Binah Weinberg

Married to Samuel Weinberg—Sister to Judah Zarwanitzer and half sister to mother of Norbert( Nachman Gottdenker) of Vienna. Daughter of Moses Zarwanitzer and Devorah Kahana.

When my father was a young man, he was an eager Zionist pioneer. He volunteered for Hachsharah ( Preparation Camp) and spent time on a farm, preparing to be a chalutz, pioneer, in Israel. He gave up on his dream when he realized that his mother wouldn’t stop crying.

When my father went to Berlin to Rabbincal School in 1932, Biniah baked a special cake for him and packed it in his suitcase. When he arrived, he unpacked everything into the dresser in his room. At the end of the school year, he dutifully repacked his belongings, only to find the cake, still uneaten, in the drawer.

When she and Shmuel were living in Switzerland, Irene, young and beautiful, wrote her.” I don’t understand your son .Here I am, an attractive young woman, and he shows no interest in me. Tell him to look at me.” He soon proposed.

She died, my father said, because she had suffered so much worry for her children when they were in exile, that when she know they were well, the strain took its toll on her heart.

When my uncle, Munio, was in his high 80’s, he took the long and uncomfortable flight to Zurich, claiming to exchange dollars for Swiss francs. He really went to visit her graveside.