Estelle and Murray ז״ל Rosen
Judaism has always been an important and significant portion of our lives. We are both from Brooklyn and met while attending the same high school. Murray was two years older than me and a neighbor of one of my friends. She introduced us and the rest was history.
At first, he couldn’t believe I was Jewish given my maiden name of Arroyo and our very different backgrounds. Murray’s family came from Eastern Europe, attended an orthodox temple and Yiddish was spoken at home. My parents were both born in Turkey. In Brooklyn, we attended a Sephardic temple and spoke Ladino, derived from old Spanish and initially used by Jews after their expulsion from Spain. We kept a kosher home and lit Shabbat candles until my brother, who was seven at the time, caught the curtains on fire.
In May, 1945 we eloped and were married by a reform rabbi in Ft. Benning, GA where Murray was at Officers Candidate School. After serving in the military in India we settled in Brooklyn and later Seaford, Long Island to begin our family. We were blessed with two sons and a daughter becoming active members of our reform temple. In 1969 we moved to Charlotte to be closer to both the hosiery mills that served Murray’s business and to be closer to his sister, Elsie Karro, and her family.
Once in Charlotte, we were immediately embraced by Charlotte’s Jewish community and became active members of Temple Beth El. We became even more involved with the arrival of Rabbi and Helen Krantzler, who were from Murray’s Brooklyn neighborhood. Our friends and neighbors comforted us in 2007 with the passing of my daughter, Susan, and were there at Temple Beth El when Cantor Bernard joined us in celebrating our 50th anniversary. Murray passed away in June, 2014, 11 days following our 69th wedding anniversary.
Our family backgrounds were not ones of great financial means. We were each raised knowing the importance of giving to those less fortunate. I can always remember dropping coins in the pushke at synagogue. My parents were always sending money to family in Cuba and Turkey who we left behind due to immigration quotas. It is very satisfying to know that I am able to provide a gift that may assist our Jewish organizations in welcoming and caring for future generations of Jews in the same manner they supported us. I am certain it is something Murray would support.
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