're in their 70s that this is the city they want to have their senior times in so happy to have them here good they don't have kids but they have a great dog and they have great nieces and nephew yes they do because they do can you think of anybody that you would consider to be a role model for you golden here well Wow that's lofty okay and then in modern times Haley really yeah nikki Haley and as a matter of fact my my daughter Amanda we both were very upset when we
heard she was retiring and leaving the UN we really like her I mean we haven't heard of any scandals we think she's done a great job so from what we've known in the past two years we really like what we've seen one thing you do you want to follow in her footsteps no in politics no I will just continue to do what I can on the ground right here in Dallas Texas what are you the most proud of you can think of something my kids tell me specific an you be more specific a little bit yeah like what what makes you so proud of them
well Karen although although Karen is let me just say it I think I kept them up that's it I must say all three of your kids are fantastic well I'm just sticking that in I know it's true it's really true I don't know any hardly anybody else we could say all three all of their kids are wonderful thank you so Karen married a Catholic and they follow both religions in the house and she'll be very pleased that she makes every up every efforts to do the major holidays so they do you know Rosh Hashanah and Hanukkah Passover is terrific and she always has the other
part of the family come shamans family and so it's really a great way to bring Judaism to other people where they wouldn't otherwise have it and she even goes it's a 30 minute drive to get to the nearest synagogue because they live in such a small area but she'll go on a 30-minute drive once a month to do the Shabbat then a warning on a Friday morning at a synagogue and they have a family friend who goes with them so I that's been very good for the kids I mean it's a big effort to do that so I haven't really admired her with all that
mm-hmm he's he insisted that make it convert he made it very clear early on that that was extremely important that he had a Jewish wife and Jewish kids so I still think that came from young Judea the limits at time he went I think it made an impact he also did a birthright Israel trip when he was about about 20 and I think that had a big impact so I think these experiences when you're young really affect you and then Amanda she's just you know we're waiting to see what comes up with her but I don't know if she could even make ollie on Israel
for all I know I don't think she would because she likes the conveniences of New York City and everything but they're just very good kids are very very proud of it and a lot of that has to do with parenting also thank you absolutely let's not forget that part is there anything you can think of that you'd like to add on to the interview oh let your viewers know about well I'd consider it like my job my unofficial job because I have to pay but to be a good volunteer for Israel and just to just be very positive about Israel I try to go with
the various organizations if they do some lobbying in Congress or at the State Capitol I try to talk positively and knowledgeably about Israel but I'm with my my son's family because you know they're not Jewish and I'm bringing Israel to them and my son-in-law same same thing so I try to open the eyes of people because it's roll gets a lot of bad press terrible press and it's up to us this very small amount of Jews to to keep up the positive because it's the truth I'm not lying I'm saying what is really happening and we want to be a good example to the so
many Christian's in our community and the Jews need to do good be good and support the community and be active and always have a good name for ourselves I always shudder if you see a Jewish name with some kind of a crime it doesn't happen often but boy we all we all look and we hope that you know something bad happened it was not somebody the Jewish community that did it because it just puts a stain on all this so I enjoy learning all about Israel and do these APEC things I love that I Hadassah work I love that because I bring in people women
who who have so much potential to do something but they got it by the time but if we can get them hooked on what Hadassah does all the good it can do that's important to me really important because you know some of these organizations you need to give your time some other you need to give money and some of them you need to publicize what they do and at all it's all important I've forgot to mention I'm on the board of Dallas Hebrew free loan and it's a great organization I had no idea of what all they did until I got on the board and
what do they do proud they give a loan to anybody who is Jewish for usually a kind of a short term but for anything a family emergency a medical crisis it could be adoption and infertility there's a load for that how about if you have a Jewish cultural thing that you need to do like send somebody to camp or you're converting and you and you need to cost your your kitchen or you need keep your license for something so they have a Jewish I don't know what you call it but it's it's special for that they have another one for women in crisis specifically families
in crisis so it besides the regular ones that we all think about I need a loan pay my rent my car's in the shop I had a sickness but these are things that it's interest-free and I know people who are getting these loans which of course I didn't know about before and I always wondered how they've got been getting along over the years and now I know and people are very proud than later though they'll say and they'll give a testimonial that yes this organization helped me and everybody should know about it but it's all very kept confidential until the people say something about it
no very good yeah well thank you so much it's been wonderful and keep up the involvement we all we need that thank you you