Mrs. Esther Lefkowitz, a”h [Published in the Hamodia November 23

Esther Lefkowitz (nee Steiner), beloved high school history teacher for close to forty five years, first in Bais Yaakov of Boro Park, and then in Bais Yaakov of Baltimore.  Born in Hungary a year after the Holocaust, she arrived in New York in 1956. As a talented artist, dedicated mother, and unforgettable teacher, she perfectly blended the frum and secular worlds, imparting to her students the obligation to be machshiv Torah while being well-informed about history and current events. She had a profound impact on thousands of students, as is evidenced by the hundreds of letters that poured in while she was sick, and even more so after her petirah.

To describe who Mrs. Lefkowitz was and what she meant to her students, following are excerpts from some of those letters.

“It is difficult to find words to describe the emotions that are roiling inside me. Shock, pain, and sorrow, a hole in the fabric of my life that can never be filled . . . She was someone to be looked up to; a powerhouse of passion and vitality! Am I never again to see her wide and genuine smile, to hear her caring greeting, and to feel her warmth? How? She can never be replaced . . . I can see her - oh so full of life - in my mind’s eye. She is teaching – yet not just teaching – overflowing, bursting with the knowledge and ideas that she exuberantly gives over . . . Not only did she give me facts and dates, but also a boost in confidence. I basked in her compliments . . . and it was not only me! She saw each student as an individual . . . One girl in particular stands out in my mind. This girl was neither a strong student nor did she fit in well socially. Your mother lifted her spirits like I never thought possible . . . I saw clearly how this girl drank eagerly from your mother’s wellsprings of love . . . I know that she is watching me from On High and smiling. I truly hope to do her proud . . .”

“No other teacher ever knew as much, or presented it as well, or was as much fun . . . Mrs. Lefkowitz taught me about the inner workings of the U.S. government, interspersed with fascinating and funny anecdotes about growing up in Communist Hungary, coming to Williamsburg and learning a whole
new language . . . In the tenth grade, I had the good fortune to spend even more time with Mrs. Lefkowitz than my one history class a day. I was on [her] debate team, and was ecstatic to be able to ‘hang out’ with my favorite teacher. Not a day went by . . . where I didn’t go seek out Mrs.Lefkowitz . . . Seeing her made me smile . . . Whenever I hear current events, I instinctively ask . . . what does Mrs. Lefkowitz say? . . . She used to joke about “when I rule the world,” but I always told her that if she ever wanted to make good on that and organize a coup, I’d be a staunch supporter . . . Bais Yaakov High School, the Baltimore community, and the world at large has lost an inspiring role model. Multi-talented and brilliant, I always believed she could accomplish it all. I still do. I think she is up there right now, with pens in her sheytel, making a list on the back of an old envelope of things she wants to do in Shamayim. Knowing Mrs. Lefkowitz, she’s already started.”

“As a student, I respected and admired Mrs. Lefkowitz for all [these] different facets of her unique personality. But as a fellow teacher, I began to realize how much more there was beyond that…The first time my phone rang [at home], I couldn’t imagine what she needed from me. But as the years
went by, I got used to her phone calls. She wanted to know about certain individuals in her classes,
what was going on in their lives, were they healthy, were they getting enough sleep, was someone
taking care of them, etc. . . Her intuition was generally on the mark, and she knew, without asking,
things that many people miss, even when they do ask . . . And so, I still feel compelled by her life and by her accomplishments to try a little harder, to work beyond capacity, as a teacher, as a mother, as a wife, and as an eved Hashem . . .” [from the 10th grade guidance counselor who is also a former student].

“ . . . I will always remember her as a great teacher, not only of her subject, but of the important
things in life, the things that really matter . . . She . . . inquired about [the condition of] my legs for a
brief one or two minute conversation . . . A few days after this conversation, the principal called my
home and inquired about my legs . . . I always suspected that it was in fact Mrs. Lefkowitz who spoke to the principal . . . So although her classes were the most interesting I have ever taken, and her tests were the ones I feared the most, I will always remember her - not for the genius of a teacher she was – but for that feeling of being cared for. That she could care enough for me and my health, one of hundreds of girls who passed through her classroom doors, will stay with me forever. ”

Following the shiva, a community-wide hesped was held at Bais Yaakov. At that hesped, Mrs. Lefkowitz’s daughter shared a story that captures Mrs. Lefkowitz’s essence.

“My mother once had a doctor's appointment at Greenspring Station. There are shops, restaurants, and also a pretty little brook nearby. It was during Aseres Yemei Teshuva, and my mother brought a machzor along, intending to say Tashlich there after the appointment. As she passed a non-kosher restaurant, she glanced into a window and noticed a boy with a yarmulka eating inside. She recognized him, and knew she had to confront him...to help him. She went inside, sat down next to him, and first told him that it was only a few years ago that she baked a beautiful cake for his bar mitzvah. Then she asked him, ‘If you're eating treife, why are you still wearing a yarmulka?’ He mumbled something about how he was brought up to wear a yarmulka, but that none of it really made sense to him. To that my mother responded, "We all have questions, and there are a lot things I wish I would understand better. But I know that your grandparents were in the concentration camps with my parents! And even when they were suffering and starving, they were moser nefesh to never eat treife! Their religion is my religion. If it was good enough for them, then it's good enough for me." She continued "For their sake, please don't finish that sandwich. Come Tatteleh, let's go say Tashlich together." And they did. Because she cared. And it hurt her that he didn't care.

Rabbi Yecheskel Zweig, principal of Bais Yaakov High School, concluded the hespedim by saying, “We can truly say that this is the end of an era for Bais Yaakov . . . The Ribbono Shel Olam will take care of all of us, but there is a great hole. About Bais Yaakov it can be said: panah zivah, panah hodah, panah hadarah. Mi yitain temurasah.”