Judith Zucker, 73; shared knowledge of Jewish history
In 1944, when she was 10 years old, Judith Clara (Balassa) Zucker was among a group of 50 people, led by her father, who escaped the Nazi threat in their Slovak town by hiding in the Tatra Mountains. Enduring bitter cold and near starvation, she often saved peels from her potato rations to share later with others, relatives say.
"She talked about people losing their children - just horrible stories about what took place, it's beyond description," said her son Orrin of Needham. "Her life was spent trying to recover what was lost there, her culture, her friends."
Mrs. Zucker, a retired physical therapist who shared her knowledge of history and Jewish culture while tutoring in her home in Buffalo and later Needham, died Aug. 25 at Newton-Wellesley Hospital after a decadelong struggle against pulmonary fibrosis. She was 73.
She was born in Krupina in the former Czechoslovakia to Dr. Francis and Ibolya Balassa.
Several relatives, including grandparents and an uncle, died in the Holocaust. For much of the war, her family was spared because of her father's skills as a doctor and dentist, her son said. Her mother was a pharmacist.
In 1949, Mrs. Zucker, then 14, developed an intense interest in Israel, and joined a youth Aliyah movement of Jews seeking to immigrate to the new state. She told her parents she was going, said her son Jerry of Medway.
"She was a strong-willed young lady," he said. "She insisted."
Arriving on her own in Israel, Mrs. Zucker joined a kibbutz and became an Israeli soldier, working in an automotive shop that supplied tires for military vehicles.
When her family followed her there a short time later, they asked her to join civilian life, but she refused, Jerry said.
As a compromise, she attended high school in Jerusalem.
In 1957, she married William Zucker, a Holocaust survivor living in the United States who was visiting family in Israel. They married almost immediately in Tel Aviv, and she moved with her new husband to Buffalo, N.Y., where he ran a photography business.
Because of her parents' careers, Mrs. Zucker knew early on that she wanted to pursue a medical career. In 1965, with her young sons and husband looking on, she graduated from the University at Buffalo with a degree in physical therapy.
For two decades, she worked for the Beechwood Nursing Home in Williamsville, N.Y., later practicing independently out of her home until she retired in the early 1990s.
Although she lived in New York for nearly 50 years before moving to Needham, Mrs. Zucker's heart remained in Israel, her sons said.
"She loved that country, her roots just ran so deep there," Orrin said. "She has always maintained strong friendships there."
For many years, Mrs. Zucker hosted visitors from Israel and returned there several times to see friends from her kibbutz days.
In Buffalo, she found a large Jewish population with a similar background, her sons said. She served as president of the Buffalo chapter of the Pioneer Women's Organization, an Israel-centered group, and the Zuckers' home became a gathering place for Jewish holidays and meetings.
In later years, she tutored people in Hebrew, first out of her Buffalo home and later her apartment in Needham, where she and her husband moved in 2005.
Mrs. Zucker set up the Balassa/Zucker Holocaust Scholarship at the Kadimah School of Buffalo to be given to a student each year, based on scholarship and need.
"She was a very caring person. She just loved sharing her knowledge," Orrin said. "It was very important to her for her to keep her history alive. She made sure people knew."
In addition to her sons and husband, Mrs. Zucker leaves a sister, Mariana Goldner of New Rochelle, N.Y.
A service was held. 