Faye Porter now lives in a Jewish assisted living facility, Menorah Plaza, in a suburb of Minneapolis.
But when she marked her 100th birthday at a party held on March 15, among the nearly 100 celebrants were many friends from Milwaukee, according to Porter’s daughter, Bella Porter Smith of Minneapolis.
Their presence testifies to the nearly 50 years that Porter lived in Milwaukee, her qualities as a person, and the story she lived, according to her daughter and to her son, Jack Nusan Porter of Newtonville, Mass. (Her third child, Rabbi Shlomo Porter, directs the Etz Chaim Center in Baltimore.)
As they tell it, Porter (nee Merin) with her husband Irving (originally Srulik) survived the Holocaust in Ukraine by living in a forest with a partisan group for two years (1941-43). Her husband was one of the fighters in the group, while she was a cook and nurse.
The German Nazis murdered everyone in her immediate family, including her two children who were born before the war. The couple had three children afterward.
Nevertheless, “She didn’t let the Holocaust turn her into a sad and angry woman,” said Jack Porter, a sociologist and Holocaust scholar. “I don’t know how she did that.”
In fact, “she has a very optimistic personality,” said Porter Smith, a teacher at a Jewish day school. “She has told me” that she thinks she has lived so long “because she was always kind to other people.”
And while Faye found it difficult to speak with a Chronicle reporter, as she couldn’t hear a telephone voice well, she was able to say through her daughter that she did not believe that she really was 100 years old, but “I’m satisfied with how I am.”
Faye and Irving moved at first to Chicago, where Irving couldn’t find work. They moved to Milwaukee in 1946, where they had cousins, according to Porter Smith.
However, Irving had a difficult time finding work in Milwaukee because he insisted on observing the Sabbath, while all the factories insisted that he work on Saturdays, Porter Smith said. Eventually, he became a scrap metal peddler and Faye was a homemaker.
They lived in the orbit of Congregation Beth Jehudah, and Faye was “very close” to Rebbetzin Leah Twerski, the mother of Rabbi Michel Twerski.
Apparently, Faye still has fond memories of that aspect of her life. Milwaukee “was the best city to live around and around,” she said. And the Twerskis were “special people. They kept Shabbes and took care of everybody,” she said.
To this day, Rabbi Michel Twerski calls her every Friday to wish her a good Sabbath, said Porter Smith.
After her husband died in 1979. She later married Judah Arenzon, with whom she lived for about six years, until his death.
She continued to live on the west side until about 15 years ago, when Porter Smith brought her to the Minneapolis area. At first, she had a vegetable garden and did some baking, but she can’t do those things now.
But she still visits with people, said her daughter. And her son maintains that she has a reputation as a “tzadikis, the Jewish equivalent of a saint and a holy lady.”
“Even at the birthday party, mothers brought their children to her for blessings,” said Jack Porter. “I can still feel blessed to have a holy and righteous mother.”
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