Weekly Kibbitz
‘Great British Bake Off ’ host Matt Lucas discovers his family member
lived with Anne Frank’s family
Albert L. Ortega/Getty Images via JTA
T he Jewish comic actor and
“Great British Bake Off ” host Matt
Lucas came across a very familiar
name while researching his family’s
history on BBC’s “Who Do
You Think You Are?” — that of
Otto Frank.

In an episode of the celebrity gene-
alogy show that aired June 16, Lucas
learned that Werner Goldschmidt,
his grandmother’s fi rst cousin, had
rented a room from the Franks
while they were still living in their
Amsterdam apartment. Goldschmidt
was still living with them when they
went into hiding in 1942 and was
mentioned in Anne Frank’s famous
diary. In a clip from the episode on
YouTube, Lucas reads a diary entry
Frank had written on July 8, 1942,
which describes Goldschmidt as a
Matt Lucas at a “Doctor Who” BBC America offi cial panel during Comic-Con in
San Diego, July 23, 2017.

recent divorcé who was hanging
around in the house too long that
night, despite the family’s polite hints
for him to get on with his evening.

“I would have read this diary when
I was younger and never realized
Your To-Do’s
Start With You.

C all Vet
@ 1p.m.

Ca ll a bobou t p
U g
k c
i fatigue P cleanin
Nowadays we have more to do than ever before, so sometimes we overlook the most
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that she was talking about a relative
of mine,” said Lucas, who was only
vaguely aware that some of his fam-
ily members had died in concentra-
tion camps.

Lucas, who has also appeared
in other shows like “Doctor Who”
and movies like “Paddington,” was
raised in a Reform synagogue in
London, though his parents came
from traditional Orthodox families.

He expands on his Jewish identity
in his memoir, “Little Me: My life
from A-Z,” which has a chapter “J,”
for Jewish.

Contestants on the wildly popu-
lar cooking show “The Great British
Bake Off ” have made occasional
Jewish-inspired plates on the show,
such as a charoset-and-matzah-
topped pavlova in 2021.

— Caleb Guedes-Reed
D ry y 5:00
y b b ills
P a
today Call 1-800-JEFF-NOW or visit Jeff ersonHealth.org/ToDo.

4 JULY 14, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



local
Holocaust Survivor Shares
70 Years of JFCS History
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
I f a picture is worth a thousand
words, then Holocaust survivor
Elizabeth Bleiman’s photo album
is worth an autobiography.

Among photos of her Hungarian
childhood home, husband and daugh-
ter and concentration camp paperwork
is also a clipping from a June 29, 1951
Jewish Exponent article, detailing
her time as a cottage parent for a
group home for children through the
Association for Jewish Children, a pre-
cursor to Jewish Family and Children’s
Service. Seventy one years later, Bleiman, 101,
is still involved in JFCS as a client for
their Holocaust Survivor Support pro-
gram. Active in the Jewish community,
Bleiman and her story are not only
representative of American Jewish his-
tory, but of a story close to the heart of
Jewish Philadelphians.

“Her history is like the history of
the immigrant in Philadelphia,” said
daughter Hannah Fishman.

Born in Ofehértó — which translates
to “Old White Lake” — Hungary to the
prominent Jewish Zuckerman family,
Bleiman described her childhood as
a happy one until it wasn’t. When she
was fi ve, her mother died aft er a mis-
carriage, leaving behind Bleiman, her
older brother and younger sister.

Despite early tragedy, Bleiman has
fond memories of her childhood,
becoming close with her stepmother,
despite her siblings’ lack of emotional
connection to her.

As the children grew older, even
as the war began, they were mostly
untouched by Nazi rule, though were
sent to diff erent parts of the country
to attend gymnasium, similar to high
school, because as Jews, they were not
allowed to attend many public schools.

“We had antisemitism later on or in
a certain time, but not [much] in my
time,” Bleiman said. “In the village we
did not feel it because the family was
respected and well-liked.”
Th ough Hungarian Jews are safe for
most of the war, when Nazis invaded the
country, change was quick and unrelenting.

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Elizabeth Bleiman, 101, is a Holocaust survivor and part of Jewish Family and
Children’s Service’s Holocaust Survivor Support program
Photo by Sasha Rogelberg
“As soon as the Germans came in,
everything changed,” Bleiman said.

In April 1944, Bleiman and her
father and stepmother were sent to
the Kisvarda ghetto. By then, Bleiman
was a young adult and became a nurse
at the fi eld hospital there. Only weeks
later, the Germans began shipping
people off to concentration camps.

Bleiman was torn between staying with
the sick to care for them or travelling
with her parents. Her father convinced
her to stay with him, a decision that
ultimately saved Bleiman’s life.

In June 1944, Bleiman arrived in
Auschwitz and was separated from her
father and stepmother, making friends
with the four women who shared her
bunk. While they remained friends and
were transferred to Stutthof labor camp
until it was liberated by the Soviet Red
Army the following year, half of them
died of typhus shortly aft erwards.

Bleiman spent three years aft er the
war at a displaced person camp in
Germany, where she met her husband,
a teacher who taught Bleiman Yiddish,
which was not commonly spoken in
her Hungarian Jewish community.

Th e two settled in Philadelphia with
their young daughter, where an aunt of
Bleiman lived, and looking for work,
found jobs as cottage parents at AJC.

“Th ey thought that maybe it’d be
good to be with children. I guess we
went through plenty of hardship,”
Bleiman said.

By 1952, when the Bleimans left
the cottage home so Bleiman’s hus-
band could make a living working in a
junkyard, AJC continued to change as
well. Originally founded as the Jewish
Foster Home in 1855, AJC was the
oldest Jewish children’s service in the
country, according to a 1963 fact sheet
from the organization. By the time
Bleiman left , AJC was starting to shift
their model from a group home to
foster model, later rapidly expanding
the services they provided to children.

Th ough still a part of the Federation
for Jewish Charities, the group merged
with Jewish Family Service in 1983,
becoming the Jewish Family and
Children’s Agency.

Bleiman has been part of JFCS’
Holocaust Survivor Support program
for 10 years, working with various case
workers there. Decades aft er her fi rst
involvement in the organization, she
continues to make her mark at JFCS.

“I do not think that I’ve ever had
a conversation or interaction with
Elizabeth Bleiman where she hasn’t
been smiling, laughing or just overall
pleasant,” said Carly Bruski, director
of JFCS’ Holocaust Survivor Support
program. “She’s probably one of the
most positive people I have ever met,
survivor or not.”
Just as seven decades ago Bleiman
cared for the vulnerable populations
AJC assisted, she now has come full cir-
cle, receiving care and building com-
munity with the same organization
that has evolved parallel to her.

“We really look at Holocaust survi-
vors as a core group to this agency,”
Bruski said. “Th ey’re truly the back-
bone of this agency.” JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
5