I went to the Yom Iyuun, Day of Study for Rose Bronstein at K.I. (Kehillath Israel) in March commemorating her one year Yahrtzeit. For Rose, it was actually an Evening of Study. Rose (or Miss Bronstein as I knew her) was my third grade Hebrew School teacher and I credit her with my lifelong interest in Judaism and that I can still read and write Hebrew. I was known as
רחל מלר , my Hebrew name, Rochel Miller. I went to the Beth El Hebrew school in Dorchester, following in the footsteps of Roby, Aunt Ruth and Shirley. Rose taught at Beth El for 20 years and then was invited to teach at Hebrew Teachers College, now Hebrew College where she had a very distinguished career for 31 years and has hundreds of students all over the world who remember her fondly. Professor Jonathan Sarna, Distinguished Scholar from Brandeis University and author of
The Jews of Boston, spoke about her in glowing terms. He was also a student of Rose's at Hebrew College.
Rose and I went to lunch at Legal Seafood with one of her students and companion, Paula Korman in 2004. How did I reconnect with Rose after 45 years ?!?! Before I moved into 1550 Beacon Street, I stayed with Tova Silver for two weeks while my apartment was being renovated. I ordered some Clinique products which came with a promotional gift. Tova said she had a friend who used Clinique too, Rose Bronstein. I said I had a third grade Hebrew school teacher by that name - yes, it was the same person ! She lived 10 minutes away from me in Brookline. We called her immediately and reconnected. Eventually we went to lunch and Paula and I have remained friends.
Back to the Yom Iyuun. The Chapel at K.I. was packed with people, friends and former students of Rose. My mind went backwards to my memories of going to the Beth El Hebrew School as a little girl. We went around the room and everyone talked about their memories of Rose. Believe me, the Beth El Hebrew School was talked about a lot. I felt melancholy sitting there with the perspective of time - I could see clearly how my life changed dramatically when Shirley married Julius and we moved to Malden. No more Girls Latin school, no more Beth El Hebrew School.......our lives changed forever; took a wrong turn. Bookies have different priorities - I will say more about this when I get back to the Malden Years.
Over 54,000 people roamed around Fenway, lining up to go places fans aren't usually able to go like the Dugout, the Green Monster, the warning track, the scoreboard (the only manual scoreboard in baseball) and more. A Boston Herald reporter asked me why I came and I said, "my uncle tried out to be a Red Sox player in the early 1940's, I come from a family of die-hard Red Sox fans, my uncle wrote an article about the day my grandfather took him to a double header to see Ted Williams tip his cap, I still have my uncle's baseball and cap, and I came as the third generation of Sandler red sox fans." I had to call Aunt Ruth to find out when Roby tried out for the team. She said he was in his late teens. He didn't make the team so he became a Professor of English instead.
