Why did I wait so long?
Why wait so so so long?
long? Why
did did I I wait
Why long? the
It took did me I a wait
while to take
took me me a a while
while to to take
take It It It took
the the
initiative... hard.

took me a change
while to is take
the initiative...

change is
hard. initiative...

hard. But, once change
I chose is is Symphony
initiative... change
hard. But,
once I
chose Symphony
But, But,
once I
chose Symphony
Square, to make
once they
I chose helped
Symphony Square, they
they helped
helped to to make
make Square,
Square, they so helped
the move
easy. to make
move so so easy.

easy. the the
the move
move so easy.

Now I can’t stop wondering
Now I can’t
I can’t stop
stop wondering
wondering Now
Now I I can’t
stop do wondering
why didn’t
sooner. I’m I’m
why I didn’t
I didn’t do do this this this
sooner. why
sooner. I’m I’m
why I
didn’t do
this sooner.

so thankful
thankful I made
I made the the move
move so
so so thankful
I made
the the move
thankful I made
and continue
to do the the move
things and
continue to
do things
and and continue
to to do do the the things
continue things
love! 077. 077.

I I love!
I love!
I love! 077. 077.

Resident, Norman
Norman playing
playing his his favorite
favorite Resident,
Norman playing
favorite Resident,
Resident, Norman playing
his Rainbow”
favorite song,
“Somewhere Over
the Rainbow”
song, “Somewhere
Over the
song, song, “Somewhere
“Somewhere Over
Over the the Rainbow”
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Sharpshooter Continued from Page 9
shot, we lay on the ground and shot the
Arabs coming up.”
One of her responsibilities during the
war was taking supplies to her soldiers
stationed at Mount Zion. It was a dan-
gerous task, because Arab soldiers would
shoot at them, so she had to bring the
supplies at night during new moons.

“Jerusalem was under siege, and it was
really, really hard,” Schafer said.

Schafer has a Hebrew-language book
about women’s role in the fight for inde-
pendence, but she is in few of the photos.

Instead, she was usually the photographer.

She always loved photography.

When she was a teenager, her brother
sent her a Kodak camera and supplies to
develop photos. She turned a hallway in
her house into a darkroom. After the war,
photography was something that contin-
ued, at various times, to be a passion and
a hobby.

When the war ended, she returned to
school, where she studied Jewish history
while still serving in the military. But she
didn’t graduate.

In 1949, she met Stephen Schafer.

She had gone to Haifa with her family
to pick up her cousin, who was coming
to Israel by boat after having spent some
time in the United States. The cousin
was there with Stephen Schafer, who had
come to Israel to study Hebrew so he
could become a Reform rabbi.

Stephen Schafer went back to Jerusalem
with the Lewensohn family, who found
him a place to stay. He would come by
often for Shabbat dinners. Bella Schafer
was still in the army, so she wasn’t living
at home, but she would also come by for
Shabbat at times.

The two eventually grew close and
decided to marry. At first, Bella Schafer
said, his family was resistant to the idea
of him marrying an Israeli.

“They were Reform Jews, so they were
afraid,” Schafer said. “But then my father,
whose English was very good, he spoke to
them and they relaxed, once they heard
my father and who he was and what he
was doing, and that I didn’t come for
money or anything else. It was love.”
When he moved back to the United
States, Bella Schafer moved with him.

Her intention was always to come back
to Israel; in fact, she promised her par-
ents that very thing, but wasn’t able to
come back for several years, when her
mother died.

The young couple first arrived in
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



From left: Mort Prince, Bella Lewensohn Schafer and friend Sandrine
Erdely-Sayo sit beneath a rug made by Schafer’s mother, Fruma Lewensohn.

Photo courtesy of Deborah Schafer
Philadelphia where Stephen Schafer’s family lived.

Th en they headed out to Cincinnati, where her husband went
to rabbinical college. Th ere, she volunteered for the school’s
library and eventually became a librarian.

Stephen Schafer’s fi rst rabbinical appointment was in Toledo,
Ohio, where the family lived for the next seven years. Th en, they
moved to Allentown, where Bella Schafer spent the next decade,
until the two got divorced in the early ’70s.

She moved to Philadelphia and went back to school, where
she spent the next three years working toward her bachelor’s and
master’s in social work at Temple University.

“I worked very, very hard, and I worked,” Schafer said.

“I taught. I taught at Temple. I taught at the University of
Pennsylvania. I taught at Gratz College as soon as I came here.”
She taught Hebrew and Jewish history. Over the years, she has
also held positions as director of adult services at the Gershman
Y, and as a supervisor for the city. She also has run her own fam-
ily therapy practice.

She continued teaching until about 15 years ago when she met
her partner, Mort Prince. Th e two of them, she said, are “more
than married.”
With him, she has made trips to Israel every few months.

Traveling, in general, has been another thing she has enjoyed
during her life.

“I love to travel, and it’s a lot of fun,” Schafer said. “I have
found a lot of fun in traveling on my own, meeting people on my
own. I’m a gregarious type of a person.” ●
szighelboim@jewishexponent.com; 215-832-0729
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM THE GOOD LIFE
MAY 9, 2019
11