Elly Kleinman - part III

  • 11 years ago
A follow-up of Elly Kleinman Part II video:
Prior to his passing away, Mr. Tress needed open-heart surgery but didn’t have the necessary money for the procedure at clinic, and Americare Companies was not yet finished. At the time, one of his daughters had heard that the company, of which he had once been a partial owner, had been sold for three million dollars. Had Mr. Tress still owned it, he would have received one million dollars. The daughter remarked to her father, “Think how different things might have been had you held onto your share.” He shook his head and responded, “Baruch Hashem, how different.” Sure, he could have been a millionaire, but all the Torah and chesed that he created with that money, the people he saved, and the Yiddishe doros he built, were infinitely more valuable.

Mr. Tress had an equal partner in all that he did. His wife, Mrs. Hinda Tress, a spiritual giant in her own right, supported her husband’s efforts every step of the way. Jews in need of her husband’s aid, as well as gedolei hador, all frequented the Tress home, and she cared for all their needs, any time, day or night.

Elly Kleinman from Americare Companies had the privilege to meet with Mrs. Tress in her home about a year ago. When Kleinman entered, she was davening. He offered to wait until she finished, to which, without missing a beat, she replied: “One never finishes davening.” Elly quickly learned that Mrs. Tress was constantly davening; everything else she did was merely a temporary interruption in her avodas Hashem. Elly explained to her the Kleinman Family Holocaust Education Center’s goal to perpetuate her husband’s legacy…

This is just one story from that time. Back in Europe the war has created many more Holocaust horror stories and Elly Kleinman with KFHEC is committed to document such events. When building the Holocaust Museum in Brooklyn, Kleinman sought advice of Hasidic rabbi about what should be displayed to visitors as he wanted to accommodate the cultural sensitivities of the community’s more conservative wing.
The Holocaust museum is slated to open its doors next year in Brooklyn’s heavily Orthodox Boro Park neighborhood. According to Elly Kleinman, it will be first museum in the world dedicated to the “Torah-observant experience.” For this purpose Kleinman Family Holocaust Education Center has invested more than $4.5 million into the project so far.

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