Harold Levy

This is the eulogy I prepared for the memorial service of my father, Harold Levy.  As delivered, some items were left out because my others who spoke before me had already mentioned them.  Sam's eulogy follows

Hal grew up in the Depression. He was born into an Orthodox family, living first on the Lower East Side, then in Bensonhurst.  He enlisted in the army and served in served in Germany. 
                       
He never gloried in his combat experiences, as some veterans do.  In fact, I never heard him talk about combat until a couple of weeks ago, a story I’ll tell near the end of what I have to say.  I remember him talking about the ennui, about falling asleep while marching.  Hal was a champion sleeper.  If you asked him how he had slept the response was always that he had slept well all night.  I also remember a story he used to tell about basic training — there was one soldier who was also first to the table and first to ask, pass this, pass that.  So one day, they maneuvered him to sit at one end of the table and, instead of waiting for him to ask to have things passed, they just upended the table so that everything just slid right down onto him.

Another World War II story related to anti-Semitism.  For Hal, basic training was his first exposure to world outside New York, and for many other at basic training, it was their first exposure to Jews.  In 1944, a number of soldiers were assembled to ship over to Germany to serve as replacements for casualties.   Was it only a coincidence that every one of the replacements was Jewish?  Sure, let them be the first of the group to be killed.  The rest of the soldiers in that basic training group went over to Europe as a unit, and ended up at the Battle of the Bulge, where the group was decimated.  

For Hal, “liberal” was never a dirty word.  He was proud to be considered a liberal  Democrat.  When he left the service, he joined the American Veterans Committee, a left/liberal response to the conservative VFW and American Legion.

He married Beatrice Kachuck, his college sweetheart; they first lived with her parent in Brooklyn, then in Queens, then Levittown.  In Levittown, he became active in local politics.  Back then, the Margiotta machine in Nassau County was the toughest Republican machine in the whole country: a Democrat couldn’t get elected as dogcatcher.  Hal was active in the local Democratic committee, and many of his  life-long friendships came from among his fellow activists:  Norman Levine, Dave Schechter, Don Hirschhorn, Wilbur Lew, Stan Harwood. 

He and Bea found more success pushing to improve the public schools. The dynamic back then was that people without children (relatively rare in the veteran-heavy suburbs) as well as people with kids in Catholic schools, did not want taxes to pay for public schools.  The Committee for Better Education, rather than the Democratic Party, was the instrument that Hal and his friends used for bi-partisan work to improve public education.  But meantime, the Democrats had losing candidate after losing candidate, Adlai Stevenson and so forth.

This group formed the tradition of Fourth of July at Jones Beach.  We would aim to show up at 6 AM, early enough to nab a grill to cook eggs, bacon and the like for breakfast.  There would be screwdrivers and Bloody Marys, but we would head down to the beachfront for swimming, then come back for breakfast.  The tradition included reading the Declaration of Independence, then as now printed in full on the back page of the first section of the New York Times.    The day would go on after the beach at someone’s house.  As the Levittown group spread out, tradition continued with going to Julian Kane’s house in Great Neck.
               
In 1961, we moved to Freeport. Levittown was all-white, as I recall (in fact, restrictive covenants preserved that) and Hal and Bea wanted to raise their children in an integrated community.  In Freeport, Hal assumed a leadership position in the local Democratic Party.  The place was still very Republican, and anti-Semitic to boot. I remember a story about time when Hal and some others went to complain to Police Chief Elar about something.  The chief knew very well was Hal’s name was but, throughout the meeting, he addressed Hal as “Mr. Goldberg.”
   
Victories began to come for the local Democrats.  Gene Nickerson was elected as County Executive, and a centrist Democrat, Herb Tenzer, was elected to Congress.  Hal continued the struggles to keep the public schools funded; Democrats were able to form coalitions with liberal  Republicans to get good people elected to the school board and bond issues passed.

I became active in anti-war movement.  Hal was initially reluctant about that, worried about splitting the Democrats and opposed a Democratic President. Eventually, though he became active in that.  I remember our weekly Sunday morning vigils at the Freeport Post Office (where Tenzer had his congressional office).  I was among the organizers but Hal would also join us from time to time

There was a huge change in 1968.  We had been supporting a local left candidate, Al Dorfman, running in Congressional primary, and supporting Gene McCarthy in primary against Johnson.  National reform leader Al Lowenstein picked our district as the one in which he would seek office, effectively pushing Al Dorfman out of the race.  (Dorfman was shunted over to running for District Attorney).  Lowenstein brought scores of young activists from around the country to support his candidacy.  We housed several of them, both during the primary campaign, in which I participated, and in the general election, which took place after I had left for college.   Hal was in the thick of it, leading the Freeport part of the campaign, and our candidate was elected, although he was able to serve only one term, because the Republicans defeated him by redistricting after the 1970 census, taking a large bloc of heavily Democratic voting areas out of his district.

During these years, I had my own political activities and Hal had his.  I never  worked closely with him on same campaign, but I had the chance to do so in 1971.  Charles Evers, the brother of Medgar Evers, was running for governor of Mississippi. The hard work of registering voters was done, and this was the beginning of getting black population to run for office.   Evers wanted to motivate local people to engage in campaigns, and to put themselves forward to run for legislative positions, so that he could run on a slate of candidates throughout the state and not be all by himself on the ballot.  The national Democrats sought experienced electoral campaign organizers to come to Mississippi to work in each legislative district.  Hal was one of those, and Dan and I went along.  We were assigned to Tunica, Mississippi, south of Memphis.  I was exposed for the first time to his qualities as a political organizer, cajoling local people, very much against their economic interest (because the white establishment was in full control of the economy) to step forward and run for office, helping put together election campaign.   He was deeply engaged in the community, and within the only ten days we were there, he brought forward candidates, created election committee, and formulated a basic campaign plan.   During the course of a long weekend trip we took to Memphis several years ago, Nancy and I visited Tunica, and then then-head of the local NAACP, Calvin Norwood, remembered with gratitude Hal’s efforts  more than forty years before.

Hal’s commitment to his community rested side by side with his engagement with his family.  He loved his family, both his immediate family and his extended family.   I particularly recall his engagement with his grandchildren.  A memory he loved to recall was his first introduction to Sam, the first of his grandchildren.  He and Rona came down to DC within a day of Sam’s birth.  He came to the hospital, but was nervous about holding his new grandson.  “Nancy said: pick him up, pick him up.”  I heard him remember that fondly many times; he repeated that story when he first met Abraham, and when he spoke to Sam and Abe over phone during his final days.

Hal loved to travel.  He did this during both marriages.  He traveled separately with Bea, and with Rona, but he took particular care to travel with his broader family.  Every summer we would travel as a family.  Most often it was to upstate NY – Scroon Lake, Loon Lake, Lake George, once there was a splurge visit to Mohonk.  Each year we would go to a different place, with Dan and me wanting to go back to where we had been the year before.  But we also went to Maine, to Quebec, to the  Carribbean.  I remember one six week swing through Western US.

After Sam and Joe were born, he made sure to travel with each of them separately, taking Elderhostel trips with each of them as well as taking the whole family on trips, such the beach community where we all went on Tuscan coast – Forte dei Marmi – as well as inland Tuscan cities of Florence and  Lucca.

And then there was Stone Pond, the house in New Hampshire where he and Rona would spend time each summer, and where they stayed the entire summer after they retired.  Hal would wake up every morning, and then, as I recall about 8 AM, he would head down to the lake for a bracing swim in the chilly water.  They (and we) went hiking, especially on Mt Monadnock; we would see the Peterborough players, and  Monadnock music.  When we visited there was always a lobster dinner.       
This is our family gathering place. Hal was so frustrated when his disabilities made it too hard for him to go to Stone Pond.  Even though he was not using it himself, it was important to him that he be paying the bills, enabling the family’s use.  The place was always on his mind.  Chingchai’s watercolor of the view of the lake from the cabin was always on the wall of his room where he could see it. He was happy each time he heard abut someone from our generation, or the next generation, going to sty there, and he was very reassured to keep hearing that the ensuing generations are intent on keeping the house in the family.
               
Hal married his college sweetheart.  Bea was an atheist, and we were raised as secular children.  Yet Hal always enjoyed the Jewish traditions.  Not only the bar mitzvahs, but high holidays with Bea’s parents (who were secular when Bea was growing up but got a bit religious as they got older).  I did not want a bar mitzvah, and Hal was fine with that choice, but he was pleased, I think, when Dan decided to have one.   Maybe he was  disappointed that our children did not.  He enjoyed the family rituals of Hannukah and the annual seder, including the Freedom Seder that he celebrated beginning around 1970, in which we celebrate Passover as a feast for the liberation of all peoples, not just the Jewish people.


To all appearances, Hal and Bea has  a perfect marriage.  It seemed that way to me. He was devastated when it ended, as was I, and much of the rest of the family.  One of Bea’s sisters reproached her for smashing her idealized image that at least one person she knew had the perfect marriage.

I am so grateful that he found a new soulmate in Rona, with whom he happily spent the rest of her life.  It is intriguing that Rona and Bea were so similar.  Similar build, similar intellect, similar commitment to social justice.  Similarly feminist, and similarly strong-minded and insistent that things be done her way.

His feeling for his family extended beyond immediate family to nieces, and nephews, and their mates and their children.  He became a surrogate father / brother to many of them, offering counsel and comfort through hard times.  His counsel was not necessarily advice, but just someone to talk to.  I heard about this from someone in the Amsterdam community whom he befriended over the years.  She was having some issues, I’m not sure exactly what, and got some help from Hal. What she said was:

“Hal was a good listener.  He was also non-judgmental. And when he was approached for advice he didn't throw it out at someone, (didactically), instead he led the person along the path of figuring out the best solution at that time.”

And he was especially delighted to build relationship with the grand-children of his cousin Aaron.  In his last days, he urged Dan and me to maintain our relationship with Elisa, Sharon and Jeremy; and we told him, of course, they are family.

He was saddened to have lost contact with many of the Kachuck family, after Bea made it clear to her family that they had to choose between him and her.  But he was so very pleased when, as Bea descended into dementia and stopped caring about contact with Hal, he was able to reconnect with members of the Kachuck family, especially Gloria, Michael, and Rozzie.

Hal had a wonderful community at the Amsterdam.  When they first moved there, I could not help wondering, why would you leave your great house in Rockville Center?  But he and Rona made a great choice moving here.  He built a network of friends and got love back as well as great care.  When it came time for him to move from independent living to assisted living, then skilled nursing, Dan and I urged him to think about moving to DC, so that he would be closer to us.   He chose not to do that, thinking not only of the family in New York with whom he would have less contact, but also about his own community there at the Amsterdam.  The residents and staff made him feel he belonged, and for that we are very grateful.

Hal Levy spent his life giving love to his community, to his friends, to his family.   These last few days we have seen a reflection of that love in the outpouring of response from his friends and extended family, who visited when they could (sometimes at great effort), and called when they could not.

Hal was ready to die at the end: as he said to us, I’ve had a good run. He did not wish to live without being able to move his limbs and feed himself.  But he had a final wish, which he expressed in the first combat story I ever heard from him. 

He was not speaking much at that point, a day or so after he got out of the hospital.  He was slurring his words, but he said something that sounded like Herzog and bridge.  As I bent over, it was clear he was talking about having exploded a bridge.   I had always assumed from his marching stories that he carried a rifle in infantry, but he began speaking clearly about how he had handled a mortar, and so had exploded the bridge. 

And he began to speak clearly about life in combat.  “I was scared all the time.  I was afraid of being hit, and being out there to die all alone.   That was the worst thing."

Hal did not want to die alone, and he did not die alone.  His extended family was with him; they came to say goodbye, to share memories, to share their love, to be with him, until the end.

We will miss him terribly.

Our closing for his death notice:  
In lieu of flowers, please honor his memory and follow his example by committing your time, energy and money to electing a progressive Democratic candidate in a swing district.  In the alternative, you might consider one of his favorite  institutions, the American Civil Liberties Union.

Sam's Eulogy

I love my grandpa Hal very much. Because I'm not going first, I believe it would be redundant to name all of Hal's qualities, as I'm sure people have already talked about his kindness, his gentleness, his love for life and his love of people. Simply put, Hal was the kindest person I've ever met, and I will always hold him as an example of what a friend, husband, brother, father, grandfather, and great-grandfather should be.
Rather than talk about his qualities, I'd like to share a few memories that I will always hold dear:
- Grandpa Hal and Grandma Rona walking me to school (or to Ontario Park - I can't remember…) and singing "On the Sunny Side of the Street"
- Hal rubbing my back to help me go to sleep or relax and saying "Sweet Sam"- this strikes me as odd now, because, as I think of it, Hal's first wife, my Grandma Bea used to rub my back the same way and also said, "Sweet Sam". I ALWAYS BELIEVED THEM 
- Hal showed me how to ride my first two-wheeler in Rockville Centre (he was an incredibly patient man) and then I promptly got hit (albeit lightly) by the neighbor who was backing their car out of the driveway.
- Eating mortadella and fresh baguette
- Drinking coffee and having fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast
- Bourbon Manhattans (straight up with a twist)
- Climbing Mount Monadnock (he did so well into his early 80s)
- The pride he took in his family (he was so proud of his kids- Paul and Dan (and their spouses Nancy and Chingchai, and he was so proud of Shari and Mitch, and their spouses Dave and Lisa)
- Hal loved his brother Mel (I have the vaguest recollection of Mel holding an unlit cigar at Rockville Centre) and his sister Pearl so much!
- He loved his grandkids and grandnephews and cousins and nieces and nephews with an amazing fervor. As Nafisa and I await the birth of our second child, we sometimes wonder how in the great world we'll be able to love Abraham so much, and love our new baby so much…Hal gives us the example: he loved so many people and was able to give each and every person he loved 100% of his heart! His heart was enormous! He was able to add people to his heart with such ease, without compromising his love for anybody else.
- I loved looking at the photos of the people he loved so much that are tacked to the wall in the cabin in New Hampshire and that were on the fridge in Rockville Center. I'll always think of the photo of the tiger that he and Rona saw while on the back of an elephant (I hope I got that memory right?)
- I am hoping someone can help me fill in this partial memory- Hal would tell me about either sneaking into baseball games (would this be the Brooklyn Dodgers or the Yankees?) or selling peanuts or tickets as a way to get into and watch games?
- I will remember him recounting his games of stickball in the street when he was a kid…I have always tried to picture him playing  ??
- I will always remember going out on the canoe or on the little white and yellow sailboat.
- I will always remember our trip to Seattle and the sailing trip we took from Puget Sound. I got to know Phyllis Levy and Lou, and their wonderful kids on that trip.
- I remember Hal reflecting about his time in the army when we visited the WWII memorial, a relief of a mortar team brought tears to his eyes…
- I will remember Rona's lobster dinner and Hal's grilled shish-kebabs in New Hampshire
- I will remember Hal taking his morning swims in Stone Pond (and marvel at how that could be enjoyable because its extra frigid in the morning!)
- I will always remember the first time (and the second and the third) that Hal held Abraham in his arms. He loved that boy and I know he loves our unborn baby too. I was so proud to know that my grandpa saw me as a father!
- Nafisa shared with me her memory of when she first met Hal and Rona; they had driven down from NY and picked us up at our home on Irving St. They took us to their favorite D.C. restaurant, Busboys and Poets on 14th St. and the nervousness that Nafisa had felt, instantly melted away. They made her feel so comfortable and at ease. They took us to the Cherry Blossoms afterwards. Nafisa loved that Rona would ask strangers to take our photo. Hal and I would get slightly embarrassed. Hal found life-partners who were so different form him in Bea and then in Rona. Both life-partners required the infinite amount of patience that Hal possessed. The payoff was enormous though, as they were also such special people, both diligent in making the world around them a better place!
- I loved looking at all the books Hal and Rona had, he was a voracious reader up until the end-I'll remember that they had a special dictionary on a dictionary stand in both Rockville Centre and Stone Pond.
- I will remember Hal (and usually Rona) coming to my basketball games at Jelleff (Hal was a baller by the way-Brooklyn College---if anyone has a photo of him playing or in his uniform I'd love to have it!), my soccer games all over the place, and even to my high school track meet in White Plains, NY. I will remember their proud faces at various graduations of mine as well.
- Hal always loved my friends and asked about them- especially my good friend Dario.
- I will remember Hal and Rona listening to NPR- they were so good at the puzzles! Hal was a humble intellectual---reminds me of the quote that the more you know, the more you realize you don't know.
- I will remember riding with Nafisa and Hal and Rona in the red Toyota on the way back to NY from Joe's UConn graduation. It was on this ride that I realized that Grandma was starting to get confused…it was frightening to watch a person with such sharp intellect confuse the seatbelt for a telephone…she could not have had a better and more supportive partner than Harold Levy.
- I will remember all of the people who sat by Hal's bedside in his final weeks. I appreciate all of you so much; it helped me deal with the fact that I could not be there, to know that so many of his loved ones were holding his hand, calling to talk to him, and giving him Bourbon Manhattan by sponge! A special thanks to Phil and Karen Alterman Levy, who have given Hal so much love and support, especially once he and Rona moved to the Amsterdam.
- I am so thankful that my amazing brotherJoe Levy was spending time with Hal basically every other week over the last few years. I love you Joe.
- Joe tells me that Grandpa, when they were saying their goodbyes, wanted Joe and me to be ourselves, and trust ourselves.
- I appreciate Sharon Blynn's words- calling Hal her "heart light" and sharing the Khalil Gibran quote have helped me…I appreciate all the Blynn's and their loving spirits- Hal certainly did!
- 93 years is a long time; Grandpa had seen so much. NYC, the United States, and the world have changed so much since 1924…he did indeed "have a good run"
- I will miss how Hal smelled
- I will miss his smile
- I will miss his Shell belt buckle.
- I will miss him telling me, whenever we were saying goodbye on the phone, to give Nafisa a big kiss on the forehead
- He lovedNafisa Levy-Jiddawi so much
- I will miss him saying Beee-you-ti-ful and Deee-licious---I have been saying that to Abe as much as I can.
I will miss my grandpa Hal so much, and am so glad for the time we were able to spend with him.